title list | over_18 list | post_content stringlengths 0 9.37k ⌀ | C1 list | C2 list | C3 list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[
"Is mathematics a universal language? If so, how could we use it to communicate with another civilisation after initial contact?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"This popular image",
" explains it far more quickly than I could. :)",
"In a nutshell, if you draw a right triangle with 3 dots on one side of the 90 degree angle, 4 dots on the other side, and 5 on the side connecting the two... you've just proven that you know A squared plus B squared = c squared. And the al... | [
"Out of curiosity, would it be possible for an alien civilization to have developed an understanding of mathematics which doesn't resemble Euclidean geometry? Could be a bit of an issue if so.",
"If you ask me, it might be best to first represent a line, square, and cube. That would probably give them a firmer gr... | [
"Originally Sagan intended for the humans holding hands, but soon realized that an extraterrestrial might perceive the figure as a single creature rather than two organisms.",
"This is actually pretty crazy; I don't think I would have ever caught such a small but important detail."
] |
[
"When you successfully fight off a mutated pathogen via antibodies from a previous infection/vaccination (that have reduced effectiveness, but still get the job done), does your body create updated antibodies for the mutated pathogen?"
] | [
false
] | This question is geared towards the Omicron Covid-19 outbreak, but really extends to the immune system in general. After receiving a booster of the Covid-19 vaccine, your body will produce antibodies targeting the original strain of the virus. Even though the potency of the antibodies against the Omicron variant is greatly diminished, this is still thought to improve your defenses against the disease. I'm particularly interested in the case where your body easily defeats an exposure to Omicron due to a large abundance of antibodies from a recent booster. Will the body bother creating updated antibodies in this case? Or will subsequent exposures still carry risk of infection, especially as the level of antibodies in your system wane over time since receiving the booster? | [
"Yes. This is a well-studied process called affinity maturation. Basically when you get reinfected, the white blood cells that responded to the initial infection or vaccine multiply, then each copy mutates itself slightly to produce slightly different antibodies. The antibodies with the tightest fit to the new infe... | [
"If a mutation comes along that doesn't hospitalise people at a rate that overwhelms countries' healthcare systems then yes. Omicron is a step in that direction, but it's not there yet. If we let it circulate feely, immunuty in survivors will improve, but hundreds of thousands will die not just of the disease but b... | [
"then get a booster a couple months later do your antibodies then revert back to how they were for the original strain?",
"They don't revert. You have a population of memory B cells (these go through affinity maturation) that recognise specific epitopes (specific parts of virus proteins), and when they get activa... |
[
"How much do our larger brains \"cost\" compared to our ancestors other closely related species?"
] | [
false
] | I want to get a sense of how high a "price" (in terms of additional calories required) human brains "cost" relative to those of other primates and close relatives. Do we have a sense on how much more food (if any) anatomically modern humans would have needed (beyond body size differences) relative to "Lucy" or other ancestors to grow and maintain our larger brain size. Natural history programs and articles frequently focus on changing brain size when examine human evolution. Is this as important as it is made out (i.e. modern humans have bigger brains than "Lucy" but their bodies are physically larger too.) Finally, non-scientific parenting books etc. seem to throw out statistics like "XX% of nutrition at this age is for brain growth" or "the brain uses YY% of our energy." These numbers are meaningless without context - dowe have a sense of how much energy other animals brains use? Googling this seems to unearth a wealth of useless "brain foods for babies!" type articles. Is there some google-fu for "brain-growth-nutrition-economics"? My wider curiosity (assuming humans have more "expensive" brains) is that the ever-increasing energy requirement must have represented a negative selection pressure and so some continuous benefit must have been provided as we evolved those bigger brains. | [
"According to ",
"this article",
" human brains use 20% of our total energy usage while our closest relatives use only 7-8%. I know its not a very good source but it's an interesting article. "
] | [
"When you talk about the \"price\" or \"cost\" of the modern human brain, you're talking about a trade-off that relates to body size, so the two aren't really separable. Anatomically modern humans didn't evolve large brains because they were eating more food, necessarily, but food that was higher in quality and nut... | [
"I've seen charts/articles claiming that a house cats brain is actually more efficient in terms of power vs energy ratio, but it's totally anecdotal. "
] |
[
"[Biology] Question on Insulin Response"
] | [
false
] | My question is in regards to protein based insulin response. If this needs to be xposted somewhere, please let me know! I've read a bit, in my time researching more about ketosis, about how protein can also stimulate an insulin response. The only study I've been able to find is this one from 1966: It claims that it was able to generate an insulin response by INJECTING amino acids into the bloodstream. I've also read on random forum/blog posts that it'd be hard to produce the same response from physically consuming the proteins. I've been unable to find much on the subject except forum posts like this one: which have stated claims like this... "Note a complication: while dietary protein and carbs both trigger a major insulin response, protein (but not carbs) also triggers a rise in glucagon, which is antagonistic to insulin in several respects (for example, while insulin inhibits lipolysis, glucagon encourages lipolysis). For this reason (i.e., increased glucagon too), a rise in insulin due to dietary protein may have different overall effects than a rise due to dietary carbs." So I guess my targeted question(s) should be something like: Thanks in advance. Here is another SIMILAR type of thread but I was unable to find answers to the questions above: | [
"Insulin secretion happens when rises in blood sugar are detected; your body functions really well when it's maintained very close to 100. It isn't that consuming protein causes or doesn't cause this, but if you eat a protein-only meal, your body will need to compensate for the decrease in blood sugar in some fash... | [
"I haven't seen an edit for sources, but are you talking about GLUT-4 in regards to the glucose being used for muscles? "
] | [
"Does insulin release always lead to fat deposition?",
"No it does not. Insulin release is anabolic in nature in that it alerts cells that glucose is available in the bloodstream for absorption. This absorption can be done by fat cells or by muscle cells. Usually you don't get to choose which cells absorb the glu... |
[
"Why don't people who've undergone major surgery wake up screaming in pain when the anesthetic has worn off?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Anaesthesia is distinct from analgesia (pain relief). Most general anaesthetic agents (with the exception of ketamine and nitrous oxide) have no analgesic properties.",
"If you are undergoing a painful procedure you will be administered analgesia before and during the procedure. This will usually be a combinatio... | [
"It depends on the type of surgery as well. There are some parts of your body that don't have pain receptors and the pain you feel waking up would be due to the path the surgeon took to get there, dissecting tissues. This is why the recovery time for laparoscopic surgery is so quick.",
"Also, regional nerve block... | [
"Much of the digestive system and supporting organs (kidneys, bladder) Discerning the exact location of an upset in your intestine is almost impossible, unlike your skin where you have a precise mental map for every centimetre of it. Of course you can have pains associated with them, but a surgical cut or stitch co... |
[
"How can timing of meals effect weight-loss or gain? If calories in < calories out, wouldn't you have to lose weight or violate the 1st law of thermodynamics?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Edit: wow I hate when I spend a long time writing an explanation to help someone, and they delete their question before I can post...",
"If it raises body temperature, it should increase calorie consumption. That energy must come from somewhere!",
"Trying my best to avoid jargon, and frankly things are more co... | [
"In technical terms, it is actually just as simple as that. The problem is that this is a completely useless bit of information in practical terms and can be very misleading when someone tries to apply it to weight loss.",
"The first law of thermodynamics only applies to closed systems. The human body is anythi... | [
"In our bodies, it is not as simple as calorie in, calorie out. The method we store it, are we metabolising all of it, the method of metabolism all control how efficiently we are making use of energy.",
"EDIT: I'm not talking about breaking thermo. I'm talking about about all calories we eat go the same way."
