Meta: (half)Vulcan's temperature
To be hot or not to be hot? This is the question.
Ok, I'll be serious: your host here has finally found the answer to one of the most controversial things in the Star Trek K/S fandom: Is Spock's temperature higher than a human's?
The answer is in TOS so I'll play with pure canon here: no need to read books or such but just watching closely the series itself. I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice but... hey, repeating doesn't hurt, especially when people keep going on about Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual being not canon.
Edit to add two more additions prompted by verizonhorizon's comment. Also cut or my f-list would curse me!
Edited again (21-03-2011) with an interesting hypotesis by alliegator at this post at kirkspock.
Evidence n°1: Dagger of the Mind
Spock isn't seen near a monitor's biobed except as witness of Van Gelder's apparent craziness. But let's take a good look to the values in the monitors when Van Gelder is on the biobed.
Don't mind the actual arrows, as the human isn't really healthy at the moment, but look at the values' scale: we can disregard all the others as we don't need them. Take a look at the brain's waves if you like but save only the temp, the first one on the left.
(Click the image to open)
On my dvd player on tv this work was easier because of an useful zooming function but, thanks to the power of aleniakalain's dvd, I hope this cap will work for you too: I'll help you.
The green line is set exactly between 36 and 37: the average human's temperature. I can't really read well Fahrenheit but Celsius will work fine (plus I'm used to Celsius anyway).
. . .
Evidence n°2: Naked time.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen's readings, just to see how a healthy human reads.
(Click the image to open)
Let's have a better look at the readings
Granted we now know how the scale is disposed on the monitor and how a human reads like, we can head over to Spock's readings.
. . .
Evidence n°3: Naked time
Spock is healthy, Bones makes us sure of that. By the way, how hot is Nimoy in the black undershirt?
Let's take a look at the readings. Bear in mind that these are Spock's average readings, when he's not influenced or under disease.
(Click the image to open)
As you may see quite well, Spock's reading of temperature is quite under the green line, somewhere between 33 and 34°. At a rough guess the double arrows are marking 33.7/8.
Spock's brain waves are far above the average.
So... canon speaks: Vulcans (and Spock) are colder than humans and Bones line about "that green ice-water you call blood" isn't a pipe dream.
There are two others times where we can see a Vulcan's reading but they can't be taken into account because in both of them the Vulcan wasn't really health.
Mirror, Mirror: Mirror Spock is, to Bones words, “dying” and all the lines are fucked up: I keep the brains waves as base and when these change too much then I consider the readings null for this little essay.
Journey to Babel: Sarek's readings. His temperature is higher than Spock's but he is under surgeon and all his readings are scrambled. Again, I can't really consider them reliable.
Anyway, canon says quite clearly that Spock isn't hot but cold. We're speaking of two C°, nothing excessive, but that’s it.
It may have no biological foundations and you may say it has no sense at all: I can agree. However, Star Trek (TOS, in this case) made us quite used to biological nonsense. If a brain can be removed from its rightful body to then be put there again without any damage, if androids can be infused with a human's "pattern", if one's soul can be transferred in lightning globes (and so on), then we cannot really be squeamish on a simple change of temperature, right?
I know this sounds like a minor thing but since I've read that bit about Vulcan's temperature on Memory Alpha I have been curious to know why many people insisted on still writing Spock as "hotter". The old school is quite frankly excused as they had no captures to work on (later it came VHS but really, you can't read tiny bits on a recorded video). Recently I raised a geek discussion about it on Deviant Art and I've been quite puzzled by the replies (being cooler not biologically explainable, the book being written without scientific basis and all). They all had their reasons and they weren't just saying "it's this because I want it!" - hell, that's what I love about this fandom: things are discussed! - but I entered one of my stubborn mode... and I can be quite stubborn if I want to.
Then aleniakalain came to my house and brought the dvds... when watching naked time I jumped from the couch (killing her in the process), almost hit my head on the screen (blame the carpet) and zoomed until I found the answer. Then I searched a better view of the monitor for better reference and so on.
This's the result of half an hour spent with aleniakalain searching the right captures! Hope that helps clearing the issue!
