writing-with-science

[writing-with-science]

thought Id reblog this here to show how myths/legends can have a scientific basis.

[writing-with-science]

Can you really bite your finger off as easily as a carrot?

No. No the fuck you cant.

okay I hear this one a lot even from science-y people saying that our brain stops us from biting too hard and lemme tell ya, I am an idiot and chomped down as hard as I could on my finger to find out and I Definitely bit harder than a carrot. Still got ten fingers.

however thats just me being stupid so here’s some numbers: a human is capable of producing 520-1,178 newtons worth of force with their mouth, it takes around 200 newtons to go through a raw carrot. there have been studies, like this one testing how much force it takes to sever/crush a finger (mainly for industry purposes like designing car doors) and it takes 1485 newtons to cause a fracture not even to go through the whole thing. obviously it will depend on how sharp a thing is but we can definitely say it takes at least 7 times as much force to go through a finger compared to a carrot, and is generally way over the amount of force the human jaw can produce.

yes there are cases of people biting fingers off but that can probably be attributed to adrenaline and such as there isnt many cases where someone would be biting off a finger while not filled with adrenaline

this is another thing I see people say a lot, like how injecting air into someones toe can kill them.... or other stupid shit like that and it annoys me how widespread it is, so here you go

(also yes I bit my finger before researching it)

[writing-with-science]

nope, not real. coffins are buried under 6 feet of dirt (unless you get buried by some random person in the woods or something) and it is literally impossible to break open any kind of lid with that little space and that much pressure. mythbusters tested it and even when they had a way to get the lid open for the person inside to escape (cause again.... no way to open it. not even if its just a plain ol wood coffin) the dirt came in so fast and completely filled the coffin instantly, making it impossible to ‘dig’ out.

but unless you got a really macabre arch enemy who wants you dead, this aint ever gonna happen so no need to worry

How to escape after being buried alive in a coffin.

It could happen to anyone. People bury a person alive to scare them or to get rid of them. In this situation, rely only on yourself.

Do not waste oxygen. In a classic coffin there’s only enough oxygen for about an hour, maybe two. Inhale deeply, exhale very slowly. Once inhaled - do not swallow, or you will start to hyperventilate. Do not light up lighters or matches, they will waste oxygen. Using a flashlight is allowed. Screaming increases anxiety, which causes increased heartbeat and therefore - waste of oxygen. So don’t scream.

Shake up the lid with your hands. In some cheap low-quality coffins you will be able to even make a hole (with an engagement ring or a belt buckle.)

Cross your arms over your chest, holding onto your shoulders with your hands, and pull the shirt off upward. Tie it in a knot above your head, like so: This will prevent you from suffocating when the dirt falls on your face. 

Kick the lid with your legs. In some cheap coffins the lid is broken or damaged already after being buried, due to the weight of the ground above it. 

As soon as the lid breaks, throw and move the dirt that falls through in the direction of your feet. When it takes up a lot of space, try pressing the ground to the sides of the coffin with your legs and feet. Move around a bit. 

Whatever you do - your main goal is to sit up: dirt will fill up the empty space and move to your advantage, so no matter what - do not stop and try breathing steadily and calmly. 

Get up. Remember: the dirt in the grave is very loose, so battling your way up will be easier than it seems. It’s the other way around during a rainy weather however, since water makes dirt heavy and sticky. 

[writing-with-science]

I have a question - if Earth would get launched outside the solar system and became a rogue planet... would it be possible that humanity (given preparation time) could survive using geothermal energy to get light/heat/crops/water? And if so, for how long could humans survive - would there be a limit, or could it work perpetually?

yurp, could work.

It would take a LOT of preparation, and a good amount of advancement in technology because while geothermal energy is 24/7, it is also very slow to convert to usable forms. Best bet would be to move underground to provide some insulation as the surface without the sun will eventually level out to around -400 F. We can make insulation for that but even the best insulation would still need heating which requires energy. Although, it will take a while to get there. After about a year we’ll reach -100 and will take longer to level out at -400.

Also, unless you struck the perfect balance of plants/animals and had them all in one massive room, you’ll need oxygen. And while during the beginning you’d be fine with getting oxygen from the atmosphere, and given the smaller population you’d have to have to maintain this system you could get oxygen from the atmosphere for a good while, oxygen does have a freezing point of -360ish F. Which means it will eventually become solid and turn into ‘oxygen snow’. This would have to be scooped up and collected.

Though given the technology to achieve all this, I’m guessing there could be an efficient way of turning CO2 into oxygen invented without the use of plants which are fairly slow. Or just set up a fuck ton of algae tubes all over the place. 

Theoretically the earths internal energy would run out in a few billion years, but by that time we could probably invent ways of getting energy from other sources, such as the movement of people/animals or ocean stuff (the ocean would mostly freeze but way way down there would still be liquid water.) Energy would still slowly leak out and there wouldn’t be much of a way to replace it, but it would take a Long ass time. 

