#science10

Welcome readers to the final OBSpec science discussion!!! Episode 10 was a crazy ride, jam-packed with sciencey twists and turns! So many reveals! SO MUCH SCIENCE!!!! So let’s get right to it :D

Quick note on Rachel as Charlotte’s original: the science is pretty self explanatory here, and this definitely should be canon. I mean, they lost the original genome, so how else were they going to make clones? And who better to clone from than the clone always at DYAD’s disposal?! This just needs to be canon.

Vaccines Galore: we already learned from Delphine that the clones had some vaccines built into their genomes, which was neither surprising, nor scientifically implausible. MMR, Hepatitis, Polio, these are all vaccines that exist and that we all receive. But in OBSpec10, we learn that there is a lot more than meets the eye. Syphilis, HIV, countless other vaccines that do not exist. This is science fiction after all, and what is more exciting than learning that DYAD has secretly been sitting on vaccines for a whole slew of devastating diseases?!

Jumping from Vaccines to Drugs: how exactly did Delphine make the jump from finding the vaccines to finding the drugs? Well HIV directly affects the immune system, so Delphine jumps to the idea that maybe the HIV vaccine is influencing their immune system to exacerbate the side-effects of the infertility sequence. So she isolates clone T-cells (part of the immune system, which she can isolate from a blood sample), and looks at the gene expression in these cells. And what does she find, but expression of Vm24, an immunosuppressant that is produced by scorpions, not humans.

Clones as Drug Incubators: this isn’t exactly as big of a leap into science-fiction as it may seem. Many plants and animals (such as the scorpions with Vm24) produce proteins and compounds that are then isolated and used in countless drugs. DYAD simply took this idea and put the sequences for these compounds into the clones. They express these proteins (which in general have little to no side effects, although it is mentioned that they have built up a tolerance to immunosuppressants from this), and then DYAD together with Primorez take blood and tissue samples from the clones, isolate these proteins, and turn them into drugs, which are sold for profit. A creepy, yet awesome way to tie in the science with the patent and the multi-corporation conspiracy.

2.2 POTENTIAL ENERGY 

Potential means it hasn't happened yet-but it CAN.                                     Potential energy increases as the height/distance increases. 

The formula for finding potential energy is as follows:

Ep(grav)=mgh                                                                                                 m:mass (kg)                                                                                                 g:acceleration of gravity (in Alberta, it is 9.81 m/s)                                       h:height or distance (m) 

Textbook: