Alice in Neuroland: Curious Cubes

Finally, you seem to be out of that retinal thicket, but only to find yourself chasing the White Rabbit down some new passageway, one that seems even longer than the first! It’s simply packed with neurons transmitting bursts of data in the same direction you’re going. This must be the optic nerve, which funnels visual information from the eye to the brain. Alice loves neuroscience at least as much as you, so hopefully she’s had a chance to experience this place. However, it’s a little hard to navigate; littering your path are also all sorts of curious cubes. Some cake-like cubes are labeled “Eat Me,” and some bottle-like cubes are labeled “Drink Me,” and others are ominous shapes reading “Solve Me.” To clear your way, maybe you should try doing what the cubes say?

But: oh dear. The first cube you eat seems to expand your physical dimensions well beyond what would properly fit in this space. The next cube you drink from, and it seems to shrink you down even smaller than you’d have to be inside an optic nerve. The last cube, one of these puzzle cubes, takes a long while to solve indeed, and you’re rather wiped out.

One cube makes you larger, and one cube makes you small
And the cubes that tell you “Solve Me” are the strangest ones of all!

Well, after eating and drinking the right balance of cubes to get yourself back to an appropriate size, you also have some energy again, and you might as well give yourself something to do as you traverse the rest of this nerve. Care to tackle 12 of these curious “Solve Me” cubes? There are badges for your efforts:

90% accuracy or higher – Evil Cubes Grandmaster
80% accuracy or higher – Evil Cubes Master
Everyone else who completes all 12 cubes – Evil Cubes Challenger

Swag (generously sponsored by @susi): The top scoring player will win 1 mug and 1 sticker sheet! Second and third place each also win sticker sheets.

Bonuses

1st Place Accuracy – 8,000 point bonus
2nd Place Accuracy – 5,000 point bonus
3rd Place Accuracy – 3,000 point bonus
Complete all 12 cubes – 1,000 point bonus

Please remember that these bonuses are non-cumulative; first place accuracy gets a flat 8,000 points, for example.

The cubes launch starting 4/21 at 12:00 AM (midnight) EDT, and they will be up until 4/26 at 12:00 PM (noon) EDT. Give them a go!

Artwork by Daniela Gamba