Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Are insects affected by inbreeding like mammals?	[ "All life on earth is negatively impacted by inbreeding, including insects. This includes organisms that reproduce sexually vs asexually. Consider that a single bacterial colony originating from a single bacteria is much more susceptible to we wiped out by disease or antibiotics then a bacterial colony originating ...	[ "One recent example of what happens is [here](_URL_0_) This community of Muslims in Great Britain promotes marriage between cousins, and the birth defect rate is dramatically higher than average. **Research for BBC2's Newsnight in November 2005 showed British Pakistanis accounted for 3.4 per cent of all births but...
What is the official/academic consensus on Atlantis? Was it a real place? Based on a real place? Pure fiction? [x-post from /r/Askreddit]	[ "Because you got complete bullshit in AskReddit, I'll answer: No, it did not exist, nor is it based on any real event. Nor was it meant to be a depiction of a real, historical society. Nobody took it seriously until the nineteenth century or so, when it captured the hearts of spiritualists and charlatans. Rather, i...	[ "Hello everyone, Unfortunately, we have already had to remove a number of poor quality responses in this thread, including many asking about the deleted comments, which merely compound the issue. In this thread, there have been a large number of incorrect, speculative, or otherwise disallowed comments, and as such...
They day he leaves office, a former US President still knows many secrets. Is his lifelong security team responsible for protecting the man or the secrets?	[ "The person. There are countless number of people who are aware of countless number numbers of highly classified and secretive information. The Secretaries of Defense and State are likely to know almost as much information as the President, but they don't get lifetime protection." ]	[ "This is a hold-over from the physical book era. When physical books had to be printed, publishers had local partners in many different places in the world that did local marketing, printing, and distributing to local bookshops. So if you were in New York, you didn't have to talk to a book shop in Switzerland. The...
why do gas stations in the U.S. set prices per gallon with 9/10ths of a cent at he end of the dollar amount?	[ "Because most people will see it as a lower value. Just like stuff are advertised for 19.99 and a lot of people will think of that as \"less than twenty.\" 3.699 gets rounded in people's heads as three-sixty, not three-seventy. In a couple of days you can train your self to see the real value, 19.99 actually means ...	[ "Penn & Teller: Bullshit! did a show on this, its very worth a watch, they break it down quite well and understandable. [Link to the full episode](_URL_0_) on youtube. Warning, NSFW language and boobies in like the first 2 seconds, because its Penn & Teller and thats what they do" ]
Why does thinking of or touching chalk make my teeth feel weird?	[ "My body did something weird just from reading the title" ]	[ "Where did you get the idea that eating cheese neutralizes cavity forming acids?" ]
Did people always drink fruit juice throughout history - or was it seen as an extravagant waste of fruit until recently?	[ "No, people did sometimes drink fruit juice, especially apple juice, even in the 18th and 19th century. Usually it tended to naturally ferment, so it was less sweet and slightly alcoholic, although most 18th century ciders were probably a little less alcoholic than modern commercial hard cider. It was seen as a way...	[ "Hi OP, this is a cultural question, so it would greatly assist anyone considering answering if you could specify which culture you're asking about. For example, the name of a cultural group / country / geographic region, plus a rough time period. Otherwise, this question is simply too broad, as it encompasses almo...
Wednesday What's New in History	[ "New book coming out next month by Owsley and Jantz called Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton. For those who don't know, the ~9,500 year old remains of an adult male were discovered along the Columbia River in 1996. A firestorm of controversy erupted over the remains that...	[ "BTW, for those that are downvoting this question, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to explain the motivation. On reddit in general I could care less if something I write gets downvoted, but here in askHistorians it decreases the chances something I ask will get answered so if I am breaking some sor...
How were the cracks and streaks on Europa formed?	[ "The current theory is the moon is being flexed by Jupiter's gravitational tides, and the ice crust that floats over a liquid sea continually heaves and buckles under that stress. Water then percolates up through the cracks and leaves streaks of material behind on the surface of the ice, within those cracks." ]	[ "It was completely driven by tabloid speculation. [Here's a bit of slightly intelligent speculation](_URL_2_), but it's still a bit outlandish. [Here are the actual two images taken by the rover: [Photo 1](_URL_0_), [Photo 2](_URL_1_). It's pretty much just an ordinary rock with a bit of lighter material catching t...
Could we transport anti matter or would it destroy any form of transport we could ever build?	[ "Yes, it would be possible. You cannot put it in direct contact with a container made of normal matter, but you can use electromagnetic forces to contain it. Here are some links with relevant info: [CERN - Storing antimatter](_URL_0_) [Anti-Hydrogen stored for the first time \\(2010\\)](_URL_1_)" ]	[ "The same reason you can walk through an airplane isle even though you are unable to move at hundreds of miles an hour (or fly). The same reason you are able to survive walking around outside even though the earth is spinning around at thousands of miles per hour. Ir more precisely, why you can swim in a pool even...
Why do most big birds fly away when they see a human but small birds don't really care?	[ "Big birds are, ironically, in more danger. The bigger the bird, the longer it takes them to get airborn, and the more likely they are to be on the menu. Small animals generally aren't worth the trouble to catch, especially because they're light and fast. The little birds aren't afraid of you because they know they...	[ "If you ask for 1 pen, it costs you two dollars. If you ask for 100 000 pens, they will only cost you one dollar each. I prefer selling you 100 000 pens at half price, than selling you 1 at full price and have 99 999 sitting around doing nothing. In a similar way, if you ask for a small amount of money, you pay a b...
Why do dreams always seem to end at the "good part"?	[ "There is actually a reason for this. Sleep is essentially just a reduced state of mental activity. When you start getting excited, emotional, sexually aroused, or anything else because of a dream your brain begins increasing its level of activity and you wake up. Simply because it is the best part is why you wake ...	[ "When we’re awake, particles, allergies or an illness can stimulate the nerve cells in the nose. The nerves then send signals to the brain in order to initiate a sneeze to get rid of whatever is irritating it. But during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, certain neurotransmitters shut down. This means that the motor ...
Why can water that feels pleasant to an adult be scalding to a baby?	[ "\"Pleasant\" is too imprecise. 70F water is not going to scald a baby. Babies take warm baths from the day they pop out of the vajayjay. Some adults find higher temperature water pleasant, but other adults would find the same temperature water to be painfully hot. A baby's skin is more sensitive than an adults, so...	[ "I read an article a somewhere that said it was do the the \"roughness\" or randomness of the noise. As the fingers nails catch and slip it produces random variances in the amplitude and frequency of the noise. Our brains find the signal unpredictable and that somehow causes it the view it as a danger. There are a...
