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Would a child from 10,000 years ago fit in if raised from birth in today's society, 100,000 years? How far back could we go before we have a significant degradation of cognitive ability?	I think probably from about 200,000 - 100,000 years ago cognitvely, as this lines up with migrations out of Africa. However in terms of a decent immune system you are probably looking at about 10,000 - 7,000 years ago as this lines us with the first instances of livestock rearing by humans and therefore the development...	[ "The population of children under age 5 grew by 6% (293,000) over the ten-year period between 2001 and 2011. However, the number of children aged 5–14 fell by 11% (69,000). The population of people over 65 also grew by 11% (85,000) and they now represent 17% of the total population and for the first time there are ...
why can't we just plant the gros michel banana again?	Why would we want to? It's the Cavendish that's a) far more popular and b) threatened by a fungus infection (though not as critically as some hysterical sources claim). The reason we can't just plant more of ANY type is because modern cultivated bananas are seedless, sterile mutants. The way you get a new banana plan...	[ "Contrary to common belief, growing banana trees is not that difficult and allow people to enjoy their own bananas. Also these plants can be used as windbreaks. They need fertile soils, large mulch and organic matter, large amounts of nitrogen and potassium, warm temperature, high humidity, large amounts of water, ...
Aztec religion - Was there an actual name for it? What were their beliefs/rites/festivals about? Were some gods worshiped more than others?	This is a very broad question, but a good start to learn more is "The Lost History of the Aztec and Maya" by Charles Phillips. He uses ancient primary sources to summerize MesoAmerican legends and myths. He also lists the eighteen major Aztec festivals and describes the r...	[ "The many gods of the Aztecs can be grouped into complexes related to different themes. The Aztecs would often adopt gods from different cultures and allow them to be worshiped as part of their pantheon – the fertility god, Xipe Totec, for example, was originally a god of the Yopi (the Nahuatl name of the Tlapanec ...
what is the difference between an architect and an architectural enginner?	An architect says “Wouldn’t it be cool if my building looked like THIS?” And the engineer says, “Yeah, here’s how to make it not fall over.”	[ "The architect is usually the lead designer on buildings, with a structural engineer employed as a sub-consultant. The degree to which each discipline actually leads the design depends heavily on the type of structure. Many structures are structurally simple and led by architecture, such as multi-storey office buil...
why do men joke about their penises so much?	Because it's hard not to. Heyo Penis jokes are just very basic humour, low hanging fruit. It's universal, everybody past puberty gets it. But they're not classy, so don't whip them out whenever. You can tell a penis joke once in a while, just don't be a dick about it.	[ "Some men use the waistband in order to hide a genital bulge (also known by the slang terms \"man-bulge\" or \"moose-knuckle\") in order to avoid embarrassment. During an erection, this is done by jutting it upwards beneath the waistband. This approach may on occasion be colloquially and informally referred to by s...
If all but one species of dog died out, could we theoretically recreate all of those lost species by selective breeding?	This is probably just a matter of semantics, but I would like to point out that when you say "if all but one species of dog died out...", you're really talking about breeds of dog, not species. All dogs are the same species.	[ "Because of the treacherous conditions in which this breed of dog was used, coupled with a succession of accidents, talk of the whole stock becoming extinct was raised as early as 1839. However at some point prior to 1847 a pestilence swept through the region and reduced the number down to a single specimen, which ...
why do parliament impose sentence ranges for crimes instead of leaving it up to the judge and case law?	It's important to have some degree of uniformity in sentencing. Of course every case and every criminal is different, but some guidelines are necessary. In County A you get arrested for possessing heroine and the judge happens to think drug laws are a bit silly and gives you 10 days in jail. Get arrested for the same ...	[ "The type and maximum level of sentence for each offence is fixed by Parliament in statutes known as Acts of Parliament. For example, the crime of the theft has a fixed maximum of seven years imprisonment. Some offences have a maximum of life imprisonment: these include manslaughter and rape. In such cases the judg...
why is it easy to hear someone talking outside when you’re in a car but hard to hear someone inside talking when you’re outside the car?	I’d assume when you’re outside you’re battling more things to be heard (wind/weather/cars) so you naturally talk louder at a point you can be heard from within a nearby vehicle When you’re inside a car your windows and such block out most of this noise pollution or atleast reduce it so you’re not shouting to each othe...	[ "There is also a phenomenon known that while crossing a street, an individual can hear the sound of an oncoming car. However, when they look to the left the next car is a few blocks away so it is safe to cross. But when they look to the right, there is a car that is passing them that they did not even notice before...
why do our testicles hang lower when warm and move closer to the penis when cold?	Balls are meant to stay at temperatures cooler than the rest of the body. Sperm production gets negatively impacted at higher temperatures. So, when body is hot, then to maintain a lower temperature, balls hang in the sack. When body is cold, balls don't need to distance themselves from the rest of the body.	[ "As sexual arousal and stimulation continues, it is likely that the glans or head of the erect penis will swell wider and, as the genitals become further engorged with blood, their color deepens and the testicles can grow up to 50% larger. As the testicles continue to rise, a feeling of warmth may develop around th...
Monday Mysteries \| Crime and Punishment	The most famous painting in the world, the [Mona Lisa](_URL_3_), was involved in the most famous theft in modern art history, the theft of 1911 (and its implications were quite humorous). On August 20, 1911, [Vincenzo Peruggia](_URL_0_), who was posing as an employee in the Louvre, hid overnight in the museum and wal...	[ "The story takes place in 1894, three years after the death of Sherlock Holmes. On the night of March 30, an apparently unsolvable locked-room murder takes place in London: the Park Lane Mystery, the killing of the Honourable Ronald Adair, son of the Earl of Maynooth, a colonial governor in Australia. He was in his...
what about a glass ketchup bottle makes it so difficult to easily pour?	The ketchup is thick enough to create an air tight seal at the neck of the bottle. In order for ketchup to leave the bottle there needs to be airflow to replace the ketchup. Unless the bottle is plastic so you can squeeze and reduce the volume of the container without needing air to replace the ketchup.	[ "The relatively high viscosity and thixotropic nature of ketchup can make pouring it from a glass bottle somewhat difficult and unpredictable, and several urban legends surrounding this phenomenon have arisen. According to one popular folk remedy, repeatedly hitting the \"57\" mark on a glass Heinz ketchup bottle m...
elf on the shelf	It's an elf doll that comes with a story. In the story it explains that each Elf is given magical powers once its family names it. Your children then name it. Once that is done, only grown-ups can touch the Elf or it will lose its powers. The story goes on to say that every night your Elf now uses its magic to fly ...	[ "\"The Elf on the Shelf\" was written in 2004 by Carol Aebersold and daughter Chanda Bell over a cup of tea. Bell suggested they write a book about an old tradition of an elf sent from Santa who came to watch over them at Christmas time. Aebersold's other daughter, Christa Pitts, was recruited by the family to shar...
why do products say "may contain eggs"? they either do or don't contain eggs, right?	My understanding is this. It's a liability thing. If at some point during the manufacture or packaging of their product it comes in contact with eggs or egg residue, and someone then has an allergic reaction to it, then the company is covered because they said it may contain eggs.	[ "Unlike many products, trademarks and advertisements for egg brands are usually printed on the food container itself rather than on a separate container (as with breakfast cereals). This single-layer, distinctive packaging distinguishes egg cartons from different producers or quality on the retail shelf.\n", "The...
