[EVA] Some stuff

[Robert Day]

Jesse Smith <jdsmith at shell.servtech.com> wrote :
> 
> 1. The stuff that has been called "primordial soup" did not have RNA
> in it, just an assortment of organic molecules.

We don't really know this in the context of Eva, but the statements by 
Ritsuko seem to support this.

> 
> 2. Slime molds aren't prokaryotes.

True.  The previous poster should perhaps have likened Rei to a virus.  
Considering the way she seems to infect so many fans, that may not be so far 
from the truth ~_^.

> 
> 3. This is another example of how Eva just doesn't stand up to
> scientific scutiny.  
> 
> A lot of times Eva will use nifty biological terminology because it
> sounds futuristic or complicated or whatever.  As another example, in
> ep 20 they refer to Units 00 and 02 receiving damage above the
> Hayflict limit, and thus unable to repair themselves.  In real life,
> the Hayflict limit is the number of times a cell can replicate before
> its chromosomes start to unravel, effectively.  There's kinda-sorta a
> connection, but there's no way you could receive physical damage
> "beyond the Hayflict limit".  It doesn't make any sense that way.
> 

Not quite so.  I can think of an easy way to make sense of this.

Suppose we have an entity capable of regenerating its organs rapidly and 
accurately at will.  Let us further suppose that is does this by the normal 
method, cell division, as this is the way all other multicellular organisms 
both grow and regenerate.  Now, given these assumptions, what happens when 
the entity sustains massive physical damage: it attempts to repair itself by 
replicating and differentiating what cells it still possesses.  If the damage 
is great, these cells may have to be replicated many times to repair the 
damage; perhaps so many times that their Hayflict limit is reached.

Ergo, the physical damage is "beyond the Hayflict limit", that is too great 
to be repaired with the number of cell divisions available to the entity.

Rob.


robday at cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Accept the possibility of all things,
and the certainty of none.