So basically, would take a lot of prep and a lot of new inventions and the population would have to be a lot smaller, but it is possible

[writing-with-science]

Writing Traumatic Injuries References

So, pretty frequently writers screw up when they write about injuries. People are clonked over the head, pass out for hours, and wake up with just a headache… Eragon breaks his wrist and it’s just fine within days… Wounds heal with nary a scar, ever…

I’m aiming to fix that.

Here are over 100 links covering just about every facet of traumatic injuries (physical, psychological, long-term), focusing mainly on burns, concussions, fractures, and lacerations. Now you can beat up your characters properly!

General resources

WebMD

Mayo Clinic first aid

Mayo Clinic diseases

First Aid

PubMed: The source for biomedical literature

Diagrams: Veins (towards heart), arteries (away from heart) bones, nervous system, brain

Burns

General overview: Includes degrees

Burn severity: Including how to estimate body area affected

Burn treatment: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees

Smoke inhalation

Smoke inhalation treatment

Chemical burns

Hot tar burns

Sunburns

Incisions and Lacerations

Essentials of skin laceration repair (including stitching techniques)

When to stitch (Journal article–Doctors apparently usually go by experience on this)

More about when to stitch (Simple guide for moms)

Basic wound treatment

Incision vs. laceration: Most of the time (including in medical literature) they’re used synonymously, but eh.

Types of lacerations: Page has links to some particularly graphic images–beware!

How to stop bleeding: 1, 2, 3

Puncture wounds: Including a bit about what sort of wounds are most likely to become infected

More about puncture wounds

Wound assessment: A huge amount of information, including what the color of the flesh indicates, different kinds of things that ooze from a wound, and so much more.

Home treatment of gunshot wound, also basics More about gunshot wounds, including medical procedures

Tourniquet use: Controversy around it, latest research

Location pain chart: Originally intended for tattoo pain, but pretty accurate for cuts

General note: Deeper=more serious. Elevate wounded limb so that gravity draws blood towards heart. Scalp wounds also bleed a lot but tend to be superficial. If it’s dirty, risk infection. If it hits the digestive system and you don’t die immediately, infection’ll probably kill you. Don’t forget the possibility of tetanus! If a wound is positioned such that movement would cause the wound to gape open (i.e. horizontally across the knee) it’s harder to keep it closed and may take longer for it to heal.

Broken bones

Types of fractures

Setting a broken bone when no doctor is available

Healing time of common fractures

Broken wrists

Broken ankles/feet

Fractured vertebrae: Neck (1, 2), back

Types of casts

Splints

Fracture complications

Broken noses

Broken digits: Fingers and toes

General notes: If it’s a compound fracture (bone poking through) good luck fixing it on your own. If the bone is in multiple pieces, surgery is necessary to fix it–probably can’t reduce (“set”) it from the outside. Older people heal more slowly. It’s possible for bones to “heal” crooked and cause long-term problems and joint pain. Consider damage to nearby nerves, muscle, and blood vessels.

Concussions

General overview

Types of concussions 1, 2

Concussion complications

Mild Brain Injuries: The next step up from most severe type of concussion, Grade 3

Post-concussion syndrome

Second impact syndrome: When a second blow delivered before recovering from the initial concussion has catastrophic effects. Apparently rare.

Recovering from a concussion

Symptoms: Scroll about halfway down the page for the most severe symptoms

Whiplash

General notes: If you pass out, even for a few seconds, it’s serious. If you have multiple concussions over a lifetime, they will be progressively more serious. Symptoms can linger for a long time.

Character reaction:

Shock (general)

Physical shock: 1, 2

Fight-or-flight response: 1, 2

Long-term emotional trauma: 1 (Includes symptoms), 2

First aid for emotional trauma

Treatment (drugs)

WebMD painkiller guide

Treatment (herbs)

1, 2, 3, 4

Miscellany

Snake bites: No, you don’t suck the venom out or apply tourniquettes

Frostbite

Frostbite treatment

Severe frostbite treatment

When frostbite sets in: A handy chart for how long your characters have outside at various temperatures and wind speeds before they get frostbitten

First aid myths: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Includes the ones about buttering burns and putting snow on frostbite.

Poisons: Why inducing vomiting is a bad idea

Poisonous plants

Dislocations: Symptoms 1, 2; treatment. General notes: Repeated dislocations of same joint may lead to permanent tissue damage and may cause or be symptomatic of weakened ligaments. Docs recommend against trying to reduce (put back) dislocated joint on your own, though information about how to do it is easily found online.

Muscular strains

Joint sprain

Resuscitation after near-drowning: 1, 2

Current CPR practices: We don’t do mouth-to-mouth anymore.

The DSM IV, for all your mental illness needs.

Electrical shock

Human response to electrical shock: Includes handy-dandy voltage chart

Length of contact needed at different voltages to cause injury

Evaluation protocol for electric shock injury

Neurological complications

Electrical and lightning injury

Cardiac complications

Delayed effects and a good general summary

Acquired savant syndrome: Brain injuries (including a lightning strike) triggering development of amazing artistic and other abilities

Please don’t repost! You can find the original document (also created by me) here.