With a laser pen, why can I see the dot of light but not a beam behind it?	You can only see light that directly enters your eye. The beam of the laser isn't pointed at you, so none of the photons are hitting your retina. The dot, however, is a results of photons from the beam reflecting/scattering off of some object, and many of them scatter in your direction and hit your retina, which is w...	[ "Laser scanners work the same way as pen-type readers except that they use a laser beam as the light source and typically employ either a reciprocating mirror or a rotating prism to scan the laser beam back and forth across the barcode. As with the pen-type reader, a photo-diode is used to measure the intensity of ...
why does fine powder (like flour or powder milk) mixes evenly when stirred in cold water, but not in hot water (where the mixture becomes lumpy)?	Most powders dissolve better in hot water because the molecules of water have more energy and are "bumping" into the powder molecules. Hot water molecules have more energy and move more than cold molecules. In some powders, mostly those that contain starches, the rapid mixing of the powder and hot water becomes a prob...	[ "To analyze a grain sample it first needs to be ground to a powder; a flour sample can be analyzed as is. The sample is put into the test tube; distilled water is added, and the tube is then shaken vigorously to achieve a homogeneous mix. The tube is then placed in the boiling water bath, and the operator begins to...
is cancer just bad luck? for instance how can someone that never smoked get lung cancer, but another one that does never gets it?	At the end of the day luck is a large factor, however it's not truly random chance. Kind of like how getting struck by lightning is random (bad) luck, but if you walk around during thunderstorms with a giant metal pole you'll be increasing your chances. Likewise, random mutations resulting in cancer that isn't snuffe...	[ "Results from epidemiological studies indicate that the risk of lung cancer increases with exposure to residential radon. A well-known example of source of error is smoking, the main risk factor for lung cancer. In the West, tobacco smoke is estimated to cause about 90% of all lung cancers. \n", "15% of lung canc...
Who was filming WW2 and why?	In the United States at least, the US government was backing it. Hollywood directors such as John Huston and John Ford volunteered for service with the military (Army, and Navy, respectively), where their talents were put to the best use, namely making movies. They, and others, were tasked with creating films for domes...	[ "The film documents Britain's military preparedness, showing scenes of the army and navy in preparation for war, and the manufacture of munitions. The film was made by the Cinema Committee, comprising Charles Urban, William Jury of Jury's Imperial Pictures and Tommy Welsh of Gaumont, at the behest of the covert Bri...
how ducks not freeze in cold water in winter	They are surrounded by a thick layer of fat under the skin, and an insulating layer of downy feathers over the skin. So they are highly insulated.	[ "The ducks face very different environmental conditions depending on the location of their wintering grounds, which affect their migratory behavior. Higher proportions of males have been located in the northern part while more females and juveniles winter in the southernmost portion of the range. In spring, males a...
health care individual mandate vs. car insurance mandate	It seems like you're trying to make a political point, rather than asking a question, but requiring car drivers to have car insurance is categorically different from requiring all citizens to have health insurance. The roads belong to the state, and people agree to follow the states rules in order to get the states ...	[ "Usage-based insurance (UBI) also known as pay as you drive (PAYD) and pay how you drive (PHYD) and mile-based auto insurance is a type of vehicle insurance whereby the costs are dependent upon type of vehicle used, measured against time, distance, behavior and place.\n", "Telematic usage-based insurance (i.e. th...
Why do people here not think that B12 gives you more energy?	Ok so I have studied the effects of both B12 and Vit D at length because I am deficient in both and am going into nursing so it was part of my schoolwork. If someone has therapeutic levels of B12 then a B12 supplement will do little if anything for energy levels. This is the case with most vitamins. Your body has an op...	[ "This interest may have been sparked because of the existence of nanomachines such as ATP synthase (adenosine triphosphate), which is the “second in importance only to DNA”. ATP is the main energy converter that our bodies contain and without it, life as we know it would not be able to flourish or even survive.\n",...
if my pet has fleas, how come they don't infest me too?	They can, but generally they prefer certain types of animals over us, just like it's possible to give a dog head lice, but unlikely.	[ "Flea infestations can be not only annoying for both dogs and cats and humans, but also very dangerous. Problems caused by fleas may range from mild to severe itching and discomfort to skin problems and infections. Anemia may also result from flea bites in extreme circumstances. Furthermore, fleas can transmit tape...
How closely related (in time and in substance) are the myths of the ancient world?	Better answers are coming, but I'll try and point you in the right direction for some information. As far as Northern India, Greece, and Rome are concerned, they're descendent from a group of people known as "proto indo-europeans", originally from the Black Sea. _URL_0_ They share cultural, religious, and linguisti...	[ "In contrast, the myths of many traditional cultures present a cyclic or static view of time. In these cultures, all the \"[important] history is limited to a few events that took place in the mythical times\". In other words, these cultures place events into two categories, the mythical age and the present, betwee...
How were memorials designed for world wars?	Oh my gosh! This is my thing! I have some things already written on it that I sent to a friend recently, and I'll do my best to amend them to reflect your teacher's points and your question. Your teacher was probably referring to a notion sometimes held by modern historians and art historians that creating a metapho...	[ "Most World War I war designers attempted to produce memorials that were, as cultural historian Jay Winter describes, noble, uplifting, tragic and endurably sad. There were various architectural styles used on memorials, but most were essentially conservative in nature, typically embracing well established styles s...
atomic and hydrogen bombs in space.	The main difference between the effects of an atomic bomb detonated in space and that on the ground are not related to gravity, but are related to the fact that the bomb is going off without an atmosphere (air) around it. When a bomb goes off, a lot of the energy is released as thermal and ionizing radiation (heat radi...	[ "Scientists initially considered using a hydrogen bomb for the project, but the United States Air Force vetoed this idea due to the weight of such a device, as it would be too heavy to be propelled by the missile which would have been used. It was then decided to use a W25 warhead, a small, lightweight warhead with...
what ever happened to all those cash for gold companies?	_URL_0_ The value of gold was climbing until 2012, when the market suddenly trended downwards, and it's predicted to get worse. Since gold isn't as valuable anymore, there's less incentive to run a business that collects it.	[ "BULLET::::- Cash for gold – With the rise in the value of gold due to the financial crisis of 2007–2010, there has been a surge in companies that will buy personal gold in exchange for cash, or sell investments in gold bullion and coins. Several of these have prolific marketing plans and high value spokesmen, such...
