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Countdown to the 9th Best Illusion of the Year Contest

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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Courtesy of the Neural Correlate Society

For the 9th consecutive year, we’re gearing up to celebrate the Best Illusion of the Year Contest, an annual competition to choose the best illusion created within the previous year. When we started the contest, back in 2005, we did not anticipate that it’d still be running now, almost a decade later. It has been a revelation to discover that the illusion creators’ inventiveness is inexhaustible: every edition of the contest brings new and wonderful surprises. Of the 30 illusions competing this year, an international panel of judges will work hard to select the Top 10 that will present at the May 13 Contest Gala at the Philharmonic Hall in Naples, Florida. The Gala is free and open to the public, so we hope that you will join us in Naples to vote for the Best Illusion of the Year!

Susana Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is author of the Prisma Prize–winning Sleights of Mind, along with Stephen Macknik and Sandra Blakeslee, and of Champions of Illusion, along with Stephen Macknik.

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