What Do Magic And Science Have In Common?

There's a magical feeling in the air, so we've rounded up a lineup of fascinating stories about the intersecting paths of stage magicians and scientists. [Curiosity logo]( Daily Curiosity - Making Your Inbox Smarter #AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES #INNOVATORS [Benjamin Banneker Was A Black Scientist And Author In The Era Of Slavery]( [Benjamin Banneker Was A Black Scientist And Author In The Era Of Slavery]( Benjamin Banneker was a mathematician, astronomer, scientist, author, farmer, urban planner, and publisher who once matched wits with Thomas Jefferson. But here's the kicker: he accomplished all that as a black man in the era of slavery. To say he overcame obstacles is putting it mildly. [LEARN MORE]( #LANGUAGE #PSYCHOLOGY [How Speaking Another Language Can Change Your Personality]( [How Speaking Another Language Can Change Your Personality]( More and more, research is showing that language goes a lot deeper than communication. The way you speak impacts the way you think, changing everything from how you make decisions to how you [perceive color](. Or, according to research, how you interact with others. Studies show that your [personality can change]( with the language you speak. [LEARN MORE]( Enjoy [Curiosity]( [on the web]( on [iOS]( and [Android]( at home with [Amazon Alexa]( and on our [Chrome Smart Tab]( and [Chrome App](. #ANIMALS #BEES [Bumblebees Mark Each Flower With A Smelly Footprint]( [Bumblebees Mark Each Flower With A Smelly Footprint]( If you think your feet smell, try landing on a flower. For bumblebees, smelly footprints help to discriminate between flowers they've visited and blooms scavenged by fellow furry, striped insects. The invisible markers each bumblebee secretes helps lead them to more rewarding food sources. [LEARN MORE]( #BRILLIANT PRODUCTS #EXERCISE [Gatorade's Gx Platform Is Basically A Fitbit For Your Water Bottle]( [Gatorade's Gx Platform Is Basically A Fitbit For Your Water Bottle]( From game strategies to team injuries, coaches have a lot to keep tabs on, even before they worry about whether their athletes are hydrating properly. Gatorade may be taking a least one of those things off their plates. Unveiled in 2014 with the Brazilian National Football Team and rolling out to the public soon, their Gx system is designed to customize how each athlete hydrates from every possible angle. [LEARN MORE]( [The Difference Between Steel Cut, Old Fashioned, Quick Cook And Instant Oats]( #GEOGRAPHY #MEASUREMENT [Every Map Is Lying To You]( [Every Map Is Lying To You]( Picture a map in your mind. Chances are good that the map you’ve imagined is the Mercator projection, since it’s the most popular. How big is the United States compared to Russia? Greenland to Africa? Antarctica to Europe? If you cross-check the sizes of those countries with those on a globe, you’re likely to be surprised. Because maps are flat and the world is a sphere, most maps have been lying to you your whole life. [LEARN MORE]( FACT OF THE DAY: The earliest known magic books showing how to perform illusions were both published in 1584. [Curiosity Daily logo]( There's a magic shop right down the street from Curiosity's offices, and to tell the truth, it's kind of creepy. The windows are full of little baby-sized dolls with rosy cheeks and deep wrinkles—they look like they're about to come to life and start speaking backwards. But it did remind us of that old Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So today, we're looking at the intersection of science and magic—times when scientists and engineers found strange bedfellows in stage magicians (or used science to pull off a trick that's usually left for the silk top hat set). Read on for more details—or just press the button below to read about [a black, American Revolution-era mathematician]( and [Gatorade's "Fitbit for water bottles"]( from the app. [ALAKAZAM! TAKE ME TO THE APP!]( My Little Curiosity: Science Is Magic First things first: magic isn't real, right? After researching this newsletter, all we can say for certain is that, for something that's completely made up, magic has certainly had a pretty major impact on the way that we live our lives. These three scenarios show how magic tricks—or illusions—have changed to the world, or at least the way that we see it. Jasper Maskelyne Casts A Spell, Helps Win WWII [The Magician Who Tricked Nazis With Illusions]( Picture a 1940s stage magician. Now look up a photo of [Jasper Maskelyne](. Exactly what you were picturing, right? The son of a famous magician and the grandson of another (his grandfather, by the way, was also the inventor of the pay toilet), Maskelyne was practically born to become an illusionist. When World War II broke out, he was initially hired to entertain the troops, but soon convinced his superiors that his mastery of illusion could be put to better use in the field. Among his contributions were an army of dummy tanks and soldiers and a technique to hide maps, saw blades, and other tools in case a soldier were captured behind enemy lines. READ MORE: [The Magician Who Tricked Nazis With Illusions]( What Magic Reveals About Psychology