* * *
Addition n°1: What this makes of us K/S shippers
verizonhorizon's comment reminded me that, originally back in January when I got home from vacation with my First Officer aleniakalain, I wanted to add my two cents about what happens to K/S bed scenes.
Ok, we have Spock who's colder - a little bit - and we have a room hotter than usually - for keep Spock warm because we don't want for our favorite half-Vulcan to have his pointed cute ears drop off. We have also a cute quilt with a little Enterprises' pattern, because our Vulcan likes to sleep under blankets. Logically our hot Captain Sexypant would die in a pool of sweat, right?
But, what if perhaps Spock, being cooler, helps our snuggle-ish Jim from feeling like during a sauna session? Hugging Spock could give him the little cold he needs to feel right even in a warm room and under a blanket (even if I'm sure he ends up out of said blankets in the middle of the night).
Basically when Spock is made hotter we have a snuggle-ish Jim with his personal warmer while Spock endured having cold feet and a... well, cooler against himself. We just turned this upside down and is now Jim who has to be the man with the woman's cold feet and hands against his body in automatic search for warmth. XD
. . .
Addition n°2: Does this make sense?
Again verizonhorizon, who points out that has no sense having a cooling system overworking to keep blood cold in a hot room (well, not these same words... :P). This makes me think, and it's probably the only issue that is still unclear in this matter.
As far as I remember (and my mind has more holes than Gruyere cheese), in the series (TOS) nobody says Vulcans need higher temperatures. We know they live on a desert planet and the climate is freaking hot when Kirk jumps on the Kal-if-ee wagon. But, if we keep the desert reference, usually during night the temperature considerably drops.
Perhaps the only logical explanation could be found seeing how desert animals' inner system work. Off course I'm not speaking about scorpions or snakes, but mammals like meerkats, foxes and such. This may start a great discussion!
Unfortunately, I'm not expert enough to examine datas about these animals... anyway I can provide what I found.
Meerkats have a temperature similar to humans' (36.3ºC / 97.3ºF). They have an efficient ability to regulate temperature and, living in such harsh climate, they have a lower metabolic rate than their cousins living in other parts of the world, allowing them to live with less water and food. Their oxygen consumption is 42% below the value expected from body mass (Vulcan has a thinner atmosphere than Earth - if I remember right - but at least I'm sure there is less oxygen there and Kirk has difficulties to breath right).
Fennex foxes have a temperature of 38.2˚C (100.8˚F), but they are typically nocturne animals and during the day they live in deep dens under the sand to protect themselves from hot climate of desert's day. They are also provided with large ears (*coff coff* Spock?) to dissipate heat.
Camels vary between 34°C to more than 40°C, depending of how much they can dissipate the heat through evaporation. If they have free access to water they tend to have lower temperatures.
. . .
Addition n°3: Cold or hot? Both?
alliegator as an interesting hypothesis. I'm quoting her, because there's not need for me to elaborate.
"I'm no biologist, but it is my personal head canon that Vulcans are both hotter AND colder than humans. My science-fictiony, pseudo-xenobiology reasoning that would actually fit with the above source: Vulcans have a normal core body temperature (91 F) lower than humans (98.6 F). Humans lose heat through their skin and extremities, so the surface of the skin can be much cooler than the core temp. Now I see Vulcans with their fast pulse as having a very efficient body heat regulation system, so possibly their surface skin temperature is much closer to their core temperature.
"So, theoretically, if a Human (98 F core temp) were to walk up to a Vulcan (91 F core temp) and touch them, to the Human (estimate 80 F hand skin temp) the Vulcan (estimate 87 F hand skin temp) would feel warm. Even though the Vulcan's core temp is lower than Human, the Human's skin temp is lower than the Vulcan's."
. . .
Ok, off-topic conclusions:
1) I feel a trekkie and I always hated people (a Star Wars' fan I'm friend of) who wasted time to search for things the canon left unclear or making essays about "no it's like this" and "what if...?"...
2) I've done again a biology little research because of Star Trek, the first being about wolves/canines and feline reproduction - you don't wanna ask believe me...
3) I have now in my mind's eye the disturbing image of meerkat!Vulcans standing at meerkat!Spock's failed wedding... The Lion King can ruin an innocent life!
