This amazing spoon is a "shape-shifter". Although it starts as a straight spoon, it can 'remember' a previous shape as a bent spoon, and given a little encouragement (and some heat) it will spontaneously revert to its bent shape.

Dipping the spoon in warm water causes this rapid change in less than 1 second!

The spoon is a solid silver-plated spoon, except for one section in the middle. This is composed of Nitinol, a so-called 'memory metal'. Nitinol is an artificial word made up of Nickel-Titanium (the metals in the alloy) and Naval Ordnance Laboratory (in Maryland, USA, where the first alloys with a strong 'memory' effect were developed in the 1950s).

This particular spoon is one of a set of 1000 that were manufactured in Germany. It was given to me as a gift by puzzle-expert and all-round great person Tim Rowett.

Some people have suggested that maybe psychic-flavoured entertainers who demonstrate 'metal-bending' effects use Nitinol spoons. Some do, but it makes for an exceptionally unimpressive metal-bending trick, and seems scarcely worth performing. The rest of us don't use Nitinol spoons as anything except scientific curios. When we want to demonstrate metal-bending, we use ordinary stainless steel spoons. In my show, the spoons are examined and tested by a spectator to make sure they are ordinary and unprepared. Right before they start bending.