We’ve seen magic used in some very unusual ways, but as inspiration for product development of medical devices might be one of the strangest. John Crombie is a magician as well as a medical device company executive. He showed off a few tricks as a way to offer advice to his colleagues at a workshop.

For instance, he performed the Pena coin trick, where a quarter appears to get pushed through a piece of rubber into a glass. “What happened and what you saw are disconnected,” he said. The trick was a springboard for encouraging product developers to set the bar higher and strive for what might seem impossible. 

Lessons in magic, lessons in life. If this kind of scientific crossover gets you excited, then you’ll also want to check out the documentary Powerful Medicine, about how magic can be applied to physical therapy.