From: mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk (Del Cotter)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: Alien biology
Date: 18 Nov 92 15:55:08 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, West London, UK

In article <myers.722046856@hickory.cs.scarolina.edu> Daniel Myers writes:
>
>It was made pretty clear (at least as I remember it) that the Alien
>critters were a artifically created life-form, made to be the perfect
>weapon, and that they were extremely adaptable to adverse conditions.
>It might be then that there would be an infinite number of "casts" (kind
>of like super-self-mutating termites) each adapted to perform a specific
>task in a specific environment.
>
>Basically they're more like self-manufacturing, single-purpose tools
>than they are like animals or people.
>
Hmmm... How might this tie in with the remarks on the end of this letter to 
Mark Turner and Maverick?
---MAIL BEGINS---
Mark Julian Turner (sorry, lost other refs) writes
> > [stuff about acid blood]
>                                                  Hydronium ions you mean...:-)
>
Ouch!  I *knew* someone would pick up on that.
[pedantic explanation of why even H3O+ ions aren't a complete model]
All right, I'm wriggling, you got me fair and square.

> The "molecular acid" doesn't have to be something currently existing, it can 
> be anything the writers wanted it to be. It's just an invention ...like the
> aliens themselves...
>
I thought so too, but how about this?

From: Maverick <shoopak@romulus.rutgers.edu>
 
> Ever work with LiAlH? (Lithium Aluminum Hydride?)  
> 
> Actually, it's in an airtight container; you extract it by injecting the
> container with H2(g) and withdrawing the LithAl Hydride.  It uses are varied,
> but what >is< scarey about the stuff is that if you drop 1 drop of it, it
> burns the air.  It hisses, and it's >not< the item burning up, it's the
> air...when the stuff hit the ground (lab stone table), it kept going to the
> bottom of the table.  In fact, one of the people in my lab goofed and dumped
> the syringe straight down to the floor.  The stuff stopped after it got to
> the basement (2 floors down).  Very nasty stuff.
>
> Makes you believe in that blood. =)
> 
> But in a living creature?  Well, it >is< a movie isn't it?
>

> > [stuff about molten lead] 
> What's wrong with this? The alien is supposed to be pretty strong you know....

My problem is not so much with the weight of the lead as its *temperature*.
The more I think about the films, the less plausible the aliens look as 
biological (organic, what-have-you) entities.

I wonder if it's not actually the *nano*weapons div. of Weyland-Yutani that's
taking such an interest in the bugs.  Next best thing to a T-1000 Terminator...
---MAIL ENDS---
The first f'hugger had no problems with Kane's biochemistry despite never 
having met a human before (...we think.  Yikes!..)
-- 
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   ', ,','    |       Del Cotter       mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk      |    ', ,','  
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Obligatory Flame Retardant Additive:
This is r.a.sf.movies.  Nothing anyone says here actually matters.
-- 
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   ', ,','    |       Del Cotter       mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk      |    ', ,','  
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