] |
[
"What is the feeling of an asleep body part? And why does there seem to be different stages? (Needles, Tickling, etc..)"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"There is a fatty lining surrounding your nerves called myelin that helps conduct and smooth messages (sensory feelings) as they pass to your brain. When you \"kink\" a nerve, or disrupt this lining, the signal passing along the nerve is garbled and your brain gets a signal or feeling of numbness or tingling. "
] | [
"To expand on ",
"/u/StraydogJackson",
" 's response, we have 3 different \"types\" of nerve axons - AB [A-Beta], Ad [A-delta], and c. AB axons are able to pass signals the fastest, while c type axons are the slowest.\nAB-type axons are closely related to the sense touch;",
"Ad axons are closely related to te... | [
"Follow up question, does hitting the asleep limb or limps help at all?"
] |
[
"Diet coke freezes when opened"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Sorry for the generic wiki link, but this process is called super cooling:",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooling",
"A similar thing can happen at the hotter end of the scale too:",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheating"
] | [
"This video",
" explains it a bit.",
"The same can happen with beer. If you cool a beer in the freezer and it feels too cold when you take it out, it might freeze when you open it or jostle it. Take it out of the freezer and gently put it on the counter til it warms up and you should avoid the flash freezing.... | [
"That's really cool, thanks for the info! I didn't realize you could supercool liquids."
] |
[
"Is biological uranium enrichment feasible?"
] | [
false
] | Modern uranium enrichment seems to be done almost entirely with centrifuges or the gaseous diffusion method (occasionally I've heard of laser-based methods as well). These all seem to use extreme amounts of power to run. Non-radioactive heavy water is known to kill eukaryotes in high concentrations, so there is obviously a cellular mechanism that behaves differently when subjected to different isotopes. So, would it be possible to engineer bacteria to do something like selectively reduce uranyl sulfate to uranium metal for only one isotope? I realize that the percent difference in weight is much smaller for U-235/U-238 vs. H-1/H-2, but if natural organisms can have a coincidental selective response to hydrogen isotopes, I wonder if intentional design could produce something even more selective that is more efficient than existing methods of uranium enrichment. (I'm not sure if this the flair for this should be biology or physics...) | [
"Plants are capable of fractionating copper",
", which is about 4 times heavier than oxygen, but uranium is about 4 times heavier than copper, and the change in relative abundance of ",
"Cu and ",
"Cu in plants was less than 1%. For light water reactors, the relative abundance of ",
"U is increased from abo... | [
"There is a project at Oak Ridge National Lab where they are working with bacteria that can bioaccumulate uranium, but I don't think they have any ability to discriminate isotopes. It is more of a bacterial toxic waste clesn-up kind of project."
] | [
"Your chemistry teacher told you that different isotopes of the same element behave exactly the same. That is one of the many, many white lies in introductory chemistry; they're very close but not exact.",
"Boiling heavy water takes slightly more energy just because the water molecules are heavier, which is neat ... |
[
"Why do Warm/Hot showers still feel refreshing(cooling) even if you are really hot from the heat outside?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Thermometer time.",
"Maybe you just get high off of near-death experiences."
] | [
"They don't. I can't stand them when I am physically hot."
] | [
"It could be that your definition of a hot shower is still cooler than your body temperature. In this case, you could still radiate heat without immediate vasoconstriction. I am however just thinking out loud and a little wikipedia-ing tells me that water is often heated to temperatures upwards of 120 degrees Fah... |
[
"If time can warp and curve, does that mean that on different planets time is not the same as it is on Earth?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Apparently atomic clocks these days are good enough that the people at the national labs at Maryland and Colorado have to take into account the fact that one lab is in a basement, and the other on the second floor (because gravity gets weaker as you move away from the center of the Earth). Atomic clock times are a... | [
"Even if the difference was big enough, you wouldn't ever perceive the difference unless you had something to measure it relative to, though. "
] | [
"by atomic clock standards",
"Though I feel compelled to clarify: That doesn't mean there'd be any sort of perceptible difference on human timescales."
] |
[
"Could TV signals be used as an Internet Connection?"
] | [
false
] | I was wondering earlier: could TV satellite signals be used as a connection to transfer data to your computer? The speed that a satellite signal must work at must be astounding, because it can stream HD signals in seconds. Couldn't that same technology be adapted to offer the same connection as a router or modem would? Can that satellite signal even do such a thing, and are they in anyway similar? | [
" But I am an IT Systems Admin.",
"I was wondering earlier: could TV satellite signals be used as a connection to transfer data to your computer?",
"Yes. ",
"http://www.wildblue.com/",
" But current technology in use requires that have dial-up in order to upload (e.g. tell the DNS server which website you... | [
"I might be wrong but I think satellites have a limited bandwidth. TV shows are all pushed out at once this is why you can not get on demand on satellite.The internet is on demand because you load a web page when you want. Satellite internet is available for places like Antarctica but its slow and crazily expensive... | [
"It's important to note the difference between broadcast and unicast. Broadcast means there is one source and many destinations, unicast means there is one source and one destination. Television signals (ignoring on-demand services) are broadcast, and because of this they are extremely efficient. The satellite s... |
[
"Why can't particles have defined position/velocity before they are measured according to the Copenhagen interpretation?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"You are talking about something called 'hidden variables'. Basically, this is the idea that particles ",
" have well defined properties like position and velocity, but that we just can't measure them for some reason.",
"There is something called \"",
"Bells theorem",
"\", which tells you that you can have ... | [
"I see you're trying to do the LaTeX – using 2 -'s. Tip: hold Alt and press - and you shall have a –"
] | [
"Aah, thanks :) "
] |
[
"question about calories in protein"
] | [
false
] | protein has 4 calories per gram, however when we eat, for example, 30 grams of protein in one day (less than RDI), all of the protein is broken down to amino acids which are used by the cells to make more protein. does it still give 120 calories, even if the protein is broken down to be remade into new proteins? or does the body only reuse essential amino acids, and turn the rest into energy? | [
"A calorie is simply a unit of energy. 120 calories is always 120 calories. The way your body uses that energy and the amino acid substrates can be complex. Just because you eat less than the RDI of protein doesn't mean your body uses that protein to synthesize new protein. Amino acids are used for many functio... | [
"120 calories is always 120 calories.",
"Thermogenesis"
] | [
"not sure about your main question but excess amino acids are converted into organic acids via the ornithine cycle in the liver.",
"also see ",
"this",
" on the calories in food phenomenon."
