
I watched Prometheus again last night trying to focus on everything with the captions on. The first time they enter the Temple, shortly after the genius that is Holloway takes off his helmet ....Ford announces that it is -12 degrees in there, and then they make the observation that the water should be frozen in the outer tunnels but isnt. They never say what the temperature is in the urn room but im guessing the temp has something to do with the urns beginning to "sweat" and the tops starting to bubble with the black goo....Do you think that temperature has something to do with keeping it in stasis. Also the green goo that on the Engineer control panel that David gets on his fingers as he is trying to manipulate the door....he gets it between his thumb and finger and says "Impressive"....what was the this green goo and it appeared active...everyone has talked to great lengths about the black goo....but what was this almost alive looking green stuff and why was David impressed by it?? thoughts??

Supposedly it's some sort of nanotech that allows multiple data connections and allowed the hologram to be activated that they saw. If I can find the reference for it I'll post it, but I'm quite certain that's what was written somewhere.
UPDATE: Thanks to Ingenero in a prev post:
http://www.scified.com/topic/24982

Indeed. I've always felt that the urns were kept in cold storage. To me it seemed obvious and it also explains why the Engineer's head was perfectly preserved and his body was not. I also assumed that the green goo was a biomechanical or biological agent that activates the Engineers' systems in their ships and structures, a really advanced version of our pressing a switch.

Would this "green stuff" be a required 'ingredient' for the creation of the Xenomorph? Would it has something to do with its biomechanical properties?
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"This mighty city shows the wonders of my hand."

Based on the reactions of the urns, and the degradation of the ceiling murals, opening the chamber definitely initiated a reaction that may or may not have been the one that the Engineers would see when they opened it. Maybe David's entries missed a step?
It also seems that the horrific wind storm was also triggered by the action of opening the chamber, or maybe it was just a huge coincidence?
IMHO, the green goo links visually to the green stone in the altar that stands before the bas-relief of the deacon(?) on the wall. Whether that was the intent of the filmmakers remains to be answered perhaps in some future sequel...

@FenGiddel Now that you mention it, that crazy Windstorm was insane. Almost like a tornado just suddenly ripped through that corridor, all from opening up a chamber and starting a hologram. LOL...

Whoever the Hierarchy are they would appear to possess an advanced form of weather manipulation/directed energy weaponry.
The storm triggers soon after the seal of the headroom is broken. The human crew have contaminated the purity of the room and the storm could be some sort of failsafe device?
I interpreted the sparkly green goo as an advanced nano tec which produces the holograms. Because the facility is old (we think) the panel David activates had some leakage, on a par with us leaving an old battery in a device, then it leaks and ruins the connections.
During the storm the elongated Giger-type head on top of the silo/temple erodes and changes from human-like features, to skeletal. Death symbolism.
That advanced weather tec could be what eventually wiped out the beings on 'Paradise'. What remains to be discovered is whether that was an ancient event or caused by David and his newly acquired Knowledge. Once again that would be symbolic with the stealing of fire.
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger

@FenGiddel I always thought the same about the 'green stuff' connection to the green 'crystal' or whatever it is. That crystal is one of the most mysterious things in the whole movie, it's not even much mentioned at the discussions we see... I remember a post in this forum about its possible nature, but I feel this is the kind of thing that will remain unexplainable even after the following sequels...
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"This mighty city shows the wonders of my hand."