Elias Garcia-Pelegrin first learned to perform magic as an undergraduate student. Now, as part of his doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, he is putting his sleight-of-hand skills to use: ...

Scientists should use magic tricks to better understand animal intelligence and perception, argue a team of researchers in a new paper. The idea makes sense, particularly when humans and animals can ...

Psychologists have long studied how magic deceives us. Illusionists exploit shortcomings in our attention and perception to prevent us seeing what is in front of our eyes, and learning how their ...

IN HIS right hand, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin holds a worm. He pretends to grab it with his left but, while his fingers obscure it, he lets it drop back into the right – a classic sleight of hand called ...

To help pay for his undergraduate education, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin had an unusual summer job: cruise ship magician. “I was that guy who comes out at dinnertime and does random magic for you,” he says.

Magic tricks can teach us about how the brain works. Magic capitalises on very specific blind spots in people’s attention and perception so the techniques that magicians use to trick audiences are ...

Source: Funkdooby, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Elias Garcia-Pelegrin first learned to perform magic as an undergraduate student. Now, as part of his doctoral ...