] |
[
"What determines how gases are transported?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Hi tubob thank you for submitting to ",
"/r/Askscience",
".",
" Please add flair to your post. ",
"Your post will be removed permanently if flair is not added within one hour. You can flair this post by replying to this message with your flair choice. It must be an exact match to one of the following... | [
"'Chemistry'"
] | [
"Chemistry"
] |
[
"Have we found a galaxy that doesn't have a black hole at the center?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"I don't think we've found one in M33, and it's in the local group so it's close enough that we can get good measurements. For disc galaxies with black holes, the rotation speed of stars and gas goes up as you get closer to the black hole. We don't see that in M33.",
"Edit: Any particular reason for the curiosity... | [
"nah, black holes have a lot of mass in a very small space. If all of the mass of the Milky Way was in a black hole, that black hole would be smaller than the distance between the Sun and the next closest star (I get about 0.1 light years). The central supermassive black hole is not going to be nearly that big (our... | [
"It only deviates from classical gravity if you're close (like <10 Schwartzchild radii) or you're ",
" concerned with being precise down to large numbers of significant figures."
] |
[
"On a ventilator, you can increase the respiratory rate to decrease body CO2, but this doesn't increase oxygen since CO2 diffuses more readily in the lungs. Why does CO2 diffuse faster than oxygen?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"CO2 diffuses out of lungs because the gradient of diffusion is high in blood, low in lungs. The diffusion constant for CO2 is much higher compared to O2. Henry’s law states that diffusion into /out a liquid depend on partial pressure and diff. constant. Thus CO2 goes out faster even at lower partial pressures. The... | [
"Most of the oxygen carried by the blood is bound to hemoglobin, found within the red blood cells. While carbon dioxide can also bind to hemoglobin, most (85%) is transported as part of the bicarbonate buffer system - an additional storage mechanism for CO2 that's not used for oxygen. So a red blood cell can both \... | [
"This is the answer. While everybody else is correct about diffusion constants and solubility and all that physics, the answer is physiological. In short, it’s due to the different proportions of each that bind to haemoglobin."
] |
[
"What is actually happening when you put metal in a microwave?"
] | [
false
] | It's pretty self explanatory really. I think it could be down to the particles gaining energy but I'm probably wrong. Any other interesting un-microwavable object science is welcome (I think tea lights make plasma). | [
"Microwaves are below the plasma frequency of metals (that's the resonant frequency above which the electrons cannot respond rapidly enough to the oscillating EM fields (radiation) so the metal simply becomes transparent) and so what is happening is that the electrons in the metal oscillate due to the incident radi... | [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Metal_objects"
] | [
"I understand that a certain fraction of the microwave energy is absorbed by metals, which accounts for the heating, but you haven't addressed why (some) metallic objects cause electrical arcs. Why is this?",
"I accidentally microwaved a plastic pot of rice pudding with some aluminium foil still on it, and it spa... |
[
"How is infrared radiation translated into vibrational energy in an atom?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"I'll give this a shot.",
"The first thing you are missing is what is happening in the fundamental interaction between light and matter. Lets group everything into 2 categories: resonant interactions, non-resonant (scattering).",
"Nearly all of these interactions are subject to ",
"Fermi's golden rule",
"... | [
"No, I'm not saying that. There are atomic transition lines in the infrared. The entire hydrogen ",
"Paschen series",
", for example."
] | [
"No, I'm not saying that. There are atomic transition lines in the infrared. The entire hydrogen ",
"Paschen series",
", for example."
] |
[
"If we can discharge excess voltage into the Earth whenever we need to, why can't we draw a steady supply of electricity from the Earth in a similar way?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"For the same reason that you can take a very hot (or very cold) object and put it in a large bath of water to bring it to room temperature, but that you can't take a room-temperature bath and use it to make something hot. You can, of course, draw a steady supply of charge from the Earth, it just costs energy to do... | [
"The earth is a infinite source of current, but in order to draw that current you need a potential difference which takes energy.",
"Imagine the earth as a huge reservoir at sea level, but you want to take the water to the top of a mountain so it can run down and run a turbine. That takes energy. ",
"Electricit... | [
"In the Earth there are a lot of charges moving around going nuts, some are formed from essentially friction so you get more free electrons in one region for example. How big that net positive number of electrons or any free charge I don't know the magnitude of so I'll make a slightly different argument which I thi... |
[
"What stops black holes from collapsing in on themself?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Nothing stops it from collapsing. Time itself gets slowed down so much at the event horizon that it takes an infinite amount of time for it to finish collapsing, as observed by an distant, external, observer. But it still just keeps on collapsing. So it's not that there is a wall or anything. Time is just so slowe... | [
"The opposite, actually. The black hole will collapse and anybody who falls into it will experience time as they fall in, and reach the singularity in some finite amount of time. But anybody far away from the black hole will not observe this, from a distance the black hole looks frozen and light from anything falli... | [
"The opposite, actually. The black hole will collapse and anybody who falls into it will experience time as they fall in, and reach the singularity in some finite amount of time. But anybody far away from the black hole will not observe this, from a distance the black hole looks frozen and light from anything falli... |
[
"Questions about the climate change debate between Bill Nye and Marsha Blackburn? Ask our panelists here!"
] | [
false
] | This Sunday, NBC's will be hosting Bill Nye and , the Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for a . airs at 10am for most of the east coast of the US. or in your local listings. The show is also rebroadcast during the day. The segment is now . While this is a departure from our typical format, a few rules apply: | [
"For those that missed it, you can watch ",
"here",
" it's only 13mins and is less of a debate than two people making fairly random statements. There was no actual debate between the two",
"It was disappointing that the congresswoman was actively attempting to mislead viewers and that she was more or less all... | [
"Why does one side of the debate get a scientist and the other a politician? Why couldn't they find one of the scientists that has an opposing view of climate change? Why am I asking reddit about this?"
] | [
"In the USA, carbon monoxide pollution has been greatly reduced through the introduction of catalytic converters in automobiles which happened in the 1980s.",
"As to CO2, there simply aren't enough trees on the planet to absorb the amount of fossil-fuel carbon we are burning. If the trees and other vegetation co... |
[
"Are some people consistently more responsive to placebos than others?"
