More than 4,000 years ago, an Egyptian named Dedi walked into the court of King Cheops and entertained the monarch and his subjects by decapitating oxen and geese and then reaffixing their heads, restoring the sorry creatures to vibrant life. How did he do it?
Dedi didn't reveal his secret, but anthropologist Diane Perlov is sure she knows. "All magic is based on scientific principles," she says. "Yet most people don't connect science with magic." The connection goes even deeper: Both performing artists and practicing scientists are motivated by a sense of wonder at the world's essential mystery. "Magicians capture that wonder, while scientists try to explain it," Perlov says. "But neither loses the appreciation that got them started in the first place."
Museum goers get a chance to lose their heads at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The nifty optical illusion relies on the precise placement of a single mirror. Photo by California Science Center
That shared fascination is on view in Magic: The Science of Illusion, an engaging new exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Perlov, the show's curator, has assembled films and artifacts of famed performers, including the handcuffs and milk can Houdini used in his dazzling escapes. Even better, Perlov has enlisted the help of some of today's master magicians to create unique illusions visitors can then duplicate. In one of the most intriguing, the Amazing Living Head by the offbeat comic duo Penn & Teller, Penn recounts how Teller has suffered a horrific car crash that has left his head separated from his body.
