This month's bike party theme was "science". Truthfully, this theme wasn't embraced with the enthusiasm that some of them get. There was quite a bit of creativity, but finding some of it required some careful looking. If I missed your contribution, I'm sorry.

        

I think that tattoo is the actual digital message that some SETI group has been blasting out beyond the edge of the solar system or something like that. Anyhow, real science went into figuring out the message. That contrasts with the growth in the petri dishes, which was yummy Jell-O shots with food coloring and mysterious growth.

     

I found out later that Katie grew a tail after consuming the GE goop in the petri dishes. Science.

        

Regina explained that there was intense science in the pigments on their coats. I said okay. Science.

     

Bunny suits or lab coats were the science costume of many.

           

These guys tousled their hair and gave me funny looks to qualify as "mad scientists". Science.

          

John was roaming around looking for his monkeys.

     

It doesn't show in the picture, but the woman by the green light is not a fan of tamarinds. Science.

     

ET was there to put the Science Fiction in the science ride.

That blue hologram of a peace sign was an awesome sight close up. Very three dimensional. The other cool thing about Bob's setup was that the light was throwing a neat puddle of purple light about a yard square on the ground behind his bike. I didn't notice that until much later though.

     

The other thing I was doing was collecting signatures to help get that oil severance tax on the ballot. Thank you Lisa for signing! It's hard to tell from the picture, but she is wearing a genuine astronaut jumpsuit. Science.

     

The periodic table of the elements was a science motif I saw only a few times, but this was one of them. I'm thinking element "eN" might be a bit more imaginary than Helium, but that's just a minor technical detail. Science.

     

        

I like the message on that sign "San Jose Bike Party! Every 3rd Friday Night of every Month of the Year. Everyone is invited!" Science.

  

I asked why these bikes had tinfoil hats. The woman explained that it was "protection from cosmic rays." Science.

     

This guy had a taco stand that was nothing but a bike trailer. He had a line of customers waiting, so the science he used must have worked out right.

     

The kid with the afterburners on his bike didn't stop long enough to explain the science in his project to me. The guy on the recumbent explained that his gismo was a "flux capacitor". Science.

     

  

Paul gave me a ride home, so I didn't get there exhausted at 3 AM the way I am when I pedal the whole way, but something about riding with a few thousand of my closest friends just gets me excited. I had trouble getting to sleep. Later I found out that there had been a few accidents, nothing too serious. No big fights or anything like that. It had just been a fine evening for many, many people. Magically wonderful.