Ok, I'll be serious: your host here has finally found the answer to one of the most controversial things in the Star Trek K/S fandom: Is Spock's temperature higher than a human's?
The answer is in TOS so I'll play with pure canon here: no need to read books or such but just watching closely the series itself. I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice but... hey, repeating doesn't hurt, especially when people keep going on about Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual being not canon.
Edit to add two more additions prompted by verizonhorizon's comment. Also cut or my f-list would curse me!
Edited again (21-03-2011) with an interesting hypotesis by alliegator at this post at kirkspock.
Evidence n°1: Dagger of the Mind
Spock isn't seen near a monitor's biobed except as witness of Van Gelder's apparent craziness. But let's take a good look to the values in the monitors when Van Gelder is on the biobed.
Don't mind the actual arrows, as the human isn't really healthy at the moment, but look at the values' scale: we can disregard all the others as we don't need them. Take a look at the brain's waves if you like but save only the temp, the first one on the left.
(Click the image to open)
On my dvd player on tv this work was easier because of an useful zooming function but, thanks to the power of aleniakalain's dvd, I hope this cap will work for you too: I'll help you.
The green line is set exactly between 36 and 37: the average human's temperature. I can't really read well Fahrenheit but Celsius will work fine (plus I'm used to Celsius anyway).
. . .
Evidence n°2: Naked time.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen's readings, just to see how a healthy human reads.
(Click the image to open)
Let's have a better look at the readings
Granted we now know how the scale is disposed on the monitor and how a human reads like, we can head over to Spock's readings.
. . .
Evidence n°3: Naked time
Spock is healthy, Bones makes us sure of that. By the way, how hot is Nimoy in the black undershirt?
Let's take a look at the readings. Bear in mind that these are Spock's average readings, when he's not influenced or under disease.
(Click the image to open)
As you may see quite well, Spock's reading of temperature is quite under the green line, somewhere between 33 and 34°. At a rough guess the double arrows are marking 33.7/8.
Spock's brain waves are far above the average.
So... canon speaks: Vulcans (and Spock) are colder than humans and Bones line about "that green ice-water you call blood" isn't a pipe dream.
There are two others times where we can see a Vulcan's reading but they can't be taken into account because in both of them the Vulcan wasn't really health.
Mirror, Mirror: Mirror Spock is, to Bones words, “dying” and all the lines are fucked up: I keep the brains waves as base and when these change too much then I consider the readings null for this little essay.
Journey to Babel: Sarek's readings. His temperature is higher than Spock's but he is under surgeon and all his readings are scrambled. Again, I can't really consider them reliable.
Anyway, canon says quite clearly that Spock isn't hot but cold. We're speaking of two C°, nothing excessive, but that’s it.
It may have no biological foundations and you may say it has no sense at all: I can agree. However, Star Trek (TOS, in this case) made us quite used to biological nonsense. If a brain can be removed from its rightful body to then be put there again without any damage, if androids can be infused with a human's "pattern", if one's soul can be transferred in lightning globes (and so on), then we cannot really be squeamish on a simple change of temperature, right?
I know this sounds like a minor thing but since I've read that bit about Vulcan's temperature on Memory Alpha I have been curious to know why many people insisted on still writing Spock as "hotter". The old school is quite frankly excused as they had no captures to work on (later it came VHS but really, you can't read tiny bits on a recorded video). Recently I raised a geek discussion about it on Deviant Art and I've been quite puzzled by the replies (being cooler not biologically explainable, the book being written without scientific basis and all). They all had their reasons and they weren't just saying "it's this because I want it!" - hell, that's what I love about this fandom: things are discussed! - but I entered one of my stubborn mode... and I can be quite stubborn if I want to.
Then aleniakalain came to my house and brought the dvds... when watching naked time I jumped from the couch (killing her in the process), almost hit my head on the screen (blame the carpet) and zoomed until I found the answer. Then I searched a better view of the monitor for better reference and so on.
This's the result of half an hour spent with aleniakalain searching the right captures! Hope that helps clearing the issue!