Do animals besides humans have eyes that become nearsighted/farsighted or have astigmatism?	[ "There's actually animals for whom it's completely normal and healthy to be nearsighted. Example: mice. As you may know, they can climb and jump extremely well. But because their eyes are arranged towards the sides of their heads (typical for prey animals), their depth perception isn't great. So how do they judge w...	[ "There isn't anything particularly special about 2012. But the Sun isn't a very good lens anyway - it's too small and too close, so you only notice lensing very close to its surface. There are three types of lensing we can see: 1) Microlensing. Two star systems line up, and the one in the background looks way brigh...
What does a volume knob physically do inside a speaker to increase/decrease the volume when you turn it?	[ "You're actually controlling a variable resistor, a.k.a. a potentiometer -- which can control the amount current in a circuit. Lower current = weaker sound, higher current = louder sound. Basically, when you turn up the volume, you're allowing more electricity to flow through the circuit that leads to the amplifier...	[ "Sound waves are a lot like ocean waves. If you put something on the surface (say, a sailboat) and watch it over a few wave passes not much happens. The boat moves forward a little, then back a little. The water in each wave essentially moves in a circle, so the boat doesn't go anywhere. Sound is a little different...
Why have none of the experts suggested that flight MH370 might have crashed and "vaporized" like flight 93 did on 911?	[ "Flight 93 had wreckage spread all over a field in Pennsylvania. None of the experts have suggested that it MH370 vaporized like Flight 93 because all of the experts know that Flight 93 didn't vaporize." ]	[ "there are differences in the way that the rock Sheers. Megathrust vs Strike-Slip In a Megathrust Earthquake (the sort which cause tsunamis) the fault breaks vertically and the seafloor is lifted or dropped by several feet or meters around the fault. Moving the Sea floor up or down moves the entire column of water...
What caused the genetic makeup of people across different countries and cultures to be so different? (eg. average asians being shorter, europeans being of larger build, etc.)	[ "Isolation and adaptation to new environments mainly. As humans spread throughout the world they encountered all sorts of ecosystems that varied in everything (i.e. food type and quantity, temperature, water availability, exposure, altitude, predators, etc). Therefore they developed all sorts of unique traits to fa...	[ "Straight hair that lies flat tends to hold in heat. That's an advantage in cold climates. Curly hair allows heat to escape while still providing protection from the sun to the skin underneath. That's an advantage in hot climates. Melanin in skin (the part that makes it dark) tends to block what's needed to make vi...
When does it go from "My cute little baby who is naked" to child porn?	[ "When sexual content is introduced. Nudity is not pornography, and having or taking pictures of naked children, in and of itself, is not illegal. It only becomes pornography when the primary purpose is to illicit a sexual response." ]	[ "In my art history class (textbook: Jansen) we learned that it was a lack of understanding; people had little reason to think that people in the past dressed differently. No paintings survived from Roman or biblical times [EDIT per hoytwarner, below: at least, none that people would have been familiar with at the t...
I've always wanted to try shrooms. Can someone explain the pro's and con's and what I should look out for?	[ "Just don't EVER allow anyone to step on your tail." ]	[ "Your eye sensors tire after a short while viewing a static image. In this example they're giving you a fixed point to focus on so that the image stays positioned in the same place on your retina. Notice how her lips are green in the negative. Staring at that wears our your green sensor there. Then, when you switch...
Why do people prefer "Judeo-Christian" over "Abrahamic"?	[ "From a pseudo historical standpoint Jewish and Christians wouldn't accept Islam because its claim to the Abrahamic lineage is based on Ishmael (eldest son, but born to a slave). Whereas Jewish and Christians trace themselves thru Isaac. Islam and Jewish/Christians disagree which son was almost sacrificed (others ...	[ "This guy explains it very nicely: _URL_0_ Generally the idea of the hemi is good, but it is not very efficient when you design the layout of the valves and sparkplugs, and it is difficult to get a good compression in. Pent-roof is the way to go." ]
what exactly builds up in a pimple/cyst to make it so big?	[ "The sebaceous glands are tiny skin glands that secrete sebum, a waxy or oily substance that lubricates the skin and hair. Sebaceous glands are found inside the pores of our skin, all over the body, except the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. There are more sebaceous glands on the face and scalp than els...	[ "Talking completely out of my ass here, maybe it has to do with some instinctive grooming drive that we inherited from our ancestors. If you go to the zoo or watch a documentary, you can see that apes/etc. instinctively groom each other; so some people probably get a sense of pleasure from seeing such things becaus...
How is it that artificial fruit flavors were chosen that essentially don't really taste like that fruit?	[ "Because fruit flavours is produced from the sum of hundreds of chemical compounds found in the fruit. Artifical flavours, on the other hand, can only contain the few major chemical compounds for reasons of cost. So they taste different. Banana is an interesting case, because banana flavouring is based on the taste...	[ "Keep in mind that musical instruments create a sound by vibrating; instruments with different shapes can have a variety of different [overtones](_URL_0_), and the degree to which these different vibrations damp (i.e. stop) is going to have an effect on the sound of a note. A sustained note can feature a variety of...
What purpose do beards serve for humans? And why only males?	[ "Traits don't have to serve a purpose to survive. They just need to not inhibit sexual selection. Look at cancer. We still suffer from it but only tend to after we've likely been able to reproduce so it isn't selected out. I'm not saying that beards don't serve a purpose. They might. They just don't have to as long...	[ "Hi OP, this is a cultural question, so it would greatly assist anyone considering answering if you could specify which culture you're asking about. For example, the name of a cultural group / country / geographic region, plus a rough time period. Otherwise, this question is simply too broad, as it encompasses almo...
What exactly happens to my ice cream when it becomes freezer burned? Why is there a distinct flavor?	[ "you open the freezer door, heat goes in melts the ice cream slightly, you close the door, the ice cream freezes but nothing is churning the ice cream so the freezing action forces the water out. rinse and repeat and you get large chunks of ice. ice cream also has lots of fat in it which tends to absorb any free fl...	[ "First of all, there are limits to how much is given for free. Usually \"one per visit\", \"one per day\" or \"one per week\". That keeps the costs from getting too prohibitive. The winner could go into a McDonald's, get an ice cream, and had to come back later, and couldn't just sit in the lobby from open to close...
