title: Eye Benders: The Science of Seeing and Believing
author:  Clive Gifford 
description: In this diverse gathering of optical effects and illusions, Gifford offers a mix of classic and relatively recent examples. Following quick tours of the eye and brain, he presents images that disappear in our optical blind spot, seem to spin or drift, contain illusory differences in color, or leave afterimages of various sorts. He also covers false and forced perspectives in photography and other arts, illusory faces such as the one supposedly spotted on the surface of Mars, and stereograms. A description of what viewers will (or are at least supposed to) see and, often, the identity of the artist or scientist who discovered the effect either accompany each image or are mentioned in the appended material. Extra features include a glossary, an index, and instructions for creating a simple pinhole camera and a trick photograph. A broad overview of ways in which the eye can be fooled. Grades 4-7. --John Peters
zlib_text: # Come See the Living Dryad
  
    1. [](text/ch001.xhtml#section)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * 
  
  
  [Cover](text/cover.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover image](../media/epub-to-image.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #
  
  
  “Come See the Living Dryad” by Theodora Goss is a fantasy about a contemporary
  woman investigating the murder of an ancestor suffering from a rare disease
  who was a famous sideshow attraction in the nineteenth century.
  
  
  
  
  
  I can hear them whispering.
  
  
  I cannot see them, not yet. And when the curtain is pulled back, what will I
  see? Faces, pale and almost indistinguishable in the gaslight. My shows are
  only at night, for that, he tells me, makes them more impressive.
  
  
  But I know my audience. Clerks heading home from their offices, tired after a
  day of crouching over a ledger, wanting to see a miracle. Serious young ladies
  who would never condescend to the spectacles of Battersea Park, but this is
  different—a scientific lecture. A tutor shushing his charges, boys who will
  one day go to university—until they see