] | [
false
] | If I'm not mistaken, placebos generally work because we believe that the treatment we're receiving will have an effect, and so our minds are tricked into actually producing an effect in line with our expectations. So I'm wondering if people who tend to be more skeptical, especially in regards to medicine being effective, will more consistently have less of a response to placebos. Or if perhaps there could be other factors like genetics that affect how we respond to placebos. | [
"Humorously enough, hypochondriacs respond strongly to placebos acutely. Also in my experience elite athletes tend to respond very strongly to them, some aspect of their psyche makes them desire performance so much that they can get it from almost anywhere (a lot of athletes aren't especially bright either.) It's... | [
"Very true, but the magnitude of the effect can be increased by 'talking up' the substance or decreased by saying its a placebo or that you don't think it will work. Additionally placebo effects can sometimes be harmful, it has been called the 'nocebo' effect by some. For example a patient who is scared to death to... | [
"Do you have any evidence for either A) placebo effect depends on intelligence B) Most athletes aren't that bright"
] |
[
"Can the earth's rotation generate electricity?"
] | [
false
] | This question touches upon physics and earth/planetary science... Since we know: - the earth has magnetic properties - the earth spins on its N/S axis Could a large piece of copper metal coil, perhaps connected to a space station, rotate the earth along the N/S plane and thus generate electricity passively? | [
"Technically yes, though it's an extremely small amount. Some cubesats use an attitude control system called a ",
"Magnetorquer",
", which uses Earth's magnetic field to reorient the craft. In that article they also mention:",
"Any spinning satellite made of a conductive material will lose rotational momentum... | [
"Also the period of rotation is a whole day. That kind of frequency doesn't play nice with AC power systems.",
"The kind of infrastructure you'd need to capture that power would consist of DC/DC converters, inverters, and high voltage series capacitors. The cost-benefit is upside down."
] | [
"Sure. Easy! ",
"All you need is the patented Siemens Air Hook. ",
"Fix to any point above the earth's surface and connect a line to it, so that the line pulls on the axis of a generator and makes it turn. ",
"All the comments here talking about satellites are just as non-sensical: It is not the earth's mo... |
[
"Quasars and Radio Galaxies?"
] | [
false
] | I just want to know what is the difference between a quasar and radio galaxy. I know the formation of them but I also want the differences. Do Quasar also have radio jets/plumes coming out like radio galaxies? and since they are billion light years away, are they at a dying stage right now? | [
"These days, a radio galaxy and a quasar are pretty synonymous- the term \"radio galaxy\" is more from back in the day when they didn't quite know what these class of objects were, and if all radio galaxies were quasars.",
"Quasars are by this point also observable in non-radio frequencies, such as in the X-Ray a... | [
"Drat, sorry, wrong phrase- edited! Thanks for the catch!"
] | [
"What would a quasar do to the habitability of our galaxy?"
] |
[
"What's the deal with poison ivy?"
] | [
false
] | And other similar topically-toxic plants. Is there any good adaptive expanation for this trait? How does being so awful help the poison ivy to survive? Do animals suffer its effects? And do animals show any behavioural evidence of "knowing of or "learning from" its effects? | [
"That's actually a good question. I had assumed that the urushiol in poison ivy (the substance that causes the itchiness) is irritating to other animals, and that it therefore acts as a deterrent to browsing, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Although there are apparently cases of dogs being affected by poiso... | [
"Good answer, immunological brother-in-arms! ",
"Urushiol is a very interesting molecule. There are many theories as to why some animals are reactive and why others aren't. To understand that a bit further we have to know how urushiol works.",
"Urushiol is a very small molecule called a hapten. Because of its s... | [
"That's really interesting! Thank you!"
] |
[
"Are there any other species that use tools to \"improve\" their environment?"
] | [
false
] | Adam Savage pointed out that humanity's ability to adapt to our environment (and adapt our environment to ourselves) has been a major evolutionary advantage. Clothing seems like the earliest example of this kind of adaptation. Unlike tool use for hunting/gathering, which definitely predated homo sapiens and shows up in other species, is use of tools for creating habitats unique to us? 1) | [
"Beavers essentially create habitat for themselves by building dams, and creating ponds. Those ponds provide a relatively safe watery environment to inhabit and build their lodges.",
"That said, beavers kind of do one thing really well, and they don't have the power to invent new tools and concepts like we do. No... | [
"Well, one example is birds building nests. Check out ",
"Rufous Hornero",
", a little bird that gathers wet mud to build",
" a mud hut that it uses as its home",
". This isn't too different from humans creating huts out of mud ourselves, I think."
] | [
"Related question: have you played Timberborn yet?"
] |
[
"How are deep ocean temperatures cold while pressure is high?"
] | [
false
] | I know pressure and temperature are correlated (i.e. increase in pressure = increase in temperature), so I was wondering why temperature continued to get colder as you got deeper. It seems strange that there's a (seemingly) inverse temperature-pressure relationship for deep ocean. Thanks in advance! Note: I do realize there are a lot of other variables like the sun warming up surface waters, ocean currents, cold seeps, hydrothremal vents, etc. Do these have that much of an effect though? Edit: Cool, thanks for the replies. | [
"There is a warming effect due to the pressure but it is small effect compared to other things going on. For typical ocean depth, 4000m, the warming due to pressure is only about 0.5°C. The exact numerical value depends on salinity and the water's initial temperature the surface. The relatively small effect is du... | [
"The process of pressurizing or compressing something increases it's temperature, but it will immediately begin to equilibrate it's temperature so it becomes the same as it's surroundings. You can make a fine chiller by compressing air or any other gas, letting it cool to ambient, then letting the gas expand. If it... | [
"The relation of pressure to temperature only holds for closed systems. I.e. increasing pressure increases temperature if the energy can't escape. There's nothing stopping you from increasing pressure and applying cooling. So, it's not that high pressure means high temperatures, but increasing pressure will produce... |
[
"If there is a normal matter periodic table, is it plausible that there is an anti-periodic table? (e.g. anti-protons and whatnot make anti-elements)"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"If you drank a glass of antiwater, you'd explode and take out several city blocks with you. Would not recommend 0/10."
] | [
"There sure is! We've even made some of it,",
"\n",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antihydrogen"
] | [
"I looked it up quickly and found the following:",
"\nAssuming a small glass of water is 200mL and 1 gram of antimatter annihilating being ",
"equal to 43kilotons of TNT",
" we get ",
"200*43=8.6 Megatons of TNT which is like 537 ",
"Little Boy",
"'s"
] |
[
"why hydrogen-4 is unstable ? what forces drive neutral neutrons away from atom core ?"
] | [
false
] | I know adding another electron is not possible because negative electron and positive proton has already neutralised each other and so another negatively charged electron wont stick to it. and adding another proton would make it a new element. but neutrons are neutral, so why wont they stick to hydrogen-3 ? what forces drive them away ? | [
"Neutrons are fermions, you can't have more than one in a given state. They fill up the available energy levels from the bottom up. The first two neutrons can get the lowest possible energy (one with spin up, one with spin down). The third one needs a much higher energy already. For hydrogen this energy is so high ... | [
"Hydrogen-4 is unbound. There’s still an attractive strong force between the hydrogen-3 core and the last neutron, but it’s not strong enough to form bound states."
] | [
"H-4 has one neutron in a very high energy state while the other three nucleons are in low energy states. It makes sense to see this as H-3 with additional neutron. It is a resonance with a width of 3 MeV, it is not a proper bound state."
] |
[
"Q: what is blackbody radiation?"
] | [
false
] | I tried googling it but can't find a satisfactory explanation... could someone please try to explain what blackbody radiation is and what it has to do with Planck's constant? A link with a good explanation is also fine. thanks guys. | [
"Suppose you heat up a piece of metal. It glows when it's a certain heat. And the hotter it is, the peak of the light goes from red to yellow to blue (and beyond). It turns out that to some degree, the light is ",
" a function of the temperature, not the material. It could be a piece of iron in a forge, or the co... | [
"From Simple English Wikipedia:\n\"Black-body radiation is radiation produced from heated objects, particularly from a kind of special object that is made so it will absorb all radiation (visible light, infrared light, ultraviolet light, etc.) that falls on it, and so that it will also radiate at all frequencies th... | [
"Blackbody radiation is energy emitted by an object based on its temperature. ",
"Blackbody radiation is how night vision goggles work (most objects around room temperature emit their radiation in the infrared spectrum)",
"It is why metal turns red when it starts to get hot, then white when it gets really hot, ... |
[
"What kind of instruments directly measure space debris?"
] | [
false
] | I saw a statistic stating 29,000 objects over 10cm are tracked and was interested on how those object are tracked and how we use instruments to determine their location. Thanks! | [
"Space objects tracking is performed and disseminated by the ",
"United States Space Surveillance Network",
".",
"They mainly use a combination of ground-based radars and optical telescopes, but there have been experiments with using space-based instruments as well. You can see the different kinds of instrume... | [
"This article has a pretty good overview.",
" The thing to know about space debris that's relatively nonintuitive is that orbits are extremely predictable. This means that you can have a lot of blind spots and go 90 minutes without getting an observation, and still know with a high degree of confidence that you'r... | [
"Radar seems the most likely way. Maybe just optical telescopes."
] |
[
"Why is it that people can't eat most raw meats without getting food poisoning, but carnivores can?"
] | [
false
] | For example, all carnivores survive by eating other animals raw. Why do we not have the ability to eat raw meat without getting food poisoning? Have we evolved since we first started cooking food? | [
"First humans (",
") speciated some 200,000 years ago. Evidence for fire and cooked food precedes this date, somewhere in our ",
" lineage. Physical evidence for fire dates back many hundreds of thousands of years, morphological evidence (changes within ourselves) go back further.",
": \"In Montreal, Canada i... | [
"Ocean fish tend to have dramatically lower body temperatures than we do, while mammals tend to have very similar body temperatures. That means the bacteria that are adapted to grow in or on an ocean fish tend to have a really hard time growing in us, because it's too hot for them. ",
"Fish flesh also tends to ... | [
"Raw meat is usually served very ",
"finely sliced",
" or ",
"chopped up",
", because of the toughness issue. Finally, an AskScience question in which I know things!"
] |
[
"What is the diameter of a Carbon-12 atom?"
] | [
false
] | I have not been able to find anything about it online. | [
"less than a hundred!",
"Careful with this. The physical distance expressed in the name of technology nodes (i.e. 14 nm node, etc.) has absolutely no physical meaning. It's just made up marketing speak.",
"However, feature sizes tend to be about 50 nm, which is still ~400 atoms, which is still pretty impressive... | [
"Atomic radius",
", while well-defined, isn't just one value. You will find both explanation for what you ask as well as measured and theoretical values across the periodic table in the ",
"links",
"."
] | [
"I've looked into this for Silicon, in its crystalline form. Nearest neighbor in the lattice is 0.235nm. I was interested in this because I wanted to estimate how many atoms long a state of the art MOSFET channel is - less than a hundred!",
"https://www.princeton.edu/~maelabs/mae324/glos324/silicon.htm",
"Ato... |
[
"With our new ability to measure changes in gravity, could information from within the event horizon of a black hole be communicated by creating gravitational waves within the black hole?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Gravitational waves ",
" escape a black hole.",
"On the subject of \"the gravity escaping the black hole\" ",
"read here"
] | [
"I'd just like to point out that the LIGO experiment doesn't measure changes in gravity. We've been able to do that for a while (see ",
"gravimetry",
" and ",
"gravity gradiometry",
").",
"What the LIGO experiment can detect is gravity waves, which are not the same as gravity, and which manifest as distor... | [
"the LIGO experiment doesn't measure changes in gravity",
"Small phrasing improvement: LIGO doesn't measure either gravity itself or ",
" in gravity. It does measure ",
" in gravity (as that is what a gravitational wave ",
" -- a propagating disturbance of the curvature of spacetime)."
] |
[
"How fast do our eyes move?"
] | [
false
] | It seems like my eyes go at a constant speed, I can't seem to make my eyes move any slower or faster, so how fast so they actually move? | [
"Your eyes don't actually move at a constant speed under most circumstances. They jump around from place to place, and your brain strings it all together into a smooth movement and makes it look constant. These movements are called saccadic movements, or saccades.",
"Here's a ",
"video",
" showing you what ... | [
"Optrode answered the question well. Just to add onto it - the upper limit for \"smooth pursuit\" is 80-100 degrees/sec and the upper limit for saccades is 1000 degrees/sec. ",
"Sources -",
"Orban de Xivry, J., & Lefèvre, P. (2007). Saccades and pursuit: two outcomes of a single sensorimotor process. The Journa... | [
"m/s is a linear velocity whereas degrees/second is an angular velocity. If you have an object rotating, as the eye does, every point at different cross sections centered on the axis of rotation will have a different linear velocity. ",
"Imagine a bicycle wheel turning. The tread is moving much more quickly than ... |
[
"Why can I listen to a certain radio station only when outside temperature is really low (-20 C/ -4 F)?"
] | [
false
] | It's the heart of winter here in Finland, temperatures around -20 C and stuff. I noticed that a certain radio station, which can not usually be heard where I live, has suddenly become available. So my question is: Do radio waves 'go further' in subzero temperatures and why does this happen? My friends speculated that the phenomenon has something to do with air humidity ('dry air') and thus electrical conductivity of air. | [
"The ionosphere has a different composition at night then during the day due to the sun's rays not hitting it at night. Finland is very far North, and being the winter time the ionosphere is hit by very limited sun rays. The Ionosphere reflects certain radio waves, thus allowing you to hear stations from much farth... | [
"Atmospheric conditions certainly have an impact on radio transmissions. The wikipedia article on ",
"radio propagation",
" lists many of the possible effects. Unfortunately my major was computer systems rather than communications, so I am not familiar with all of the mechanisms.",
"My educated guess would be... | [
"Receiver temperature does affect signal to noise ratio, but I believe atmospheric conditions are the primary factor in RF propagation.\n",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_temperature",
"At night, it is possible to receive stations over very large distances thanks to reflections off of the ionosphere. The w... |
[
"My parents keep their batteries in a drawer of the refrigerator. They claim that this helps the battery last longer when not in use, as it retards the chemical processes within. Is there any truth to this?"
