FRINGE BLOGGERS - Blog Fansite for FOX Show FRINGE from JJ. ABRAMS

One of the things we planned to do after each episode of “Fringe” was to take a look at the sciences depicted in the show and explore how close to science-fact they actually are. After all, Fringe will apparently deal with not so much science-fiction, as science-fact. The clever people at Popular Mechanics have saved us the trouble of doing our own investigation. Just as they’ve done with “LOST” they will also be seeing whether Fringe is more science fact or science fiction. So buckle in as they look at six ’sci’ aspects from this weeks pilot: - “Plane Infection”, “Auto Pilot Landing”, CDC on the Scene”, “LSD Brain Connection”, “Cow vs Human Genetics” and “Interrogating the Dead” - and try to debunk them as science fiction:

Can an injected toxin infect everyone on a plane?

Abrams opens Fringe in much the same manner as another show we love—onboard a 150-passenger plane that’s experiencing a fair amount of turbulence. A nervous diabetic injects himself with an insulin pen, which incites a far different reaction than controlled blood-sugar levels would. Instead, the skin begins to melt off his face, and as he flails for help, he projectile-vomits on a horrified flight attendant. Within moments, everyone on the plane is infected with the mysterious—and deadly—contagion.

Some chemicals can cause a rapid skin infection or necrosis, but none that result in this kind of down-to-the-bone, Indiana Jones-style mess, says Dr. Lisa Rotz, an infectious disease expert and director of bioterrorism preparedness at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

And as far as the contagious nature of the infection—which morphs into an airborne toxin in mere moments—Rotz confirms that the spread of the toxin as depicted on Fringe is officially impossible. “The only way for a virus to become airborne is if it were to move through the bloodstream at the point of injection and create an infection in the lungs that is then coughed or breathed out,” she says. And that’s not including the days-long incubation period needed for the bacteria to replicate to the point where it can cause illness. If this epidemic were a toxin, only those in contact with the original compounds—the diabetic and possibly the flight attendant—could be exposed, and that’s assuming the chemicals could have made their way through the diabetic’s body, into his stomach and out the other end in seconds. No puke is that potent.

Can you interrogate a dead person?

In the pilot’s final scene, the dead body of an FBI agent is secretly brought to Massive Dynamic, a mysterious corporation more innovative than Apple and Google combined (just what role the company plays in a series of events known as “the pattern,” Fringe’s central mystery, remains to be seen). When Massive Dynamic employee Nina Sharp—who boasts a a breakthrough-worthy prosthetic arm—finds out the body has only been dead for five hours, she orders that he be questioned.

It’s apparently quite possible to extract information from a corpse as long as it’s been dead for no more than six hours—and as long as it’s only on Fringe. “There is no way to gather information from a dead person’s brain,” says Dr. Milstein. “However, if a patient dies suddenly, there is a short period of time—between minutes and hours—during which a neuron might be able to transmit a signal.” Nonetheless, Milstein says that without specific pathways set by a living brain, it serves no purpose. The experiment would be similar to sending a current down an electrical wire with nothing attached to either end. Good thing Fringe is far from over.

Can LSD and probe-laden tanks connect your brain to the comatose?

After an explosion douses her boyfriend with synthetic chemicals that turn his skin clear and land him in a coma, FBI agent Olivia Dunham is desperate to get inside his head—literally. In order to see the face of his assailant, Dunham takes a drug cocktail that includes lysergic acid diethylamide (yes, that’s LSD), then lies in a tank of water with an electromagnetic probe attached to her skull. It’s a technique Dr. Walter Bishop calls synaptic transfer, or a shared dream state. Once Dunham is unconscious and her brainwaves are synchronized with her boyfriend’s, she’s able to access his memories—and get a crystal-clear look at the guy responsible for his condition (and that plane).

Doctors and researchers do have ways of monitoring brainwaves, but not in such a far-fetched way that would allow Olivia to chat up her boyfriend. “There is no current science that allows two people to share information directly between their brains, though admittedly, ketamine and LSD—both major hallucinogenic drugs—might make the user think she was sharing someone else’s dreams and memories,” says Dr. Mark Milstein, a neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at a major New York City hospital. At this point, the closest one can get is with the electroencephalogram (EEG), which uses multiple simultaneous scalp recorders to pick up electrical currents from the brain and find patterns that might help diagnose disorders like epilepsy. Other forms of this recording, says Milstein, focus on patterns of metabolism in different parts of the brain required for different activities, such as throwing a football, reciting a speech or recalling a distant memory.

Read the other 3 science fact vs science fiction articles for episode 1.01 over at Popular Mechanics.

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