Pretty much 'nuff said. Simply talk about whatever science topic currently piques your interest.
~InfinityXanadu
Hail to the Infinite, the Eternal. For if you can hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, and Eternity in an hour, then, only then, shall you hold the power.

466616 Mister Xanadu sir, I've added a fic that fails my science standards to the group. Rather than have users sift through fics that they may or may not want to read, where can I explain why the fic has been added and where the scientific error occurred?

By the way, you should totally read the fic. It's the best SoarFire fic of all time.

Lets talk unicorn magic.

One big thing about it is that a unicorn has to be really dedicated to studying magic to be good at it. The difference between Twilight and Rarity is the best example of this. As the episodes progress, we see Twilight using stronger and stronger magic, while Rarity stays on the same level. Of course, Twilight studies more than Rarity, but it is because she is so focused on getting better that she does in fact get better.

One of the biggest holes a writer can step in is to make a unicorn unduly powerful. There has to be some logical justification for a unicorn to, lets say, sink Atlantis, or something like that.

So what do you think? Yea or Nay?

474876
I apologize for being substandard in my groupmaking skills, I didn't yet add any forum for that purpose. It is now up.
474994
Definitely Yea. There are so many fics that would otherwise be good on this site, that seem to crash and burn due to the sudden OPing of the OC Unicorn. However, there has to be some sort of innate skill. Take, for example, "Cutie Mark Chronicles." Twilight is but a little filly at the time of the flashback (with the caveat that she has been studying "magic" for some time), but she somehow manages a huge magical burst.

We can attribute that, though, to the fact that Twilight Sparkle is the Element of Magic, and a thoroughly unique unicorn in her regard.

There definitely should be some sort of logical justification. However, it must be both logical (i.e. not just under "writer's creative leeway") and a justfication (i.e. not just an unrelated reason). It is extremely difficult to craft a plausible reason, so that is perhaps the reasoning why an author would forgo such a necessary plot device and component of a character's identity (though, perhaps I should give them less credit, some might not even think of it).
In summation:
Good point, though, about the practice, but it might be nice to note that Twilight is the Element of Magic, after all. It would stand to reason that she has some sort of innate ability far beyond most ponies'
~InfinityXanadu
P.S. Does anyone find it hilarious that I created this group on a fanfiction repository for a TV show initially directed towards 5-year-olds about talking, magical ponies? I do. But all jokery aside, I felt it had to be done.

K. Suggestion time! The subject of this time would be.... the time space continuum and the basic fundamental laws of reality. Anyone care to suggest a site to read up on this? Or care enough to offer their expertise?

475641 Broad subject, that. It might help to provide a little context. Are you characters traversing time and space? Are they transcending it?

475646
TARDIS
Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Doctor Who(ooves) and all that. What is the specific difference between traversing and transcending?

They travel through time and space in a box.

475654 Well traversing and transcending aren't official/technical terms, but think of it this way: In some works of fiction, characters travel through time in a machine, just like Doctor Who. But they're still travelling, in the traditional sense. They have an origin and a destination. In other works of fiction, characters simply leave the timespace continuum (Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card is an excellent example) and pretty much ignore physics entirely. So the former I think of as travelling or traversing, while the latter is transcending (to go beyond the limits).

475654 Also, I'm not a Who fan, so I can't much help with that. You might want to check up with the nuances with someone who's really into the show, regardless of whether they're in the brony fandom or not.

475654
Just Wiki it. I'm sure you'll find something.

[EDIT]: You know, that was a pitiful answer. Let me try again.

If you want to copy real life, Wiki it. If you have any question then come back and post some more.

If you want to copy Doctor Who's physics, then go try and find a fan of the show. I was able to find four groups by typing "Doctor Hooves" in the "Find Groups" search box.

Also, don't give up. Adding those kind of allusions makes it easier for the reader to both connect with and understand the story.

Continuing on with unicorn magic.

