Put an APB on that UFO

What precedes is police cruiser dash-cam footage of an alleged "meteor" crashing to the Earth in Edmonton, Canada. Likely cover story, Mounties. We all know that meteors, weather balloons, and gas clouds don't really exist. All of those pretty lights in the sky are actually SciencePatrol personnel returning from holiday in outer-space.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dalek Overlord Davros has no interest whatsoever in wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. We here at SciencePatrol, however, wish you a very happy one indeed. May you and yours find a plethora of reasons to give thanks this holiday season. Unless of course you are of the turkey speices, in which case "EXTERMINATE!"

The Future is So Bright, I Manufacture My Own Spectacles

In the world of machines that really matter, few are as inspiring as robots. However, when most people imagine a robot, they see a mobile unit designed to interact with or substitute a human, or a machine designed to complete a specific task. What about a machine designed to make copies of things, even itself? Known as 3D printers, CnC machines, rapid prototypers, fabricators, or Universal Assemblers, these machines are predicted to transform the landscape of the 21st century, and indeed, are transforming the lives of a select group of geeks today. The RepRap project is designed to build and popularize such machines, and from the looks of it, they are well on their way, having recently managed to make a version which can copy itself.

It's a wonderful idea, in theory, but one may ask: once one has obtained one of these tiny automated manufacturing plants, what exactly would you do with it? Armed with knowledge of a CAD program, one can sculpt virtual objects and print them out in a variety of materials. Today, those armed with CAD knowledge and inspiration to burn can upload their designs to a new site called Thingiverse, releaseing their creations into the world.

Those interested in trying their hand at designing objects which don't yet exist should download the free Google SketchUp and get cracking.

Legoverse: Wormsign!

"We have wormsign the likes of which God has never seen."


This legoverse eventuality was brought to you by RebelRock at Brickshelf.

Now where did I put my Einstein-Rosen Bridge?

This $20 kit promises hours of fun for the prospective parallel worlds tourist. Simply by activating your device, you could have your pick of trillions of alternate universes. Then you just have to figure out how to get there. Somehow I don't think Hopstop supports this function yet.

Speaking of alternate universes, I have been getting quite a kick out of Neal Stephenson's Anathem. In a strange version of our own world, a hermetic order called the Discipline are the last to preserve the ways of logic and scholarship when the society around them has collapsed into degeneracy. The history of the planet Arbre is eerily familiar to our own, and yet, wonderfully alien at the same time. Like Stephenson's other works, every page unfolds a new treat for the questing mind. Fans of philosophy, alternate worlds, and the Hitchhiker's Guides will definitely enjoy this book.

Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, has a new title out as well, and this world-hopping adventure is definitely not for kids. RASL is the story of a scientist searching through multiple realities for the woman he loves, or something. I'm still trying to figure it out but I'm having a lot of fun along the way.

Happy Halloween!

Science Patrol is joined by radioactive space bug Megalon in wishing you the happiest of All Hallow's Eves.

Thought for the Day

Via Zom-Bot.com, a chilling reminder of the possibilities of science.

The New Sun

Carbon nanotubes are the building blocks of most potential eventualities on our radar screen. They have numerous applications in the medical and electronics fields, and Japanese scientists are currently at work adapting them into a cable for their space elevator. Despite advances in the past five years which have multiplied their strength 100 times, they will need to improve on their current strength another four times to realize this endeavor. We believe in you, Japan!

This photo by Paul Marshall was selected by National Geographic as one of the top microscopic photos of the year. We also recommend this image of the world inside mitomycin.

This image explains everything.

This should make understanding things a bit simpler. It, and many other images found here, are the work of fiction science illustrator Frank R. Paul.


A special Thank You to Frank Wu, for turning me on to the late Mr. Paul, and also for his own prolific body of work in the field of Fiction Science Imaging. (Yanos has pointed out to me that while my attention was elsewhang, he has previously blogged about Frank R. Paul and his voyages to other worlds.)

These Animals are Made Out of Meat

Wormocious has alerted us to an invasion of artistic intentions in the New York City area. A small pet shop in the West Village is selling some very strange animals in its window displays. The proprietor, known as "Banksy," could not be reached for comment.





This pet shop is especially interesting because Banksy has always done his work under the cover of anonymity. An exhibition of this size, however, would seem to require more covert planning and necessary arrangements that could possibly reveal his identity. Does he have a circle of conspirators surrounding him like a cordon of Secret Service agents, who carry out his orders to lease a space and arrange the necessary permits? Are they in fact giant rats?

