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  1. - Top - End - #361
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    I wonder if the "Neutrinos are mutating" thing would be more palatable if they'd just chosen slightly different wording. "The neutrinos are being converted into a new kind of particle that does the plot-relevant thing."

    --

    Anyway, to me a consistently egregious one is stable orbits in Star Trek, a show which, while not exactly hard science, usually has a sort of winking acknowledgement of where it cuts corners (eg Heisenberg Compensators). But any time there's an "oh noes, the ship's power is failing!" plot, they always act as if the the ship will crash onto whatever planet/star/whatever they're orbiting the instant the engines cut out. Why they can't save their dwindling power supply by putting the ship into a stable orbit (like we do in real life with modern satellites all the time) always baffles me. (It's not for want of tension, because life support systems failing is usually a much more prominent concern anyway.)

    --

    Somewhat off topic (since it's not a science thing, but it's still very much in the "you didn't actually do any research for this, did you" category), this thread reminds of when I finally gave up the idea that anything depicted in a police procedural has anything to do with reality. I know, obvious conclusion is obvious, but this moved my attitude about facts in police procedurals from "take with a grain of salt" to "assume it's wrong unless proven otherwise." For context, I spent most of my twenties trying to become a professional opera singer, so naturally I knew a lot of singers.

    So the plot of this particular episode (Law & Order: SVU, if I remember correctly) involved this office led by a super-abusive woman who kept people around by dangling some get-rich-quick scheme in front of them. Some beleaguered secretary is ready to blow the whistle on the whole thing, so her co-workers killed her. At some point, it's established that she didn't drink but had alcohol in her system somehow. So the big question was, out of this whole conspiracy to commit murder, who actually did the deed. They resolve this by figuring out (somehow?) that the alcohol was administered to the victim anally (yes, that's a thing, apparently) and that the one person in the conspiracy who'd know about this was the guy whose mother used to be an opera singer because as we all (apparently?) know, opera singers are so obsessed with taking care of their voices that they consume alcohol in this manner.

    Again, I used to be an opera singer. As a group, they're basically overgrown college students. The ones that abstain from drinking do so for the same reasons anybody else would: managing alcoholism or religious commitments or whathaveyou. At most, an individual singer might have an idosyncratic, quasi-superstitious rule of "I don't drink for x number of hours/days before a performance," so at any other time drinking is just fine. (Also, it might not be drinking, it might be "eating cheese" or "having sex" or any of a number of things.) Point is, there's no weird industry secret of doing such bizarre things to manage vocal health. Opera singers drink the normal way and aren't shy about it.

    It was just such a... bizarre set of unfounded assumptions that had nothing to do with anything in the real world that I was completely flabbergasted and still remember just how stupid it was over a decade later.

    And that's before we get into "why on earth would someone who consumes alcohol this way show it to their child?"

  2. - Top - End - #362
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    I rather think that the authors of the episode came upon something and wanted to use it.

    Basically, there's a certain truth to the whole setup. You can be an alcoholic in a field that requires you regular testing and still pass while being drunk like a pig.

    Sorry, I don´t know the correct english term for it, but the inside of your nose, anus and such work well to extract and transfer stuff. So, basically, you can use a bog-standard OB, soak it in vodka and put it into your deep end (or your nose if you don't mind looking silly) and the alcohol will be absorbed and transferred to your blood. Put being, that any method that's not based on ingestion will foil your regular alcohol tester, which is based on quantity of alcohol in your breath.

    Stuff like this comes up a lot in crime serials. Some researcher/author stumbles upon something that is rarely known, it will be used as the basis of the actual plot.

  3. - Top - End - #363
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    I found out about butt-chugging through Google. I wasn't searching for that, but serendipity can be a female dog.
    Quote Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
    I thought Tom Bombadil dreadful — but worse still was the announcer's preliminary remarks that Goldberry was his daughter (!), and that Willowman was an ally of Mordor (!!).

  4. - Top - End - #364
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    as for the Flash writing...I'm pretty sure one of the Stargate episodes did something similar when a character "learned to use 100% of her brain" due to some alien bug/device thing (I don't remember it was just on one day at a friends house)...she would fill up the laptop's buffer typing and then go to different work for a few minutes and repeat.

    it should probably get it own TV tropes page at this point if it doesn't have one yet.



    And I have heard of freezing electronics as a way of bypassing things....Lots of electronics don't work at all below a certain temperature. (why space probes have heaters for example) and blocking the electronics triggering something an alarm or bomb by lowering the tempreture below the point that the electronic components has worked before.

  5. - Top - End - #365
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    Quote Originally Posted by Florian View Post
    I rather think that the authors of the episode came upon something and wanted to use it.

    Basically, there's a certain truth to the whole setup. You can be an alcoholic in a field that requires you regular testing and still pass while being drunk like a pig.

