La màgia per comunicar la recerca en màquines moleculars: David Leigh

Aquests dies estem immersos en el II Campus d’Estiu de Màgia i Ciència (#cemc17), una de les principals activitats que impulsem dins del nostre projecte de Màgia i Ciència. Doncs precisament acaba d’aparèixer a Chemistry World una entrevista a un investigador en química rellevant de la Universitat de Manchester, David Leigh, que treballa en màquines moleculars (Catenane wizard talks magic, cards and angry music)

Aquest investigador va estar a punt, segons ell, de ser jugador professional de pòker. Això va fer que, més endavant, la seva habilitat amb les cartes el portés a fer servir la màgia en les seves presentacions:

There is a relationship between magic and science. I’m a member of my local magic circle, and I use magic in my lectures as a presentation tool. I got into magic when I started off at a lecturer at UMIST after my postdoc. I was in a tutorial and knew how to handle cards from Bridge, and knew a trick that would illustrate a point. The students liked it and I started to do more for them.

Quins jocs fa? Diu que ara vol fer nusos (cordes), i suposo que molts jocs els fa amb cartes. I que fer un joc nou bé, porta temps.

I have a reasonably small repertoire that I can do, and learning a new effect takes considerable time. My group get worried that when they do a great bit of science they also need to convince me to come up with a new trick. At the moment it’s with knots and related things.

Leigh esmenta que anar a un congrès màgic no és pas gaire diferent a anar a un congrès científic:

I try to go to a magic conference in the UK every year, and it’s like a science conference – lectures, tutorials and small group teaching. When magicians are giving a lecture they have to cite the people who have done similar, just as you would in a scientific paper. If you don’t do that the magicians get very upset.

Finalment, m’agrada el que diu en comparar la ciència (experiment) amb la màgia:

Magic teaches you, when you’re a chemist, that even if you know what you have at the start and the end of an experiment, you don’t really know what’s happened in between. It is a reminder that there may be other things going on and we are always extrapolating from just a few known facts.

Una bona referència per a nosaltres, doncs.