Or maybe Banksy is a coalition of giant rat artists attempting to increase our awareness that we are not the only intelligent inhabitants of the cities of the world. The infection has spread across the ocean from London to America. It is said that anywhere in the world that humans have congregated, rats and crows can be found in great numbers, but they do not range more than 5 miles from these settlements without their numbers swiftly diminishing. Perhaps we should be expecting great works of art from the crow species as well.

Audiopad: The look and feel of sound.

In the future, DJs will have you shaking your rump and raising the roof by interfacing with projected graphical interfaces that directly manipulate sound frequencies. Wait...thats not the future, that is happening now. James Patten and Ben Recht of localfields created Audiopad several years ago, and have been touching sound ever since. It just goes to show that at SciencePatrol, sometimes the future is the past.

The Uprising Will Be Televised:World War

In the robotic uprisings of the future, long after the machines have decimated humanity in a bid for global domination; the infighting will ensue. The vast legions of robotic war machines will turn in on themselves; separate factions all vying for the same prize. What results is a perverse form of mechanized violence that our fleshy, organic minds can only begin to fathom.
As it happens, this exact scenario is pre-supposed in this short film by digital artist Vincent Chai, as his final project at the University Of Hertfordshire. Watch now before your back is forced against the wall by robotic beings who will stop at nothing to end you. These things are imminent, you know.

The Artificial Animation of Plastic

Joshua Allen Harris is an artist whose medium is plastic bags, animated by blasts of air from subway vents and other unnatural sources. These videos are evidence of a strange new form of artificial life. My favorite is the air giraffe.

In Space, Noone can hear you [expletive].

From the delightful blog divine caroline comes this informative video explaining how astronauts manage to poop in zero Gs. In future dimensions, Astronauts will read SciencePatrol blog posts printed directly onto their rolls of toiletpaper, which will be constructed of carbon-nanotubes; able to withstand the high intensity gamma radiation bursts which they are subjected to while in range of the van allen belts.

This is Happening Now: Braid released on Xbox Live

Yanos Solong sat at the control panel of the ESME, the endlessly transforming 4-dimensional molecule that served as the Eventuality Survey Team's base of operations, playing a game of chess with the S.C.R.I.B.E. unit and watching the display screens. While on the surface everything appeared normal, Yanos had an impending feeling that an encroaching eventuality would soon present itself for investigation.

At the very moment that Yanos decided to castle on the king's side, an electronic buzzer sounded and the voice of ESME filled the cabin:

There is a new eventuality fold in the XBox Live community that I think you should take a look at, sir.

Sweeping the chess game off the coffee table for the moment, Yanos told the computer to display the relevant information from the Xbox Live server, but was greeted instead by an image of himself, looking slightly more unkempt, but otherwise identical.

"Yanos, this is Yanos + 48 hours on your current timestream. I've interrupted your vector to inform you that a highly important game named Braid has been released on Xbox Live. As you know, this occurrence has been highly anticipated among researchers into parallel timelines and alternate realties. The designer, Jonathan Blow, has produced a groundbreaking work, a training program for interdimensional travelers that is also a profound meditation into the nature of time and memory. I'm pleased to award Jonathan with the Medal of Infinite Density, and I want to thank him for providing humanity with his insight. Braid will become part of the Science Patrol Academy's virtualization training course, required playing for all enlightened beings. Now go forth and explore all vectors within the tenth-dimensional lightcone of existence. Solong out."

Warping the 11th Dimension

New word has reached Science Patrol headquarters of progress on a new type of theoretical hyperdrive. This warp engine was originally conceived by Michael Alcubierre, who imagined a spaceship surfing on a bubble of expanded space-time, but was unable to explain how space-time could actually be distorted. Now two theoretical mathematicians, Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy, have written a paper proposing that specific manipulation of the 11th dimension may allow the necessary distortion bubble to appear. This method of field manipulation will allow what has been referred to by some as "travelling without moving." The complete paper can be read here.

We're Ready to Believe You!

When your walking down the street, and you see a little ghost....whatcha gonna do? Ghostbusters!
From usual suspect Brickshelf comes both vehicles from ghostbusters 1 and 2. Ecto1 and Ecto1A were both constructed by user jminc, as no other sane human being would ever stack bricks like this. Both of these sculptures have PKG readings off the charts; whoever built them was either a complete genius or a certifiable wacko. Set protonic reversal rays to this link to see more pics of these creations.