* * *
Addition n°1: What this makes of us K/S shippers
verizonhorizon's comment reminded me that, originally back in January when I got home from vacation with my First Officer aleniakalain, I wanted to add my two cents about what happens to K/S bed scenes.
Ok, we have Spock who's colder - a little bit - and we have a room hotter than usually - for keep Spock warm because we don't want for our favorite half-Vulcan to have his pointed cute ears drop off. We have also a cute quilt with a little Enterprises' pattern, because our Vulcan likes to sleep under blankets. Logically our hot Captain Sexypant would die in a pool of sweat, right?
But, what if perhaps Spock, being cooler, helps our snuggle-ish Jim from feeling like during a sauna session? Hugging Spock could give him the little cold he needs to feel right even in a warm room and under a blanket (even if I'm sure he ends up out of said blankets in the middle of the night).
Basically when Spock is made hotter we have a snuggle-ish Jim with his personal warmer while Spock endured having cold feet and a... well, cooler against himself. We just turned this upside down and is now Jim who has to be the man with the woman's cold feet and hands against his body in automatic search for warmth. XD
. . .
Addition n°2: Does this make sense?
Again verizonhorizon, who points out that has no sense having a cooling system overworking to keep blood cold in a hot room (well, not these same words... :P). This makes me think, and it's probably the only issue that is still unclear in this matter.
As far as I remember (and my mind has more holes than Gruyere cheese), in the series (TOS) nobody says Vulcans need higher temperatures. We know they live on a desert planet and the climate is freaking hot when Kirk jumps on the Kal-if-ee wagon. But, if we keep the desert reference, usually during night the temperature considerably drops.
Perhaps the only logical explanation could be found seeing how desert animals' inner system work. Off course I'm not speaking about scorpions or snakes, but mammals like meerkats, foxes and such. This may start a great discussion!
Unfortunately, I'm not expert enough to examine datas about these animals... anyway I can provide what I found.
Meerkats have a temperature similar to humans' (36.3ºC / 97.3ºF). They have an efficient ability to regulate temperature and, living in such harsh climate, they have a lower metabolic rate than their cousins living in other parts of the world, allowing them to live with less water and food. Their oxygen consumption is 42% below the value expected from body mass (Vulcan has a thinner atmosphere than Earth - if I remember right - but at least I'm sure there is less oxygen there and Kirk has difficulties to breath right).
Fennex foxes have a temperature of 38.2˚C (100.8˚F), but they are typically nocturne animals and during the day they live in deep dens under the sand to protect themselves from hot climate of desert's day. They are also provided with large ears (*coff coff* Spock?) to dissipate heat.
Camels vary between 34°C to more than 40°C, depending of how much they can dissipate the heat through evaporation. If they have free access to water they tend to have lower temperatures.
. . .
Addition n°3: Cold or hot? Both?
alliegator as an interesting hypothesis. I'm quoting her, because there's not need for me to elaborate.
"I'm no biologist, but it is my personal head canon that Vulcans are both hotter AND colder than humans. My science-fictiony, pseudo-xenobiology reasoning that would actually fit with the above source: Vulcans have a normal core body temperature (91 F) lower than humans (98.6 F). Humans lose heat through their skin and extremities, so the surface of the skin can be much cooler than the core temp. Now I see Vulcans with their fast pulse as having a very efficient body heat regulation system, so possibly their surface skin temperature is much closer to their core temperature.
"So, theoretically, if a Human (98 F core temp) were to walk up to a Vulcan (91 F core temp) and touch them, to the Human (estimate 80 F hand skin temp) the Vulcan (estimate 87 F hand skin temp) would feel warm. Even though the Vulcan's core temp is lower than Human, the Human's skin temp is lower than the Vulcan's."
. . .
Ok, off-topic conclusions:
1) I feel a trekkie and I always hated people (a Star Wars' fan I'm friend of) who wasted time to search for things the canon left unclear or making essays about "no it's like this" and "what if...?"...
2) I've done again a biology little research because of Star Trek, the first being about wolves/canines and feline reproduction - you don't wanna ask believe me...
3) I have now in my mind's eye the disturbing image of meerkat!Vulcans standing at meerkat!Spock's failed wedding... The Lion King can ruin an innocent life!