Every design in Strange Signals shows a UFO doing what UFOs do best in pictures: shining a beam down at something. We wanted each UFO oversized T-shirt in the collection to look properly trippy, and along the way we got curious. Are tractor beams real? Why are UFO beams always drawn as glowing cones? Here are the honest answers, the real optics behind the art, and how the tees are made and fit.
What is Strange Signals?
Strange Signals is our collection of 15 Strange Signals UFO oversized tees, all printed on 260 GSM French terry. In every design, a flying craft sends a ray down, and each ray has its own style: pastel drips, neon zigzags, prisms, 70s flowers, ocean waves or heat haze. There are no alien figures anywhere. The beam is the star.
The designs range from pastel and sweet (like Strawberry Signal) to neon and geometric, retro floral, and ocean and haze, plus one bold minimal design, Cobalt Ember.
Are tractor beams real?
Yes, but only tiny ones, in labs. Scientists have built acoustic tractor beams that use shaped ultrasound to hold and steer millimetre-sized beads, and optical tractor beams that pull microscopic particles towards a light source. None of them could lift a spacecraft, a person or, despite the folklore, a cow.
The acoustic version made headlines in 2015, when researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Sussex reported in Nature Communications that an array of tiny ultrasonic speakers, working from one side only, could levitate, move and rotate polystyrene beads 0.6 to 3.1 mm across.
Light can pull too. In 2013, a team from the Czech Republic and the University of St Andrews showed in Nature Photonics that a specially shaped laser field could draw microscopic plastic spheres against the direction the light was travelling. In 2014, physicists at the Australian National University moved tiny coated glass spheres about a fifth of a millimetre wide up to 20 cm with a hollow laser beam, using heat rather than the push of light itself.
The bigger prize went to a close cousin. Arthur Ashkin shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems": focused laser light that can hold and move cells, bacteria and viruses without touching them.
Why are UFO beams drawn as glowing cones?
A beam of light is invisible from the side until something in the air scatters some of it towards your eyes. Haze, dust and water droplets do exactly that, which is why torch beams and headlights show up in fog. Artists draw UFO beams as solid, glowing cones because that's how a bright beam looks on a misty night.
This scattering by tiny suspended particles is known as the Tyndall effect.
Our art leans into it. Strawberry Signal's beam melts into a pastel puddle and Cobalt Ember's has a crayon texture. Real beams don't drip, but they do glow in haze.
Five frequencies, five bits of real optics
Each Strange Signals mood borrows from a real light effect, from prisms and mirages to moonlight and neon. The florals are the exception: pure 70s colour.
Prisms and dispersion: Prism Strike. Glass bends each colour of light by a slightly different amount, so white light fans out into a spectrum. Prism Strike's arrow-shaped craft splits its beam into yellow, pink and violet, with floating crystals.
Mirages: Peach Mirage and Lunar Haze. Over a hot road, light from the sky bends through the hotter, less dense air near the tarmac and curves up into your eyes, so you see a shimmering "puddle" that's really a picture of the sky. Peach Mirage's painterly beam sweeps sideways like heat haze. Lunar Haze softens everything into a pastel beam above a lilac cloud.
Moonlight: Moonbeam Club. The Moon makes no visible light of its own. Moonlight is sunlight that has bounced off the lunar surface, so every moonbeam is technically a sunbeam on a detour. Moonbeam Club's navy-and-gold saucer pours out a beam of crescent moons and stars.
Neon: Arcade Anomaly and Hyperdrive Signal. Real neon gas glows reddish-orange when electricity runs through it; the other colours in classic signs come from other gases and coatings. These two designs borrow that arcade-sign palette.
Retro colour: Solar Bloom and Cosmic Garden. No physics here, just a 70s palette: poppies, daisies and striped rainbow rays in warm oranges, olives and teals.
So what are most UFO sightings?
Most UFO sightings turn out to be ordinary things seen in unusual conditions: aircraft lights, satellites, bright planets such as Venus, balloons and drones. NASA's 2023 independent study found no evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, and the Pentagon's AARO 2024 historical report found no verified alien technology. Some cases remain unexplained.
A freshly launched batch of satellites can appear as a neat string of lights crossing the sky, and Venus, low at dusk, is bright enough to get reported regularly.