Why is gas so cheap in the US right now?	[ "There are some countries that depend on oil being above a certain price so that they don't lose money. In order to stop some of these countries from doing bad things, the bigger countries are making more oil so that the bad countries will need to be nice so that they can sell oil again." ]	[ "The Theory of relativity. The same reason time seems to pass In a blink when you're enjoying a night with friends, yet seems to last an eternity during the last 10 minutes of work." ]
Why do so many Chefs smoke?	[ "Its the easiest way to get out of the kitchen for a 5 minute break." ]	[ "Nostalgia, too ~ a lot of older guys that now have lots of money are reliving their youth - they either had one when they were young & want another, or wanted one when they were young and can now afford to pay the big bucks to get one." ]
What did Carthaginian colonization actually look like? Was it similar to settler colonialism like in Australia and north America, or was it more akin to indirect rule and assimilation of locals?	[ "While you're waiting for a reply, [this one](_URL_0_) by u/RainyResident is pretty thorough and details sort of what you're asking as well as the nature of Greek colonization, so you get some comparisons and contrasts." ]	[ "If your next door neighbor is trampling flowers in your backyard, and your much larger, much bigger neighbor from across the street decides to try and stop him, it's in your interest to just let him do that, whether with implicit or explicit approval. ... especially when you can't get to that corner of the backyar...
How are cranes built?	[ "Some cranes actually raise themselves, see [this timelapse video](_URL_0_) for an example." ]	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
Why are websites (instagram. snapchat etc...) bought for billions?	[ "the assets are deemed by the purchase to be worth billions. the assets being the users and the niche technology" ]	[ "There are a lot more steps involved than you see. From your perspective as a customer, you see the the money leave your account immediately when you make a purchase; but in reality there's a lot of processing that goes on and banks talking to each other and checking with each other before passing the money over. J...
How do we know the average global temperature from thousands of years ago?	[ "One way is to look at air bubbles found in glaciers. Scientists are able to estimate when the ice was formed and the air trapped inside is exactly what the air was like when that part of the glacier formed. So by examining the composition of that air, they can make a pretty good guess to what the temperature was."...	[ "We don't, we go by the most logical and most common accounts. If there is a fight with 10 people, and 6 of them all say the same thing and the evidence backs it up, then the other 4 saying it was aliens was probably wrong." ]
Whats the difference between a lounge,a pub and a bistro?	[ "A lounge is typically a somewhat upscale establishment serving cocktails, with music to set ambiance but not for dancing. A Pub is a \"come as you are\" casual establishment serving mostly beer and maybe shots. A bistro is a casual restaurant serving homey/rustic fare on the lighter side, but more substantial food...	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
when someone dies with their eyes open, why do people close the eyes?	[ "As the eye dries and goes cloudy after death it looks really creepy. Closing the eyes makes it look more like they're asleep, which is easier for many people to deal with." ]	[ "Joseph II likened himself as an enlightened monarch and often tried to enact Enlightenment principles in his decrees. One of these principles was to simplify burials and funerary practices. He wanted to change seemingly wasteful Austrian funeral culture of elaborate coffins and embalming. In doing so, not only wou...
Why does it snow so much during the winter when it rarely rains anytime else?	[ "Seasonal precipitation cycles are common, and have a lot of different reasons that vary by region. Without knowing where you live it's impossible to give a specific answer. However, I'd like to correct a common misconception: snow is not frozen rain, [rain is melted snow](_URL_0_). Even in the summer, almost all r...	[ "Our built up immunity can last a really long time... against viruses that don't change / evolve very much (like polio, chickenpox, etc.). But the cold and flu are constantly changing, they're like viruses on crack cocaine just constantly on the move and lookin' for that next high (in this case, the high would be i...
are Tesla electric cars actually more environmentally friendly when the battery disposal is taken into account?	[ "If you would throw away the battery afterwards probably not, but Tesla plans on collecting and recycling them." ]	[ "Incidentally, this is the problem that _URL_0_ is trying to solve. Here is the map of the overall plan: _URL_1_ There is enough solar energy in the Sahara desert in 6 hours to power the entire world in 1 year. From the Sahara, they plan on connecting Europe with underwater high voltage direct current lines. The p...
Why do many doctors prescribe prednisone for patients with infections?	[ "A well-functioning immune system often has undesirable by products when mounting an immune response. Additionally, the immune system is quite complex with numerous signaling pathways and different types of white blood cells responding. For example, the cascade of cytokines, which help propagate an immune response,...	[ "It's like weeding a garden. If you don't get the roots out, the weeds come back. Kill all the weeds and you keep a healthy garden, leave the roots and they come back. But with anti-biotics it survival of the fittest, the most resistant survive the die off and re-populate with a more resistant strain." ]
How many people were in the IRA (at its height)?	[ "I think it would be good to specify what particular IRA you wish to know about. Are you talking about the Old IRA that Michael Collins fought with? Or the Provisional IRA?" ]	[ "Do you have a source on any of those figures? I have a difficult time imagining that record-keeping in Tibet during that timeframe was very much reliable from what little I know of Tibetan history." ]
Why do males die before females?	[ "This is only true for male versus female life expectancy and nothing really to do with any particular person. As has been said, men are more likely to have risky jobs. They are also more likely to engage in risky behavior and less likely to take care of their health, such as by going to the doctor when they have ...	[ "The starting player has what we call a trivial advantage (meaning, it is trivially clear that there is one), which is created by the rule that when a winning position (checkmate) is reached, play stops immediately. This has the result that every time a white player wins, he or she has been allowed to play one tu...
Why do Jewish people wear those string things below their shirts?	[ "Those are the tassels called Tzitzit which are on a religious prayer shawl called a Tallit. They are suppose to be worn during prayer times, on the Sabbath, and on the High Holy days though some orthodox Jews wear it daily. As with most religious garments there are lots of meanings attached to it, but in general ...	[ "Balisors are less common around airports (where air traffic is tightly controlled) than in the countryside where low-flying planes are likely (if not common) for crop-dusting, police, state natural resource departments. They can also be visible at night, read here: _URL_0_" ]
How does instinct work, how do animals just "know" how to procreate/hunt/know which plants are edible?	[ "No one really knows for sure. It’s assumed to be an inherent mental programming that has yet to be decoded. A good example: as humans we instinctively pull away from something that causes us pain. If you touch something hot or get cut, you jerk your hand away. But you were never taught that, it just happens. Sor...	[ "Yes, we can infer it from the genetic distances between species. What this means is that we pretty much count how many mutations are different between species, those that have fewer differences are more closely related and those that have more differences are more distantly related. When you compare a lot of speci...
