Hello, listeners of Mysteries of Science. The episode you're about to hear was recorded live at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

It's all about magic. And you can even watch some of the tricks online too. Just head to

Sciencenature.theweekjunia.com.com.uk forward slash magic. The Mysteries of Science team will be back in two weeks with a

regular episode, but until then, enjoy this live special and, as always, stay curious.

I'm delighted to welcome you to Chelten Science Festival's 2023.

I'm Isabella and it's my pleasure to introduce this amazing event on such a wonderful day.

It's great to see you all here, the Chelten Science Festival runs all week, so there'll be many more events which may interest you.

So please consider exploring what the science festivals have to offer. Questions are open

at the end and when we come to the audience. Without further ado, please welcome to the stage,

our hosts, Dan Green and Michael Dalton. Hello, welcome to magical mysteries of science.

My name is Dan Green, and I'm the editor of the Week Junior, Science and Nature, the monthly

magazine from the team behind the Week Junior.

Hello, and I'm Michael, and I'm the features editor.

On Mysteries of Science, we explore strange and unexplained phenomena that have left scientists scratching their

heads and to this day remain unsolved.

And today we're joined by a very special audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Hello!

Fantastic. So today we're going to be exploring the mysteries of magic, trying to understand

whether or not magic is real.

And we're joined by three expert guests who are going to help us with this investigation,

and who knows, maybe even do some magic themselves. So let's meet them.

Hello, my name's Matt Richard. I'm a lapsed atomic physicist. I'm a magician, and I'm an illusion designer. I'm Katie Steckles. I'm a mathematician, and I'm a lapsed atomic physicist, I'm a magician and I'm an illusion designer.

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