Athena Andreadis' book "To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek" attempts and fails to legitimize the episode's biologic science, even accepting all other technologies presented. Not only does the synthesis of Tuvok and Neelix violate the law of conservation of mass, but the separation poses the problem of differentiating the two species' genes, a significant hurdle when science of the 1990s couldn't differentiate between humans and chimpanzees. After detailing the combination of the Talaxian and Vulcan species, the cellular chromosomal pairing, and the "synaptic coherence of two brains/minds within one skull", Andreadis finds the whole proposition laughable from a scientific standpoint, comparing it to the 1986 film "The Fly" as an example of bad science. Ultimately, she comes down against the transporter regarding its fictional capacity to do that which is claimed.