The Sci-fi Art of Franco Brambilla

It's really cool to be liked, especially by an artist who knows hot to make an airship look cool.

But I'm partial to airships.

Franco Brambilla is an Italian sci-fi artist who got a lot of play with his mutations of vintage postcards. These pictures are Twilight Zone with a big budget.

But Franco has an incredible ability to make big giant spaceships look like big giant spaceships that you would actually see in the future. Too often, sci-fi art can get lazy, but Franco really gets the idea of scale. If you want someone to draw a Big Dumb Object, got to Franco.

Plus, he likes our site.

Check out Franco Brambilla.

Science Chaser Back to Back!

Why have one post, when you can have two?

Here's the Science Chaser, Volume 2, Episode 2.



What's in this one? Moon bombs, green cities and rocking Australian weather forecasters!

More to come.

The Return of the Science Chaser

Hey people!

Some of you might remember that little radio thing I did in journalism school. Well after two years of working for the Mother Corp, I finally sat down and started to take them seriously again. In a bid to get these radio pieces to a radio station near you, I've been putting together a few of these little monsters over the last two weeks. One way or another, I will continue with this. So, if anybody out their has advice, a critique or well wishes, send them on my way. I'm a craven attention getter.

Now for the Science Chaser, Volume 2, Episode 1.



More to come.

A Post for Chris: Crop Circles

Thought I'd jump on the Google bandwagon and spread performance tech of crop circles.



From National Geographic.

MY personal favorite crop circles are these two. Chris, the one on the right is called the Tesla Crop glyph because is looks like one of his transistor designs.

A lesson in the creation of an artificial paradise

ARTIFICIAL PARADISE,INC. from Jp Frenay on Vimeo.

Bubble-up on Mars

So, by the end of the day I'll have the first new Science Chaser in about two years up, and the rest of the week will see me putting together another three while I try to get this thing to a radio near you.

But in the meantime, here's a strange radio ad promoting pop on Mars.
http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/Bubble_Up.mp3

Started in 1917, Bubble up was one of the first pop companies around selling lemon lime fizzy drinks. And that includes all those space cadets in the fifties and sixties who believed that they'd be the next Commando Cody, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon.

Now I think the only beverage companies that use space as a sales gimmick are beer companies, and I that hasn't been for a long time.

Six for Science

Here we go:

1. The web algorithm that helps Google find your name is now being used to figure out which species are most at risk of going instinct.

2. The next ice age has been put on hold by our current global warming. Sure, nobody wants to have kilometre tall chunks of ice obliterating their country, but the global heat wave that we're heading into doesn't look all that great either.

3. Will NASA's Kepler mission ever find habitable moons? And when can I go visit?

4. Augmented reality right on my EYEBALLS!

5. There's a new velcro in town that is made of steel and can hold 35-tonnes!

6. It's National Honey Month in the US. Check out these numbers.

Building life size pterosaurs with Mark Witton

The future soon is a big fan of Mark Witton and his exciting work on pterosaurs.
And now he is building a set of life-sized models that will roam the Southbank Centre in London next summer.

The BBC will be touching base with Mark and his build over the next year. Here's the clip (because the Beeb doesn't allow embedding.)

To find out more about Mark's work check out his flikr, and/or follow his close friend Darren Naish on the Tetrapod Zoology blog.

I must find a reason to be in London next summer.

Favorite robot of the day - Le Petit Prince

A robot that searches out the best place for it's little vegetable symbiont is my pick of best robot of the day.



But what if instead the plant wasn't a passenger, but actually part of the robot itself? The plant would be a central feature in it's bio-feedback system, controlling the robot to work with the rest of a cybernetic grove that migrate along the high Martian plateau.

A new species of green intelligence for the old planet of Barsoom. Now that's a grove-intelligence construct that I want to see.

found via core77.com

A lesson in mimicry, predation and fantastical Victorian greenhouses

found via Gobelins