Why do smartphones never seem to get viruses but computers do when people use them for pretty much the same stuff these days?	[ "Your PC can run any program that's on it at any time. But your Android smartphone can only run programs downloaded from the app store unless you change an option deep in settings, and your iPhone can't run programs from unknown sources at all (unless you jailbreak it) And because viruses are computer programs that...	[ "It's like you're driving a car down the highway and you need to replace the tires because they're old and worn out. You could engineer a really complicated system that would allow you to safely change the tires while you're still moving. Or, you could just stop the car, replace the tires, then get going again. ...
It seems like the most common and ubiquitous sense of humor in anime tends to be having a character or character act perverted. How did this specific joke become the go to humor across eras and genres of anime?	[ "Are you referring to characters going through their daily life and then by some strange turn of fate end up falling on top of a girl/copping a feel or getting a panty shot followed swiftly by said girl beating the shit out of him for his intended or accidental transgression? If so, slapstick humour is not a new in...	[ "Soda drinks were developed and popularized in the US. The US had Puritan traditions (see Kellogg corn flakes) that influenced diet. Because of these consumption of alcohol, beer, wine was seen as bad (see prohibition). The US didn't have a cafe culture. This left a void. Where could young people go to socialize? T...
What's the modern use of Thallium (TI) a chemical element not found widely in nature?	[ "It's used as a detector, in the form of Thallium(I) bromide in X-ray, Gamma-ray, and infrared cameras, and Thallium(I) iodide is used in mercury arc lights to adjust the color and also in radiation detectors. In general though, Thallium is really really toxic, so it's not popular and practically every application ...	[ "I remember one story, but many details escape me. Some patients (schizophrenia, if I remember correctly) got better when moved to a new place, because that place had well water that was naturally high in lithium. When not drinking that water, their symptoms reverted. Sadly, the lithium infused water was only a tem...
How does music work in tonal languages such as Chinese?	[ "For the most part, Chinese singers stick to the tune of the song rather than the natural tones of the language. This is why virtually all Chinese music videos have subtitles. EDIT: I should probably add that getting the tune to match with the natural tones of the lyrics IS taken into account (See: [北京欢迎你](_URL_0_...	[ "Still decoding the song. You can verify this by looking at the spectrum analyzer while on mute." ]
What part of the mouth changes when producing the m (muh) sound and the p (puh) sound?	[ "M is called the bilabial nasal, meaning that it is produced by letting air flow out of the nose. It is also a voiced consonant, meaning that the vocal cords vibrate during its production. P is the voiceless bilabial stop. Air does not flow out through the nose and the vocal cords do not vibrate during its producti...	[ "Here is a great animation: _URL_0_ As you can see from the animation, the inner surface of the pen is grooved. The button has a \"holder\", which holds the pen shaft in place and slides back and forth on the grooves. The shaft has a complementary part that fits into the holder. The holder is designed such that the...
How can all the immense complexity of human organism be coded in only few tens of thousands of genes?	[ "It's actually not that 'little' of code, if you want to look at it that way. The human genome consists of over 3 billion base pairs - and while we can consider only about 15% of those base pairs to directly code for proteins, the other 85% are slowly being determined to control other things (like protein interacti...	[ "Put Simply - Because your brain isn't a computer The \"organic computer\" metaphor is really a bad metaphor for the human brain. Our memory isn't stored like a computers, so we can't do something like iterate every single word we know... but we can also hold a conversation which is something computer struggle to d...
What is the evolutionary advantage of the tibula and fibula being separate and not one combined bone?	[ "You can spin your foot in different directions and change the angle of the plane the base of your foot makes while keeping structural integrity. Great for running on uneven surfaces and quickly changing directions." ]	[ "> ...why are all species so distinct? Many species aren't particularly distinct. Certain species of rabbit and certain species of cat, for example, are aesthetically similar. Various species of bird are similar to one another, as are various species of fish, plants, etc. > ...why do we have chimpanzees and people...
The Situation in Israel and Gaza	[ "Hamas is an Islamic fundamentalist regime that governs the Gaza strip (one of the parts surrounding Israel which Arab Palestinians govern). A missile was fired which targeted Israeli civilians from within the Gaza strip. Hamas claims that rogue agents fired the missile in a unofficial capacity, however Israel has ...	[ "[Search before submitting, especially when asking about current events. The search box is in the upper righthand corner of the page.](_URL_0_)" ]
What is "Daddy issues"	[ "Usually it means the female lacked a father figure while growing up. either he wasn't around, was too controlling, didn't interact enough or positively in her life. This leads to her adults life and in a way, seeking out a male role model which is usually some creepy fat old guy with money and a boat." ]	[ "Nostalgia, too ~ a lot of older guys that now have lots of money are reliving their youth - they either had one when they were young & want another, or wanted one when they were young and can now afford to pay the big bucks to get one." ]
Is Finland education as amazing as everyone says. If it is, how did they achieve it ?	[ "A large reason is culture. Education is highly valued there, far more so than in most other countries. The high amount of money they spend on it helps but a lot of it comes from the fact that parents, teachers and the general community is engaged in and encourages education, instead of using it as a federally mand...	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
I read somewhere that scientist are working on microorganisms that were modified to "eat" salt and thus possibly converting sea water into drinkable fresh water. Is that goal realistic at all?	[ "The biggest issue I see is that you now have two problems to deal with: the salt, and the microorganisms that are living in the water with the salt inside them." ]	[ "It does. The SODIS method is a way to use clear 2-liter bottles and sunlight to make water safe(r) to drink, very useful in third world countries." ]
Why do so many and differents cultures use coins in their national clothes?	[ "Do you mean using coins as adornment, as though they were beads? Such as this [Amerindian Dress](_URL_0_)?" ]	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
Did the Ancient Egyptians believe that their gods were literally humanoids with animal heads, or did they believe that the representation was symbolic?	[ "It's kind of tough to answer that because of our contemporary perspective. Regarding what your professor said, mystery cults and representation of the single divine force is probably a later Egyptian conception, with some Hellenic influence. The religious structure in Egypt changed dramatically over time, but the ...	[ "Small models. If you go to Mount Rushmore or the Crazy Horse memorial they have the scale model on display that the artists used for planning purposes. These models are perfect replicas of what's going to get built, but at a small scale that you can actually walk around. By taking measurements off these models and...