I think another limit of unicorn magic is what spells can be cast on living things. Obviously a kill spell would be extremely difficult, probably borderline impossible. Other spells, like mind control, freeze spells, and any other type of spell that opposes the natural survival instinct would also be hard to cast. This comes from the fact that every pony has some magic in them, thus a resistance to magic. But does that mean that animals are subject to a type of dictatorial rule, seeing that they do not have magic in them, or do they have magic protection them from unicorns that would want to abuse their natural talent? And what about those lines I mentioned earlier, do you agree or am I just full of it?

475654
I'm pretty sure that the TARDIS has already been debated extensively in Dr. Who fangroups worldwide. Attempt several searches before asking mundane questions, but if you were getting at something specific ABOUT the TARDIS, please continue.
488098
I would agree that survival instincts play a great role in magic usage, but you do have to remember that the inherent POWER of the unicorn itself is primarily the basis for what spells they can/can't cast. That does help your point, however.

In a nation like Equestria, I'd think that animals woud have at least SOME kind of magic in them ... maybe like a "spirit" or something. Y'know ... the Gaia Hypothesis corollaries ... maybe I just need to stop watching FF: The Spirits Within ... that could work, too.
--
Belatedly yours,
ix

New topic! Protocol(s) for dealing with quarantine after an interstellar trip.
Questions, comments, awhatever. Just be sure to reply to my comment

510063 Do you mean a local returning to his/her/its home planet or a new alien species coming in? Since outer space is the ultimate quarantine area, I would imagine it being standard practice for any suspicious object to remain up there. I must regretfully say, though, that technologies pertaining to space flight is not exactly my forte. I would love to hear more of it.

I have this other rather inanely pedantic question I've been brooding over since a while ago though. Humans being able to produce vocal language relies on very specific physiological conditions. 2 million years ago, the shape of vocal tracts in the ancestors of humans started to change following their change of lifestyle. The vocal tract became smaller from their shift to meat eating, as long as a thicker tongue that allowed fine muscular control and production of more complex phonemes like the fricative sounds (e.g. -f). Most importantly, the larynx lowered so as to form a tube shaped like an inverted L. Now, think about a clarinet and French horn: the standard Mammalian plan with the straight vocal cavity, including horses (the closest we get for ponies), can only produce sounds with simpler timbre like a clarinet. Human vocal tract is obviously not as convoluted as a French horn, but its bent is required for the variation we observe in human speech. So how can we explain this without resorting to the "it's magic" or "their physics is just 'different'" explanation? Actually the issue technically extends to all talking animals, but I still want to throw it out to see what y'all think.

510063
Well, wouldn't be fairly standard? Going through through the atmo should steralize the outside of the ship, but a way to compleltely steralize the full surface of the outside of the ship.
And with the biological components of the ship, whether they be human or any samples of any biological matter they might have found, should stay on the ship for a desginated time frame before even considering leaving the ship, and then only after a full decontamination. All Biological matter should be examined in a white room.
-Wow. I never realized how much thought I had put into this...

510177
Umm. Wow. That is pretty well thought out. I'll get back to you on that.

510379
I see that I fell prey to oversimplification. I apologize. The main reason I asked the "question" is as follows:

I saw a fic dealing with the whole human-spaceship-comes-to-Equestria shtick, and one of the crewmates in the ship got poison-joked. Seeing as they'd probably want to quarantine him, I just wanted to explore some of the ramifications of keeping him in certain parts of the ship, as well as what the procedures would be.
I'll post the fic up here soon (on an apparatus that can't atm, though), in the Compendium of Highest Honors, I believe. It's really quite good.

510177
While one could go with a modified version of the "it's magic" excuse (magic in this case being the energy required to modulate the air's vibrations -- a kind of 'artificial' speech), I'll do my best to come up with a less-trope-y explanation.

Something along the lines of, perhaps, the ponies' vocal tracts having evolved over the years into a shape relatively like what is necessary? This could either have been natural or artificially brought about, but it seems to work.

I typically like to think that MLP ponies are some sort of evolutionary branch from proto-horses like Eohippus, which had vestigial toes and (possibly, but I'm not entirely sure) differently-shaped vocal tracts. Though I'd have to check up on that. The vestigial toes would also explain the cider-mug-holding scene in one of the episodes (not sure which one, unfortunately) where tiny "nubs" were seen grasping the handle.

