Seeing May Or May Not Be Believing…

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Magic & Illusions

I have posted a few times here about how our brains are not to be trusted (such as this post or this post.) I was sent this amazing illusion today via Professor Bruce Hood which he found on Brusspup’s YouTube channel (which also has several other incredible videos.) This is not a camera trick but a genuine quirk of brain function. What we …
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Neuroscience & Magic…

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Magic & Illusions

Whilst listening to The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe on my way down to my house in France, I was particularly pleased that they interviewed Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde. They are a married couple who work at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, where they study visual, sensory and cognitive neuroscience. They are …
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Counting Dilemma…

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Magic & Illusions

I told 5C today, after we had watched a video about the brain (which I will also post here soon), that everything we see, hear or otherwise experience is generated by our brains and cannot always be trusted. The scientific method allows us to determine what evidence can be trusted by filtering out the biases that …
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Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes…

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Magic & Illusions

Not really magic – it is science but optical illusions so magic-adjacent. I thought about this because of a question on a Winchester Election paper about strobe lighting. They are two quite long videos but I thought they were worth sharing, particularly for those who like optical illusions. They left me baffled but delighted. . .. If you …
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