Bones

The Pain in the Heart - S3-E15

Character mistake: Bones says the remains are from someone about 180cm tall, and when asked for the "English" version, says "approximately 5'8." But 180cm is nearly 5'11" - 5'8" is only just over 170cm. Not a simplification someone as pedantic/accurate as Bones would make.

Jon Sandys

The Pain in the Heart - S3-E15

Character mistake: Zach, from his hospital bed, says he used 3 grams of the monomer to make the explosion. 3 grams of a powder would be a very small amount; less than a teaspoonful. But when he actually did use it, he took a loose amount in a large tablespoon. Zach would have carefully measured it in order to be precise; but he did not. So this is a factual error in what he says; it is also a character mistake in that Zach is the personification of technical accuracy, and would never take a casual spoonful - especially of an explosive.

DavidRTurner

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Given subsequent revelations, this could be said to be part of everything that goes on.

More mistakes in Bones
More quotes from Bones
More trivia for Bones

The Girl in the Mask - S4-E23

Question: When Doctor Brennan is examining the victim's skull, she states that a "straight suture across the palatine bone" indicates that the victim was a native Japanese speaker. I've studied linguistics, but I've never heard of a person's native language actually affecting their anatomy. So, for example: would a person of Japanese heritage who was born and raised in the US and spoke only English be distinguishable from a person who grew up in Japan and spoke only Japanese, purely by their palatine bones? (00:06:10)

tinsmith

Answer: Since the palatine bone is a bone that helps form the mouth it has a lot to do with speaking. The shape of it differs a lot depending on your ethnic background. I would guess that they, in the show, meant that the person's bone tells that they were Japanese and that it was "made for the purpose of speaking Japanese." That's what I'd assume anyway. I've studied molecular biology though, so I'm not an expert on bones.

More questions & answers from Bones

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.