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  1. - Top - End - #31
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Physics of course.
    -Lasers? Check.
    -Speed of light? Check.
    -Time travel/relativity? Check.
    -Gravity? Check.
    -Magnetism? Check.
    -Lighting? Electrons, check.
    -Explosions? Fission and Fusion, check.
    -Mutations? See above.
    -Chemistry and biology? It's all atom reactions, check.
    -Nanoscale? Check.
    -Galatic scale? Check.
    Last edited by deuterio12; 2019-04-15 at 09:56 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Of Mantas View Post
    "You know, Durkon, I built this planet up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was a snarl. All the other gods said we were daft to build a planet over a snarl, but I built it all the same, just to show then. It got eaten by the snarl...

    ...so we built a five millionth, three hundreth, twenty first one. That one burned down, fell over, then got eaten by the snarl, but the five millionth, three hundreth, and twenty second one stayed up! Or at least, it has been until now."

  2. - Top - End - #32
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by deuterio12 View Post
    Physics of course.

    -Chemistry and biology? It's all atom reactions, check.
    Physicists: "Chemistry and biology are nothing but applied physics."

    Physicists when asked a chemistry or biology question: "I don't know, I'm a physicists!"
    Last edited by Peelee; 2019-04-15 at 10:08 AM.
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  3. - Top - End - #33
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Physicists: "Chemistry and biology are nothing but applied physics."

    Physicists when asked a chemistry or biology question: "I don't know, I'm a physicists!"
    Yeah, as a physicist myself, this is the biggest lie my colleagues tell themselves. Don't get me wrong, many of us know about a wide range of things, including basic chemistry and biology. But those looking down on chemists and biologists because 'physics can explain it all' are hell annoying.
    "What's done is done."

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  4. - Top - End - #34
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    I would say Mechatronics, not just because it sounds cools (it has "Mecha" right in the name), but I imagine an army of robots would be instrumental in any good Mad-scientist plan.

  5. - Top - End - #35
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Ornithology.

    Fly, my dark minions!
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  6. - Top - End - #36
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lvl 2 Expert View Post
    Fly, my dark minions!
    Just as well cassowaries don't fly. (You are up on the latest exploits of Florida Man?)

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidSh View Post
    Just as well cassowaries don't fly. (You are up on the latest exploits of Florida Man?)
    Wherever there's a cassowary kill or an emu war, an evil ornithologist isn't far behind.
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  8. - Top - End - #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kato View Post
    Yeah, as a physicist myself, this is the biggest lie my colleagues tell themselves. Don't get me wrong, many of us know about a wide range of things, including basic chemistry and biology. But those looking down on chemists and biologists because 'physics can explain it all' are hell annoying.
    Because they're true. Like this event that really happened:

    biologists and chemists when asked how the tallest trees can carry water from the roots to the upper leaves: "We don't know!"

    physicists when asked when asked how the tallest trees can carry water from the roots to the upper leaves: "Let me fully apply fluid mechanics to the diameter of tree veins and taking in account the viscosity of water to the problem and [long explanation that would fit multiple pages] the matter is explained".
    And nowadays biologists and chemists heavily rely in all sorts of fancy machinery that's all physics based. Microscopes? TEM? SEM? Spectrum analyzis? Smaller and faster computers to run simulations better and proccess all the data? Physicists say "you're welcome".

    Mind you chemists and biologists still have their good points, it's important to keep specialists with different points of view around, but over the last century they've been relying more and more in physicists.
    Last edited by deuterio12; 2019-04-15 at 05:54 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Of Mantas View Post
    "You know, Durkon, I built this planet up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was a snarl. All the other gods said we were daft to build a planet over a snarl, but I built it all the same, just to show then. It got eaten by the snarl...

    ...so we built a five millionth, three hundreth, twenty first one. That one burned down, fell over, then got eaten by the snarl, but the five millionth, three hundreth, and twenty second one stayed up! Or at least, it has been until now."

  9. - Top - End - #39
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Where do I start?
    I'm not exactly sure if you're just talking about a random thing you witnessed if you say 'a thing that really happened' or if you are just turning a long lasting research subject into something physics supposedly solved with a handwave.
    Or the fact that there are clearly no stories of other scientists figuring things out without involving physicists, so your example does not invalidate the work in other fields?
    Or the work that chemists contribute to cmos and other parts of modern IT done by not physicists? Because most of us could totally do all that without any help.

