In his continuing quest for Diagonal Spaceships, Nicolay Beluchenko has also found what is currently the smallest known "Grow-By-One" pattern. This type of pattern is one whose population growth rate is exactly linear, without any fluctuations, adding a single bit every generation. Shown here is a slight improvement by David Bell, which starts a generation earlier than Beluchenko's orginal pattern, with a population of 44 at generation 0. (The purpose of the Lightweight Spaceship is to smooth out the fluctuations in the paired wickstretcher's population.)
The second pattern shown here is a version which is also a single object (starting with a population of 53).