But to answer your question:
Couldn't it have come about as a differentiation in evolution? Maybe Celestia and Luna (or Discord; that'd be funny) influenced ponies in order to evolve that way?

Also: Does anyone think we should start a huge science-based collaborative fic? That'd be fun, right?
And d'you all think we need more admins?

510407 Well, this sounds about right. On your point of how ponies hooves grip things though, I always like to think of it like this

510423
I LOVE THOSE THINGS!
Except without the vacuum chamber... that miight be a bit hard to do with pony bodies. However, it would be a nice 'primary' grip method (maybe developed USING the vestiges?).

510407
I'll get back to you when I read the fic.
And I'd be up for a huge collab. Never done one though, and I can see I'm out of my league with all this science talk.

510426 The evolution of a biological 'vacuum chamber' isn't that hard to conceive, not as hard as a biological 'wheel', with separate axles and all. But yes, we would be hard-pressed to claim that a pony, out of all things, have this suction system somewhere in their body.

510452
One word: MAAAAAAAGIIIIIIICCCCC
No, not really; I agree with you completely.

510433
Is no problemo, senor.
As long as you're there for a snarky comment or two, that'll be fun.
So yeah; I'll put up a thread and a blog post and spam everyone I think would be good for the project mercilessly in a week maximum time from now, when I finish a huge paper and stuff and can go on FIMFiction for long times a day.
Oh, and does everyone have Gmail? Because if so, then I could host an open/semi-open realtime-editing Gdoc...

510989
Then i'd totally be up for the collab then. I'd be there and *hopefully* be useful. i'd at least read through it and throw my two bits in. I might not make it to the actual writing. I'm terrible at timing.
Gdoc? I have one, and use it daily.
-Please spam me, as I will most likely forget.

511076
Good.
Well, I am too, so everyone be prepared for it to take a loooong time. Oh, and I'll see if I can get my (mentor, am I allowed to say that?) Athanix to help with editing.
Reasonandrhyme, if you can hear this, hope you're up for a messy slog.
And all of you.
But WE SHALL RISE AGAIN from the mud and ashes!
Setting up the forum now.
Good luck, and (kinda) good night!
--
IX

510452
This has been bugging me. Sorry for my ignorance, but doesn't nature abhor a vacuum? Or something along that line?

511588 As much as I'm cautious in quoting Wikipedia, I find this article that may be suitable for the subject matter if you're interested in how the idiom came to be in the fields of Physics and Philosophy.
Or do you mean how would a biological mechanism that brings about a (constant) negative pressure evolve?

512559
Eh, that was an interesting read, but I was more talking about how a....

(constant) negative pressure evolve?

512577 A general plan would involve a tube-like organ with entrance and exit, so that pressure wouldn't build up inside the body. Actually nature already has a range of prototypical blueprints for us to refer to.
In plants, the process of transpiration is brought about by a drawing force resulting from the evaporation of water at leaf surface. In the xylem vessels (the water-transporting tubes in plants) a constant negative pressure was built up this way. In animals, inhalation is caused by the negative pressure built up by muscular contraction in the gill or diaphragm.
Come to think about it, I think a modified gut / oesophagus may be the closest to this suction pump we're talking about. Peristalsis helps transfer food along our digestive tract. A biological peristaltic air pump, with valves, could conceivably develop given the right conditions. But of course, realistically any such pumps would be hugely costly in energy, have really limited applications (what things potentially life-saving could you achieve by sucking things in the air? Besides of course, respiration.), and have to evolve from part of the digestive tract, thereby making the evolution of such a system in the limbs rather unlikely, save for supernatural interference.

512585
Okay then. That clears it up. Thanks for the answer.

512585
Well, and the fact that MLP ponies don't exactly HAVE vacuum-holes/tubes on their bodies...
I suppose an argument might be made for Changelings having such... appendages, but I probably won't buy it (unless they really DO feed off of love).