Why do Homeowner Associations hold such tremendous power?	[ "HOAs are entirely voluntary. If you don't want to join one, you simply don't purchase property governed by an association. That'll be pretty hard to do if you want to live in a place with shared property (like a condo building), but it's quite easy if you want to live in a house. There are plenty of horror stories...	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
Why is it hard to build a nuclear weapon?	[ "To make a fission bomb, you need either U-235 or Pu-239. Both of these are really hard to get. Natural uranium is 99.2% U-238, which is not good for bombs, so it has to be enriched to at least 80% U-235. There are [various enrichment methods](_URL_1_), all very expensive, time consuming, and requiring large facili...	[ "When cells divide they make pretty much exact copies of themselves. Introduce radiation to the equation and the copying process goes screwy and the new cell is different. Rinse and repeat over and over and you end up with body cells which are completely different in shape size and function to what they were origin...
How come inhaling steam doesn't flood your lungs or make you drown?	[ "When water turns from liquid to steam, it takes up about 1600× more volume. So when you inhale a lot of steam, you're only getting a drop or so of water in your lungs. _URL_0_" ]	[ "The same reason you can walk through an airplane isle even though you are unable to move at hundreds of miles an hour (or fly). The same reason you are able to survive walking around outside even though the earth is spinning around at thousands of miles per hour. Ir more precisely, why you can swim in a pool even...
Why do we almost never hear the term "global warming" anymore, which seems to be replaced with "climate change"?	[ "Conservative strategist Frank Lutz pushed the idea of calling it climate change instead of global warming because climate change sounds less scary and can be conflated with historic changes. \"The climate is always changing, so what is happening now is fine\"- have you heard that \"\"\"logic\"\"\" before? It turns...	[ "Relative humidity is relative to the carrying capacity of the air. Colder air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air, which is how you get condensation on cold cups carried in warm humid weather - the air next to the cup cools and the water vapor in it precipitates out as liquid. So if relative humidity stays...
What is happening inside of the tip of our fingers and toes that causes nails to come out and grow?	[ "Basically, the base of the growth is situated at the part of the nail that is closest to your wrist (when your fingers are extended). Your skin folds over itself at the base, forming a sinus - a cavity in the external body in this case. All the walls of this sinus are external surfaces of your skin. In the base of...	[ "Every time you make a copy of a cell, there is a chance for errors. For example when you photocopy a first print, it is pretty crisp and close to the original, but there are a few minor discrepencies. Now if you photocopy the copy, it gets more distorted, and so on until some letters get hard to read, it gets diff...
The phenomenon of Wind	[ "Generically speaking wind is the motion of air moving from high pressure zones to low pressure zones. It can be caused by any number of things but a major player is ocean currents that move warm water (and air) around the globe. Other events that can trigger wind include but are not limited to: Solar Radiation, Ea...	[ "yes--tied to changes in air pressure. [here's one version of the explanation](_URL_0_)." ]
What is energy fundamentally?	[ "Energy is not an emergent property, even a single particle in free space has energy. Fundamentally, energy (or really the Hamiltonian) is the generator of translations through time. Whether you're doing quantum mechanics or classical mechanics, if you know the state of your system at one instant of time, the Hamil...	[ "The equation E = mc^(2) is true in any unit system. I could measure E in ergs and m in stones if I really wanted to. The equation would still be true. The formula is also not arbitrary at all. It's derivable from relativity." ]
Why are most sponges only soft when wet?	[ "Many sponges are made from cellulose. Cellulose contains hydroxyl groups (OH) on the end that form hydrogen bonds to other hydroxyl groups on other cellulose molecules that stiffen the materiel. Water (H20) also forms hydrogen bonds. The water gets in the way and replaces some of the bonds the cellulose is forming...	[ "A simple example to augment the sciencey explanation: Basic idea: Materials have a point of no return A simple sheet of printer paper can flop back and forth for eternity with little adverse effect. As soon as something puts a crease in that piece of paper, it is pretty much permanently changed. That crease will...
Were There Any Ancient or Medieval Equivalents to Modern-Day Museums?	[ "Churches actually filled a lot of these archival/museum type roles for many communities. The public might not have had complete access, but the church provided a lot of protection for religious and some secular artifacts, manuscripts, and artwork." ]	[ "You're going to need to narrow down your time frame here, keep in mind you're asking about a time frame of 1000 years over a very, very large area of land with vastly different cultures. You'll be more likely to receive an answer if you narrow the question down to a more specific time." ]
Beet juice to melt ice: environmental impact?	[ "The Morton Arboretum in IL uses a combo - beet juice and salt: \"When [beet juice is] mixed with rock salt, this natural ingredient clears the arboretum’s roads and trails faster than salt alone. And because there’s less salt in the product, it’s less harmful to the environment...\" Here's the source article that...	[ "Well, as its seeping out of the permafrost, were not quite aware of to which extent we have to do something about it. OFC, its a clear indicator that the weather is getting warmer (global warming), but it might go both ways when it comes to the aftermath" ]
Why do scars form? Why does the body never fully heal the wound?	[ "When your body is damaged, your body “panics” to seal up and protect the wound. It lays down a random mess of tissue (scar tissue) to simply cover up the wound and protect the body. Some times, the scar tissue is unable to re-learn how to be normal tissue again, and the scar is formed." ]	[ "Your understanding of how heat work in atomic level is correct. But when you have bunch of atoms together, you will get a slightly different thing that react to heat differently. Your skin is made up of many big molecules (molecules= many atoms bonded together into one thing), and they need to be in a very specifi...
