I was introduced to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by the Behind the Bastards episodes on the Zizians. Or, I should say, reintroduced. I had previously been on a bit of a fanfic binge and stumbled across it. I got a little way through and stopped because (1) it was deeply boring and (2) it was deeply strange.

This reminds me of low-background steel. Certain applications of steel requires very low amounts of radiation. After nuclear testing started releasing radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere, newly forged steel incorporated those radioactive isotopes. The only way to get low-background steel is by finding a pre-atomic age source of scrap steel like a ship wreck.