why is it easier to gain fat than to loose it? our body reacts when we eat too much, why dosen't it do the same when we try to loose fat?	It used to be harder to gain fat when we used to live in caves and had to run from predators on a regular basis.	[ "Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced energy intake by burning fat reserves and consuming muscle and other tissues. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss . After prolonged ...
what are you thinking before developing language ?	Babies/infants learn through patterns, noises, and repeated stimuli, all by closely watching their environment. Babies of only a few days old understand depth perception and a few months in, they can count and understand so-called “impossible events” (term coined by child psychologists). One such example is having a ...	[ "Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to. The method in which we develop language skills is...
what would time dilation feel like?	You wouldn't perceive time slowing down. That is the entire basis of relativity, that no matter what constant speed you move at, light moves at the same speed relative to you. This is the basis of all the math, which came to include time dilation. So if you are standing still relative to earth or moving at 0.99999c you...	[ "A strong time dilation effect has been reported for perception of objects that were looming, but not of those retreating, from the viewer, suggesting that the expanding discs — which mimic an approaching object — elicit self-referential processes which act to signal the presence of a possible danger. Anxious peopl...
how the us justice system handle rape accusations?	Well it depends. If you are a politician, then the accuser has their life turned upside down and is often accused of being a slut (even by the politician's wife). Or if you are a beloved famous personality then you are simply ignored unless enough people complain that it can reach a "news media critical mass" and sta...	[ "Rape charges can be brought and a case proven based on the sole testimony of the victim, providing that circumstantial evidence supports the allegations. It is these strict criteria of proof which lead to the frequent observation that where injustice against women does occur, it is not because of Islamic law. It h...
Does a fetus feel pain?	It is awake and moving quite a bit by the second trimester. There's no reason it wouldn't once the nociception system is established.	[ "A meta-analysis of data from dozens of medical reports and studies that fetuses are unlikely to feel pain until the third trimester of pregnancy. There is a consensus among developmental neurobiologists that the establishment of thalamocortical connections (at weeks 22-34, reliably at 29) is a critical event with ...
does the time warner cable/charter merger violate anti-trust laws?	Anti-trust laws give the Department of Justice the authority to make that call. It is decided case-by-case by the courts. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice did indeed file a lawsuit arguing against the merger. In court, "New Charter" agreed to a list of concessions and regulations in order to compl...	[ "Citing the reduction of competition in the broadband and cable industries that would result from the merger, the Department of Justice planned to file an antitrust lawsuit against Comcast and Time Warner Cable in an effort to block it. On April 24, 2015, Comcast announced that it would withdraw its proposal to acq...
What is the theoretical maximum to how many liters/second over a region of rain can fall during a storm?	There is a theoretical limit (though that varies depending on the temp other atmospheric conditions). And that theoretical limit is based on the density of water and laws of buoyancy as they pertain to water. Its a pretty complex calculation.	[ "Storms which have moved slowly, or loop, over a succession of days lead to the highest rainfall amounts for several countries. Riehl calculated that 33.97 inches (863 mm) of rainfall per day can be expected within one-half degree, or 35 miles (56 km), of the center of a mature tropical cyclone. Many tropical cyclo...
What exactly does your body do to your brain when you have ALS?	Your motor neurons die in that disease. This subset of nerve cells are what's used for movement throughout your body. For the most part, not a lot happens in the brain itself in ALS, so although primary motor neurons in the CNS are killed off too, diagnostics mostly focus on abnormal motor control, abnormal reflexes,...	[ "The defining feature of ALS is the death of both upper motor neurons (located in the motor cortex of the brain) and lower motor neurons (located in the brainstem and spinal cord). In ALS with frontotemporal dementia, neurons throughout the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain die as well. The pathological hallm...
the story of the soviet union	This is one of my favorite topics, because it allows me to expand on a couple points. The first is exactly how bad things were in Tsarist Russia. Russia was one of the last honest to god Feudal societies on Earth. They had actually progressed past this earlier, but then reverted. The Serfs were considered literal prop...	[ "The series began with a scenario of what the writers believed might occur should the United States fall to the Soviet Union. After this, the series took a historical approach, giving brief biographies of Karl Marx and Lenin, and depicting Joseph Stalin's rise to power. The series climaxed with an edition about the...
How were epic poems interpreted in their time?	I can't speak for any of the Classical Epics but Beowulf was certainly more than pure entertainment. Although written in the eighth century (NB There is much disagreement over this) the practices and events in the epic pre-date it by far. Arguably, Beowulf is an origin myth - a strange amalgamation of true historical e...	[ "Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian \"Epic of Gilgamesh\", the ancient Indian \"Mahabharata\" and \"Rāmāyaṇa\", the Tamil \"Silappatikaram\", the Persian \"Shahnameh\", the Ancient Greek \"Odyssey\" and \"Iliad\", Virgil's \"Aeneid\", the Old English \"Beowulf\", Dante's \"Divine Comedy\", the Finn...
What is the academic consensus on Stephen Turnbull's claim that Ninjas never existed?	Turnbull's work on the ninjas, and their historicity, has come up here more than once before, While you're waiting for fresh answers to your question, you might like to review [this earlier thread](_URL_0_), led by u/NientedeNada, which contains links to the most important of these discussions and assessments.	[ "Despite many popular folktales, historical accounts of the ninja are scarce. Historian Stephen Turnbull asserts that the ninja were mostly recruited from the lower class, and therefore little literary interest was taken in them. The social origin of the ninja is seen as the reason they agree to operate in secret, ...
Are there any places on the planet that have had massive issues due to rising sea levels, or has it not got to that point yet?	[The Maldives in the Indian Ocean.](_URL_0_) 80% of the country is less than 1 meter above mean sea level. Very small changes in mean sea level mean big areas of inundation.	[ "Ten per cent of the world's population live in coastal areas that are less than above sea level. Furthermore, two thirds of the world's cities with over five million people are located in these low-lying coastal areas. Future sea level rise could lead to potentially catastrophic difficulties for shore-based commun...
I'm looking for more information on carthaginian political factions during the first punic war (reading recommendations)?	There isn't much good material on the Carthaginians which makes writing about them a challenge. The only sources we have for them are Roman and Sicilian, and they both hated Carthage. A book you might be interested is Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles. He discusses the political factions of Carthage.	[ "BULLET::::- Hamilcar Barca, Carthaginian general who has assumed command of the Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the last years of the First Punic War with Rome, helped Carthage win the Mercenary War and brought extensive territory in the Iberian Peninsula under Carthaginian control (b. c. 270 BC)\n", "BULLE...
why do certain animals mainly appear when it begins to rain?	Can you give an example of the types of animals you're thinking of? Often snails and such come out because it's wet and they can range further without drying out. Worms come out for similar reasons and because their burrows sometimes fill with water. What specific animals were you thinking of?	[ "The likeliest explanation for many of the supposed cases is that there is no falling happening at all and the animals are driven along by winds or a deluge of some sort. This explanation also accounts for the prevalence of reports that only a single species or type of animal is ever reported raining from the sky.\...
how did we come to the conclusion that gravity has the same speed as light?	We measured it. By which I mean we measured both the gravity and light coming off a stellar collision and found that the difference could be explained by the vacuum of space being very slightly imperfect so the light wasn't going at the speed of light in a vacuum, while the gravity was. Since the collision happened...	[ "Albert Einstein went through several versions of light speed theory between 1905 and 1915, eventually concluding that light speed is constant when gravity does not have to be considered but that the speed of light cannot be constant in a gravitational field with variable strength. In the same book Einstein explain...
why does foam act like a solid when it is made of just liquid and gas?	A balloon behaves like a solid ball, but it's mostly air. Foam is just a big pile of tiny balloons made of soap.	[ "Foam, in this case meaning \"bubbly liquid\", is also produced as an often-unwanted by-product in the manufacture of various substances. For example, foam is a serious problem in the chemical industry, especially for biochemical processes. Many biological substances, for example proteins, easily create foam on agi...
If the colors we see are just the wave length of light that is not absorbed by the object, int he absence of light is everything the same color?	It'd look black under that light. The lack of color/light is black. It means your eyes/detector isn't getting any signal. Also, real shirts aren't perfect absorbers/diffuse reflectors, you'd still "see" the shirt, it wouldn't be a void in your perception, but it wouldn't look blue simply because they're no blue light ...	[ "Up to this point white objects have been discussed, which do not absorb light. But the above scheme continues to be valid in the case that the material is absorbent. In this case, diffused rays will lose some wavelengths during their walk in the material, and will emerge colored.\n", "As the order of the optical...
why is apple the most valuable company in the world?	You reap extremely high profits when you charge $3,000 for $500 of hardware and people keep buying it because it's pretty and white. I'll be down at the bottom in a few minutes for my factual, but unpopular opinion. Regardless, if I could do 1998 over again, I'd have invested everything I made in Apple stock.	[ "Apple is well known for its size and revenues. Its worldwide annual revenue totaled $265billion for the 2018 fiscal year. Apple is the world's largest technology company by revenue and one of the world's most valuable companies. It is also the world's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung and Huawe...
Did Arab expansion into the Mediterranean in the 8th and 9th century cause the central authority of the Carolingians to dissolve into a fragmented and feudal society?	Pirenne is at this point incredibly outdated (he died in 1935 after all) and aside from the standard "Pirenne was wrong" moment in contemporary works (and virtually every economic history has one) is largely ignored. The idea that the Carolingian period was economically stagnant has been discarded as more attention ha...	[ "The massive Islamic invasions of the mid-7th century began a long struggle between Christianity and Islam throughout the Mediterranean Basin. The Byzantine Empire soon lost the lands of the eastern patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch and was reduced to that of Constantinople, the empire's capital. A...
has anyone thought to send a drone to scout north sentinel island? what are the ongoing studies conducted on the sentinelese if there are any?	The Indian Government recognizes the Sentinelese's desire to be left alone. They don't even try to prosecute them on the occasions they have killed trespassers to the island.	[ "The 30th Reconnaissance Squadron operates RQ-170 Sentinels. This squadron, which is based at Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, was activated on 1 September 2005. RQ-170 Sentinels have been deployed to Afghanistan, where one was sighted at Kandahar International Airport in late 2007. This sighting, and the Sent...
what is fire actually doing to wood/paper/gasoline, etc?	The chemical bonds that hold the wood together release energy when they are broken. These bonds break apart at a high enough temperature, and their breakage yields more heat, which in turn breaks more bonds. It forms a chain reaction. Once enough of the bonds are broken, the wood loses shape. Much of the wood is conv...	[ "Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can be seasoned (dry) or unseasoned (fresh/wet). It is generally classified as...
why do cop cars not pull all the way over when giving a citation on a busy street?	As an emergency responder, the real reason is to put a physical barrier between the officer standing beside your window and traffic. You'll see firetrucks and ambulances do the same type of positioning when responding to an accident.	[ "BULLET::::- take-downs, which are typically mounted on the front of an emergency vehicle's lightbar. Take-downs are used on police cars to illuminate the interior of a vehicle immediately in front of the police car, such as a vehicle that has been pulled over after committing a traffic violation or while conductin...
why can't i have a wild bird like a cardinal or a jay as a pet?	You can, but they are relatively rare and prefer being in the wild as opposed to other birds that you can buy at a pet shop that are happy in a cage.	[ "Despite its name, the Goliath birdeater only rarely actually preys on birds; in the wild, its diet consists primarily of other large arthropods, worms, and amphibians. However, because of its size and opportunistic predatory behavior, this species commonly kills and consumes a variety of insects and small terrestr...
What exactly did cannons do in Napoleonic warfare?	Can you clarify your question? Do you mean “how did Napoleon use artillery effectively?”(tactics and strategy) “how do cannons help in war at the time?”(more of a mechanical question) or something else entirely? The short answer is that what you’re describing isn’t particularly accurate of Napoleonic artillery usage. ...	[ "Artillery was the most devastating weapon on the field during the Napoleonic era, and its use could leave the enemy troops demoralized. Solid metal cannonball (also known as a \"round shot\") were commonly used artillery ammunition. They were effective against square formations and heavily packed columns when fire...
the concept of light: its speed, how it travels, what it means to be "# light-years away", etc.	So, light travels at a speed of just about 300k km/s. Light is photons, which are particles that have zero rest mass, and therefor moves at the speed of light (only massless objects can travel at the speed of light). Those particles travel like all other particles travel. When something is a number of light-x away (s...	[ "The light-second is a unit of length useful in astronomy, telecommunications and relativistic physics. It is defined as the distance that light travels in free space in one second, and is equal to exactly .\n", "The speed of light is (by definition) exactly 299,792,458 m/s, very close to 300,000,000 m/s. This is...
If we can make amoxicillin taste like bubble gum, why can't we make all the other liquid medications taste good as well?	A lot of the time medications are formulated to have unpleasing tastes to avoid abuse. If OTC cough syrups containing DM tasted good, people would be using them to get effects similiar to PCP or Ketamine. There is also of course the risk of a child overdosing, so that is another protectionary measure. If it tastes g...	[ "The flavorings are intended to improve the palatability of their host medications by suppressing bitterness, adding sweetness, and/or enhancing the flavor profile. The flavoring of liquid medicines using these products has been shown to improve pediatric drug compliance. The firm also sells Pill Glide, a flavored ...
how did us mammals evolve into having emotions and specifically love?	Emotions evolved from communication. For example wolf who was able to bark when danger occured saved its pack members thus increasing it own chance of survival. Wolfs who didn't react / understand to react to danger more likely perished. I think love is more primitive thing. It is just feeling that one should mate wit...	[ "The study of the evolution of emotions dates back to the 19th century. Evolution and natural selection has been applied to the study of human communication, mainly by Charles Darwin in his 1872 work, \"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals\". Darwin researched the expression of emotions in an effort to...
Can a human body explode from being electrocuted? (cross post from /r/Askreddit)	This was queried here previously: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) tl;dr - Not really.	[ "Electrical injury is a physiological reaction caused by electric current passing through the body. Electric shock occurs upon contact of a (human) body part with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient magnitude of current to pass through the victim's flesh, viscera or hair. Physical contact with energi...
Did "great warriors" exist?	No, they did not, but not for the reason you suggest. It's always possible to give some examples of individual warriors who were famed for their exploits in hand-to-hand combat. But these exploits never live up to the standards of Hollywood movies. In most cases these "heroes" are said to have defeated just a few oppo...	[ "The Mighty Warriors is an anthology of fantasy short stories in the sword and sorcery subgenre, edited by Robert M. Price. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook by Ulthar Press in May 2018, and was a homage to the similar early sword and sorcery anthologies \"The Mighty Barbarians\" (1969) and \"The ...
Do we know when Alexander the Great's sarcophagus was lost?	The latest mention of the body of Alexander comes from 215 under the emperor Caracalla. According to contemporary historians Cassius Dio and Herodian, Caracalla was obsessed with Alexander and had a strong desire to emulate the great conqueror. Herodian reports that Caracalla went to the tomb in Alexandria, opened up t...	[ "While Alexander's funeral cortege was on its way to Macedon, Ptolemy seized it and took it temporarily to Memphis. His successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where it remained until at least late Antiquity. Ptolemy IX Lathyros, one of Ptolemy's final successors, replaced Ale...
Long Roman names	There's not a ton of mystery in the name here, even if Q. Sosius Priscus' name takes the practice to its extreme. Unusually long names in consular families in the second century is rather well attested epigraphically, though you wouldn't know it at all from reading the actual texts, the authors of whom almost without e...	[ "An amount of names from Roman times has also survived until today, many of them being Roman versions of former Greek or Thracian ones. Some Latin names had fallen into disuse long ago, but were revived in the 20th century. Examples: Montana, Lom (a Slavicized version of Latin \"Almus\"), Archar (a Slavicized versi...
What part of a flame transmits the most heat?	It depends on the flame/fuel source. For the most part, sustained flames use a gas fuel source and there's a section called a hydrogen cone. For Bunsen burners this is the tight, light blue cone that rests between two darker blue cones.. it's almost clear in color.	[ "A flame (from Latin \"flamma\") is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone. Very hot flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density to be considered plasma.\n", "The hot-blast design, also known as a \"tubular l...
what makes people smile/frown or do any facial expressions connected to how they feel the same way everywhere? is it biological or just years of people doing that with their faces?	Both. Biologically, the human brain is well-adapted to notice, understand, and use these physical cues. The human body is well adapted to actually displaying a smile/frown (and other common expressions). With that said, our instinct to do this is reinforced by other people we’re around— this is actually a method of ...	[ "Facial expressions are produced to express a reaction to a situation or event or to evoke a response from another individual or individuals. They are signals of emotion and social intent. People make faces in response to \"direct audience effects\" when they are watching sports, discussing politics, eating or smel...
How can fish, starfish and simple sea slugs live at the depth of the Mariana Trench without being crushed alive when we have to build pressure-resistant pods just to descend a fraction of that depth?	The main thing that’s helps creatures like that is that they have no lungs. If humans went down that far our lungs would collapse. Gases can compress which is not good for staying alive. Not only do fish and such not have lungs they don’t have other gaseous cavities either. At high enough pressures even certain orga...	[ "All the equipment maintaining the extreme pressure inside the Abyss Box weighs . The device will keep deep-dwelling creatures alive so they can be studied, especially regarding their adaptability to warmer ocean temperatures. Currently the Abyss Box houses only common species of deep sea creatures including a deep...
what is the difference between homeopathy and naturopathic medicine?	Homeopathy is an alternative "medicine" that involves taking a substance that causes a symptom, diluting it in water until zero molecules of the original substance remain (for the standard "30c" dilution, you would have to drink enough to fill the entire volume of the observable universe to get a single molecule). Som...	[ "Naturopathy or naturopathic medicine is a form of alternative medicine that employs an array of pseudoscientific practices branded as \"natural\", \"non-invasive\", and as promoting \"self-healing\". The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine, rather than evidence-based medicin...
why does a rope..etc break when pulled suddenly(when hauling heavy weights),but holds if gradual force is applied?	F = ma, or Force equals mass times acceleration. When you apply an acceleration to the rope by jerking it, it creates a force. The harder you jerk the rope, the greater the force.	[ "The load creates tension that pulls the rope back through the knot in the direction of the load. If this continues far enough, the working end passes into the knot and the knot unravels and fails. This behavior can worsen when the knot is repeatedly strained and let slack, dragged over rough terrain, or repeatedly...
What kind of leader was/is Fidel Castro? It seems that every single documentary I see paints him in a different light - I'd like to get down to the truth.	Honestly, it seems as though you're pretty much answering your own question. As a historical figure, Castro is nuanced enough to be intriguing and, as you say, some of his policies appear laudable and others appear unpleasant. Historians can offer multiple judgements, but it's really up to you - is democracy more impo...	[ "The Real Fidel Castro is a biography of the Cuban revolutionary and politician Fidel Castro, written by the British diplomat Sir Leycester Coltman (1938–2003) and first published by Yale University Press in 2003. A diplomat for the government of the United Kingdom, Coltman had been appointed to the position of Bri...
what would happen to your eyes if you don't blink for 24 hours, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year?	I think the underlying question here is: why are eyeballs wet? There are living cells on the surface of the eyes, and just like any other living cell they will die if the proper fluidity is not kept. Because human eyes aren’t hard, the surface must also be kept moist and smooth to avoid distorting the light that come...	[ "Blinking results in blurred and incomplete image of the fundus. It is imperative to instruct the patient not to blink when the fundus photo is taken.The patient may blink normally at any other time to prevent the excessive drying of the eye. A dry eye may also lead to a blurred fundus photo. When dry eye is suspec...
are there known evolutionary reasons that humans have a sense of aesthetics? ex. thinking that trees are beautiful, puppies are cute, art is beautiful, music sounds good, etc.	Several. The art and music builds group cohesion. You are attracted to your own group's art and music which makes you feel connected to other members of your group. Young animals and other "cute" species have facial proportions similar to our own young. We find our young cute so that we, you know, like them and that re...	[ "Human preferences toward things in nature, while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological evolution. For example, adult mammals (especially humans) are generally attracted to baby mammal faces and find them appealing across species. The large eyes and small features of a...
can someone out there please explain to me what's the difference between a metaphor and an analogy?	Then You can use it as a sort of "well in that case!" Like if someone's a jerk to you, and you say "Then piss off!" You're saying "Well, in that case, piss off!" But more appropriately it's used as a time reference, and it can be done in two ways: sequentially or contextually. In sequence: "I'm going to do t...	[ "A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Metaphors are often compared to other types of figurative language, such as antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and si...
