Microwave Absorber
You would be hard pressed to find anyone isn't familiar with the microwave oven. The technology is so common to all of us that we don't really think about the fact that when we use a microwave oven, or "microwave", we are unleashing powerful "waves" of concentrated power within that tiny cabinet to achieve the goal of heating or cooking our food and beverages. We have such a high confidence in the technology that we never really worry about whether having microwaves bouncing around our kitchen could potentially be any kind of problem.
Makers of microwave ovens do a great job of making sure the microwaves that are used to give us this kind of convenience are contained and do not pose a threat to humans or any life. The truth is, if we were exposed to microwaves ourselves, that would be a pretty serious health risk. Another fact about microwave technology is that it is used in lots of different kinds of applications besides that small oven in the corner of your kitchen. And in each of those applications, the protection of the people who use or are near that application has to be a big issue.
As much as we admire how much the development of microwave technology has benefited our lives, it is the parallel development of absorbers to control microwaves so they accomplish what they are supposed to but ONLY what they are supposed to do. In fact, science was able to focus microwaves long before the microwave oven and other applications began to benefit from the technology. But it was when absorbing material was invented that could reliably eliminate the potential for microwave leakage that caused the explosion of beneficial uses of microwaves in many areas of life including our humble microwave ovens.
As is so often true, the great benefit that microwave ovens has given to all of us was developed in a military application. But the use of microwaves is in use in a vast array of industries including amplifiers, computer housings, radar for automobiles, oscillators and even digital cameras and mobile phones. So from large scale uses of microwaves where absorbers are built into large scale machines to machines where tiny microwave transmitters are at work, it is the absorbers that contain, control and focus those powerful beams that really make microwave technology so controllable that we can use them many times each day even in our own kitchens.