Announcing Hypothetical Futures: A Science Patrol Wiki

The history we record here in the Science Patrol blog is newly written. Our motto is: if the universe asks a hypothetical question, we expect that it will be answered. We have dedicated our consciousness to the discovery and exploration of unknown possibilities, which we refer to as eventualities. Pretty much anything that ever happened started as an eventuality, as did every story ever told. Shockingly, for each explored world you can name, there are infinitely more eventualities that have never been discovered.

Our use of the Science Patrol moniker is somewhat vague, as something over 5 billion Science Patrol squads have existed since the original team led by Shin Hayata. These squads operated under such various names as the Ultra Garrison of the Terrestrial Defense Force, the Monster Attack Team, the Terrible Monster Attacking Crew, the ZAT (Zariba of All Territory), MAC, UGM, UMA, WINR, GUTS, EYES, the Terrestrial Peacable Consortium, and too many others to name. At any rate, the official name of our squad is the Eventuality Survey Team, and our mission, as stated above, is to scan all eventualities for novel or unusual phenomena and examine them in their native context, and where desirable, transport them to our labs for further (non-invasive) study. As Acting Conceptual Director, it is my pleasure to announce that beginning now, all our observations will be recorded in our new Wiki, Hypothetical Futures, at http://eventuality.wikidot.com. This will be the repository of all official EST documents, as well as our findings on the limitless fractal dimensions, pocket universes, timestreams, uncollapsed waveforms, anti-strange quarks, and other phenomena of the multiverse that we have quarantined for extensive study. This blog will continue to broadcast new discoveries and creations as they unfold. Solong, out.

The Future of Time

In the not too distant future, the day will come when the line between the human organism and his technology will be forever blurred, as we will interface with devices conveniently implanted on our own bodies. One small step in that direction can be seen here.The Timex TX54 is a product of Timex2154:The Future of Time; a competition held by Core77 and Timex, to continue in a tradition of 150 years of design innovation. Today, a fingernail-tomorrow, your MYND.


via TheDesignBlog

Sillof Strikes Back (action figures sold seperatley)

In the recent past, I have reported to you about crazed inventor Sillof, and how he has the coolest toys. Well now hes back, and he is doing the sequel to his original Starwars line; with his usual steampunk aplomb.
The Empire Strikes Back line of steampunk toys includes Snowtrooper, TIE Pilot, Lando, and the whole line of Bounty Hunters (we dont need their scum!). Lock S-foils into attack position and rendevous at Sillof's Workshop to see the entire set. You're our only hope.

The Body Selectric

The work of Brian Dettmer in the area of book autopsies has been featured before in these halls of science, and in similar spirit his work is being featured here again today. Although Brian is not a scientist, his work encourages a similar exploration into our collective past and the ways it can be reconfigured. His piece "The Cassette Tape Skeleton" is a powerful relic from our imagined past.

Touch the Monolith

Via Charles Stross: last month, a new group called the Order of Cosmic Engineers released a prospectus in which they lay out their plan to remake our universe in Singular terms, that is, optimistically, and with a mind to create a "magical universe." Reading as I am the first book in Iain Banks's Culture series, I can't help but feel this is how it all started. I consider their aims mostly in line with my own hopes for the human species, and I do think that such groups will be necessary to complete such lofty goals, but I am reluctant to see it birthed here in such an obviously self-righteous fashion. Their own claims to be an "UNreligion" notwithstanding, I cannot see how they will avoid the worst problems of other religious groups: insularity, echo chambers, excessive optimism, and pot-luck dinners. Still, I'm sure there are some very interesting people involved, and I'd love to pick their brains.

Also on my mind lately, the Nation of Gods and Earths, another group bent on the Universal Uplift of Man, some of whose ideals I agree with, but which I will not join.

Amazing Visions: Larry Carlson

Do Not adjust your monitors. They are working exactly as digital artist and savant Larry Carlson intended. We at Science Patrol hope that in the future, all video broadcasts will be based on his work as a model. Spanning many forms of digital media, including flash animation, video, digital stills, collage, and live video mixing; Carlson has been categorized alongside the great surrealists Dali and Magritte-only Carlson has a computer. The video below (God Man and Beast-2008) is merely meant to tantalize you-if you would like to see more, Duct Tape your face to your desk and set fazers to larrycarlson.com.