Technicolor Science: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* The University of Leicester once synthesised a krypton compound named "kryptonite" for a lark. It was a colourless crystal with a green light under it, but at least it's fairly harmful (it's a powerful oxidiser), unstable, and contained some ''radioactive'' krypton.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Rock]]'' terrorists threaten San Francisco with VX nerve gas, portrayed as ominous green goo inside glass balls.

* The [[Trope Maker]] here would likely be [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Metropolis]]''. The description of the [[Mad Scientist]]'s lab in the script stated the laboratory is "as much a place for alchemy as science, a magician's lair."

 

== Literature ==

** [[Terry Pratchett]] is very familiar with this trope: when he was press officer for British Nuclear Fuels, he got used to TV journalists bringing their own green smoke and bubbling test tubes so power plants would [[Reality Is Unrealistic|look right]].

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in the movie adaptation of [[Stephen King]]'s ''Thinner'', where a gypsy is threatened with a glass of acid that is actually clear.

* Done infamously in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'': In her world, driftwood fires are blue. [[Did Not Do the Research|Supposedly because of the salt.]] Salt, for those who don't know, turns fire ''yellow''. At least, it does in [[Real Life]]

 

* The [[Applied Phlebotinum]] in ''[[The 4400]]'' is the neurotransmitter Promicin, which is the neon green of a chemlight in color—possibly as a [[Continuity Nod]] to its discoverer, [[Jeffrey Combs]], who rose to B-Movie stardom wielding nearly identical glowing syringes in the ''[[Re-Animator]]'' movies.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "Age of Steel": The Cybermen's electric shocks fit the "crawling blue fire" description, both when the Cybermen use them as an attack and when they malfunction.

 

== Video Games ==

* Comes up in ''[[Civilization]] 4'', where the map icon for uranium is a bunch of green rocks. [[Justified Trope|Of course]], they did have to distinguish it from the silver, iron, and aluminum (yes, I know aluminum and iron wouldn't look like that anyway - y'know what, it's [[MST3K Mantra|just a game]]).

** Uranium is among the most interesting elements, with a variety of exotic compounds including the bright-yellow, highly corrosive and highly poisonous Uranium Hexafluoride, which meets all the criteria of Technicolor Hollywood science. It's the stuff that the "Bad Guys" want to obtain in [[Real Life]].

*** The minor uranium ore mineral [[wikipedia:Autunite|autunite]] actually is that color. What's more, it [[Sickly Green Glow|glows green]] under UV light.

** ''Civilization 5'' avoids 4's use by making the icon the radioactivity sign, but now the ''terrain'' graphic is green.

* Many futuristic [[First-Person Shooter]] games have pits of deadly green acid and radioactive waste, usually glowing green. ''[[Doom]]'' is the most notable example.

* In the ''[[Command & Conquer]]: [[Red Alert]]'' series, radioactive areas are recognizable by the green glow.

* ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' plays this for laughs - in one level Cortez and Harry Tipper are trapped in a room filling with green gas, and Tipper comments that green gas is the worst kind.

* ''[[Lost Pig]]'': "Mysterious bubbling liquids in strangely shaped glassware is the heart of alchemy."

 

* According to Tom Siddell's [[The Rant|Rant]] for ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', "...I hereby declare that antigravity is purple and [[Power Glows|glowy]]."

* Colorful chemicals seen in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607082300/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4920837/ this page] of ''[[The KAMics]]''

 

== Web Original ==

* Parodied in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' toon, "DNA Evidence":

{{quote|'''Marzipan''': Well, it all started several weeks ago. I came home from my toga-yoga class to find that my house had been broken into and the culprit had left behind some DNA evidence.

 

== Western Animation ==

* There are plenty of green glowing things at the nuclear power plant in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', including Mr. Burns. In "E-I-E-I(Annoyed Grunt)" Plutonium is shown to be a glowing green instead of the real silver color, as well as a fluid instead of a solid (note that most plutonium used in the real world is in a liquid-like powdered form). A Carbon rod used to hold a door on a shuttle closed and seen in the opening is shown as a pale lime-green instead of the real life black.

** Carbon rods are black, so black that carbon is sometimes used to as a pigment. However, it is also brittle. Unless the full length needs to be exposed, the rods are covered in a protective coating, with only a small amount at the end exposed.

 

== Real Life ==

* Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry involves attaching small molecules (usually white powders) to the surface of metal ions (usually in clear solutions). The resulting metal complexes are almost always brightly coloured and can be anywhere from orange to green to purple depending on the metal and how strongly the chemicals are stuck to it. Admittedly almost all other chemistry involves white powders, clear crystals or colourless solutions.

* One easy example of this trope is the "[http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pickle.html Electric Pickle]" experiment, where a current passed through a pickle actually gets the pickle to glow. Though useless, it is fun to watch. The pickle's been featured in ''[[CSI]]'' and ''[[Beakman's World]]'', to name a few instances.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hollywood Science]]

[[Category:Reality Is Unrealistic]]

[[Category:Tropes On Science and Unscience]]