A ‘Nobel’ Night in New York
Friday, April 23rd, 2010April 22nd was a most extraordinary night. I had the honor to present at two different events with two most distinguished Nobel Laureates.
The evening started with a reception at the Century Club for Dr. Gerald Edelman. His Nobel prize was in medicine and then he went right into neuroscience from there, almost 40 years ago. He was hosting the board members of his Neurosciences Institute. He spoke about perception, and then asked me to explain the connection between magic and science from my perspective, based on my apprenticeship to the misdirection master Slydini. The group included people like Oliver Sacks, so it could not have been more exciting. After my talk, Dr. Edelman joined me for a brief Q&A session. Eric Edelman, one of Dr. Edelman’s sons, has been instrumental in helping me find the language to translate my deception model into language and concepts for scientists. He helped with arrangements that night too.
From the Century Club, I jumped in a car to Chelsea Piers for the annual ‘Stars of Stony Brook‘ gala, honoring Dr. C.N. Yang, a prominent theoretical physicist. His Ph.D was with Edward Teller at the University of Chicago, and then he was Enrico Fermi’s assistant for a few years before his many discoveries. I had been asked to incorporate Dr. Yang’s theories into a fun and funny presentation. At one point, Dr. Yang joined me on stage and helped me make objects float across the stage… breaking the laws of physics. Please submit any questions regarding parity violation, string theory, or the Yang-Mills theory (you know, non-Abelian gauge symmetry ;-)!). Many thanks to Peter Steinberg of the Brookhaven National Lab and Robert Crease of Stony Brook University who helped coach me on physics.
Below are some photos from both events:
Clockwise: Dr. Edelman presents to the board of the NSI;
Presenting on magic and perception;
On stage with honoree Dr. Yang [image taken from video screen];
Stars of Stony Brook gala.
(click to enlarge)
