February 2, 2012
Inventing The Universe
Highlights from our summer 2011 festival antics with engineers, chemists, and physicists at the Secret Garden Party and Bestival! Set to the sublime sonic styles of UK beatbox champion Reeps One.
Featuring the Galactic Gourmet, Science Junkie Greg Foot, Marcus du Sautoy, Simon Foster, Blind Robot’s Bluff, Tobin May & The Bionic Ear, Andrea Sella and Physics V Chemistry, the Vaccine Assault Course, and the cornstarch runway. With thanks to the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Science and Technologies Facilities Council, who sponsored all our events celebration Invention and the Universe this summer.
Shot and directed by Isis Thompson.
January 27, 2012
The Secret Garden Party
It’s that time of year again! This marks the ten year anniversary for England’s most riotous of music festivals, The Secret Garden Party – our birthplace and our spiritual home.
We will be there in full force July 19-22, hosting the explosive, experimental and experiential events that will change forever the way you see science. Get your hands dirty, scream and swear, take your clothes off – and don’t for a microsecond worry about a test at the end.
Full details of our program coming soon! We’re cooking up some goodies this year, oh yes we are. No matter what happens, we promise that all the treats from the past few years, such as the Dirty Life Drawing
are gonna be small fry compared to what’s in store for 2012.
In other words: You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet.
Join us and discover how truth is unequivocally stranger than fiction, and ponder just how remarkable it is that you are reading these words at all.
Love, The Guerilla Scientists
October 28, 2011
Messages From Earth
At the Astronomers’ Ball on October 22 at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, we gave everyone the chance to send a message to space, using two vintage typewriters (or in several cases, hand drawn illustrations). These will all be broadcast into deep space using a radio parabolic dish antenna in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and will travel for four years at a frequency of ~6,250MHz.
The sign read: “What would you say if you had one chance to speak to the stars? Remember, this is for posterity, so be honest.”
This is what they wanted to say…
Do you want to play with me?
Beware of bears. Send food and supplies. xo
Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?
If this reaches a Bex in a parallel universe, here is some advice: boys can be mean, drugs are good, and always do what scares you.
Dear aliens: I don’t know what to call my new cat. Any suggestions?
Hullo, Hope you’re well. Maybe you’ve seen some previous transmissions from our planet. Just to say, please don’t judge us too harshly for Hollyoaks. Many of us hate it. Ta muchly. Jim.
Come and help us save our planet please.
October 3, 2011
Mike Hughson: The Vaccine Assault Course
Biochemical engineer Mike Hughson of UCL joined us (with fellow engineers Chris Grant and Matthew Shiers) at the Secret Garden Party and Bestival this summer with an outlandish event: The Vaccine Assault Course. “Telling people what I do can be somewhat challenging, as their eyes often glaze over at the mention of ‘biochemical engineering’. So we thought we would try a different tact: have people act out the steps in the engineering process, and pretend to become the drug themselves.” He tells us more about the genesis of this very unusual spectacle.
“Your balls are very important,” I said to the guy dressed solely in fiery red lingerie and fox ears. “Try and make sure you don’t lose them.”
In his eyes I saw a hunger for fame and glory that could only come from a semi-naked man on the Isle of Wight clad in lace suspenders, matching bra and spurred on by his huntsman comrades and the gathering crowd. Although probably the least foxy fox the world has ever seen, he was determined to dominate this assault course and become the most morally dubious vaccine the world has ever seen; this was Bestival, and anything was possible.
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