Donatello's Scientific Scope

[Donnie]

We all know that Donatello is the Scientist. However, his aptitude for specific areas of science throughout different incarnations are sort of blurred. It's clear from the Mirage comics, and I suppose the OT, that he naturally excels in the Technological and Engineering fields of science. This may come across in every depiction of the character.

However, there are a bunch of other branches of science -- Earth Science (geology, meteorology, oceanography, etc.), Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. Do you think that Donatello has a strong knowledge of these other fields of science? If so, can you cite examples? Nothing concrete comes to my mind, although I do know that Donnie has often provided scientific analysis or knowledge in these fields in various incarnations. It just seems like, on the whole, Donatello knows the most about Technology and Engineering.

[neatoman]

"Science" is typically never depicted as the complex thing it is in real life when it comes to cartoons. A real life scientist has to specialise in a certain branch of a specefic field, an evolutionary biologist can't also be a rocket enigineer, it takes too long just becoming one of them. It's a little insulting (even in something that has mutants turtles as the main characters) when multiple complex branches science is treated like something that a single individual can master easily.

There is a moment in the Nickelodeon cartoon that annoys me in particular:
April and Casey find a Kraang device and April wants to take it to Donnie, when Casey asks why they don't just take it to a real lab her response is that "Donnie is way ahead of most scientists".

Even for a kids' cartoon about mutant turtles that's annoying, the show flat out said a teenager without any formal education is better than most scientists, I know Donnie is a main character and best to include him rather a random character but that statement was just insulting.

[Lisardo]

It is kind of odd that a teenager is so smart and worldly like that. Seems like he's one of those child prodigies or something.

[Cryomancer]

He does super advanced chemistry/biology stuff alllllll the time. He almost always at least studies their mutation, the mutagen, etc. Sometimes he comes up with cures and vaccines for stuff they just encountered for the first time in like a day or two. Sometimes less. This happens a lot in the OT and especially the Nick show. There have been so many "biological" incidents in those that would never ever be reversible in reality that he solves in under a week.

Also any time he comes up with some kind of dimensional device, that's a whole bunch of advanced math and physics and who knows what else right there. Those tend to involve stealing tech from existing extra-dimensional beings, but even doing that is already unrealistic for any one single scientist to be able to pull off to the degree he does.

[Donnie]

I agree, to most scientists with a graduate degree, Donatello's skill-level is borderline offensive.

Cryo, thanks for providing those Biology examples. You jogged my memory. Still, I think Donatello is strongest in computer science/technology/engineering. It gets me thinking, I wonder if that is how Peter Laird envisioned him? It seems like Peter is a "Mr. Fix-It," like Donnie, and as Donnie is his favorite Turtle, I would think it deliberate that Donnie has those abilities.

[Cryomancer]

I really wish they'd at least start making one of the others the "medical" turtle at the very least. It's like anything other than pure combat they all immediately turn to Donatello to fix and that's kinda lame.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

According to the TMNT RPG book, Mikey has first aid and field triage skills. So that could go to him. And minor veterinary as well, with his treatment of Pete the pidgeon's injured wing in the OT! He's just naturally good with helping the injured, it seems.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Cryomancer

I really wish they'd at least start making one of the others the "medical" turtle at the very least. It's like anything other than pure combat they all immediately turn to Donatello to fix and that's kinda lame.

100% agreed. Most iterations of TMNT, IDW included, put waaayyy too much emphasis on Donatello's general science knowledge. It's almost like his mutation made his brain bigger than the others... even Einstein was not a master in all fields of science.

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

According to the TMNT RPG book, Mikey has first aid and field triage skills. So that could go to him. And minor veterinary as well, with his treatment of Pete the pidgeon's injured wing in the OT! He's just naturally good with helping the injured, it seems.

I was going to say, Michelangelo seems like a good choice since he is, in my opinion, the most considerate, compassionate, and sensitive of the Turtles.