Those of us who call East Cambridge home can be forgiven for becoming blase about some of the wizardry coming out of MIT. We live right next door to the finest engineering university on the planet, the place where e-mail, human genome sequencing, and a thousand other world-changing technologies were developed. Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and for those of us living near MIT, each new breakthrough can seem to blur the line between science and science fiction.

Often, MIT’s breakthroughs come in a closed-off lab, or at a computer terminal late at night. But this Friday, from 5:00pm-8:00pm, you’ll have the chance to hear some strange and wonderful music from the MIT Glass Band. The Glass Band is what it sounds like: a group of students, researchers, and professors who play with the acoustic properties of glass and, in the process, create an ethereal, otherworldly sound. And this Friday, as part of MIT’s Second Fridays, the Glass Band will perform three thirty-minute-long sets at the MIT Museum. If you’re a musician or a music lover, I encourage you to attend.