How our UFO oversized T-shirts are made and fit
Every Strange Signals tee is printed to order on 260 GSM French terry, 90% cotton and 10% polyester. It has a smooth face that takes the print, a soft looped inside, dropped shoulders and a lycra ribbed neck. Take your usual size for the full oversized look, or size down for a closer fit.
Sizes run from XS to 3XL; the French terry size chart has the measurements. More fits live in our French terry oversized T-shirts.
Each tee is made to order. Processing takes 2–3 days, then shipping generally takes 3–7 days. Metros and big cities usually get it faster, and remote areas of India take longer.
How to style a trippy oversized tee
Let the print do the talking and keep the rest simple. Three looks cover most days: pastel prints with light denim, neon prints with black joggers or cargos, and retro florals with earthy cargos.
Pastel: Strawberry Signal or Candy Orbit, half-tucked into light-wash denim, with white sneakers.
Neon: Hyperdrive Signal on black with black joggers or cargos.
Retro floral: Solar Petals on bottle green or Solar Bloom on navy, with olive or beige cargos and brown or off-white sneakers.
Frequently asked questions
Are tractor beams real?
Yes, but only in labs and at a tiny scale. Scientists have used shaped ultrasound to hold and move polystyrene beads a few millimetres across, and laser light to pull microscopic particles towards its source. Nothing built so far comes close to moving a spacecraft, a person or a cow.
Why do UFOs in pictures have a cone of light?
Because that's how a bright beam looks in hazy air. Dust, haze and water droplets scatter some of the light sideways towards your eyes, which makes the beam itself visible, the same way headlights show up in fog. Artists draw that glow as a solid cone spreading out from the craft.
What are most UFO sightings actually?
Mostly ordinary things seen in unusual conditions: aircraft lights, satellites, bright planets such as Venus, balloons and drones. NASA's 2023 independent study and the Pentagon's 2024 AARO historical report found no evidence of extraterrestrial origin or alien technology, though some cases remain unexplained because the data is too limited.
What does UAP mean?
UAP stands for unidentified anomalous phenomena. It's the term NASA uses for sightings in the sky, or elsewhere, that can't yet be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena. "Unidentified" usually means there isn't enough good data to explain a sighting, not that anything alien has been found.
Why does a prism make a rainbow?
Glass bends each wavelength of light by a slightly different amount, an effect called dispersion. Violet bends the most and red the least, so white light going through a prism fans out into a band of colours. Raindrops do something similar to sunlight, which is how a rainbow forms.
What causes a mirage?
Light bending, or refraction, through layers of air at different temperatures. Over a hot road, the air near the surface is hotter and less dense, so light from the sky curves upwards towards your eyes. You see a shimmering patch that looks like water but is really an image of the sky.
What fabric are Strange Signals tees made of?
260 GSM French terry: 90% cotton and 10% polyester, with a smooth printed face and a soft looped inside. The fit is unisex oversized with dropped shoulders and a lycra ribbed neck. Take your usual size for the full oversized look, or size down for a closer fit.
How long does a Strange Signals tee take to arrive?
Each Strange Signals tee is made to order, so it's printed only after you place your order. Processing takes 2–3 days, then shipping generally takes 3–7 days. Metros and big cities usually get it faster, and remote areas of India take longer. If the size isn't right, you can request a size exchange.
Sources
- NASA, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and UAP Independent Study Team report (September 2023): https://science.nasa.gov/uap/
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Volume 1 (March 2024): https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/AARO_Historical_Record_Report_Vol_1_2024.pdf
- Marzo et al., "Holographic acoustic elements for manipulation of levitated objects", Nature Communications 6, 8661 (2015): https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9661
- Brzobohatý et al., "Experimental demonstration of optical transport, sorting and self-arrangement using a 'tractor beam'", Nature Photonics 7 (2013): https://www.nature.com/articles/nphoton.2012.332
- Shvedov et al., "A long-range polarization-controlled optical tractor beam", Nature Photonics 8 (2014): https://www.nature.com/articles/nphoton.2014.242
- Nobel Prize in Physics 2018, Arthur Ashkin: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/ashkin/facts/
Pick your frequency in the full Strange Signals collection.