    Sorry, I don´t know the correct english term for it, but the inside of your nose, anus and such work well to extract and transfer stuff. So, basically, you can use a bog-standard OB, soak it in vodka and put it into your deep end (or your nose if you don't mind looking silly) and the alcohol will be absorbed and transferred to your blood. Put being, that any method that's not based on ingestion will foil your regular alcohol tester, which is based on quantity of alcohol in your breath.

    Stuff like this comes up a lot in crime serials. Some researcher/author stumbles upon something that is rarely known, it will be used as the basis of the actual plot.
    Like I said, taking alcohol in various unconventional ways is a thing (although in this particular case, the intent was to get the alochol into her system in a way that would be found in the hopes the death would be written off as a drunken accident). But I can give them that because an autopsy is more thorough than a breathalizer.

    What absolutely floored me in the sheer ludicrousness of it all was presenting it like this was a thing that opera singers regularly do to protect their voices. Not "this particular singer was known to do this," which is something I could accept (like I said, individual singers sometimes have weird idiosyncrasies and/or superstitions about their voice). But instead it was "this is totally a thing opera singers in general do, and the only way anyone else could know about it would be to learn about it from an opera singer." Which you'd know was complete BS if you'd ever actually talked to a singer about any of this. (To say nothing of treating it like some secret, obscure knowledge that no other group would have access to.)

    Like I said, it just ruined my ability to take any of those shows seriously because now I can't help but see them as being right next to Looney Tunes on the realism-to-silliness scale.

  6. - Top - End - #366
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    @Grey Watcher:

    It would be rare for someone with inside knowledge to be able to enjoy how their field is portrayed in media, especially in serials.

    The again, go on youtube, Disturbed/The Sound Of Silence, follow that by "Voice trainer/Opera trainer reacts" videos and you stumble a whole lot on the point of "he is a trained opera singer, he must damage his vocal cords in doing so! Awful" comments and such.

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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grey Watcher View Post
    ... I can't help but see them as being right next to Looney Tunes on the realism-to-silliness scale.
    SVU has been like that for a long time (maybe forever), I don't mind that as much frankly as the raw abuse of power by the legal system in favour of political ideology that they have (or that the show has) - but that is likely off topic (and a poor law topic would likely quickly break rules).

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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    Quote Originally Posted by Traab View Post
    That.. I dont.. but wh... I mean, maybe had I watched the entire episode that would have at least made sense in universe even if by all laws of reality it doesnt in the real world, but huh?!
    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    See, I'm more prepared to forgive that one. The line about racquetball makes it clear that the behaviour of the lasers is intentionally ridiculous. Getting mad at that is like getting mad at Wile E. Coyote for running on air.
    Oh, that show is very deliberately silly. That’s one of the most ridiculous things they’ve done but it’s in keeping with the tone.

    The Flash one is played entirely straight. Admittedly I have not seen the show so there may be more outside that clip, but what's shown there is clearly meant to be taken seriously. Well, as seriously as comic book physics get, anyway.
    That’s the issue.
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  9. - Top - End - #369
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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    Quote Originally Posted by sktarq View Post
    as for the Flash writing...I'm pretty sure one of the Stargate episodes did something similar when a character "learned to use 100% of her brain" due to some alien bug/device thing (I don't remember it was just on one day at a friends house)...she would fill up the laptop's buffer typing and then go to different work for a few minutes and repeat.
    Not quite. Anise used them as test subjects for Atanik devices that enhanced strength and speed and other abilities. There was no specific mention of increased brain function (I'm actually on an SG re-watch now and finished that episode 2 days ago), although at least some can be assumed. But Carter is able to type her thoughts as fast as she has them so the computer can't keep up.
    "That's a horrible idea! What time?"

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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    Quote Originally Posted by tomandtish View Post
    Not quite. Anise used them as test subjects for Atanik devices that enhanced strength and speed and other abilities. There was no specific mention of increased brain function (I'm actually on an SG re-watch now and finished that episode 2 days ago), although at least some can be assumed. But Carter is able to type her thoughts as fast as she has them so the computer can't keep up.
    I will certainly defer to someone who has watched it regularly and recently over the "what the hell is this show they made from that movie" remembrances at a friends house years ago. I mostly remember a couple people talking about her filling up the buffer and thinking I was glad I didn't own a TV anymore.

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    Default Re: What's the worst depiction of science did you see in fiction?

    It's not so implausible. As a child, I played around with the visual effects you could get by repeating simple commands in Logo, and I held down some of the keys long enough that I had to wait several minutes for the buffer to clear. Achieving a similar effect by typing too quickly is logically, if not humanly, possible.

    SG-1 has had far, far worse violations of science. But in their favor, they were either in small, inconsequential matters, or they ended up being fixed. Which is more than I can say for most shows and movies.
    Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
    Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
    Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
    Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
    Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.

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