football helmets, why can’t a soft outer layer reduce force?	[ "Such covers absolutely exist and work. They have not yet become common outside of practice (in my opinion) for purely visual reasons. And because fans and proponents of high contact sports like football already have an overly macho sensibility that doesn't allow them to accept changes that would significantly bene...	[ "1. Since when is the brainstem not protected? [Isn't it inside the base of the skull? ](_URL_0_) 2. As I understand it, ribs aren't purely for protection. They are also needed for lungs to properly inflate and deflate." ]
If hormones in food can cause early puberty then wouldn't they also affect aging? If so, how?	[ "Hormones are only suspected of causing early puberty by non-scientists. Growth hormones require receptors in order to be taken into cells, otherwise they are broken down by the digestive system like any other peptide. rBGH cows are treated with Bovine Growth Hormone not Human Growth Hormone. Humans lack receptors ...	[ "Very fractionally younger, because you were moving at a very high speed relative to them. Astronauts on the ISS age slower by about 0.01 seconds per year." ]
Why don't (most) animals care when you watch them mating?	[ "the only reason we have shame towards it is because we are told from an early age that this is shameful. That is all there is to it" ]	[ "Some tell by smell. Some tell by tiny differences in appearance. Some also tell by behaviors, like sound." ]
Did any Western Roman emperor have a huge harem of women or a large number of concubines? If no, why not?	[ "To add to this, why was monogamy the norm in pre-Christian Greece and Rome? What were the cultural differences that made monogamy the norm among Roman emperors but not among Asian or Middle Eastern rulers?" ]	[ "In addition to [Pompeiian graffiti](_URL_1_) and other [epigraphy](_URL_3_), much of which was quite crude, we also have the books for a number of comedic plays by [Plautus](_URL_4_) and [Terence](_URL_0_) and satirical poems by [Horace](_URL_5_) and [Juvenal](_URL_2_). And what were they like? Much like humor in ...
Why do I get a pain in my side when running?	[ "Side-aches are caused by the up and down motion of running putting stress on your internal organs, most especially when you’re breathing out. When breathing out, there is an increase in the tension on the ligaments holding your organs in place, in particular the liver (which is a big and heavy organ), as the diaph...	[ "We aren't allowed to give medical advice. This is because none of us here can properly examine and diagnose you over the Internet. Go see a doctor." ]
How easy was it to get away with murder in the Roman Empire?	[ "It depends on who you killed. If you killed a male citizen, you were in big trouble. If you killed the wife of a male citizen, you were in slightly less trouble, but it was still pretty bad. If you killed a slave, as long as it was yours, you weren't really in trouble; if you killed somebody else's slave you had t...	[ "If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.) The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th...
Why doesn’t chemotherapy have a 100% success rate?	[ "Chemo targets actively replicating cells in your body. That's why you lose your hair and have GI issues (those cells replicate a lot). The primary tumor is usually active, but some early disseminated cells might be hiding dormant at metastatic sites. They get passed over and only start proliferating many years lat...	[ "No computer which controls a power plant should ever be directly connected to the Internet. Stuxnet worked because of the incompetency of the operators. Nuclear accidents never happen as acts of god, they _always_ happen because people made layers upon layers of mistakes." ]
Is sitting truly dangerous?	[ "The act of sitting is humanities most common form of not exercising. If you are sitting odds are you aren't exercising (even if you technically could be). The logic is that if you spend your time sitting you are not spending time exercising (commonly anyway) and thus eliminating/reducing sitting forces people to g...	[ "the studies only show that people who drink diet soda can weigh more, they don't control for food intake. the issue is people act like it's ok to eat cake for dinner if they have a diet soda with it." ]
What would happen if the sun's rays are concentrated on an object by holding a magnifying glass, while in outer space? would it heat up and vapourise ?	[ "It wouldn't burn in the sense of starting a fire. However, it could still heat up and boil or sublimate. You wouldn't even need a magnifying glass, just close enough to the sun to absorb that much energy." ]	[ "[The comments on this gif](_URL_0_) explain it, specifically [this one](_URL_0_csz5f42): > It's called retinoscopy. You shine a narrow beam through the pupil and focus it on the retina. Then you move the beam up and down. If the beam moves up or down on the retina too fast or too slow compared to your own movemen...
Why did Sega die so quickly? Their systems often seemed superior to the ones that were out during the time.	[ "Personal thoughts: * Primary reason that Sega hardware and some games where superior was Sega had excellent Arcade machines. When Arcades died off so did this advantage. * Hardware strategy all over the place and costly, Genesis had too many add ons that no one would develop for because not enough people had them ...	[ "Demand. Well, lack of it. Compactflash is a much less popular format than SD cards, and thus the market is much less competitive. Competitive markets mean you can sell a lot of something for razor-thin profit margins, but if you sell less, you need to charge extra on each to profit." ]
How did the names of Chinese dynasties (Han, Sui, Yuan etc.) come about? Were dynasties called that by the people living during the time, or did historians come up with the names later on?	[ "It varies from one dynasty to another, but early rulers of China had a tendency to name the dynasties they found after the places they hailed from, or are strongly associated with them. E.g., in the case of Han, as stated in its Wikipedia page:_URL_0_ , the first emperor Liu Ban was once appointed as the prince of...	[ "Queen Elizabeth I was just, as you say, Queen Elizabeth. The new citations and additions of \"I\" were added after the ascension of Elizabeth II. As an example, if you look at the newer editions of Sir J. E. Neale's classic biography of Elizabeth I, you will see that from the first edition (published in 1934) he m...
The Swedish Social Democratic Party ruled almost uninterrupted from 1932-1976. What enabled the social democrats to hold on to power for this long? What legacies did the party leave behind for modern Sweden?	[ "About the second question, in hindsight changing it to \"what legacies did this period of social democratic rule leave for modern sweden\" is more appropriate." ]	[ "What exactly do you mean by \"harness fire\"? Regarding the fire that didn't go out, I believe you are referring to the fire the Vestal Virgins were charged with keeping aflame. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of the goddess of the hearth, and were chosen around 12 years old or younger and made 30 year vows of...
Do we lose a noticeable amount of weight through cellular respiration over the course of a day?	[ "Certainly, when people cite the 3500 caloric deficit leading to a pound of adipose (fat) tissue lost, the majority of this weight is going to be lost through the end metabolites of cellular respiration, water and carbon dioxide (and in the case of proteins, ammonia). So depending on one's caloric deficit, a large ...	[ "I'm sorry that I'm no expert, but I remember reading about this the last time a similar question was asked: _URL_0_ Basically, you percieve time faster after your run because of endorphines released during the work out, which means that the music seems slower. This is apparently also why a lot of rock musicians pl...
Was there any particular reason the writers of the United States Constitution didn't set a fixed number of Justices to the Supreme Court?	[ "I will expand this comment later, when I have more time to write, but the short answer is that the Constitution left the number and size of federal courts in the hands of Congress. Congress determined the number of Justices on the Supreme Court, as well as the number and size of inferior courts in the landmark [Ju...	[ "East coast states were original chartered by various other entities. Western states wanted to join the union as fast as possible, usually. One of the bars to entry was population - you need _____ people to be a state (cutoff varies over time). If you have a bigger chunk of land, it will have more people, ergo quic...