Does "spaghettification" really not occur at super massive black holes?	For supermassive black holes, the point at which the tidal forces become so strong that they spaghettify you indeed lies inside the event horizon. So the spaghettification would happen after you enter the black hole. _URL_0_	[ "In astrophysics, spaghettification (sometimes referred to as the noodle effect) is the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes (rather like spaghetti) in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field; it is caused by extreme tidal forces. In the most extreme cases, near ...
Why did large numbers of people still emigrate to the United States despite the ongoing War for Southern Independence? (1861-1865)	…. Alright I’ll take the bait. Yes, the “War of Southern Independence” is one of the many names that have been used to designate the conflict between the Northern and Southern United States from 1861-1865, more commonly known as the American Civil War. It is, however, a loaded term, which you knew when you inserted it ...	[ "Many Southerners had lost their land during the war and were unwilling to live under the government of the United States of America. They did not expect an improvement in the South's economic position. Most of the emigrants were from the states of Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, an...
Do electrons "seem" to teleport when changing orbits due to acceleration to near light speed, resulting in time dilation?	Electron's don't have a well defined location. They don't orbit in circles around the nucleus. Instead, they exist in a "cloud", so to speak, of possible locations. When an electron gains energy, that cloud shifts to a higher energy configuration. But the electron doesn't jump from one place to another. We can't even r...	[ "Suddenly displacing one of two gravitoelectrically interacting particles would, after a delay corresponding to lightspeed, cause the other to feel the displaced particle's absence: accelerations due to the change in quadrupole moment of star systems, like the Hulse–Taylor binary, have removed much energy (almost 2...
What element/chemical would be extremely useful if it werent so dangerous to humans?	radioactive materials for sure I would be rocking a nuclear laptop battery right now if it wouldnt melt my balls	[ "Experiments for human toxicology require a long term following and a large amount of investment in order to classify a chemical as co-carcinogens, carcinogens or anti-carcinogenic. In recent years, people substitutes health supplement for healthy meal. Some myths even state beta carotene as elixir in developing co...
How do pockets of breathable air form in deep underwater caves?	The rock around those caves is mostly sandstone and limestone, both of which are permeable (notice all the stalagmites and stalactites in the images). To find air, all you would have to do is find a part of the cave above the water table, as the air would be able to seep through the rocks. As to how often the the ox...	[ "The cave passages in the park are said to \"breathe\" as air continually moves into or out of them, equalizing the atmospheric pressure of the cave and the outside air. When the air pressure is higher outside the cave than inside it, air flows into the cave, raising the cave's pressure to match the outside pressur...
When did Constantinople spread to the opposite side of the Bosporus Strait?	Constantinople under Byzantium never made it to the other side of the strait. In fact the [Fatih](_URL_0_) district of Istanbul was the entirety of Constantinople until Ottoman conquest. However, a little known fact is that Constantinople continued to be called Constantinople in many contexts (not all contexts; [other...	[ "The strategic significance of the strait was one of the factors in the decision of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to found there in AD 330 his new capital, Constantinople, which came to be known as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The expressions \"swim the Bosporus\" and \"cross the Bosporus\" we...
if the troops in ukraine are not officially russian, why can't nato attack them and defend ukraine?	Ukraine is not a NATO nation.	[ "Russian officials denied reports that Russian military units were operating in Ukraine (see War in Donbass), claiming instead they had been sent on routine drills close to the border with Ukraine and crossed the border by mistake. On 28 August 2014 Dutch Brigadier-General Nico Tak, head of NATO's crisis management...
What were Roman shields made of and how effective were they?	The squared shield in question is generally referred to as the scutum, although in Latin, scutum simply means “shield.” The scutum was carried by most legionaries and many auxiliary infantry throughout the Principate, and appears to have fallen out of use in favor of ovular shields sometime during the mid third c...	[ "In prehistory and during the era of the earliest civilisations, shields were made of wood, animal hide, woven reeds or wicker. In classical antiquity, the Barbarian Invasions and the Middle Ages, they were normally constructed of poplar tree, lime or another split-resistant timber, covered in some instances with a...
If electrons in a copper wire move slower than a human can walk, why do lights and other appliances switch on almost instantaneously?	When you turn on a switch, you don't need to wait for the electron at the switch to get to the lightbulb for the light to come on. There are electrons hanging out all throughout the circuit. Individual electrons move slowly, but all of them are moving, and when you turn on a switch the electron movement propagates at r...	[ "Therefore, in this wire the electrons are flowing at the rate of . At 60 Hz alternating current, this means that within half a cycle the electrons drift less than 0.2 μm. In other words, electrons flowing across the contact point in a switch will never actually leave the switch.\n", "Purely in terms of the tempe...
How did honey become supersaturated in the first place? What do the bees do if they find their entire hive crystallized?	Supersaturation doesn't only occur through heating. Honey is made to have a lower water% through forced evaporation-- bees fanning the uncured not-supersaturated honey until it is the proper ratio. If there is no seed crystal introduced in this process of supersaturation (which is pretty rapid), then no crystals will f...	[ "Early forms of honey collecting entailed the destruction of the entire colony when the honey was harvested. The wild hive was crudely broken into, using smoke to suppress the bees, the honeycombs were torn out and smashed up — along with the eggs, larvae and honey they contained. The liquid honey from the destroye...
We don't feel the earth spinning because it is constant. Yet it is fastest at the equator and gets slower as you move away from it. My question is how come no one ever notices the increase or decrease when traveling towards the equator or away from the equator?	The effect of the coriolis force is very small at "normal speeds but will actually make a difference in fuel consumption of airplanes travelling north/south for a few thousand miles. The Earth's spin is VERY important for rockets. All the efforts of Space-X trying to land on the water (much more difficult than land) a...	[ "Because of a planet's rotation around its own axis, the gravitational acceleration is less at the equator than at the poles. In the 17th century, following the invention of the pendulum clock, French scientists found that clocks sent to French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, ran slower than their e...
how does the universe have a predictable nature if all subatomic particles that constitute matter are completely random? where exactly does predictability come from in a physical sense?	Over a large enough scale, patterns emerge. For example, if I flip a coin, I have no idea if its going to land heads or tails. It is complete random if it is the only coin I look at. But if I flip 10 quintillion coins, I'm pretty damn sure 5 quintillion coins are going to be heads, and 5 quintillion coins are going ...	[ "There are two fundamental sources of practical quantum mechanical physical randomness: quantum mechanics at the atomic or sub-atomic level and thermal noise (some of which is quantum mechanical in origin). Quantum mechanics predicts that certain physical phenomena, such as the nuclear decay of atoms, are fundament...