] | [
false
] | I never questioned the practice, as they have done it all my life, but a friend of mine gave me some very strange looks for doing the same. Does the method have any merit whatsoever? Or is it possibly even detrimental somehow? Or is it so ineffective as to seem ridiculous? | [
"For Duracell alkaline batteries, 70°F is definitely better than 100°F, but it isn't clear if refrigerator temperatures are any better than 70°F. The recommended storage conditions are from 50°F (10°C) to 77°F (25°C).",
"from: ",
"http://www.duracell.com/media/en-US/pdf/gtcl/Technical_Bulletins/Alkaline%20Tech... | [
"Yes, storing batteries at a lower temperature will decrease their self-discharge rate. For most types of batteries, the higher the storage temperature, the higher the % capacity loss per year. Note that some batteries can be damaged when stored ",
" cold (from cells freezing), and that if the storage environme... | [
"I would add that there is no good reason why storing batteries at refrigerator temperatures would be detrimental to their longevity."
] |
[
"Is there a way to freeze water in the same fashion that a microwave heats it up?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"You just described a freezer. I don't think this is what they were asking for."
] | [
"Somewhat serious followup question:",
"How can this be utilized to build a freeze ray?"
] | [
"Somewhat serious followup question:",
"How can this be utilized to build a freeze ray?"
] |
[
"Does Computer Programming follow a set of laws?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"The answer is yes, for any level at which you choose to look at the problem.",
"At a basic level, what I can program a computer to do is bounded by the same laws of physics that govern the universe -- I can rearrange electrons which can cause some fancy stuff to happen, but I am still bounded by the laws of phys... | [
"At a basic level, what I can program a computer to do is bounded by the same laws of physics that govern the universe -- I can rearrange electrons which can cause some fancy stuff to happen, but I am still bounded by the laws of physics in much the same way everything else is.",
"There is a level even more basic... | [
"There's more examples like this, for example sorting. Whatever you do, you cannot sort an array without minimum nlogn comparisions (unless you impose certain limitations, as in counting sort)."
] |
[
"Are there \"colors\" in different parts of the EM spectrum like there are different colors of visible light?"
] | [
false
] | Every diagram of the EM spectrum shows everything other than visible light as a solid block, while visible ("white") light is broken up into ROYGBV, so it got me wondering as to whether other spectrums like radio have distinct divisions | [
"Color is just our brain's interpretation of various wavelengths of light. Color does not actually exist independent of our brain, so no there really isn't any \"color\" beyond visual light because its not a property of light. '"
] | [
"This is true, and is also the reason not all animals see the same light. The rods in our eyes detect light as is, without interpreting it as a colour (hence why we see little to no colour in dark environments). The cones in our eyes (a lot fewer in number than the rods) detect a specific wavelength of light. ",
... | [
"As I recall it is 16, but funnily enough it is not R/G/B.",
"Mantis shrimp information presented in a light-hearted way:\n",
"http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp"
] |
[
"Botulism, how does it work?"
] | [
false
] | My friend and I had a conversation the other day that surfaced a longstanding confusion of mine. We had roasted some potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil in a campfire, and a few were left over. The next day as we were packing up, she said that we probably shouldn't eat those as she had heard that someone died of botulism poisoning after eating a baked potato. I said that sounded a bit like an urban myth, but some Googling unearthed that this does seem to have happened at least once. My questions are mostly about the "anaerobic environment" part of the required conditions: 1) I had always understood this to mean that the food item needs to be cut off from the air completely. Will foil-wrapping really achieve this? Do other people foil wrap their potatoes that well? 2) As my friend mentions, would the inside of the potato be in an anaerobic environment since it's obviously not in contact with the air even if the potato isn't foil wrapped? Why aren't all potatoes dangerous then? Would a boiled potato be likely to harbor botulism? 3) I've heard of the dangers of botulism in sous vide chicken--is that because it's cooked vacuum sealed? But chicken isn't grown in the earth, so I'm not sure I understand how this works. Finally, I had heard the advice that raw garlic should not be stored in olive oil, but never heard that about cooked garlic. If cooked garlic is fine, then why aren't the potatoes? | [
"Checked ",
"wiki",
" to confirm that ",
" is in fact an obligate anaerobe and it says that ",
" \"tolerates traces of oxygen due to the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD).\" So that could explain why just foil wrap is sufficient for growth. "
] | [
"Why the prescription to avoid foil-wrapped baked potatoes vs. unwrapped baked potatoes then, if the inside of the potato is also a great anaerobic environment? Wouldn't all potatoes be equally dangerous to eat then? "
] | [
"Why the prescription to avoid foil-wrapped baked potatoes vs. unwrapped baked potatoes then, if the inside of the potato is also a great anaerobic environment? Wouldn't all potatoes be equally dangerous to eat then? "
] |
[
"Do the effects of dyslexia change depending on the native language of the affected person?"
] | [
false
] | I was wondering specifically about languages with logographic/syllabic alphabets like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. The structure of Hangul in particular seems like it would be harder to misspell or misread a character since they are (sorta) like an instruction manual for how to pronounce each individual syllable. I don't speak any of those languages fluently though so I could be way off base here. | [
"Absolutely. It's been shown that different parts of the brain are used for learning/reading Chinese and English, and their forms of dyslexia, therefore, are dependent on the structure of those languages.\n",
"https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/sep/23/research.highereducation2",
"Basically it boils down... | [
"Somewhat but also not really. There are words in japanese like Yukata ゆかた and Yutaka ゆたか, so dyslexia can manifest in different and more varied ways compared to latin alphabet languages. It can be pictographic or syllabic. Like mixing up the order of certain radicals (small mini kanji within a compound kanji) / mi... | [
"I actually have a dyslexic Japanese relative. I've never really asked him about it though."
] |
[
"How do cells recognize each other?"
