Cosmos Quest!

Hey guys! Remember Cosmos Quest from a while ago? Well it's finally ready! I've been neglecting the good old Curious Robot for over a month, getting this new comic series ready to share. So head on over to its very own website and check it out! You can read the prologue and the beginning of the first chapter already.

Enjoy!

Writing Wednesday: The Rule Breaker

Here is a short story I wrote recently. Most of the scientific principles discussed are actually based in fact, specifically the part about low-temp superconductors and monopole magnets. The story gets kinda technical, and some of it isn't even supposed to make sense, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

The Rule Breaker

          He flipped on the power. He was shocked! For the first time, something actually worked! Before him a chunk of wires, metal, and electrical circuits was breaking every law of physics he had ever been taught, levitating eerily about five inches above a metal plate. What he was seeing could only be explained trough quantum-mechanics and positron-reversal-theory. The boy prodded at the contraption and it rolled onto its side, still suspended in mid-air. This was fantastic! Glancing over at a holographic interface, he was thrilled to note that the readings indicated what he had hoped for. He did understand he was merely doing what other people had been doing for decades: operating a simple electromagnet. The only difference was that Leon had created, for the first time in recorded history, an electromagnet with only one pole. On paper, it didn't seem like much, but in application, it was revolutionary. And he was only sixteen! What could he produce within the next decade? For the first time in his life he had created something entirely new, different, and phenomenal.

            Leon had always been interested in physics and electromagnetism. When he was eight, his parents got him his first "Electricity for Kids Kit", with which he made his own 3-D printer. When he was ten, he was banned from using his homemade carbon-nano-tube elevator to get up to his treehouse because it was too dangerous. When he turned twelve, his was gifted with a "Zero-G Speed Racers" racetrack. The super-cooled super-conductors, magnets with extremely low temperatures that levitated around a racetrack at a fixed altitude, utterly astonished him. Leon began to search for other "black-magic" stunts that could be produced with the magic of electromagnetism. He didn't get very far with the super-conductors, however; their special properties deteriorated after they warmed up, and besides, they had to be reoriented manually. This had been during the summer break of 2119. While experimenting with the super-conductors, Leon did manage to come up with an idea. What if he could make a magnetic device that could levitate anywhere, at any temperature, even in the absence of magnetized metal?

            And that's how Leon discovered monopole magnets. No one had ever seen them before. Scientists of the previous century didn't even believe they existed. But now, right in front of him, was a magnet without a south pole: only a north pole. The young genius hoped the other residents of the neighborhood weren't bothered by the power shortage while he had been "charging-up" the magnets in his Aeon Crucible.

            Leon continued to poke at the levitated metal, which rolled about while it floated in the air. Underneath it was a flat metal slab-magnet that only had a north pole. The floating device was also a north-pole. Since opposite charges repel each other, the machine was pushed away from the magnet on the table and floated in the air. When this stunt was performed with two normal magnets, the north poles of each had to be kept facing each other, or else the floating magnet would flip around and become attracted to the other. But the two monopoles could be oriented in any way and would still repel each other. 

            By now Leon had encapsulated the invention in a clear, 3-D printed plastic casing to protect it. He heaved it over to the iron floor. Letting it go with a slight push, he gazed at it as it glided over the floor. Suddenly, it clanged to the ground. Leon had to switch off the magnet in order to pry it from the iron. The monopole had realigned the iron and become attracted to the south pole of the floor. The new properties of the monopole were intriguing. And to think! He was the first person to even observe the behavior of this scientific anomaly in real life!

            The next day, Leon was again in his basement laboratory. He had barely been able to contain his excitement during school. The morning classes: grammar, math, and history and philosophy, had been dull as usual, but the second period was much more entertaining. Every student of Titan Young People Educational Academy got to pick what subject they wanted to study for after lunch period. This allowed them to pick a subject that interested them and they would like to excel in for their future occupation. Leon had obviously picked the physics class. Today  they had learned about nuclear fusion and dual-dimensional quantum singularities for the third time and accidently turned a table in the lab into hypermatter.

            In fact, this incident was the only thing that distracted Leon the entire day, for he had been thinking about his invention. Amazingly, he had refrained from telling anyone. He wanted to make his creation perfect before revealing what he had been working on. He had also come a step closer to making his universal levitation theory a reality. Leon opened his backpack and withdrew a cylinder of metal. Placing it inside his Aeon Crucible, a personal particle accelerator, he clamped it down and pulled up its holographic display. The accelerator began bombarding the cylinder with beta particles, all with a topspin of 8 degrees. Or, wait? Wouldn't that need be square root of negative 64? After about thirty minutes and 18 more steps, he had a south-pole-only magnet. Within another hour, a soldering iron, circuit board , snack break, quick nap, and electromagnetic detector, his monopole levitation device was ready to test again.

