Warning: "Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow" spoilers

ya who knew humans when used as a power source can actually generate a net energy gain.

It's the theory of the vis vitalis, or life-force, which was only ruled out by science in 1828. It seems to remain a very compelling piece of folk physics, because Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow (also published in the US as Smilla's Sense Of Snow) makes exactly the same mistake, even going so far as to have scientists examining a strangely exothermic rock saying "There are no detectable chemical reactions occurring -- the only possible source of heat is if it is alive".

Does Peter Hoeg not count among his friends any chemists, biologists, or physicists, then? I mean, I wouldn't write a book which had, say, flower-arranging as a key plot device without asking at least one genuine flower-arranger to check it for plausibility. Does he not have kids with whatever the Danish equivalent of GCSEs are? It's such a shame, because it's a really good book otherwise.

I haven't seen the film, so I don't know whether the folk physics was cleaned up by the film-makers.

Peter