Why does the Rh Negative blood type persist? Isn't it genetically disadvantageous?	For clarity, the Rh blood group actually consists of about 50 different proteins, which [have been evolving in arrangement for quite a while](_URL_0_). The main one that we are concernd with medically is the D antigen since it is the most immunogenic (likely to result in an immune response). Before blood transfusions e...	[ "According to a comprehensive study, the worldwide frequency of Rh-positive and Rh-negative blood types is approximately 94% and 6%, respectively. The same study concluded that the share of the population with Rh-negative blood type is set to fall further in the future primarily due to low population growth in Euro...
how did words such as fuck, shit, etc. originate?	Those are both words with very old Germanic roots. They are related to the Dutch words fokken/fok (to breed/breeding) and schijt (poop). Yes they were probably normal words before they were curse words.	[ "The history of curse words and profanity was part of spoken words in medieval era. The word \"fuck\" was used in English in the fifteenth century, though the usage in earlier times of 13th century was not with abusive intent. The word \"shit\" is the oldest of words in use with early references found in German and...
how cotton has different quality.	I work in Ag and just visited/toured one of the USDA cotton grading facilities. So I think I can answer this. The cotton is graded based on standards set by the USDA. it is measured by color, fiber length and strength, and the amount of trash (plant debris). These standards come from various facilities in the USA. ...	[ "Today, cotton is classed based on its measurements for fiber length, strength and length, micronaire (a measure of the cotton's fineness), color grade, color reflectance, color yellowness, and trash percent area.\n", "Cotton classing is the measuring and classification of cotton by its specific physical attribut...
what does ios do differently to android for iphones to only need 1-2 gb of ram?	Eyy I actually know the answer to this one (game & app developer with low-level expertise in power and memory management - lots of iOS and Android experience and knowledge). --- Android was built to run Java applications across any processor - X86, ARM, MIPS, due to decisions made on the early days of Android's dev...	[ "The release of iOS 13 will be exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, as the iPad will branch off into a new iOS based operating system named iPadOS. Similarly, iPadOS will also drop support for iPads that have less than 2 GB of RAM, such as the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3.\n", "The iPad was release...
Does the way food looks and smells influence taste? If so how does that work?	By 'taste' I assume you mean the slightly more specific 'flavour' which is absolutely influenced by smell - studies have shown that, by removing the sense of smell via a nose plug, peoples' ability to identify what they are eating by taste alone is actually quite poor (for example, Mozel et al., 1960, or Murphy & Cai...	[ "The basic tastes contribute only partially to the sensation and flavor of food in the mouth—other factors include smell, detected by the olfactory epithelium of the nose; texture, detected through a variety of mechanoreceptors, muscle nerves, etc.; temperature, detected by thermoreceptors; and \"coolness\" (such a...
why do people (even i) think that extremely attractive women are dumb?	For a long time intelligence in women was not considered an attractive quality, because of the shitty way that they were often treated in society. Intelligent women were often pissed off about being restricted from engaging with many roles or aspects of society, which meant they were less likely to be 'fun', so a lot ...	[ "According to Alice Echols, \"Carol Hanisch ... argued that looking pretty and acting dumb were survival strategies which women should continue to use until such time as the 'power of unity' could replace them.\"\n", "Traditional stereotypes of women make them out to be much more emotional and irrational than men...
Can single celled bacteria get cancer?	No, because cancer is defines as abnormal growth of cells inside of a multicellular organism. A 'cancerous' single cell organism just.. doesn't make sense. Maybe in a colonial organism, but that's not a truly independent cell. A cancer is just a single cell mutation where in a single cell line tries to grow and multi...	[ "In the process of the treatment, cancer cells are most likely to evolve some form of resistance to the bacterial treatment. However, being a living organism, bacteria would coevolve with tumor cells, potentially eliminating the possibility of resistance.\n", "In addition to viruses, certain kinds of bacteria can...
What i´m doing when I treat y´ as dy/dx ?	Most people would tell you that dx and dy are limits of small variations; you take a small difference, keep track consistently of terms that are of comparable size, and get proceed with your limits, etc. However, there is a way to understand that the kind of manipulation you enage in above is correct as is. There i...	[ "Pardoprunox acts as a D (pK = 8.1) and D receptor (pK = 8.6) partial agonist (IA = 50% and 67%, respectively) and 5-HT receptor (pK = 8.5) full agonist (IA = 100%). It also binds to D (pK = 7.8), α-adrenergic (pK = 7.8), α-adrenergic (pK = 7.4), and 5-HT receptors (pK = 7.2) with lower affinity. Relative to other ...
What is happening, physically and computationally, to my computer as it degrades over the years?	A lot of people are giving very valid answers about software bloat, disk fragmentation, and so on. These are the most likely culprits. However, I wanted to add a few points about how physical hardware can degrade. Modern hardware is becoming increasingly sophisticated at dealing with marginal conditions which may im...	[ "In 2013, it was observed that shortly after the startup process, Automatic Updates (codice_2) and Service Host (codice_3 in Windows XP would claim 100% of a computer's CPU capacity for extended periods of time (between ten minutes to two hours), making affected computers unusable. According to Woody Leonhart of In...
Why does the air within the Troposphere not settle and form layers out of its constituents?	For the same reason that the gases don't form an thin condensed layer on the ground: their thermal energies give them large velocities that promote mixing. It's a tradeoff between gravity and entropy. Gravity is the driving force pulling the atoms toward the ground; entropy is the driving force for random arrangements ...	[ "The up and downdrafts of boundary layer convection is the primary way in which the atmosphere moves heat, momentum, moisture, and pollutants between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Thus, boundary layer convection is important in the global climate modeling, numerical weather prediction, air-quality modelin...
Can astronomers find and study planets that are far away from stars or other natural space light sources?	Yes, but only under extremely rare circumstances given our current technology. One example is [PSO J318.5-22](_URL_0_), another example is [2MASS J1119-1137](_URL_1_). Both of these objects are large planets, about 5 - 10 Jupiter-masses. They're also both very close, only about 80 light-years away. Finally, they're a...	[ "Planets are extremely faint light sources compared to stars, and what little light comes from them tends to be lost in the glare from their parent star. So in general, it is very difficult to detect and resolve them directly from their host star. Planets orbiting far enough from stars to be resolved reflect very l...
how do stealth planes & drones actually work ?	Stealth aircraft use two main techniques for avoiding radar detection: Using radar-absorbing materials and having certain angles of outer surfaces to reflect radar waves away from the receiver. Radar works by sending out an electromagnetic signal out into the air. Those electromagnetic waves hit aircraft and are bounc...	[ "The drone can loiter autonomously at high altitudes performing real-time, high-resolution intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) with its SAR and EO sensors. When a target is identified, it will either illuminate the target with a laser designator for other strike aircraft, or descend to lower altitud...
