Hacker News Reader

Comment by smikhanov | Hacker News Reader

Ignoring the content of the paper, could someone comment on this referencing style:

    Thus, the seed of the xenomorph, the “black goo” (Chemical A0-3959X.91–15)

What does "Chemical" refers to here?

View on HN

Its not really explained, but in the prequels, the black goo seems to be a biological nano-tech like weaponsystem, that takes a given lifeform, breaks it down and recreates permutations of it that are capable of fast, parasitic replication, longterm stasis and accelerated development towards a better "attack-vector" life-form.

The whole thing is basically the engineer version of a nuke, rendering planets permanently hostile to other life forms and destroying civilizations by transporting the weapon inside its members - and thus following trade-routes.

I like this take, I'm stealing this as my headcannon. It's especially interesting to think of the black goo as able to design a parasite specific to the species it comes in contact with. And the LV-223 base might be part of a former alien MAD deterrence program, similar to an SSBN or a missile silo.

I still have to watch the prequels after "Prometheus", but that prequel was one of my favorites in the series, and your comment makes me want to go watch them.

It's "canon" [1]. Autocorrect? :)

[1]: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/headcanon

Even if you know the correct spelling, it's an easy mistake to make when you're writing fast. Sometimes hands seem to just want to do their own thing while typing out what you thought your brain was telling them :P I make so many mistakes this way that I try to be forgiving when I see it probably happened to someone else.

Regarding cannon vs canon, the way I remember it is that "you need a double-n for a cannon to be double-barrelled." I have no idea whether that's useful to anyone else.

Etymologically, they are both related to "cane", so it's pretty much a historical accident that we now spell them differently to each other, or that it's not the other way around.

The that reminds me a bit of the "protomolecule" from The Expanse, which has a similar meta-algorithmic nature. Perhaps moreso, in that it's suggested it relied partly on transcendental magic-math where molecules were just a way to carry it.

It differs a bit in intent though: Its eldritch designers seem to have intended it as a high-reliability remote construction drone.

I think it's what it's officially called in the Alien Universe

Ah, so this is not how people doing chemistry refer to different chemical elements in their papers. Given the overall level of imitation, I thought it's that.

I think the sequence of sci-fi-like references goes like this:

"Chemical A0-3959X.91–15, i.e. 42-(acetyloxy)-1-7-0-1-unobtaini-interferon acid, also known as "black goo", sold under brand name EcoCola, marketed as alternative to NukaCola, is an nano-engineered chemical first documented in report A0-3959X, ..."

Or something.

Yeah, that makes sense. We will need a Zotero plugin for this citation style.

It's like when people say "802.11n"

In the methods sections they might actually do this with what is called a CAS number. This ensures you can order the that exact chemical from Sigma Aldrich when you try that experiment yourself.

I think it is in the same vein of their extra terrestrial cataloguing system as “Alien XX121”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com