When we exercise and burn calories, where do they go?	[ "Calories are unit of measure for energy, not a physical object. You use up calories when you spend the energy to power your muscles and organs. The waste products from this process are exhaled in the form of CO2 and other gases and in the compounds filtered out by your kidneys and liver and expelled when you urina...	[ "No where actually, all the data is still on your hard drive. Your computer has just marked that files spot as usable space, eventually it'll get overwritten. There are special programs that can fully erase a file by writing a bunch of zeroes over it." ]
What was the plan if Hitler was captured?	[ "You might find these threads helpful: _URL_1_ _URL_0_" ]	[ "_URL_0_ \"The Milwaukee protocol (MP), a procedure reported to prevent death after the onset of rabies symptoms, has been performed over 26 times since its inception in 2004 but has only saved one life. Overwhelming failure has lead health officials to label the protocol, a red herring.\"" ]
Does the existence of the Planck length imply the universe has an underlying "structure"?	[ "No, it's just a length constructed from physical constants. It is not the fundamental distance. The universe is not divided into a grid of planck length cubes." ]	[ "I initially was extremely sceptical, as the thread question is both wide-ranging and oddly specific. However, reading your explanatory post I got a much better idea of what it was you are looking for. You raise several valid points and I think the questions you are asking are interesting ones. But you mostly answe...
The difference between continually and continuously. Bonus: Consistently	[ "Continually: It keeps on happening. Continuously: It is happening all the time without stopping. Consistently: It happens the same way each time." ]	[ "A big one is, well, most of the bible. Was there a united monarchy? If so, what did it look like? Is there something behind the Exodus narrative, or is it a myth to give the Israelites a history separate from the other Canaanite groups?" ]
If 2 sets of identical twins have babies together (M1+F1, M2+F2) would the offspring appear to be siblings genetically?	[ "Yes, they'd genetically be like siblings. And there wouldn't be any way for those couples to have biological children that wouldn't be genetically siblings. This is ignoring things like epigenetic effects, of course, but those don't show up on DNA tests anyway." ]	[ "[Here's a java demo of a double mass-spring system](_URL_3_). The motion of these types of systems can often be described as a sum of [normal modes](_URL_4_). In the geometry you described, a common normal mode is for the masses to sort of [pass the oscillation back and forth](_URL_0_). There are plenty of other s...
Why does water that you carry feel heavier than water that you consumed?	[ "When you drink it, the water is at the near center of your body, in your backpack it's not. There i more support at the center of your body so it feels lighter. Carrying it on your back also requires a posture that is harder to maintain and thus requires more energy and may exhaust your muscles more." ]	[ "Supply and demand. People are willing to pay more for the portable .5L bottle when they are out and just want to grab something to drink. It's an \"impulse buy.\" But the 2L cokes are to be brought home and put in the refrigerator and drank over a period of time. So, it is less about the materials and more about t...
Are there any (hypothetical) puzzles that can only be solved when moving parts of the puzzle at relativistic speeds?	[ "How about how to fit a 2 km train on a circular 1 km track? It's impossible normally, but if the train is moving at 87% the speed of light it works fine. The game [Velocity Raptor](_URL_0_) involves several puzzles that require moving at relativistic speeds. For example, you unlock a door by making several blocks ...	[ "Think about things bouncing around. Imagine a box with a fan in it. Put 20 balls in ithe box. Now imagine a basket to one side just the right size for the balls. Turn on the fan. The balls jump around randomly. At some point a ball will fall into the basket. This will happen at a given rate which will depends on h...
How did the city-state come to be replaced by the territorial state and later the nation state?	[ "I don't think an evolutionary model is at work here, because if you take a broad enough view there isn't really any strong tendency one way or the other. Different regions circle in and out of various different models of political organization, and it is very easy of assuming one of them is the \"natural\" version...	[ "Greetings everyone. In the few minutes this sub has been up, it's attracting sub-standard responses. Just a reminder of a few of the rules: * no responses covering events/conditions post-1994, per this sub's \"20-year rule\" prohibiting discussion of current events * no anecdotes * no speculation OP: your question...
Why are some animals able to eat feces without apparent ill effects when it's so unhealthy for humans?	[ "Some animals do eat feces, but it can be for digestive purposes. Take rabbits or some rodents, they will eat their own feces in order to better digest it, as they do not have the physical anatomy to digest complex sugars like cellulose, and thus rely on microbial processes and multiple-digestions. They will eat ...	[ "Dogs have keen enough smell that they can go beyond \"That's poo!\" to \"That's dog poo from a female\" or \"That's dog poo from a dog that eats lots of steak\". But to get the more detailed information, they need to be closer." ]
How can flies move on their own accord inside of a moving train? Shouldn't they get propelled to the back because they're technically in the air?	[ "I hate that this question is downvoted so much. C'mon people, why are we punishing people for asking questions? Whatever happened to \"there's no such thing as a dumb question?\" awersF, please keep asking questions about the world around you. Discoveries are made because people question their perceptions establis...	[ "Odor is carried by molecules. When you smell lemon, for example, little molecules from the lemon are making their way through the air to your nose. Now think about what happens when you smell shit..." ]
Does 0 calories always mean no weight gain?	[ "You mean they didn't eat any food? Yes, they would lose weight, but they would also be starving themselves and getting no nutrients whatsoever." ]	[ "If there is nothing plugged in, then no it will not use any electricity. For electricity to flow, there must be a complete circuit, and to complete the circuit you must plug something in. Some devices draw current even when they are off if they are plugged in, that may be what she is thinking of." ]
The "fabric" of space-time.	[ "Yes, the blanket or sheet analogy is just that, an analogy. The universe exists in 3 spatial dimensions, not 2. But that same bending and warping is still applicable, you just need to envision it in 3 dimensions instead of the 2. We just have no 3d analogies since we having nothing in our everyday lives to compare...	[ "The full answer to your question depends on some pretty heavy math, which I'll be the first to admit I don't completely grasp, but in a nutshell it comes down to the idea that we can measure the large scale curvature of the universe using the data about the Cosmic Microwave Background recently provided by the [WMA...
[Roman Historians] What was it about the Roman Legions and armies that made them such a force during the reign of their empire?	[ "I could go into this answer, but honestly, it is such a broad and complex one. You are basically asking \"How did Rome conquer the Mediterranean\" and the answer to that is so much more complex than simply the army. If you're interested in the Army, I highly recommend Adrian Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army...	[ "hi! not discouraging further discussion here, but fyi, this question has come up a few times, so check out previous responses here: * [What was so great about the Mona Lisa?](_URL_1_) * [Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?](_URL_0_) if you have followup questions on locked posts, ask them here & include the user's use...
