SCIENCE!

[trinityvixen]

Hey, hey! Hey kid! Remember all those times I complained about how atrociously bad the science talk in Heroes was?

THIS POST FIXES IT.

Okay, well, it doesn't change the fact that Mohinder wouldn't know genetics if the subject came and bit him his bony yet attractive ass, but it makes science work out of Heroes, and I'm a happy person.

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded a bit of my theory that kryptonite on Smallville was psycho-reactive, as an explanation of why it could give so many different powers to different people and yet not cause havoc with local plant and animal life. Except that this has more, y'know, science.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Buuuuuut, as it turns out, your theory is supported by their science! Hurrah! Everyone's a winner!

[cagexxx.livejournal.com]

Whoever wins...we lose.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

ARGH! BAD GRAMMAR, Nooooooooooooo!!!!!

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I always thought the green T-shirt on this page was perfect for you.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's cute, but I think I love: "STAND BACK, I'M GOING TO TRY SCIENCE!"

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

.........that post fixes things? I'll say up front that the bio stuff I don't know well enough to say much, but the physics stuff is seriously lacking on many different levels. Also the limitation(s) taken on by assuming all abilities are either TK or EM (as they define it) based really is limiting the psionic spectrum. As I've stated before, Heroes uses a japanese model of psionics (as supported by Sylar's ability) that goes well outside the western notions of what falls under the psionic spectrum.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Is this model of "psionics" scientifically interpretable? Can you state, as this article does, that there are observable phenomena that can explain the results we see for these characters, and then explain those phenomena in terms of reproducible deductive tests for the same?

I can't directly refute your claim on the physics part, but why doesn' TK or EM account for what the Heroes supers can do? The brain controls all sorts of things, but it could, conceivably, be broken down into two main categories of behavioral control: 1) acting (movement, chemi/metabilostatis) and 2) feeling (sensory input). Seems to me those a pretty well covered.

But the biology is pretty much there in this explanation. The only thing this fails to consider is that the genes being altered may be quiescent (located in the heterochromatin, even) but present in ALL humans. The genes that are altered in superheroes, then, might only be for transcription factors, histones, or other DNA-binding proteins that affect the ability to read these quiescent genes.

Accordingly, Peter Petrelli and Sylar might have unconscious and direct, respectively, control over the transcription factors et al. that allow other supers to get their powers--their bodies are capable of sustaining the extra protein production necessary to produce flight, invulnerability etc. because they are merely activating those genes within their own DNA (since >99% of DNA is conserved between us and monkeys, we can safely assume that the DNA encoding flight genes, for example, could easily be retained even between two non-consanguinous persons).

Peter's getting sick from it would stem from his being a reflexive adapter and trying to cram all that evolution in from the cellular level and then adapt on up. Sylar's ability to harvest powers without evidenced impairment (beyond psychosis, more on that in a sec) is because he physically alters himself from the control center on down--hence his needing the brains to know how to regulate the hormonal and growth cues necessary to achieve nuclear powers. Of course, if you start messing around with neuronal connections in the hormone-controlling centers of your brain, you're going to screw things up ROYALLY, which explains a lot about Sylar's frequent bouts of psychotic behavior which are mainly restrained to things associated with the acquiring of more abilities (talking with people tangentially associated with supers, he is at least capable of being normal-ish). The connection, behaviorally with the alterations physically done to his body have clearly made him nuts (his narcissism and mommy-daddy issues gave him low self esteem and issues, but they didn't make him the crazy person that he became).