[writing-with-science]

Writing Advice - On Arrow Wounds

I have a couple pet peeves in fantasy novels, but nothing gets me more riled up than how authors treat arrows. People seem to think that arrows were nuisances rather than deadly weapons, when, no they were one of the most strategically useful weapons in all of history. You could kill people from far away without getting hit yourself, until of course in the later medieval eras, plate armor was produced. Then arrows evolved into bullets that could pierce through armor, and it was all over for both sides. I wanted to give you guys a couple of facts I’ve learned about arrows because they’re a lot cooler than people think.

- Arrowheads usually require surgery, with functioning tools, to remove. This is because of the arrowhead’s shape:

On the left, we see the most painful, and what I argue to be the most deadly, types. See how the bottom of the arrowheads prods out below them? Imagine pulling that backward, the way it came, and pulling the flesh with it. Hence the “tearing flesh” statement. Of course, not all arrowheads are like this, with some with thinner shapes (seen on the right) are designed to puncture armor more effectively. Some of these are from traditional arrows while others are from bolts from crossbows. When writing fantasy, try to be familiar with the potential time period you are referencing the armor from, since that’ll change the types of arrowheads that were used by the enemy, and when one of your characters are wounded from these, it’s a great way to show your immersion when you use the proper arrowhead. With the arrowheads on the far left, removing them simply with your hands is risky because there’s still a high chance that you will still tear the flesh out with it. Having tools that can easier part the flesh out of the way to proud it out is a better option. Doctors were sometimes forced to push arrowheads deeper into the body until it went out the other side since there was more damage done pushing it in than pulling it out.

- Doctor Joseph Howland Bill, a Civil War doctor who wrote a book called “Notes on Arrow Wounds,” gives a comprehensive list on the damage of arrow wounds.

Bill states that arrows “ inflict wounds with a fatality greater than that produced by any other weapons — particularly when surgical assistance cannot be obtained.”

Arrows were designed very well in his day, where the arrowhead would loosen from the shaft when connected to anything wet –*cough* blood *cough* – so if anyone grasped onto the shaft and tried to pull it out, the arrowhead would be left in the body and the doctor would be forced to search for it. I don’t know if this was used in medieval times, but certainly it was used in the 18th century.

He also stated that arrows were sometimes deadlier than bullet wounds, which is a feat since bullets were often made of lead in the 18th century and poisoned a soldier’s bloodstream

The tissue around an arrowhead will not be able to heal and will cause infection if not removed quickly. This would often lead to fatal amputations.

He also states that when lodged in bone – and they often were, hurtling at intense speeds when shot by a 100lb bow – surgeons had to use “great force,” as well as tools, to pry the arrowhead out.

Now for their ability to heal:

- If the arrow went through a limb, they were easier to heal since they only made a small incision. Bill stated he would apply “cold or evaporating lotions” to the wounds and, providing there was no infection, the wound would heal in a mere week. If the wound WAS infected, then he would apply bandages, compresses, and “an early evacuation” of any drainage.

- If the arrow severed an artery, good luck. Doctors, especially in those times, were not able to staunch the bleeding before the patient died from blood loss.

- Arrows also caused severed nerves, broken bones, and fractures. These often weren’t fatal, but they often affected the soldier’s range of motion thereafter.

- Another interesting occurance is when an arrowhead scrapes NEAR a bone, the muscles will contract to such an extend it will bend the arrowhead, making it resemble a fishhook. If this is the case, pulling out the arrowhead would cause even more damage because, as I said, it would tear flesh. Bill had to practice a specific tactic, which you can read at the bottom of this post.

- If the arrow hits the trunk of the person, good luck once again. Bill states that arrowheads are more dangerous than bullets for three main reasons: bloodloss, infection, and emphysema. 

Arrows cut clean slits in someone’s flesh, which provide clearer passage for blood to flow out of.

Arrows usually stay in their targets, which result in infection until a surgeon can successfully remove it.

Emphysema is more of a nuisance than a fatality, but it is caused by irregular breathing from the lungs when struck.

- For this reason, if the arrow hits the LUNGS or any other vital organ, they’re almost always gone. Surgeons cannot staunch the blood at this point, especially on a battlefield, so they often bleed out. As Bill states: “Arrow wounds of the abdomen are generally fatal. An arrow can scarcely pass through the abdomen and fail to open a vessel or wound an intestine.”

Source: 

https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/05/battle-wounds-never-pull-an-arrow-out-of-a-body/

[writing-with-science]

This all seems fairly good but as a general rule unless you don’t have any other choice don’t cauterize something. Cauterization should only happen in cases where someone is losing a dangerous amount of blood and applying pressure isn’t working. 

It used to be thought that cauterization lowers the risk of infection but it actually vastly increases the risk as the resulting burn wound is the perfect place for bacteria to grow. Electrocauterization performed in hospitals is a different story as they are equipped to deal with infections and the sterile environment along with the cauterization being done by currents rather than hot metal makes it a commonly used technique in surgery.

In the field though, cauterization should be used as a very very last resort if nothing else is working. 

