I know what surface energy is. I was disagreeing with the statement I quoted from your article, not asking for a definition.

"It's true that light is bent as it moves through them, but all the light that travels through is bent at the same angle."

No, that would be pretty hot, actually. :)

"And objects with particularly high surface energies - basically, very smooth or very flat objects - are the most likely to stay stuck."

I fully admit that, as an 11-year-old kid with a love for science and playing with insects, I loved this movie. Now, as an adult who actually does know some real science, I find it laughable.

Where did I say that *only* conductors are opaque or that nothing transparent conducts electricity? What I did say is that metals are typically opaque to low energy photons. Not all metals, not all photon energies. That statement alone says nothing about whether insulators are opaque or not, nor anything about…

No, no, now you're reading things that aren't in what I said. There is no mystical "why, oh why?" point, but that doesn't mean we don't understand how things work. In fact, we do, to a large extent (granted, we don't understand everything just yet). If we didn't, your computer wouldn't exist, to give the smallest of…

Not to mention Fibonacci Heaps.

I've often been very critical of the science articles written for io9 but I also recognize when they're good and this is one the very best articles appearing here. Kudos!

LOL.... that's awesome! Thanks for sharing that with me (and everyone else here, of course).

And then you'd perish in a short period of time. Way to go towards saving the human race. :)

I only showed restraint because I'm not a violent person. I really ain't. Were I, Hollywood would be out of writers and directors already.

"as the world stops spinning and Earth begins to lose its gravity."

"That said, why can we accept "Oh, they just flew there in a giant space ship." but not "Stella, we might have to re-assess our concepts of supernatural. Maybe what's natural here, isn't..etc etc etc"?"

@hokum: Good point, though it could be that his chair was taken from one of the ships. Surely the ships themselves had some comfy chairs, no?

"In effect, you're looking at it from "How possible is an imaginary world within an imaginary world? Not very, so it's poor writing.""

@OkayOctane:

I never said nor implied that saying "I don't know" is a cop-out. It isn't. In fact, it's a major part of the scientific process. I think it would be fine for Tate to say "I don't know", but to give away to supernatural explanations before attempting to gather more information *is* a cop-out.

"I think if niners got together to make a show, it'd be the most unwatched show in the history of shows."

"If his WHOLE FAMILY died in front of him, and then his kids suddenly turn up as visions, you don't think he'd take of his science cap for just a minute?"