[LUNA] Um, it came out pretty nicely, didn't it?
In the words of Doctor Xeno.
Well, it's rather...
elegant.
[gasps]
[SENKU] Luna.
Was Doctor Xeno a NASA scientist?
Wait a sec! How did you know that?
♪
[SENKU] When I was a kid,
he helped start me down the path of building rockets.
♪
Their Doctor Xeno was my old science mentor.
♪
THE TWO SCIENTISTS
[traffic humming]
[clinking]
Hm.
All right.
- -Ready? - Hm-mm.
[whooshing]
- -Whoa! - Whoa!
[explosion]
- -[dog barks] - [man screams]
♪
[scoffs] Next one's getting off the ground!
[XENO] Oh!
Oh, dang it!
None of this makes any sense to me!
[grunts]
Whoa, I bet you're huntin' down
some sick rocket secrets on that thing!
Huh?
I didn't know you could read English!
That's amazing!
I wish, but not quite.
Still stuck at, "This is a pen."
What's a "Disizapen?"
Naturally, most of these articles
are written in English,
so I have to squeak by with a dictionary.
But poring over articles only gets you so far.
You save loads of time
by sharing info with your colleagues.
That's how science works!
[clicking]
♪
You mean you're sending that message
all over the world?
Yep! Near and far!
I'm basically a science spammer. [chuckles]
♪
Got a question from a kid in elementary school.
"If space is black,
then how come the sky is blue?"
That's adorable!
Be sure to give them a good answer.
And here's one from a Japanese student.
[FEMALE STAFF 407A] His name is "Senku," huh?
[laughs] He must have put a lot of effort
into writing that in English.
What's the little tyke wanna know?
[all gasps]
[SENKU (YOUNG)] I started my rocket research
by modding the hell out of a car turbocharger,
but I'm hitting a stupid number of roadblocks
just deciphering research reports.
The first problem was with the oscillating
component of the firing pressure.
I managed to get the margin of error
on the intermediate frequency
oscillatory combustion down to 7%
by running a computer simulation,
but let's be real, there's no way
in ten billion years I could have crunched numbers
that nasty on the potato I call a PC.
So I set up a VPN on a lab server
at the university my dad taught at...
I'm pretty sure he's confessing
to some serious crimes here.
There's no way a little kid wrote all of that.
This must be some elaborate prank.
I don't care what it is.
We can't get mixed up in it.
Just ignore him.
♪
[gasps]
You really did it, Senku!
You got a reply,
and it's even from a real-life NASA science person, too!
Simmer down, ya big oaf.
[XENO] I've included the math below for reference,
but long story short,
the nozzle needs to be made of niobium alloy.
Doctor Senku.
I suspect your efforts are being led
wildly astray by faulty data.
You are clearly using subpar equipment.
You should get your hands
on a resistance thermometer
that has a rhodium-platinum alloy heat sensor.
Science is elegant.
Signed, Doctor X.
All done! Time to chow down.
Sure thing.
Oh!
So, you've gotta buy the thermometer
in that picture, right?
Try the hundred-yen store!
Wonder how much the thing costs.
[both slurping]
♪
PLATINUM
PLATINUM-RHODIUM ALLOY
THERMOMETER SENSOR 50,000 POINTS (10%)
[groans]
♪
Senku!
I can't believe you came all the way
over to the US to see me!
[SENKU (YOUNG)] Yeah, yeah, now skip the waterworks
and give me the goods already.
I need that magic card.
[BYAKUYA] Oh, okay.
The mythical, demon's credit card
is a ridiculously powerful tool.
Any astronaut training in the US
can buy whatever scientific equipment they want,
and it's all on the government's tab!
You're not wrong,
but how do you even know that?
Information like that won't turn up
in a standard Google search!
♪
You're going home already?
What are you, one of those people
who lost on the plane in All-American Ultra Quiz?
Generation-gap alert, old fart.
I don't get that reference.
But when's your next visit?
I guess whenever
I need to renew the credit card.
Don't be cruel to your old man!
♪
PLATINUM-RHODIUM ALLOY RESISTANCE THERMOMETER
XENON GAS
PHASE-CONTRAST MICROSCOPE
THERMAL CAMERA
Whoa! That's some pricey-lookin' tech, dude!
I have no idea what any of it is!
I could've made do without it,
but it's hard to argue with free.
I'll take any advantage I can get, and this is huge.
With my mountain of equipment.
And all the knowledge
I'm gaining in Doctor X's online classes.
I'll research everything.
I'll try everything!
We'll forge our way across two-million years
of human history, but not from the ground up.