- if foxes are canines too, can dogs theoretically create offspring with them? why or why not?	From Wikipedia: > Members of the dog genus Canis: wolves, domestic dogs, dingoes, Ethiopian Wolves, coyotes, and golden jackals cannot interbreed with members of the wider dog family: the Canidae, such as South American canids, foxes, African wild dogs, bat-eared foxes or raccoon dogs; or, if they could, their offspr...	[ "Occasionally claims are made that interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs together with successful rearing of hybrids is a rare phenomenon in the wild due to supposedly radical differences in behaviour and biology and the harshness of the wilderness. However, cases of dogs that came from human households but no...
Would it be possible to create a sunscreen-like substance for radiation of other kinds? Specifically, radiation caused by a nuclear explosion/accident?	The reason that sunscreen works is that the material absorbs the UV radiation instead of your skin and emits it as a less harmful wavelength. Higher energy photons like X-rays are more and more difficult to block. In dentist offices they use lead vests because lead is a very dense material and therefore the photons en...	[ "Medical organizations recommend that patients protect themselves from UV radiation by using sunscreen. Five sunscreen ingredients have been shown to protect mice against skin tumors. However, some sunscreen chemicals produce potentially harmful substances if they are illuminated while in contact with living cells....
how does the united states have such a high gdp per capita relative to other developed countries?	Well, not having their infrastructure and economies devastated by the carnage and destruction of two world wars happening right on their doorstep within 20 years of each other probably helped a little...	[ "In 180 years, the U.S. grew to a huge, integrated, industrialized economy that made up around one-fifth of the world economy. As a result, the U.S. GDP per capita converged on and eventually surpassed that of the UK, as well as other nations that it previously trailed economically. The economy maintained high wage...
"Slowing light in Bose-Einstein Condensates" - What's actually going on here?	When light is in a medium, it's overall propagation rate changes. This is because, in simple terms, photons are absorbed and re-emitted as they pass through the medium. So even though every photon moves at c ( which it always will), the average speed that the 'total light' moves through the medium is less than c. This ...	[ "In 1999, Danish physicist Lene Hau led a team from Harvard University which slowed a beam of light to about 17 meters per second using a superfluid. Hau and her associates have since made a group of condensate atoms recoil from a light pulse such that they recorded the light's phase and amplitude, recovered by a s...
Which happens faster, erosion or uplift?	TL;DR: In the short term (lets say less than a million years, but that's a rough approximation) either erosion or uplift could be faster depending on the exact conditions in the area of interest, but we expect on the long term that landscapes approach a steady-state where erosion equals uplift. **Longer Explanatio...	[ "There are scientists who reject that uplift is the sole cause of climate change and are in favor of uplift as a result of climate change. Some geologists theorize that a cooler and stormier climate (such as glaciations and increased precipitation) can give a landscape a younger appearance such as incision of high ...
Why are humans' (and other animals) white blood cells and antibodies so useless?	Most of these infections will be fixed by the immune system. As a matter of fact, most ear infections do not need antibiotics (source: _URL_0_). As a matter of fact, our immune system's overzealous response is what causes a significant amount of damage. The inflammation caused by our immune cells usually is more harmf...	[ "Genetic studies of common diseases in humans suffer significant limitations for practical and ethical reasons. Human cell lines can be used to model disease but it is difficult to study processes at the tissue level, within an organ or across the entire body. Mice can be a good representation of diseases in humans...
If we are attracted to good looking people, does that mean in the future there will no longer be any "ugly" people?	The cultural definition of "looks good" is very very subjective. Most striking example is how in the past in China, plump women were thought to be the most physically attractive, whereas today it is the opposite. Beauty is very subjective, and is not as one dimensional as people think. You can even find that example in...	[ "BULLET::::- People tend to believe attractive people as smarter, more successful, more sociable, more dominant, sexually warmer, mentally healthier and higher in self-esteem than physically unattractive people.\n", "Additionally, people who are of above average attractiveness are assumed to also be of above aver...
From 2010 to 2016, student loan debt has approximately doubled, and the average student loan debt in 2016 has seen a 50% increase from 2010. What factors are driving this growth and what's the outlook of it's sustainability?	Increasing by nearly 50% is not doubling. According to your sources, the average debt in 2010 was $25,250. For that to double it would have to be $50,500, but it's only $37,172. Converting to constant dollars using [this inflation calculator](_URL_0_), the 2010 debt would be $28,085 today, so that's a 32% increase, or...	[ "A closely related issue is the increase in students borrowing to finance college education and the resulting in student loan debt. In the 1980s, federal student loans became the centerpiece of student aid received. From 2006 -2012, federal student loans more than doubled and outstanding student loan debt grew to $...
what do these terms mean: p/e ratio, dividend, yield?	P/E ratio: Price to earning ratio. Price of the share vs what it is earning. Literally, Price / Earnings. If my company's shares are selling for $5, and it is earning them $0.25 per year, I have a P/E ratio of 5/.25 = 20. If your company's shares are selling for $10, but is also earning $0.25 per year, your company's P...	[ "Par yield (or par rate) denotes in finance, the coupon rate for which the price of a bond is equal to its nominal value (or par value). It is used in the design of fixed interest securities and in constructing interest rate swaps.\n", "As the ratio of a stock (share price) to a flow (earnings per share), the P/E...
what physical property of our brain allows us to think to ourselves?	Disclaimer: I am not a neuroscientist. As far as I'm able to tell, this is not a question that neuroscience has been able to answer beyond simply, "you have a whole lot of neurons". Neurons are the cells in your brain which send and receive electronic impulses to other neurons. This firing and passing on of impulses f...	[ "Through most of history many philosophers found it inconceivable that cognition could be implemented by a physical substance such as brain tissue (that is neurons and synapses). Descartes, who thought extensively about mind-brain relationships, found it possible to explain reflexes and other simple behaviors in me...
Could we ever build an optical/light microscope that could see atoms?	An optical microscope would never be able to see atoms. The wavelength of light is so much larger than the atoms that the amount of energy the atom displaces on the wavelength would be imperceptible, so the viewer couldn't see it.	[ "The idea of imaging with atoms instead of light is widely discussed in the literature since the past century. Atom optics using neutral atoms instead of light could provide resolution as good as the electron microscope and be completely non-destructive, because short wavelengths on the order of a nanometer can be ...

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