] | [
false
] | In Immune by Philipp Dettmer, he describes your immune system as differentiating between your body and antigens with the analogy of checking if puzzle pieces fit together. In a bit more depth, what is happening when cells check to see if these protein "puzzle pieces" fit together? | [
"The major way the immune system distinguishes self from foreign is ",
"MHC I",
". These protein complexes work by taking random protein fragments from within the cell and presenting them on the cell surface. For this reason they play an important role in viral infections (when some proteins in the cell are vir... | [
"When white blood cells are created in your bone marrow, they are given a random assortment of genes that make MHC proteins. These proteins bind to pathogenic antigens, and because the genetic makeup is slightly different, the end product structure is slightly different. So each MHC molecule binds with a slightly d... | [
"Not an expert, but I believe it is mostly due to ECM (extracellular matrix) that surrounds all cells and is the \"fluid\" that gets into and out of cells based upon their cellular membrane receptors. For example, where I am sorta of an expert in, is hyaluronic acid (aka hyaluronan, HA) that is \"the most importan... |
[
"why does a wick work in burning kerosene, but not methanol?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"\"Kerosene is a thin, clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum between 150 °C and 275 °C, resulting in a mixture with a density of 0.78–0.81 g/cm3 composed of carbon chains that typically contain between 6 and 16 carbon atoms per molecule\"",
"Methanol is a che... | [
"I seem to remember little fist-sized flat-bottomed glass balls with screw-on metal lids containing methanol that used a wick. This was in chemistry class. The methanol would only have to \"wick\" a vertical distance of an inch, maybe 2\" max. I might be wrong, but that would be a first."
] | [
"The physics of fluids has never been my strong suit, but when i read this question the first thing I thought of is ",
"capillary action",
". It could be that kerosene has sufficient properties to be pulled up the wick by capillary action far enough before being burned/evaporated that it can sustain a flame an... |
[
"Where does the flu virus go when it's not flu season? What is the reservoir it uses to come back from each year?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Sick people. Flu season is just the time of year when the rate of infection by flu increases ~1,000%. But all year long it’s still steadily transmitting itself from person to person, there is no flu off-season unfortunately."
] | [
"If we were able to quarantine people who were sick and those in contact with them, would it be possible to have the flu disappear entirely?"
] | [
"Flu is global, so it's always influenza season somewhere. When it's summer in the Northern hemisphere, it's winter and flu season in the Southern hemisphere. In the brief periods between peak flu season in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, the virus is still circulating in tropical and semitropical regions."
... |
[
"Is there a scientific basis behind why my experiment showed the optimum pH for water photosynthesis to be 4.0?"
] | [
false
] | I'm carrying out an investigation into photosynthesis rates in pond weeds and the effects of changing different factors [I altered pH, temperature, light and CO2 concentration]. My data collection method wasn't the best [count bubbles coming off the freshly cut stems of 10cm strips of pond weed but I definitely saw a much much higher rate of bubble production in the pH 4.0 buffer solution, is there a scientific basis to why 4.0 would yield the highest rate or was it down to my poor choice of method to collect data? EDIT: I've noticed I said water photosynthesis instead of water plant photosynthesis Any help would be greatly appreciated, just need to make sure my results are correct. Thanks in advance! | [
"Have you realised that PH influences CO2 concentration inside the water because the pair C02+H20 // HCO3- is an acid/base pair ?",
"If you did do that (or if that isn't relevant for some other reason), please precise it in your post"
] | [
"RuBisCo is also regulated by pH, if that's a factor in your experiment."
] | [
"Ah I didn't take this into account, thanks very much for the information it was incredibly helpful."
] |
[
"What is the latest advancement/update that has been made on a 'Unified Field Theory' in physics? ie. The 'Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything'?"
] | [
false
] | I just saw the episode of 'Through The Wormhole' where they discussed the prepints for a unified theory that could explain 'god' or 'creation' through pure universal science. ( or something like that! Please forgive me, I'm no physics major! haha) Is the 'An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything' still in its workings? What other great strides have been made in this area of a unified field theory? ...Oh how I regret becoming an Arts student! | [
"It didn't really pan out; there are certain irreconcilable differences between it and the standard model that it tries to extend. Ultimately this theory made very little noise in the high energy physics community but a disproportionately large noise among science journalists, who jumped on the story without concer... | [
"Wow that was fast! Thankyou so much!",
"I LOVE SCIENCE!"
] | [
"You can read about what happened starting on page 12: ",
"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.0788v1.pdf"
] |
[
"How does our brain actually store information?"
] | [
false
] | From my understanding our brain is made up of tons of neurons that are all connected in a really complex network. How is it possible for us to remember images, words, or anything? Where does the chemistry interface with our conciousness? It can't simply be associating images with the firing of a specific branch of a neural network right? There has to be somewhere where that interaction is stored. For example: when you see a dog for the first time, a specific connection of many neurons fires, and you come to associate that firing with an image of a dog, but how do we associate that? How does our brain store the actual image of the dog that we can recall so vividly? | [
"This isn't completely understood but we know some things about how it works. We have 100 billion neurons that any one can connect to multiple others. Any sensory input we have can make many connections. But any single neural connection doesn't amount to anything mentally tangible and can be undone (short term m... | [
"Memory recall besides where it is stored is not very well understood. The recognition you described it has to do with the part of the brain called the Fusiform Gyrus. It’s responsible for facial recognition and recall of facial features. Some people have the talent to recognize a famous person at any stage of the... | [
"That makes a lot of sense. Thank you!"
] |
[
"AskScience AMA Series: We're James Heathers and Maria Kowalczuk here to discuss peer review integrity and controversies for part 1 of Peer Review Week, ask us anything!"
] | [
false
] | James Heathers here. I study scientific error detection: if a study is incomplete, wrong ... or fake. AMA about scientific accuracy, research misconduct, retraction, etc. ( ) I am Maria Kowalczuk, part of the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group. We take a positive and proactive approach to preventing publication misconduct and encouraging sound and reliable research and publication practices. We assist our editors in resolving any integrity issues or publication ethics problems that may arise in our journals or books, and ensuring that we adhere to editorial best practice and best standards in peer review. I am also one of the Editors-in-Chief of Research Integrity and Peer Review journal. AMA about how publishers and journals ensure the integrity of the published record and investigate different types of allegations. ( ) Both James and Maria will be online from 9-11 am ET (13-15 UT), after that, James will check in periodically throughout the day and Maria will check in again Thursday morning from the UK. Ask them anything! | [
"Hi and thanks for joining us today on this great topic!",
"So many questions.",
"What do you think is the future for predatory journals? Should Beall's list make a comeback?",
"Do you think reviewers should be paid for their time?",
"Is there a better measure for a journal than impact factor?",
"Will sci... | [
"What do you think is the future for predatory journals? Should Beall's list make a comeback?",
"Predatory journals are a symptoms of how we understand scientific reward - you publish something, and it counts towards your 'total aggregate output' or similar.",
"Any push to qualify the quality of that output wil... | [
"**Alright, seadogs one and all, I'm spent. I've been checking in on this for about 8 hours now. But I'll still answer questions in perpetuity if you like, though: user tag me and I'll get to it.",
"One thing I'd draw your attention to in particular if you're interested in peer review - I'm working as part of a t... |
[
"How fast would I have to be moving before x-rays red shift into the visible spectrum?"