We'll be standing on the shoulders of giants!
[clicking]
[message chimes]
Hm.
♪
[TAIJU (YOUNG)] Man, Senku.
I thought the whole idea was to build a rocket ship.
So I don't get why you ask him
so many questions that have nothing to do with that.
[laughs]
If we knew every use case for each kind of science,
that would be way too easy.
It's like asking why I don't just hit the track
and bet on all the winning horses from the start.
There's still so much we don't know yet.
In a lot of ways, science is--
- -[message chimes] - [gasps]
[XENO] Science is power.
♪
For example, I trust you don't need me
to tell you that your little rocket
and a ballistic missile are fundamentally
one and the same.
With the power of science,
a knowledgeable man could guide
the ignorant masses to truth, and rule over them completely.
That makes science
a rather elegant power, Doctor Senku.
[SENKU (YOUNG)] Nah, world-domination crap
doesn't move me one millimeter.
Sounds stupid boring.
I wanna uncover all the world's secrets,
and that includes everything in the cosmos, too.
All of it.
Everything!
♪
Ten billion percent of it all!
♪
[crickets chirping]
[indistinct canteen chatter]
Oh, hey, Xeno!
What would you do if you were sent back in time
to the Stone Age?
[smirks]
I'd create scientific weapons from scratch,
and rule as a dictator.
[laughs] Lame answer.
Who'd want that?
[chuckles]
But what if there were rival scientists?
Exactly.
Humanity will always have one trick up its sleeve,
and that's curiosity.
I'm ten billion percent sure a greedy bastard
who literally wants to know everything about
everything would show up.
Basically, someone just like my son.
[chuckles]
That wouldn't change anything.
I would have no choice but to annihilate this person.
A true battle for the stone world,
in which only one can reign supreme.
If you can manage that,
it would allow you to keep the temperature
in the chamber under 60 degrees Celsius.
Meaning, theoretically speaking,
that homemade "rocket" of yours could be loaded
with all manner of biological and chemical weapons.
Everything means everything.
I'll even learn the stuff that doesn't appeal to me.
♪
[SENKU] This suggests that sulfonamides would work.
They could treat pneumococcus.
Oh. You goin' somewhere?
- -Just Africa. - Africa?!
♪
[plane whooshes]
My son's on the way!
Aw, you two must be real close, huh?
[BYAKUYA] Actually, the awful reason
he's coming to see me is because
my credit card expired.
He's gonna wait for me outside.
I should mention, his name is Senku.
That name...
Huh?
[wind gusting]
♪
[BYAKUYA] Senku!
I missed you so much!
[chuckles]
[laughs]
What's up?
Nothing.
♪
[plane whirring]
♪
PETRIFIED SWALLOWS?!
SWALLOW POPULATIONS SOCIAL MEDIA
POSTS EUROPE SOUTH AMERICA JAPAN
There's a strong correlation
we cannot ignore, between these social media posts
and swallow populations.
It's safe to assume these are real swallows
turned to stone.
That's an innovative approach.
Old fogies like me can hardly use a smartphone
much less analyze its data.
This kind of science is a young person's game.
It wasn't me.
It was a high-school student who posted that data analysis.
♪
A kid from Japan.
♪
[helicopter whirring]
CDC (U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
[RESEARCH DIRECTOR 407A] All the internal organs are intact.
No one could make such a complex sculpture!
[RESEARCHER 407A] There's a notable difference
in hydrophobicity, between the center and the peripheries.
The finer areas repel more water.
We're not sure of the significance yet.
[RESEARCH DIRECTOR 407A] What about the X-ray
fluorescence analysis?
[MALE RESEARCHER 407B] Mostly iron, traces of gold,
as well as carbon and nitrogen.
Yet it hardly reacts to any chemical known to man,
just a slight ion outflow in response to nitric acid.
[RESEARCH DIRECTOR 407A] UV radiation?
[RESEARCHER 407C] No embrittlement in response
to short wavelength electromagnetism.
[RESEARCH DIRECTOR 407A] Impossible!
[RESEARCHER 407D] It reacts in unpredictable ways
to each frequency.
We have no way to determine its structure.
I've never seen a mineral like this before.
Honestly, I'm not even sure it is a "mineral."
[GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL 407A] This is a global-scale...
No, a universal-scale anomaly.
Doctor Xeno of NASA,
we would appreciate your input.
♪
[SENKU] So, it does sink in water,
but it's a bit light to be a rock.
Though, it could be a porous rock,
maybe something like pumice.
[laughs]
Well, it's worth a shot, anyway.