Fantasy Guide: Common battle wounds and how to fix them

Arrow wounds: Now if the lung, heart, kidney, other major organ is hit, there may be little to do. The kidney has a back up, so maybe a skilled surgeon could save him, not exactly sure however. If hit by an arrow and not hit dangerously in an organ or artery, we can help. Firstly, DO NOT REMOVE arrow by yanking. Arrow must be worked from the skin by skilled hands. Once arrow is out, wash would with clean water/alchohol/herbal remedies. To heal slow, sew up wound and wrap in bandages. To speed it up, cauterise the wound with fire. It will hurt and patient pay pass out but now the arrow wound can heal faster. This works for crossbow bolts as well. On the gross side, arrows may be smeared with dirt or shit, so sepsis is a danger. This is how the great Richard the Lionheart died. Sometimes the mighty lion is killed by a shit arrow. But hey, shit happens. Arrow wounds take a couple of weeks to heal.

Sword slashes: if shallow, wash and bind up. May require stitches. If deeper, repeat process with more stitches and more bandages. Even if shallow, the cut must be washed using alcohol or clean water. May take a few days to weeks to heal depending on wound depth and severity.

Stab wound: Again don’t remove knife or object. If already removed, wash would and sew it up. You may need to cauterise. If guts, organs, brain, is falling out, there is nothing to do. This may take a couple of weeks to months to heal depending on wound.

Broken Bones: A break must be splinted with a board of wood and bandages. Slings can support arms and wrists. If your character breaks a leg, it may be worse. Breaks don’t heal great without modern medicine. Your character may have a limp or leg pain. In you’re are living in a hot climate, you’re pretty much fucked because infection sets in fast. These may take months to heal.

For @maslovianwench

[writing-with-science]

Zombies, but science.

I’ve been struggling to come up with things to post here but finally had an idea, zombies! but like... science ones.

Okay so first of all, we got to acknowledge that coming back from the dead is never gonna happen. So basically, this is going to be a disease spread through contact with blood (biting..) that just happens to really resemble what we like to think of as classic zombies. 

As far as method of exposure goes, obviously it has to be the infected person biting you as that’s how its commonly spread. Now a lot of diseases can be spread by biting. Human bites are actually really nasty and 10-15 percent of them become infected. Usually this is with bacteria and isn’t really a disease, but they have been shown to spread hepatitis B, hepatitis C, herpes simplex virus (HSV), syphilis, tuberculosis, actinomycosis, and tetanus. Herpes would actually be a good starting point as it has neurovirulence, which means it can infect nerve tissue. This would have to be a virus in order to screw up the nervous system this much, and would be much harder to cure as they can mutate and evolve way faster than bacteria. 

Encephalitis is a condition that can be caused by many things, but in poorer countries it is often caused by herpes. It is a swelling of the brain which causes fever, headaches, vomiting, and lethargy and in extreme cases, hallucinations, seizures, coma, irritability, and sensitivity to light. 

If this was made worse, it could make people essentially unresponsive to normal language and reason. Doesn’t actually happen irl but we can imagine that if it infected the brain in the right way it could lead to that

This already is looking like a mild version of what we’d need as herpes causes both sores that are unsightly to say the least and can cause encephalitis which affects the brain. 

However, herpes sores are far from what you think of when you think of zombies. I think what would be more along the lines of what we think of (rotting flesh etc) would be flesh eating bacteria. (wouldn’t recommend google image-ing that unless you have a strong stomach) Flesh eating bacteria causes tissue death which results in the tissue becoming gangrenous and essentially rotting. 

‘But you said it had to be a virus, not a bacteria!’ Yes, I did say that didn’t I. Well, the thing about flesh eating bacteria is that the name is Very misleading. It does not at all eat flesh. What it does do is release toxins, specifically NADase and Streptolysin O which are the things that cause the damage, not necessarily the bacteria itself. 

Now how viruses sometimes work (not all do this) is that they will hijack a cells genome and insert their own DNA, usually to use the cell to make more of the virus. There are some examples though of viruses that contain genes for the production of toxins, and once they encode them in the cell, those toxins start getting produced. For instance the ebola virus produces a protein called delta peptide which makes cell membranes permeable, and generally fucks things up. This is also referred to as ebola toxin.

So, it is probably feasible to say that a virus could product the two toxins made by flesh eating bacteria. Wouldn’t be the smartest evolutionary move as the cells would probably die before they could produce more of the virus but evolution is sometimes stupid so why not.

So so far, we have death of tissues, infection from bites, and loss of some cognitive functions. Last things would be inability to feel pain and desire to go after people.

Inability to feel pain is a hard one. Some people are born with a genetic mutation that results in this but given its a genetic mutation, you kinda have to be born with it, or else the virus has to infect Every Cell In Your Body which would kill you before it was able to do that. There was a study done on patients with MS that showed that right dorsolateral prefrontal lesions caused hypoalgesia, ie decreased pain sensitivity. Not super sure how the virus could target that area of the brain in particular but if its fucking up the whole brain its going to fuck up that area as well so why not.

