[HPforGrownups] Re: Moody's maimed body parts and the limitations of wizarding medicine

[Andrew MacIan]

No: HPFGUIDX 34916

Greetings from Andrew!

Meddle not in the affairs of quantum mechanics....for
you taste good with Dijon mustard....
--- tex23236 <jbryson at richmond.infi.net> wrote:
{snip}

> It may be that Moody's injuries may not have been
> direct effects
> of magic, but may have been secondary physical blast
> effects from
> the curses.  He could block the magic itself, but
> not the blast.  It
> may have been the blast from the AK curse that made
> Harry's scar, 
> although the curse itself was blocked.  JKR's magic
> seems to 
> involve perpetual motion.


How so?  In the above, you argue that there  are both
energetic (for lack of a magical particle akin to a
boson or baryon) and macro-level effects.  Where's the
perpetuum mobile?  Seems to be pretty linear at both
the quantum and nuclear (so to speak) levels as you
point out.

>  My guess is that even so,
> Newton would
> prevail, and there would be an equal reaction to
> every magical 
> action. So, there would be a lot of dissordering
> force opposite the 
> magical action.

Erm.  Arguably, the same is true at the quantum-scale
of events in both the 'real' and magical universes. 
Newtonian models still (sort of) apply, and in the
event (pardon the pun) that they don't, then there are
equivalent models in both the Standard Model and in
the so-called Wheeler Model.  So where's the
disconnection?

> 
> That said, it seems strange that Cedric Diggory nor
> V's father and 
> grandparents weren't mangled by the AK curse.
> Moody's damage
> may have been due to his blocking the AK curse. 
> That damage may 
> be too great to treat even magically, especially
> when it happens
> may times.

When some forms of death occur, there is indeed the
possibility of a PM report coming back that the corpse
is in perfect health, just dead.  You can find
anomalies in the blood work (e.g.) that give a cause
of death, or you can argue that the subject's suffered
some form or micro-CVA, or that the subject's heart
simply failed.

Given the descriptions that we have of the effects of
AK, I would suggest that the basic effect is
identical, to a massive, nearly-instantaneous OD of
sodium.  The neural system simply fires one or two
*massive* events, and the subject's dead, usually with
a surprised look.  Sound familiar?

> 
> Wizards might, in the future, find an analogy to the
> polyjuice 
> potion: a selective poison made including a biopsy
> sample of a 
> cancer, which would rid the body of all the
> occurences of that 
> particular cancer in that particular person. It
> would have to be
> concocted individually for each case.

Sounds like some of the current research being done in
terms of vaccines for the neoplasms that are based on
virii.  Interesting notion....


> 
> Tex, who imagines Hermione saying, "Mom, Dad, this
> is Professor
> Moody. He wants to talk to you about me becoming an
> Auror."

"Hello.  We're from the Government, and we're here to
help...."

Cheers,

Drieux

=====
ICQ # 76184391

'Each game of chess means there's one less
      Variation left to be played;
 Each day got through means one or two less
      Mistakes remain to be made.'
      --'Chess' by Sir Tim Rice

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