    Just so we don't get misunderstand each other, I in no way mean to put physicists down. But we could spend all day listing stuff one discipline did and not another and which is the best / most important science, or we could acknowledge all are important and equally valuable.
    "What's done is done."

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by deuterio12 View Post
    Because they're true. Like this event that really happened:



    And nowadays biologists and chemists heavily rely in all sorts of fancy machinery that's all physics based. Microscopes? TEM? SEM? Spectrum analyzis? Smaller and faster computers to run simulations better and proccess all the data? Physicists say "you're welcome".

    Mind you chemists and biologists still have their good points, it's important to keep specialists with different points of view around, but over the last century they've been relying more and more in physicists.
    Look, nobody's saying that physics isn't a base that chemistry and biology build off. We're just saying, for example, ain't no physicist came up with the cure for polio, and as much as Wolfgang Pauli helped advance physics, Jonas Salk would have carried on just fine without him.

    Physicists are great. It's a really fun, interesting field. Overbearing physicists who pretend like they are God's gift to science are no better than doctors with God complexes. Nobody likes them, except maybe other physicists.
    Last edited by Peelee; 2019-04-15 at 10:12 PM. Reason: Dunno why I said Linus.
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  11. - Top - End - #41
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    A physicist can do physicist-chemistry and answer physicist-chemistry questions, which is different than chemist-chemistry and answering chemist-chemistry questions.

    Chemist-chemistry: given a set of reagents, can I predict whether they would exhibit autocatalysis, and under what conditions?
    Physicist-chemistry: is autocatalysis inevitable in all chemical systems containing a sufficient diversity of starting materials (e.g. Kauffman's model of autocatalytic sets)?

    Another example, perhaps a bit more famous, is the discussion of chirality in life on earth. There's a lot of action in chemistry circles trying to find high-yield reaction pathways that look vaguely plausible in origins of life conditions which strongly favor a chiral output compared to racemic. The justification for this is something along the lines of 'the homochirality of life on Earth is surprising, and therefore requires a specific explanation'.

    On the other hand, from a physics point of view, L and R chirality are symmetric in the underlying physics, but can break that symmetry through interactions (e.g. LL and RR can be different than LR and RL). Therefore, a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition is obviously to be expected, any small external factor will get amplified to bias the chirality that is eventually chosen, and there's no point getting overly excited about it.

    The two approaches often have almost nothing to say to each-other's questions. A physicist can write down a single-line model that predicts that the racemic state should be unstable for replicating life (including autocatalysis). It will satisfy not one of the chemists studying homochirality; nor will an elaborate piece of lab chemistry that produces R with 97% yield satisfy one of the physicists.
    Last edited by NichG; 2019-04-15 at 09:59 PM.

  12. - Top - End - #42
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by deuterio12 View Post
    And nowadays biologists and chemists heavily rely in all sorts of fancy machinery that's all physics based. Microscopes? TEM? SEM? Spectrum analyzis? Smaller and faster computers to run simulations better and proccess all the data? Physicists say "you're welcome".

    Mind you chemists and biologists still have their good points, it's important to keep specialists with different points of view around, but over the last century they've been relying more and more in physicists.
    Meanwhile physicists use all sorts of stuff derived from materials discovered and synthesized by chemists, starting with every single plastic. The fields are all interlinked, and the last century has seen huge developments in chemistry and biology just as much as in physics.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by NichG View Post
    A physicist can do physicist-chemistry and answer physicist-chemistry questions, which is different than chemist-chemistry and answering chemist-chemistry questions.
    And different again to biologist-chemistry which is so complex, it's starting to morph into its own discipline of biochemistry.

    A quick rule of thumb to tell the difference is to utter the phrase 'I have this organic chemistry question...'; if they scream and run away, they're a physicist or chemist.

  14. - Top - End - #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brother Oni View Post
    And different again to biologist-chemistry which is so complex, it's starting to morph into its own discipline of biochemistry.

