#poor science

[jukeboxofjellycat]

[ancientstuff]

For decades, an ancient Egyptian known as Merit Ptah has been celebrated as the first female physician and a role model for women entering medicine. Yet a researcher now says she never existed and is an example of how misconceptions can spread.

This is more historiography than anything else, but it is fascinating nonetheless. Peseshet is the Old Kingdom female doctor, but some don’t believe her title of Overseer of Female Doctors was real. I disagree. And for what it’s worth, this photo is of a 19th Dynasty woman, far removed from the Old Kingdom.

[howdowesolvethis]

[valerie-royeaux]

Rant: The Mass Effect Field Fix-It Headcanon

This is a description of a fix-it headcanon I have about the Mass Effect lore. This will be part of a series of overall plot holes and inconsistencies that almost made me give up on a series I loved for years, and how I solved them. I owe it to my wife for having supported me by not letting me give up on something I loved. She bore through much of the discussions that resulted in these headcanons.

This is also a rant. Because not even the science of the very Mass Effect field holds. And I honestly begrudge the writers who thought giving us such a half-assed writing would be OK. I’ll put a cut here so people who don’t like critical posts don’t have to see it.

The first one is about the Mass Effect field itself.

The Mass Effect Field

Faster than Light Travel

The Mass Effect field doesn't work. Their explanation that reducing the mass of objects would allow them to move in FTL doesn't hold. You know what doesn't have mass? Light. And you know what travels at the speed of light? Yeah. Light. A mass free corridor between two mass relays does absolutely nothing to speed things past the speed of light. And this is not recent news. This is old science. I wonder what went through the head of the writing team to call the very series something that doesn't work.

So, here's the fix: space-time itself (that is, the dimensions in which everything exists) can move faster than light. Spanish physicist Miguel Alcubierre described a machine, the Alcubierre Drive (aka Warp Drive), that works within the constraints of General Relativity. I could warp space-time itself, dilating it behind the ship, and contracting it in front of the ship, and create a bubble of space-time that would move faster than light, and carry the ship with it. It wouldn't create any time dilatation or produce even the sensation of acceleration, because, in relation to the space-time around it, the ship is stationary (kind of like the Tantalus Drive Core, but without making the ship "fall" into an increased gravity space).

In order to produce this warping of space time, exotic matter (that is, anti-matter) would be required. So, I headcanon that the """Mass Effect""" field produces the exotic matter and the energy required to create the warp drive.

Biotics & Mass Manipulation

The practical effect of Mass Effect fields is increasing or reducing the mass of an object. I can plainly accept this within reasonable limits. Increase or decrease mass within, say, a 100x of the original mass, fine. But to make things float? You don't achieve that by reducing mass. You can achieve that by cancelling mass altogether (or least making it tend to 0). Remember Galileo's experiment?

Yeah, different masses, same gravitational acceleration.

Also, gravity produces a pull because it bends space-time, like weighs on a blanket. So, for an effect like Singularity on the surface of the Earth, the mass generated would be such to produce a gravitational pull as strong as Earth's within a 6 feet (2m) radius. This would be the equivalent of creating a mass like that of an asteroid. It would pull Earth towards it, too. And Earth would pull it. It would be like dropping a fucking asteroid from 2m. It would be like a fucking bomb.

So, here's the fix: the Mass Effect field, and biotics specially, interfere with the interaction with the gravitational field. More specifically, it looks like it increases mass, because it makes the effect of the gravitational field in a object stronger. It looks like it reduces mass, because it makes the interaction with the gravitational field weaker. Again, remember that gravity bends space-time itself, so what it is really doing, is creating localized spikes and distortions in space-time through the magic of exotic matter and energy. It "feels" like changing mass or gravity. But that's not what is really going on. So a Singularity would be a "gravitational field cancelling field", and not a mini black-hole that would impact the planet it is created in like a nuke.

I can turn a blind eye to the fact that all this is achieved with electric currents going through eezo nodules in the magnitude of a mere few amperes (amplifiers considered. Otherwise, it would be a few mA. 30 mA is enough to kill an adult man).

There may be flaws on my fixes. But at least, for me, it works to make MASS EFFECT, in its very core, believable.

Rant Over.

[primrose357]

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed, an article about a major study on "gay" marriage that exposes the poor science behind it.  This study was audited by by the journal after the controversy hit the fan.  The highly critical audit concluded that 'Regnerus’s paper should never have been published. (The auditor's) assessment of it, in an interview, was concise: “It’s bullshit,” he said.' (Bolding is mine.) He specifically discusses the failure of the peer review process in the publication process.