AOBA:“The area where ozone is vented in to maintain
aseptic conditions isn't contaminated.”
MISATO:“So does that mean that its weakness is oxygen?”
UrsusArctos: Guess what, it's another Andromeda reference, since the Andromeda organism showed a distinct vulnerability to oxygen and a preference for carbon dioxide. Although the mystery behind how Andromeda functioned was never solved in either the book or movie versions, both featured discussions of how its growth was affected by the sort of radiation, acidity-alkalinity, and so on. No such luck here, although as an SF fan I love this little homage.
dzzthink: I haven't read Andromeda Strain, although I saw some scenes of the TV show. Anyway, I've never heard of organisms preferring carbon dioxide over oxygen as it's usually the reverse unless we are talking about plants and algae.
UrsusArctos: Not to turn this into a general biology discussion, but you seriously need to read the book. Apart from tying into a multitude of things in this episode and NGE, it's a great science fiction story and an interesting thought experiment on extraterrestrial life. That aside, don't plants, algae (phytoplankton included) and photosynthetic bacteria comprise most living organisms on Earth? If they didn't preferentially consume carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen as a waste gas, mammals like us would never have evolved!