Lastly is the desire to bite others. Diseases cant really take control of the brain and make people bite others to infect them. I guess the only solution here would be for them to get super hungry and kinda just register anything moving as food? At that point the virus would have to basically destroy a good amount of the brain while still keeping them alive so it would be hard to achieve, but then again, we’re talking about zombies so its not gonna be 100% realistic.

SO. We have our virus. It wouldn't ‘turn’ people immediately and would probably take a good few days but after that we would have people who are seeing hallucinations, are very confused, want food but don’t know how to get it, appear to be ‘rotting’, don’t feel pain (or at least as much pain as normal), and can infect you through bites or generally contact with blood. also this would probably kill the host after a while but its feasible they could stay alive for a good while.

I think thats about as close as we’re going to get. 

[writing-with-science]

Would it be possible for a disease to infect the entire population of Earth?

Probably not but you could get pretty damn close.  

If a disease starts spreading that’s dangerous, the governments of different countries and such really start amping things up such as quarantining everyone who has the disease and shutting down flights and ships and all. Also, scientists and doctors would quickly start wearing hazmat suits and such to protect themselves if they are treating people with it or studying it. And that stuff is just protocol, not really even science related lol. 

In order for this to happen, you would need the virus (it would have to be a virus and not bacteria as antibiotics are a thing and viruses can evolve a lot quicker and are much harder to find cures for) to not kill its host for a good while, if it kills people too quickly they’ll be dead before they can spread it to others, and also be able to survive outside of the body. The flu virus for instance spreads like a motherfucker because it isn’t really fatal (unless someone has for instance a compromised immune system) so it will stay with someone for ages, and it can survive on surfaces like door handles and stuff for up to 24 hours. 

Now the thing is, if this disease is fatal and people start dying, those who have access to hazmat suits and quarantine equipment will hole up in safe areas until everyones dead (not in the whole world just in their area), then the virus will only be able to last a day or so, maybe longer in dead bodies, and after that they would be fine to come out. If it isn’t fatal its more likely it will infect more people, but with enough time we will find a cure for it so it wouldn’t really matter if everyone got it. 

Best way for something to spread rapidly and get the most amount of people would to have it have these traits:

1) Airborne. other pathogens are much harder to spread as they require often skin to skin contact, contact with bodily fluids, or in the case of something like the HIV virus, contact with only certain bodily fluids in certain circumstances. Again, another reason why the flu spreads like a motherfucker.  

2) Latency. Latency is the ability of a virus to lay dormant and not show any symptoms until much later, way after infection. People can still spread it when its in its latent phase but it will be impossible to know that they have it without blood tests and stuff. An example of this would be herpes as it will have latent periods where people can spread it but not show symptoms. HIV spread so rapidly in the 80s partly because of its latency. and also cause reagan’s an asshole. but that doesn’t rly apply to most other diseases

3) Zoonotic. Zoonotic simply means that it can infect both humans and animals (not all animals, usually there will be a group). Staying away from humans is one thing, staying away from wild/domestic animals is harder and its harder to quarantine and treat as it will have more chances to mutate in animals then go back to humans which makes finding a cure difficult. Things spread by mosquitos classify as zoonotic and those are practically impossible to eradicate.

Then like I said, would have to be able to survive outside the body for a good while and probably in all sorts of conditions as well (like cold and heat). Another thing that could help is to have it infect the brain. Sometimes, herpes can reach the brain which gives you encephalitis. In extreme cases people will have hallucinations and confusion and such. It would be much harder to get them to go places or stay away from others if they are experiencing something like that.

[writing-with-science]

Hello KKC fandom, I need your help… 

I’m writing my bachelor’s degree on believable creature design (as in, for a live action film with photorealism), and the practical part will be to design the Draccus from Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. Because I love the books very much and there isn’t all that much art featuring the draccus yet :D (so my professors couldn’t really say that much against it, hehehe)

Now, my problem is this: I’ve been staring at/studying/drawing reptiles for the past few weeks. So now I need to figure out how to put that lizard-knowledge into something that could resemble the draccus (as in, something people reading the books would like?) Right now I honestly don’t really remember what I imagined it to look like in the beginning, when I first read the book…. 

So now you come in: Which of the head/body forms come closest to what the draccus looks like in your head? Any other ideas? 

I’m grateful for any and every feedback (even as I’m deeply afraid of it, haha), so please help? :’) 

Some other points / descriptions in the books / thoughts I had:

it’s a black, massive lizard, with a wedge-like head

6 feet high, 15 feet long. That doesn’t work for lizard anatomy (which is flat but LONG), so I’ll keep the height and ignore the length (there’s a very cute fan art here of what that would look like XD). But that’s also why the tail is this short. Should I make it longer? Another reason is that it doesn’t lose that much body warmth if it’s shorter (since it doesn’t live in tropical climate)

I will make it wide and massive, this silhouette excercise is just so I can figure out where to place the bones/muscles in my next step

it eats trees/plants, big blunt teeth (which are obviously hidden rn)

it can breathe fire. A thought @madmoonink had: Maybe it stores the gas needed for the fire in a cheek pouch, which would fit nicely with a head similar to that of a green iguana? 

the legs go to the sides and are pretty massive, too

I will add creative scales/horns/etc later on. Because I like them and why not

The komodo dragon head probably doesn’t really fit all that well since that one eats meat but it’s the closest in the weight class of the draccus (draccus weighs ~5 tonnes though…..) Body form is mostly inspired by komodo dragons because their legs go to the sides, too, and they has mean claws, which the draccus does as well. 

its scales are about palm size and made out of organic iron for the most part (I have some great ideas for those but they’ll have to wait until later)

Current opinions seem to favour the Iguana-like heads with the cheek pouches and also No 13, and body B (and some also G) because then it looks more massive :)

Thank you in advance for your help! 