            The invention now hovered over the iron floor for much longer. He had rigged it to switch between the south- and north-pole magnets to compensate for the realignment of the metal floor. However, it wobbled up and down widely until it finally couldn't keep up. Plus, the magnets affected the sensor's readings. Leon would need some sort of sensor that wasn't affected by the monopoles, and maybe even an onboard computer to handle the adjustments.  

           

-----

            A few months later, Leon was in his basement lab again, this time with his classmate, Arc.

            "This is so amazing! I wonder how many physicists roll over in their graves when you turn this thing on," he exclaimed while Leon watched him play with the invention. There were about 20 dipole magnets covering the basement floor, each one had either its north or south pole facing up. The monopole contraption was able to glide over the grid, thanks to the simple processor Leon had installed. Whenever the north monopole came near a south pole, the device switched to the south monopole in order to stay levitated.

            "Have you tried it with ferrofluid yet?" asked Arc. The two boys gave each other looks of curiosity looks and dashed over to the desk. Leon picked up a big jar of ferrofluid and poured it into a large tub away from the other magnets while Arc brought the monopole invention over. After turning it on, Leon held his contraption over the tub and let go. It fell, but the magnetic fluid parted and jumped out of the container, blasted away from the magnet and all over the room.

            "That was interesting."

            It took them the rest of the day to clean up the lab.

            Each time Arc came over to Leon's house, he had improved his invention. Leon had been trying to think of a way to make the monopole stay levitated anywhere, but he couldn't come up with a proper answer. He tried to get the levitated monopole to drag the magnet under it with it, but the two chunks of metal only flopped around in a very unwieldy and frightening manner. Leon had even tried using magnetic silicone polymers, but that was way to slow and sticky. The only thing that had worked so far was the ferrofluid Arc had suggested. So Leon had been using that.

            Finally, after many months and countless hours, Leon had a creation bordering on super-natural. His family and a few friends watched as a glowing sphere danced seamlessly with a puddle of magnetic liquid. The magnetic sphere wrapped the black, shimmering liquid around itself, and then contorted it into exotic and surreal patterns and shapes. By quantum-entangling his monopole magnets, the young inventor was able to use them to transfer the magnetic fields created by the machine to points other than where the magnet really was. He pushed and prodded the sphere, but it stayed in the air by creating "out-of-bound" magnetic fields to push the fluid under it and then repelling itself away from it into the air. At the end of the performance, Leon's audience was dead-silent with awe. Only Leon's grandmother could be heard. She was snoring softly.

            "Leon, I didn't even know this was physically possible!" cried his mother. Grandmother jerked awake and began clapping. Leon's mom had seen the magnetic device do some minor levitation tricks before, but she was a history teacher and didn't quite understand how amazing it was. Until now. His father was a nova-mechanic, and understood a little better what was going on, but hadn't known how far Leon had already gotten in programming.

            "Son, you really should try and present this to some sort of science group. Maybe they could help you apply this type of technology in a way that could make money or save lives." Visions of fame and fortune flashed before the boy's eyes. But then the device's entanglement field straightened out and a bolt of orange light accompanied the explosion of ferrofluid all over the room. It still needed adjustments. But Leon wasn't done breaking the rules of reality yet. Not even he knew how far he would go.

-----

            The spotlight hit the stage. The curtains withdrew. A glowing blue sphere hovered ethereally into view, surrounded by an ever-flowing mass of liquid. An onlooker fainted at the sight of this "black-magic". The monopole device halted and began twisting the ferrofluid around itself to form a spiral staircase. Leon strode to the top of the tower and began to speak nervously, facing over 2,000 nova-physicists, scientists, quantum-mechanists, astronomers, and chemists.

            "My name is Leon Polaris, and I'm eighteen. I believe what I'm about to demonstrate for you will break every law of physics you have ever been taught."

The Intuitive Elephant

This was a informal essay I had to write for school last week. It was only allowed to take up one page, so it's rather short. My great-grandfather used to tell me this story, which is true. When he was a little boy and lived in British-controlled India, his father worked as a surveyor for the government and he owned the elephant in the story.