In 2016, the inaugural [Conference of Magic and Science]( invited a discussion between leading minds from the fields of science and stage magic (and more than a few attendees had backgrounds in both). It might not be surprising to learn that magicians had a lot to learn from those who studied psychology, but the tricksters brought a lot to the table as well. In fact, a lot of the tools of the trade come in handy for research purposes. For example, one psychological study made use of a survey with a secret—a hidden layer of questions concealed behind the original questions, which were written on an adhesive slip of paper. When participants turn the page, they unknowingly replace the questions they actually answered with questions they'd never seen before. Most interestingly from the experimenters' standpoint, more than half of these subjects were willing to defend their positions on issues they were previously unacquainted with. RELATED: [You Won't See All The Dots At Once In This Optical Illusion]( Science Makes Magic Real Maybe it's a corrolary to Clarke's law—"Any magic will eventually be recreated with sufficiently advanced technology." With an airplane, you don't need to transform yourself into a bird. Cellphones solved the problem of communication at a distance before Harry Potter ever Floo Network'd Sirius Black. But every day, science is making even stranger magical phenomenon a reality. Take telekinesis—the ability to control physical objects using only your mind. There are already toys on the market that use kids' brainwaves to move stuff around, and [yes, you can use them to pretend to be a Jedi](. And then there's the magic you should really keep out of kids' hands: scientists have discovered a method to "shrink" coins. It might seem like something out of Alice In Wonderland, but it's really a matter of [uniformly condensing a coin using powerful electromagnetic coils](. In other words, don't expect the incredible shrinking man until they invent magnetic humans. RELATED: [We Already Have The Technology To Control Electronics With Our Minds]( [The Difference Between Steel Cut, Old Fashioned, Quick Cook And Instant Oats]( Today On Curiosity - [Benjamin Banneker]( was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer, city planner, and more who helped the Americans win the Revolutionary War. He was also a black man in a slave-owning society. - One surprising side effect of [learning a new language]( A new personality. - Bumblebees avoid doubling up on flowers by [smelling the footprints of other bees](. - Gatorade's new [Gx Platform]( tracks your hydration and vitamin intake, and infuses your water accordingly. - Ever wonder why Greenland looks as big as Africa? It's because [most maps are lying to you](. [OPEN THE CURIOSITY APP]( Question Of The Day How Do Sequoia Trees Siphon Water 300 Feet Into The Air? Before we get to answering this question, it's important to lay out exactly what the obstacles are. First things first, let's look at the barometric limit. This is the maximum height that water can be pulled before the pressure causes the column to dissipate—and it's only 33 feet off the ground. Since a lot of trees are a lot taller than that, it seems the mystery is deeper than just the tallest trees on earth. But in 2016, a team of researchers proved that, in a vacuum, water could be pulled much higher when they successfully reached 45 feet. But 45 feet is still well below the height of a sequoia, so what gives? In fact, the answer to this conundrum is even stranger than the fact that trees everywhere are casually breaking what was believed to be a fundamental rule. A study in the late '90s showed that sequoias were capable of creating their own "rain" by condensing fog into short showers, and later studies indicated that [the uppermost branches pull their moisture directly from the air](. The Curious Reading List [Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation]( Damian Duffy, John Jennings, and Octavia Butler This adaptation of Octavia Butler's seminal 1979 scifi meditation on race and history takes everything great about the original and (arguably) improves it with a comic book's pacing and Jennings' electric illustrations. Here's the quick summary: Dana, a black writer married to a white man, finds herself suddenly teleported to slavery-era Maryland, where she must save her slave-owning ancestor from dying. Butler's rules of time travel, and the way those rules fuel the plot, recall some of the more philosophical of Heinlein's stories, and her nuanced approach to race sets up some chilling interactions on both personal and societal levels. [FIND IT ON AMAZON]( Discover More Amazing Stories Every Day! Start following the subjects that interest you most. We do the work of writing, designing and curating can't-miss articles and videos in those subjects, so you can let your natural curiosity lead the way. [EXPLORE ALL SUBJECTS]( Follow us and smarten up your social media. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Google+]( [Pinterest]( [undefined]( [Advertise on Curiosity]( Please don't go! But if you must, hit the button below to unsubscribe. Or just update your [email preferences](