I know that I’ll never satisfy everyone but I’d like to create something that works for more people than just me :) In the end, form follows function so I’ll pay more attention to the believabiltiy, to make something that works. But since the books focus a lot on that, too, I have a great basis :D

I’m tagging a few kkc blogs, I hope you’re ok with this :’D Just trying to get the word out there? Aaahhhhhhhhhh

@random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot @kvothbloodless​ @the-name-ofthe-wind @ambrosecansuckmyass @incorrectkingkillerquotes @the-wise-mans-fear @druggeddraccus 

[writing-with-science]

thought I'd reblog here to clear up a misconception

how to design a family where each member looks unique yet still similar enough to be related

how to not

[writing-with-science]

good explanation!

Hey, I have a question about an idea we came up with a friend for her sci-fi novel. Could an interplanetary hive-mind that thinks in all its drones at once be explained by quantum entaglement? ... Meaning that particles of brain of every drone are entangled with each other, so they all think exact same thing at once, without having to be constrained by lightspeed, allowing for an interplanetary or even intergalactic hivemind. But is that theoretically possible?

quantum entanglement is weird and we dont really know the full rules surrounding it. Really all I could find about this was how people have managed to entangle multiple thousands of particles together and to do that, they have to supercool them until they become a fairly unknown form of matter called bosen-einstein condensate where they become so cold that they have no free energy to move around so they clump together and form something thats acts like a single atom. Then, these groups can be split into multiple groups (using lasers) that will be entangled.

This seems to be the only way we know how to get a bunch of atoms to be entangled. Some things like photons and electrons and such can be entangled naturally but I cant find anything about naturally entangled atoms. So I feel like yes, it could be possible, but the problem would be actually Starting it so to speak

[writing-with-science]

yes that is a good point^ given that entangled particles have to either be made at the exact same time, or all have to be together while they are cooled, there would definitely be no room for growth of this mind. It would probably be more realistic to use the particles to communicate rather than actually have a mind made out of entangled particles? Like walkie talkies lol. It would take a lot of Weird Stuff to make a mind out of them

Hey, I have a question about an idea we came up with a friend for her sci-fi novel. Could an interplanetary hive-mind that thinks in all its drones at once be explained by quantum entaglement? ... Meaning that particles of brain of every drone are entangled with each other, so they all think exact same thing at once, without having to be constrained by lightspeed, allowing for an interplanetary or even intergalactic hivemind. But is that theoretically possible?

quantum entanglement is weird and we dont really know the full rules surrounding it. Really all I could find about this was how people have managed to entangle multiple thousands of particles together and to do that, they have to supercool them until they become a fairly unknown form of matter called bosen-einstein condensate where they become so cold that they have no free energy to move around so they clump together and form something thats acts like a single atom. Then, these groups can be split into multiple groups (using lasers) that will be entangled.

This seems to be the only way we know how to get a bunch of atoms to be entangled. Some things like photons and electrons and such can be entangled naturally but I cant find anything about naturally entangled atoms. So I feel like yes, it could be possible, but the problem would be actually Starting it so to speak

[writing-with-science]

what's the most scientifically stupid movie of all time?

that is a hard question to answer. Generally, I dont really watch movies that have bad science because they annoy me so much lmao. But, I have seen the movie 2012 and oh BOY is that bad. the entire reasoning behind the planet going to shit is that neutrinos are heating earths core because of solar flares??? like, if a solar flare did that then we would have a lot more problems before it started Heating The Fucking Core Up. Disaster movies in general tend to be very uh, loose with their science (as in they dont follow the laws of physics at ALL)

Also I havent seen it but I went to a talk by neil degrasse tyson about science in movies and he said armageddon was pretty Rough. I forget the reasons but one I do remember is they showed a bunch of shrapnel or something hitting earth and one bit managed to hit the empire state building at like, a 30 degree angle to the east or w/ever while another bit hit the statue of liberty at again, a 30 degree angle, but this time from the west so like.... where tf are they coming from. (that wasnt exactly where they hit as I forget but it was something along those lines)

anyways, those are the only two extremely bad ones I can think of off the top of my head. There are a lot of others but I haven’t seen many lol

[writing-with-science]

Hey, I have a question about an idea we came up with a friend for her sci-fi novel. Could an interplanetary hive-mind that thinks in all its drones at once be explained by quantum entaglement? ... Meaning that particles of brain of every drone are entangled with each other, so they all think exact same thing at once, without having to be constrained by lightspeed, allowing for an interplanetary or even intergalactic hivemind. But is that theoretically possible?

quantum entanglement is weird and we dont really know the full rules surrounding it. Really all I could find about this was how people have managed to entangle multiple thousands of particles together and to do that, they have to supercool them until they become a fairly unknown form of matter called bosen-einstein condensate where they become so cold that they have no free energy to move around so they clump together and form something thats acts like a single atom. Then, these groups can be split into multiple groups (using lasers) that will be entangled.

