Parasite Eve: Fantasy or Reality?

		Through this project, I have learned to see the "reel" world from a
different point of view.  Parasite Eve has a very scientific plot.  Understanding the
science behind it helps the player to have a better understanding of the story.  But, there
are a few times at which the game deviates from the facts. 
		The science of Parasite Eve isn’t always depicted accuratly.  The
mitochondrial Eve theory isn't portrayed entirely according to the real facts.  The game
says that all mitochondria came from a single African woman.  This is not what the
mitochondrial Eve theory actually states.  The theory says that all mitochondria
descended from a population of people in Africa, not a single person.  It is most likely
that the game designers took artistic license with this fact in order to give a background
for the character Eve.
		Also, it is implied in the game that Eve is in fact Maya, Aya's sister. 
Therefore, Aya and Eve must have the same mitochondria, because Aya and Maya would
both have inherited the same mitochondria from their mother.  But Aya and Eve don't
have the same mitochondria.  In the scene in which Maeda looks at a sample of Eve's
cells and a sample of Aya's cells it is shown that Aya's mitochondria are protecting the
nucleus, while Eve's mitochondria are attempting to destroy the nucleus.  Eve also makes
people spontaneously combust because of her peculiar mitochondria, but Aya doesn't. 
The two must have different mitochondria, but this can't be true if Eve is Maya.
		     The character Eve makes people spontaneously combust when she
comes in contact with them.  They spontaneously combust because their mitochondria
begin making large amounts of ATP, which is the energy used by living cells.  In the
game, it is explained the people's mitochondria begin making more ATP because they are
reacting to Eve's evolved mitochondria.  The ATP is released as heat, causing the people
to light on fire.  This could never really happen, though, because mitochondria are only
able to react to one another on a cellular level.  They would also have to be inside the
same cell.  As well, mitochondria aren't the organelles that regulate the amount of ATP
which is produced, they only produce the ATP.  It is the nucleus that tells the
mitochondria how much ATP to produce.   
		Eve claims that mitochondria have only been using the rest of the cell as a
cover up.  Eventually, they would take over the cell.  This idea is supported by the theory
of endosymbiosis, in that the mitochondria was once a separate organism with a will of
its own which entered the cell and then became an organelle.  The only problem with this
theory of Eve’s is that, after entering the cell, the mitochondria became dependent upon
the cell for basic functions.  Mitochondria are no longer able to function as a separate
organism outside of the cell because they wouldn’t have a control center.  Eve's plan
wouldn't be able to work. 
	There are also parts of Parasite Eve that are supported by scientific fact.  It is
possible that Eve's mitochondria are more “evolved.”  Mitochondria have their own DNA
which mutates at a rate faster than that of nucleic DNA.  Her child, the “Ultimate Being”
would also has Eve’s mitochondria, which is why the Ultimate Being causes things to
spontaneously combust.
		Melissa Pierce taking immunosupresents is another fact in the game that is
supported by science.  Immunosupresents are drugs that patients take so that their bodies
do not reject donated organs.  The only problem with immunosupresents is that they
weaken the immune system.  Melissa took excessive amounts of immunosupresents,
thinking they would make her perform better.  This explains why Melissa constantly felt
weak and why she was so easily taken over by Eve.  Eve is a parasite or a disease.  Eve
could easily attack Melissa’s weakened immune system and infect her.  
		Parasite Eve can cause certain misconceptions, such as mitochondria are
separate organisms from the rest of the cell.  Nor does it elliminate any misconceptions. 
Parasite Eve discusses certain scientific hypothesizes that are probably not very well
known by the people who play the game.  After writing this paper, though, it is safe to
say that our mitochondria aren’t evolving on their own and will not take over the nucleus. 
But, you never know....
  
		This assignment hasn’t changed the way I view movies.  I’ve always
pointed out if a fact was incorrectly portrayed in a film.  Even when I don’t understand
the science behind certain scenes of  a movies, I don’t think I am very inspired to go out
and research it.  But learning science through film study is very interesting.  It’s different
from classroom learning in that the student has something to compare their research to. 
In class, the facts are given, supported by other facts and perhaps a few examples. 
Learning through watching films, the student does research on their own and can relate
these scientific facts to something more interesting, such a scene from the movie, rather
than relating facts to an experiment done by a scientist in the 1800s.  It’s also a test of the
student’s knowledge of the facts to point out where the film depicted the science
accuratly, and where the writer took artistic license.  Learning science through film is
new and innovative, but does tend to take away some of the enjoyment of watching
movies.  I think learning in the classroom is more beneficial to the student, because there
is more personal interaction with a teacher than there is with an actor in a movie.