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Most people don't really know the difference between science fiction and fantasy. e.g. "favorite sci-fi move, Star Wars." I've learned accept that. After all, it's often a question of semantics. However, if you're going to pretend to be sci fi, you should bloody well get the real, known, science right. Or a least justify breaking it.
When I hear something like, "...plasma blast, ninth degree burns..." and "below zero Kelvin" it just makes my teeth itch. You can have particle weapons, super intelligent toasters, perpetual motion machines, all that silly stuff, as long as you get the basic text book stuff right.
What brought this on? The Terminator series, yes I admit to watching it. It's not terrible, though their concept of temporal mechanics is loose, it's fun. More an action series than sci fi, to be sure. Far more believable tough chick than that silly bionic woman thing.
At one point, someone needs a blood transfusion. Yeah, they lasted five episodes until the minimally heroic donation of bodily fluids was required. The cyborg quips, "She has O-, she's a universal doner." We'll let it pass that we didn't know the RhD yet. The medic says "he's too far gone, he needs his own blood type, AB-" Oh, so, rare.
Why do we know AB- is the rarest blood type, because it's always the one they need. :p So, the son of our O- chick says, "test my blood type." I'm waiting for the medic to shoot down the ignorant kid, who's supposed to be something of a genius. "Ok, we'll test you." Blink. He's AB-, huh?
Blood typing is so profoundly basic, and such a simple example of how recessive traits work, that it's covered in every biology class in the country. Well, it used to be. If you're a little fuzzy on blood types, it goes something like this:
There are three letters, ABO. Everyone gets two letters, one from mom and one from dad. When they talk blood type, they talk about A,B,AB,O. Both AO and AA are A, the O is recessive. So, an A or B, being possible with two combinations, is more likely than AB or O (OO), which are only possible with one. It's a curiosity of population drift that O is so common.
Now, if mommy is O, then depending on daddy, their kid could be A,B,O, but never AB; mom has neither of those letters to give.
I don't know why the O parent with the AB son fubar nagged me so much. I guess because I always considered this area reasonably common knowledge. I fear the knowledge base I consider common may be shrinking.
When I hear something like, "...plasma blast, ninth degree burns..." and "below zero Kelvin" it just makes my teeth itch. You can have particle weapons, super intelligent toasters, perpetual motion machines, all that silly stuff, as long as you get the basic text book stuff right.
What brought this on? The Terminator series, yes I admit to watching it. It's not terrible, though their concept of temporal mechanics is loose, it's fun. More an action series than sci fi, to be sure. Far more believable tough chick than that silly bionic woman thing.
At one point, someone needs a blood transfusion. Yeah, they lasted five episodes until the minimally heroic donation of bodily fluids was required. The cyborg quips, "She has O-, she's a universal doner." We'll let it pass that we didn't know the RhD yet. The medic says "he's too far gone, he needs his own blood type, AB-" Oh, so, rare.
Why do we know AB- is the rarest blood type, because it's always the one they need. :p So, the son of our O- chick says, "test my blood type." I'm waiting for the medic to shoot down the ignorant kid, who's supposed to be something of a genius. "Ok, we'll test you." Blink. He's AB-, huh?
Blood typing is so profoundly basic, and such a simple example of how recessive traits work, that it's covered in every biology class in the country. Well, it used to be. If you're a little fuzzy on blood types, it goes something like this:
There are three letters, ABO. Everyone gets two letters, one from mom and one from dad. When they talk blood type, they talk about A,B,AB,O. Both AO and AA are A, the O is recessive. So, an A or B, being possible with two combinations, is more likely than AB or O (OO), which are only possible with one. It's a curiosity of population drift that O is so common.
Now, if mommy is O, then depending on daddy, their kid could be A,B,O, but never AB; mom has neither of those letters to give.
I don't know why the O parent with the AB son fubar nagged me so much. I guess because I always considered this area reasonably common knowledge. I fear the knowledge base I consider common may be shrinking.
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And yes, I understand. I do some similar tooth-grinding during completely pathetic scenes involving horses.
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The more connected you are to something, the more irritating the fub. I don't really think I had a vested interested in the genetics of antigens, but it just yanked me out.
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As the proud owner of dark brown eyes with two blue eyed parents, the "you're adopted" thing didn't come as a particular surprise. ;)
Strangely, I have a lot of common traits with my mom, who'd play the "guess which kid is adopted" game. (Mom's off, for sure.) I always thought the eyes were an obvious tell, but people either didn't notice or just failed bio.
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Interesting thing about adoption, a number of folks I've met have looked related when they aren't... we figure it's that hand gestures and such are similar. Shared humor and dialog seems to tend to shape facial features, posture, etc., in similar ways.
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As I posted above, my eye color says "not the mommy" but people never, ever, noticed.
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