This seems to be the only way we know how to get a bunch of atoms to be entangled. Some things like photons and electrons and such can be entangled naturally but I cant find anything about naturally entangled atoms. So I feel like yes, it could be possible, but the problem would be actually Starting it so to speak

[writing-with-science]

Things Disaster Movies Always Get Wrong

We all love disaster movies! The cool special effects, the underdog stories, the underlying themes of hope. As cool as they are, they do tend to use misconceptions about natural disasters. This normally wouldn’t be an issue since Hollywood will always embellish but it’s important to know the true science behind these phenomena should you ever encounter them.

1) Pyroclastic flows will kill you almost instantly, you cannot survive a direct hit

Movies guilty of this: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Dante’s Peak

Pyroclastic flows exceed 100km/h and reach temperatures over 1,000°C. You definitely cannot outrun it in either car or on foot. The boiling hot toxic gas, ash, and lava in the flow will kill you instantly and pummel your smoking corpse into oblivion. Sorry, Chris Pratt.

2) Tsunamis do not crest, they are more like a sudden flood than a wave

Movies guilty of this: Literally any movie with a tsunami ever

Tsunamis are massive and sudden floods caused by the displacement of ocean water due to earthquakes or massive landslides. They’re not tidal waves and thus do not crest. It’s poetic, but inaccurate.

3) Hail is always spherical and doesn’t fall in big cinder blocks of ice

Movies guilty of this: The Day After Tomorrow

Hail can get quite large and can definitely be fatal, but they are exclusively spherical. Hail is formed by water droplets cycling through the updrafts of a thunderstorm and the rotational movements make the resulting hail a ball.

Looks more like a stage hand is throwing the remains of an ice swan than a hail storm

4) You cannot freeze instantaneously. Not even in space.

Movies guilty of this: The Day After Tomorrow, Geostorm, The Cloverfield Paradox, Sunshine

Space, and certain places on Earth, can get exceedingly cold. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was −89.2 °C. That’s damn cold. But you still wouldn’t flash freeze into a peoplesicle within mere seconds. Intense cold can kill you quickly if you’re completely exposed but it would still take time before your body would be a thoroughly frozen chunk of meat. As for space, it can get quite cold, but it’s also an empty vacuum. There’s nothing around you but empty void, which means there’s also nothing to transfer your body heat away from you. Without convection, your body heat would be lost via radiation and that can take a long time.

5) Earthquakes over 10 on the Richter scale are physically impossible on Earth.

Movies guilty of this: 10.5

You would need a massive fault line to carry that sort of energy. Something on the scale of going through the earth’s core. Which does not exist . Even then, if such an earthquake would occur, the planet would literally explode.A 15 magnitude earthquake would release energy on the magnitude of 1x10^32 joules. That, coincidentally, is the same amount of energy contained in the gravitational binding of the Earth. Simply put, anything greater than 9.9 on the Richter scale is impossible and would cause the Earth to explode.

6) California will and can not sink into the Pacific like a big slab, and it can’t break away from the rest of the US.

Movies guilty of this: 2012, 10.5

Most movies cite the San Andreas fault as the reason for the cleavage, but even this isn’t enough. The San Andreas fault is a transform fault, meaning the North American plate and the Pacific Plate are slowly horizontally grinding past each other, not pushing away. As California is a part of the greater Pacific plate, it literally could not snap free from it to “sink into the sea”. Because if the entire tectonic plate underneath California where to flip over and sink then the entire ocean would drain away into the mantle.

7) You can’t sink in lava. You also can’t stand near it without being burned.

Movies guilty of this: Volcano, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Lava is molten rock, and is incredibly dense. In fact, it’s three times as dense as humans, who are mostly water. If you were to cannonball into a lava pit, you would dip in a bit before bouncing to the top and floating. You would also burn up and die super quickly. Because fresh lava can exceed 1,200°C! Even standing a couple feet away from a lava flow, you would feel the intense heat radiation. You would lose your eyebrows and probably the top layer of your skin if you stood too close. There’s a reason why volcanologists wear protective suits. Sam and Frodo would have been roasted.

[writing-with-science]

yeah, if you send in a concrete ask I can calculate, I will absolutely calculate it. Most of the space/astrophysics questions are gonna get this treatment lol

Would inhabitants and objects living on a planet orbiting a binary consisting of an A class blue giant and a young red dwarf always have a double shadow? Or would the brighter light from the blue star outshine the red and result in a single shadow?