           "Halloo! You there! Yes, you! Take us to Kanpur," the British soldier commanded, gesturing towards the behemoth beast of burden. The man calmly yawned and stretched before finally arising and responding to the mandate. Back in a day which youngsters might now consider ancient, this man was known as a mahoot. His sole job was to train and care for the monstrous animal, including his feet, at which the soldiers had just flung their belongings.

            "I am sorry sir, I cannot take you to the next town," answered the mahoot, emphatically.

            "You must take us! We are soldiers of the queen. We protect your country. The least you could do is give us a ride!"

            "No sir, I cannot take you," the Indian mahoot wobbled his head in a small figure eight, and slowly uncovered a raw spot on the beast's back. "He has a sore on his back and cannot be ridden."

            "We have an appointment in Kanpur and must go immediately. I command you to take us."

            "Very well, but elephant's can do strange things when they are unhappy." The mahoot looked apologetically at his charge as he gently placed the blanket and saddle on the elephant's back and loaded the soldiers' female-sized wardrobes. Assisting the soldiers onto the animal and then finally climbed on himself,  he situated himself just-so over the beast's neck, so he could steer the animal by pushing his feet behind the ears.  Soon the trio were off, the military personnel comfortably reclining and the mahoot soporifically steering. Eventually they arrived at a stretch of pathway that meandered beside a rice field. Sharp young minds might recall that rice grows in large flats of knee deep water, and so it was in this case. Suddenly, the elephant stopped. Gingerly at first, then more pronounced, the animal began swaying from side to side. Soon the saddle was tilting precariously.

            "What's the meaning of this!?" asked the soldiers, quickly made aware of the movement.

            "I don't know sir," responded the mahoot innocently.

            After several seconds, the beast was swaying drastically. With a final shove, the soldiers and their belongings were bathing  in the muddy rice paddy, issuing profanities not repeatable.   The mahoot seemed to say "I told you so", and the elephant looked quite pleased with himself.

210 Words - Part 5

Last time, our shady protagonist and his associate interrogate the suspicious Waffle House waitress and learn that she was a witness to the diamond heist. After she describes the thief and his unknown assailant to Officer Burgh, Jack recognizes him as the classy gentleman named Daniel Charleston, an improbable suspect. Our story continues as the duo investigate. 

-----

"My apologies, but Mr. Charleston isn't here." The cashier of Charleston's Apparel for the Sophisticated Man is speaking to Lem and Pepper Jack.

"When'll he be back?" asks the inspector gruffly.

"I don't know. He went home complaining of a injury or something."

"Could you tell us where he lives?" Jack is now positive that Daniel is guilty, but the cashier eyes him warily, not wanting to endanger his employer, "It could be a life or death situation," Pepper exaggerates.

After some authoritative persuasion and a short car ride, the pair arrive at the bachelor's front steps. When knocking on the door at various intensities fails to acquire a response, the two enter the mansion uninvited.

"You look upstairs, I'll check downstairs," commands Jack quietly.

As Lem creeps cautiously through the eerily unlit upstairs hallway, he hears a floor board creak several doors down. He freezes, heart pounding, then stalks quietly to said door. Upon entering, Lem finds himself in a shadowy unfinished room. Piles of boxes lie everywhere. Unbeknownst to Burgh, a dark figure in a trench coat and cowboy hat watches him from the rafters. Lem walks carefully across the room and around a pile of boxes. On the floor is the hulking, blooded body of Daniel Charleston.

210 Words - Part 4

Last time, we learned that a waitress at Waffle House by the name of Jessie Jones apparently knows the whereabouts of the missing gem. Our story continues several blocks down the street. 

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At the nearby police station, a waitress named Jessie Jones is speaking to officer Burgh and his associate, Pepper Jack. "When I was walking home late last night, I saw a burly man walking down the opposite side walk when someone else jumped out of the shadows onto his back. The second man was lanky. They started fightin' and the first man dropped somethin'. I think it was the diamond. The second man got knocked out. The first person saw me as he was leaving. I never would have seen his face if he hadn't come over to me and threatened to kill me if I told anyone of what I saw." Jessie is now upset and panicked. "That's all I know! I promise!"

"Thank you, Ms. Jones. But can you describe the person with the diamond?" says Lem comfortingly. Meanwhile, Jack watches through squinting eyes, his features motionless, his expression icy. By now Jessie is in tears, but she describes the thief's features.  

"Thanks, Ms. Jones, we'll ensure yer safety," Pepper says as he and Lem stride from the room.

"Any ideas, Jack?" asks Lem.

"I know that it's Daniel Charleston."

"But he's the proprietor of Charleston's Apparel for the Sophisticated Man!"

"He's the only one with that description."