Analyzing the Dodgy Science in Avatar: Fire And Ash

The Mycelium Oxygen Transfer Plot

• 💡 The film depicts mycelium taking over Spider's body to facilitate oxygen transfer, which the hosts found biologically preposterous.
• 🔬 This mechanism supposedly allowed Spider to breathe without a mask, with mycelium lining his respiratory system and coordinating oxygen exchange.
• ⚠️ The hosts questioned how humans could reverse-engineer this complex biological process after only a few hours of scanning, despite the film implying they were close to doing so.

Interspecies Breeding Implausibility

• 🧬 The discussion highlighted the biological impossibility of humans and Na'vi reproducing, as they are not even in the same biological class (Na'vi are not mammals).
• ❌ Traditional interspecies breeding, like horses and donkeys, results in sterile offspring, and only occurs between very closely related species.
• 🎭 The hosts found the reproduction between Jake and Neytiri, and the idea of Spider developing a kuru, to be highly unrealistic and a "mystical" rather than biological event.

Unexplained Environmental Hazards

• 🚀 A magnetic force field that destroys human ships and equipment was presented as a major plot point.
• ❓ The hosts found it illogical that humans, with their advanced technology and scanning capabilities, would not detect such a significant environmental hazard beforehand.
• 🐳 The suggestion that whales led humans into the vortex was dismissed as an insufficient explanation for the lack of scientific foresight.

Overall Scientific Credibility

• 🧪 The hosts, both chemists, expressed frustration with the film's "dodgy science" and the need to suspend disbelief for plot convenience.
• 🎬 Many scientific elements were perceived as plot devices rather than grounded in any plausible biological or physical reality.
• 👏 The overall sentiment was that the scientific explanations in the movie were "preposterous" and lacked credibility.