Be warned, if you ask me a physics/chemistry question that requires calculations, I will absolutely do them and give you a full novel as an answer. 

first of all, there are multiple types of orbits around binary systems, S shape and P shape

In binary systems the two stars can be as close as the earth and the sun or as far as hundreds of times that distance. So it really depends, with S types there is a good chance the other star would only be visible at night if the stars are far, but with P types it really changes, and it all depends on how big the stars are, how far apart they are, how luminous, all sorts of stuff. 

Ready for an assload of equations kids?? this is gonna get long. 

OKAY. so, first of all you need to figure out the luminosity of both stars. Now there is an equation for that but I found a handy dandy little star luminosity calculator online that uses the spectral type (fancy word for what kinda star) and calculates it for you. However, you will need to know how big your star is, like the exact radius. (blue giants are 5-10 times the radius of the sun, and red dwarfs are around .08 to .5 times the radius of the sun) handily, this calculator uses stellar radius, where 1=the radius of the sun. 

here is the calculator, and you’ll need flash for it

anyways it looks like this:

this would be a fairly average red dwarf, their spectral class is M and I set the radius within the range.

here’s a blue giant:

so you can see under the SI units, it says what the L is, which is luminosity, in J/s which is watts (a watt is a joule per second)

now, we have another equation, which is for the absolute bolometric magnitude of the star. The absolute bolometric magnitude (which is complex to explain) can then be converted to absolute visual magnitude, which is the measure of luminosity of a star at a distance of 10 parsecs (32.2 light years). Anyways, we first need to convert to bolometric magnitude using this equation

and I will find the Mbol of both my examples so if you dont want to go through the hassle of 7000 eqs you dont.

Blue giant Mbol = -4.0476

Then to convert it to Mv, you use BC=Mbol-Mv where BC is a correction constant based on the stars class, in this case O3 so its -4.2 (you can find tables online) so

blue giant Mv = 0.152

then do the same thing for the red dwarf

Red dwarf Mbol = 16.2262

Red dwarf Mv = 14.906

but we aren’t done there! we now need to convert this, to apparent magnitude, which is essentially what the star looks like at the distance it’s at, so if a star is closer to you the apparent magnitude will be bigger. For that we use this equation:

HOWEVER. we dont know the distances. so we gotta get those. but luckily that isnt too hard as its based off luminosity again which we already calculated :D the habitable zone of stars is given by this:

where L is the absolute luminosity (L/Lo), ri is the inner radius of the habitable zone and ro is the outer radius. This is in astronomical units but I will covert to parsecs as that’s what we’re using as a distance unit (star wars woot!)

the habitable zone of the blue giant is from 0.00026630816 parsecs to 0.0003836645788 parsecs. so a band 0.000117356 parsecs thick

and the habitable zone of the red dwarf is 2.46770164e-8 parsecs to 3.55795549127e-8 parsecs. so a band 1.090253e-8 parsecs thick

now its fairly obvious that the habitable zones of both these stars are incredibly different. Given the size difference, it’s likely that how the stars orbit looks something like this then the planet would orbit around both. 

here is a drawing of the stars and their zones, the zones are not to scale but the stars roughly are

now with this you can probably have a sort of hourglass shaped orbit (that kind of orbit is unstable but its hard to make any orbit stable with such a size difference, so lets just take some artistic liberty w that one.) anyways lets say the outer border of the red dwarf habitable zone lines up with the outer of the blue giant. Another possibility is to use this diagram but have the planet orbit the red dwarf only, then have the dwarf orbit the blue giant. Either way, I’ll look into the farthest the planet can get from the blue giant, by having the red dwarf between them.

so we double the outer of the red dwarf and add the outer of the blue giant, to get 0.0003837357379 parsecs and that’s the distance from the blue giant. Okay. so then we plug that into the apparent magnitude eq for the blue giant and just the outer edge number into it for the red dwarf. so,

red dwarf: -18.543

blue giant: -3.356

and here is a scale for apparent magnitudes

So the more negative, the brighter. And obviously, the red dwarf is more negative, so while the planet is in that position, you’re going to definitely see the light more than the blue giant. In fact, you wouldnt be able to see the blue giant. I am guessing there is a sweet spot in the hourglass orbit where you would have two shadows for a while, but once youre out of it youre going to have one either from the blue giant or the red dwarf. 

If you go with an S shape orbit, just around the red dwarf, and you are on the outer edge of both (between the two planets), the apparent magnitudes are going to be very similar as the diagram is misleading, the habitable ring for the red dwarf is so small that adding it onto the habitable ring of the blue giant doesnt really even affect the brightness of it at all. But in this case, given you’re only orbiting the red dwarf, you wont ever see the blue giant except at night where it would be a bright star. You could move the red dwarf closer and keep the S shape, in that case, there is probably a spot in which you’ll always have two shadows so long as the suns are up, because the blue giant is so big that orbiting around the red dwarf doesn’t really affect the apparent magnitude of it at all. 

TL;DR if its a P orbit it depends on the time of year, if its an S orbit its up to you.