Saturday 16 March 2013

Harry Bioblogist and the time-travelling Gilson

I had a very odd dream the other day, suggesting I'd possibly been working too hard or not doing enough non-science things. It went a bit like this;

I was in the lab and discovered that my Gilson pipette could allow me to travel through time.


I guess if the "Doctor Who" franchise had a timelord called "the scientist" (would probably make a fun villain) instead of a "sonic screwdriver" he'd have a "temporal pipette".
There were rules to this time machine though. Instead of measuring out volume in microliters it measured time in years. It was a P1000 so it meant I had a thousand years to play with. Where the dream became dull (and indicative of too much work) was that rather than use it I thought about how I could use it. The assumption in the dream was that it would take you to any time from 0-1000AD. I was hesitant to use it, as I'd have got trapped in the past, but now I'm thinking the tip-ejecting button would return you to the present.

Anyway it seemed like a fun idea and possibly a bit too science oriented for a mainstream audience. If this was to be adapted into a "major" series. The temporal pipette would work as follows.

1) Set the date by setting the "volume"
2) Travel back in time by pressing the suction button in
3) Return to the present by pressing the "eject" button.

Alternatively for more flexibility the 0-1000 setting just represents the years travelled. pressing the suction in (after setting the time) goes backwards and pressing eject lets you go forward.
Clearly there's be a huge advantage in tracking down the P2000, P200 and P10s as they would give a larger range and allow for much more specific travel.

What other lab equipment could have magical sci-fi powers?

If a centrifuge was big enough and you could climb into it I'm sure it could spin you into another dimension. MASSIVE DISCLAIMER - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR IN THE LAB.






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