HIROMATSU HIGH SCHOOL
[SENKU] We're making gasoline
out of plastic bottle caps today.
Normally, you would use something
super porous, like zeolite.
Let's try this swallow wing.
See if it works as a substitute.
This is it, Senku.
My mind's made up!
I'm finally gonna do it!
After five long years...
- -I'm tellin' her how I feel! - [ALL] Ah!
[SENKU] Wow.
That's fascinating,
but I can't leave the lab right now.
Looks like I successfully made gasoline!
-Whoa! -Just need a nuclear magnetic resonance machine.
I'll check the carbon distribution.
Could give me some indication of its properties
and pore depth and stuff like that.
[SENKU] Research everything.
♪
Try everything.
Hm.
♪
[helicopter whirring]
[STANLEY] It was my understanding
that today's event was just supposed to be
a DARPA tech demonstration.
But if that's really true,
then why invite soldiers from Special Forces like me?
It's so suspicious I can practically feel
my asshole puckering.
[laughs]
It's a gathering of the best.
All of the most talented superheroes in America,
wonder what the deal is.
[XENO] Here's your answer.
An unknown form of terrorism,
perhaps an attack by a foreign power.
[gasps] Doctor Xeno!
It's classified!
You can't show that yet!
It doesn't matter.
They'll know soon enough.
We've got that expert briefing tomorrow,
then it will all be public information.
Oh! We could try doing a potentiometric analysis
using glass wool electrodes doused in nitric acid.
That's enough with the nerd talk, Xeno.
- -Just cut to the chase. - [chuckles]
♪
[ALL] Hm?
What exactly are we looking at?
I believe there's a very slight potential
deviation around the head.
They're brain waves.
[both gasp]
It's rather elegant, don't you agree?
This statue is still alive.
With time, the brain waves of those
affected begin to vanish, one after another.
But this swallow is different.
It has somehow remained conscious.
So if you get hit by this new weapon,
you're saying there's still a chance of survival
if you can somehow force yourself to stay awake?
[sighs]
[CARLOS] Miss Luna!
I brought you a little gift that
I think would look absolutely lovely on you!
It's a ring! Please accept it!
[grunts] She's not the type to be impressed
by a flashy display, you filthy bastard!
[BOTH] Uh?
That light.
What could it be?
♪
[gasps]
It's coming. Retreat!
Run for cover right now!
You can't escape petrification,
but the real test comes after!
We must maintain consciousness!
We'll protect Miss Luna if it's the last thing we do!
Right, Carlos?
That's right!
Oh, man, what about this expensive ring?
This thing belongs to her now.
I can't just drop it, but it doesn't fit me!
I'm sorry! I'll wash it later!
♪
[MALE SOLDIER 407A] Shit.
Captain Stanley's orders.
I have to stay awake!
[MALE SOLDIER 407B] Dammit.
I'm trapped and immobile.
No way!
But I'm a capable, cool-headed woman!
It's my destiny to find myself a capable man
and form the ultimate power couple!
Dying single is so completely out of the question!
That soldier said to stay wake, so let's do this.
I'm so, so, so staying awake!
I'm Luna, a cool-headed gal! I'm Luna, a capable woman!
[CARLOS] I refuse to leave my precious--
[MAX]...single goddess in her time of need!
[STANLEY] Fine.
I'm used to staying awake
without moving for days on end.
This is no different than the time I've spent sniping.
[rain splattering]
[XENO] We were all congregated at Pinnacles National Park.
It's filled with saltpeter caves.
That means nitric acid.
I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing yet,
but it's better than no denaturation at all.
[water splattering]
♪
[SENKU] One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Nine billion, one hundred fifty-seven million,
six hundred sixty-one thousand, two hundred forty seconds.
As long as I can remain conscious,
there's a chance for revival.
[XENO] If I eventually manage to revive myself,
I know what I'll need.
Something for both livestock feed
and to produce alcohol for fuel.
Yellow dent corn.
There's a location in the West Coast Corn Belt,
it will have hybridized there.
Or, better yet, if I'm lucky,
some kernels have been preserved in a dormant state.
If there are any scientists around at that time,
I'm certain that's where they'll gather.
♪
[rock shatters]
[SENKU] It's not fate, or even coincidence.
Rather, it's a consequence of pure necessity.
[water splattering]
[XENO] And it would be repeatable.
That is the essence.
[shatters]
- -[SENKU] Of science! - [XENO] Of science!
♪
NEXT EPISODE
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.
THE PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND PRODUCTION METHODS
DESCRIBED ARE REALITY BASED.
PLEASE DO NOT IMITATE WITHOUT EXPERTISE.