An article in USA Today says that the US uses drones that can detect the wiring in IEDs. How does that work? It seems the article exaggerated/omitted details or it's possible to detect and differentiate certain types of wiring in electronic devices.	[ "The command wire detection is probably similar to what is described in this [article](_URL_0_), it has a description of how you might detect different wire lengths in an IED. Basically you emit a radio signal and change the frequency looking for any type of resonance. Different wires (length/width) will have a dif...	[ "Need more detail! Was the pilots voice being played through the speakers? If so, are your headphones wireless? Or did the headphones not cancel out the noise like you thought they should? Edit-- * If playing through the speakers, your headphones are wireless and the signal sounded fine: digital comm problem (im...
Royals like Charles II of Spain were inbred, mentally disabled, and physically unsavory. What did their wives think?	[ "I'd like to know how they came to conclusions like that during an autopsy. Clearly they can just open up the head and see there's brains in it and not water?" ]	[ "Federal records archivist here. We can't know the answer to that for sure, we aren't privy to details of Reagan's medical privacy. Most classified topics concern technical details of aircraft and weapon design, or other things that would hardly ever come up in conversation unless you were at work. It's unlikely th...
Why did France stagnate in terms of population growth from the early 19th century until after WWII, while other countries around it grew very rapidly?	[ "Natalism has always been a central theme in modern French history, but there isn't a consensus on a single explanation for population decline in the 19th century that accounts for regional specificity, changes in government structure, shifting cultural mores, or economic and industrial growth. [Here](_URL_1_) I su...	[ "This post is confusing. The title is 'Pirenne Thesis' which is a reference to his thoery of transition from Roman to Frankish worlds up to 8^th CE (which is roughly summarized as 'Without Islam there is no Frankish empire; without Mohammed, no Charlemagne'). But your comment is about his theory of the 'resurgence'...
How do I actually lose body fat?	[ "you lose weight by burning calories, plain and simple. burn more calories than you consume. when you lose weight, you will lose both fat and muscle, it's unavoidable. to limit muscle loss, you can do weight training." ]	[ "The temperature sensors in your skin can only detect relative changes in temperature. Not absolute temperature. You can show this by doing a simple experiment with three cups of water. one cup of ice water, one cup of room temperature water, and one cup of hot water. Place a finger of your right hand in the ice w...
Why do flys/bees fly in very erratic patterns rather than move in a straight line?	[ "Although flying in a straight line may be a more energy efficient path, the erratic flight patterns mean that their movement is less predictable by predators such as birds. Overtime this evolutionary advantage has stuck." ]	[ "Edit: STSCI people have [posted an explanation](_URL_4_). There's also a [youtube video](_URL_3_) which explains it around 1:45. The long and short of it is that Hubble was tracking background stars throughout those images, and its orbit around the Earth meant that the comet had noticeable parallax which cause...
Why does a simple atom like hydrogen have multiple absorption lines on spectroscopy	[ "The hydrogen atom has infinitely many bound energy levels, and you can have transitions between any two of them, as long as no conservation laws are violated." ]	[ "Edit: STSCI people have [posted an explanation](_URL_4_). There's also a [youtube video](_URL_3_) which explains it around 1:45. The long and short of it is that Hubble was tracking background stars throughout those images, and its orbit around the Earth meant that the comet had noticeable parallax which cause...
Did any countries on mainland Europe ever consider invading Viking territory in Scandinavia?	[ "Not exactly an attempt to invade Scandinavia but early Estonians (called Oeselians at the time) often raided Scandinavia during the Viking era and were described as Víkingr frá Esthland (Vikings from Estonia). _URL_0_" ]	[ "No. And to discuss why involves discussion of burden of proof. \"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.\" Sailing across either the Atlantic and Pacific, and making contact is a pretty extraordinary claim. Books such as \"Peru Before the Incas\", and \" The Last of the Incas\" have nothing to say abo...
If fish are cold blooded, how do some species function at depths of over 900 meters where the temperatures are 0-3 degrees celsius?	[ "Fish have a unique chemistry. It has been determined that often their blood is similar to antifreeze. This makes them able to function at colder temperatures than a lake trout or some similar surface water species." ]	[ "The Gulf Stream primarily exists because of the action of winds blowing across the subtropical Atlantic. A good (but small) map of the surface currents is [here](_URL_0_). Unfortunately, many people are taught this [image](_URL_1_) of ocean circulation which both dramatically simplifies the Thermohaline Circulati...
How does Venus retain such a thick atmosphere despite having no magnetic field and being located so close to the sun?	[ "You are right in observing Venus does not have an intrinsic magnetic field. [However, solar winds interacting in Venus's upper atmosphere ionize particles](_URL_0_) (an ionosphere). This ionosphere induces an external magnetic field around Venus which acts similarly to planets with magnetic fields and excludes sol...	[ "Ever watch water going down the bath tub drain? Even though the water was relatively motionless before you opened the drain, the low pressure area you introduced by opening the drain causes a rotating vortex to form in the water. Tornadoes work in much the same way. They're associated with low pressure areas, afte...
In the animal kingdom males are the attractive ones to lure in a mate... why isn't it like that for humans?	[ "I think that this is somewhat of an illusion. Generally the species that invests more in creating offspring is the choosey sex. In mammals this is almost always the females. While males may appear 'pretty' in some animals, it is almost always the females making the choice as to whom to have sex with. As for human...	[ "Physically developing we are close to a bobcat or other animals in terms of lifespan. We have a much, much more complex world than any other animal does though. We have to eat that play-doh and stick that key in the electric socket to learn that we want to be a philosophy major or an architect. Bobcats can't build...
If I never learned to read, what would that part of my brain be used for?	[ "Reading is a form of comprehension and problem-solving. The relevant part of your brain (Parietal Lobe) would be working to comprehend the world around you and helping you make informed decisions by recognising patterns. A complex example of a pattern is language, spoken or written. I think, specifically the left...	[ "Yuo can raed taht way beauce we dno't acluatly raed ervey letter in a wrod, we raed the shpae of the wrod. It's sungrisiprly esay to raed tihs, but relaly anoyinng to write lkie tihs, so the rset I copeid form the intnernt. \"i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwe...

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