    A quick rule of thumb to tell the difference is to utter the phrase 'I have this organic chemistry question...'; if they scream and run away, they're a physicist or chemist.
    We're trying to rebrand that as 'messy chemistry', otherwise known as 'discard the 200 highest abundance peaks in the mass spec and look at the shape of the distribution of crud living close to the noise floor'.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Brother Oni View Post
    And different again to biologist-chemistry which is so complex, it's starting to morph into its own discipline of biochemistry.

    A quick rule of thumb to tell the difference is to utter the phrase 'I have this organic chemistry question...'; if they scream and run away, they're a physicist or chemist.
    Organic chemistry was one of the most useful classes I ever took - it taught me that I didn't want to study chemistry.
    Last edited by Peelee; 2019-04-16 at 09:26 AM.
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Organic and inorganic chemistry are almost two entirely different disciplines in a lot of ways.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
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  17. - Top - End - #47
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Knaight View Post
    Organic and inorganic chemistry are almost two entirely different disciplines in a lot of ways.
    That's an interesting way to say "fewer hexagons."
    Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.

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  18. - Top - End - #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    That's an interesting way to say "fewer hexagons."
    Different hexagons, anyways. Bravais lattices for inorganic crystals come to mind.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
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  19. - Top - End - #49
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    How about have him get his doctorate in Physical Education? I mean are you going to be afraid of the pencil neck who can barely throw the switch for his experiment? Or the big hulking guy who can bench 600lbs. Create a monster? I AM the monster.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by JDMSJR View Post
    How about have him get his doctorate in Physical Education? I mean are you going to be afraid of the pencil neck who can barely throw the switch for his experiment? Or the big hulking guy who can bench 600lbs. Create a monster? I AM the monster.
    Can the pencil neck pull a trigger? Because bullets don't care how much you bench.

    Besides, what mad science would that dude do anyway? Punch his way into a lab and steal their work?
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Can the pencil neck pull a trigger? Because bullets don't care how much you bench.

    Besides, what mad science would that dude do anyway? Punch his way into a lab and steal their work?
    I think you're straw manning a bit with the "Punch his way into a lab and steal their work?"

    There have been some overlords and mad science types who are in fairly close to peak human condition. Like some versions of Lex Luthor, for example.
    Quote Originally Posted by Harnel View Post
    where is the atropal? and does it have a listed LA?

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    He would do what ever mad science he wanted. I mean they give him a new batch of test subjects class every semester. The possibilities are endless.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by gomipile View Post
    I think you're straw manning a bit with the "Punch his way into a lab and steal their work?"
    We have three pieces of knowledge on this "scientist." He has a doctorate in Physical Education, and he can bench 600 lbs. I'm not strawmanning so much as I'm throwing out a possibility based on what little we know. Also, "he" is the third thing, in case you missed it.
    Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by JDMSJR View Post
    How about have him get his doctorate in Physical Education? I mean are you going to be afraid of the pencil neck who can barely throw the switch for his experiment? Or the big hulking guy who can bench 600lbs. Create a monster? I AM the monster.
    It's the ideal for someone who fights other mad scientists.
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    No, that's the Jurassic Park guys you're thinking off there.

    Because all their victims just stand there and go "That's so cool".

    Or "Your deinonychus is inaccurate!", either one works...
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by JDMSJR View Post
    How about have him get his doctorate in Physical Education? I mean are you going to be afraid of the pencil neck who can barely throw the switch for his experiment? Or the big hulking guy who can bench 600lbs. Create a monster? I AM the monster.
    Isn’t turning themselves into a monster what half the mad scientist end up doing anyway?
    Quote Originally Posted by someone they all said was mad
    Why yes, I will test my theories on myself.
    Last edited by Fyraltari; 2019-04-17 at 02:50 AM.

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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by someone they all said was mad
    Why yes, I will test my theories on myself.
    It worked for Jonas Salk.
    Last edited by Peelee; 2019-04-17 at 07:30 AM.
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    Isn’t turning themselves into a monster what half the mad scientist end up doing anyway?
    Hey, if I develop a super soldier serum I'm sure not going to waste it on some meat head soldier! (after the successful primate tests of course)
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Kato View Post
    Hey, if I develop a super soldier serum I'm sure not going to waste it on some meat head soldier! (after the successful primate tests of course)
    That's why you pick a non-meat head soldier.
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    Default Re: What's the best degree path for a potential mad scientist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    That's why you pick a non-meat head soldier.
    She already has her comic book title: The Amazing Grace!
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