] | [
false
] | Is there a speed at which no light would be visible due to redshift? Could something else theoretically start to appear at the high end of the light spectrum that we're just not moving fast enough right now to detect? | [
"If you solve the relativistic Doppler shift equation for velocity, you get:",
"v = c (1-fo",
" /fs",
" )/(1+fo",
" /fs",
" )",
"Plug in a source frequency for low-frequency x-rays, fs = 3x10",
" Hz and an observed frequency for violet light, fo = 7x10",
" Hz and I get: ",
"v = 99.99997% c",
"As... | [
"Yes. "
] | [
"... The speeds required to shift gamma rays to visible light or even X-rays to violet are so high that humans can't presently go this speed.",
"Although it would probably be easier, I don't think we have the technology to accelerate X-ray sources to those speeds either."
] |
[
"Why are *Hox* genes found in the genome organized by body location?"
] | [
false
] | TLDR: Why are genes physically ordered within the (fruit fly, and presumably human) genome in the physical order in which they are expressed in the body? Does it have something to do with recombination? I came across this curious fact in , having earlier heard it mentioned in . Both books mentioned the miraculous fact that genes, which control ultra basic developmental functions such as eye and limb formation, are found in the genome in the general order of the body. That is, developmental genes (in a fruit fly, but us too) influencing the head are in a cluster, then genes influencing the thorax, then genes influencing the abdomen. At least, this is what I they said. Both books mentioned it as a miraculous occurrence, but neither told it has to be that way. Why the heck should the physical order of genes in DNA matter, so long as the genes are on the proper chromosomes and are properly expressed? Might they be linked to reduce the likelihood that recombination messes things up? Even still, that wouldn't answer why the order is so precise. If all of the genes are linked, then you could reduce recombination by having "head, abdomen, thorax" just as well as "head, thorax, abdomen." Hopefully this is coherent, I don't really understand the subject well enough to phrase a proper question. Thanks! | [
"my background: PhD in molecular biology, postdoc studying Hox gene regulation in Drosophila.",
"This is actually a pretty active area of research, so it's a great question! poochwheels has already cited the Duboule lab, who are doing some neat work in mammalian Hox. Let me add a few things.",
"I have a few com... | [
"Id just like to thank you all for bringing the level of discourse to an extraordinarily high level in this post. "
] | [
"OK, sure. I need to back up a little bit first. This is all Drosophila research I'm talking about here, but it's probably (hopefully) similar in higher organisms.",
"The expression of the Hox genes has two phases: an initiation phase, where the pattern of expression and repression is established (smarmyknowitall... |
[
"What stops the down quark in the proton from decaying into an up quark?"
] | [
false
] | I was reading up on quark flavors and stumbled upon image which shows what quarks can turn into when they emit W+ or W- bosons. And what immediately jumps out to me is that not only can the down quark decay into an up quark but it's one of the strongest decay paths too. So why do protons exist at all if the down quark can decay? If it decays and you have three up quarks they still have different colors so you don't run into Pauli's exclusion principle. Why isn't the uuu delta baryon the most stable thing there is? And, in fact, why is it so short-lived? | [
"Delta baryons have much higher masses than nucleons. A particle can only decay into things with lower masses. The proton is the lightest baryon, so it can’t possibly decay into another baryon."
] | [
"For a uuu baryon, the Pauli exclusion principle puts constraints on the spin states that the quarks can have. The delta baryons have spin 3/2, while the nucleons have spin 1/2. And the strong force is strongly spin-dependent."
] | [
"That makes things even stranger. I assume the extra mass of the delta comes from the quarks being in some excited state but why can't there be an uuu baryon that's lighter than the proton?"
] |
[
"How many derivatives can you take of a moving object before getting a value of zero?"
] | [
false
] | If the position of a theoretical object was defined by x^2, then the first derivative would be 2x, the second would be 2, and the third would be 0. How many derivatives can you take of, say, the position of a rocket ship launching into space or a person starting to run before getting a value of zero? Do some things in the universe never reach zero? Do all of them never reach zero? | [
"It depends on how it's moving, but you can easily come up with motions where arbitrarily high time derivatives of the position will not be identically zero. An example is a simple harmonic oscillator, where the motion is described by a sinusoidal function."
] | [
"No, lots of motions are polynomials as a function of time. For example, objects moving with constant velocity, or with constant acceleration (non-relativistically)."
] | [
"You can define functions where as you repeatedly take the derivative at a certain point, and that value goes up instead of down.",
"For instance, y = e",
" has the derivative y' = 2 * e",
". So y' = 2y. ",
"If you take the second derivative, you get y'' = 4 * e",
", so y'' = 4 y. That pattern continues, ... |
[
"Can we see close to the beginning of the universe?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"For the first few hundred thousand years everything was so hot and dense that it was all a plasma. Basically, ",
" was opaque. It was so hot and dense that all photons were emitted and reabsorbed. ",
"This eventually lead to what we see today as cosmic microwave background radiation. ",
"Even if you could... | [
"The ",
"cosmic neutrino background",
" would be much older (probably decoupled around two seconds after the Big Bang), but we don't have equipment sensitive enough to detect it yet."
] | [
"This eventually lead to what we see today as cosmic microwave background radiation.",
"So THAT is what that is! Thanks a lot! Can't you look outside the visible spectrum to \"look through\" the plasma though?"
] |
[
"Given that your teeth are pretty much fully formed does taking calcium actually promote strong teeth?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"No, but it promotes the setting in the jaw bone. Strong, white teeth can loosen and fall out the same way rotten, brown teeth can, if you lack calcium."
] | [
"Since teeth are living bone, they are being constantly remodelled and turned over by osteocytes.",
"This is super wrong. Teeth are not living bone and are not remodelled."
] | [
"Since teeth are living bone, they are being constantly remodelled and turned over by osteocytes.",
"This is super wrong. Teeth are not living bone and are not remodelled."
] |
[
"Are electrons, protons and neutrons actually spherical?"
] | [
false
] | Do we have any proof they are spherical or do we just assume such due to their motion or reactions or some other observation? | [
"Well....in the case of the electron, the question is already a little dicey, as thinking of an electron like a tiny billiard ball really isn't quite right.",
"When you look at the wave particle duality aspect, ascribing a specific 'shape' to an electron doesn't make as much sense as you might think.",
"Then if... | [
"Electron tunneling microscopes don't show objects, or atoms in this case, as they appear in the physical world. In fact, tunneling microscopes can't observe an atom at all.",
"What you're referring to are called Atomic Force Microscopes. They use a probe which tapers down to a single atom; by placing this probe ... | [
"Just to add, they probably appear that way to us because of the limits of our measurements, which I know you were implying, but I wanted to state explicitly. "
] |
[
"Can general relativity explain the mechanism for quantum entanglement?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"GR is a completely classical theory; it cannot explain any quantum phenomena."
] | [
"GR does not contain any quantum mechanics. It is fundamentally a classical theory.",
"GR knows absolutely nothing about wavefunctions, or the Schrodinger equation, or anything else necessary to understand quantum entanglement."
] | [
"GR does not contain any quantum mechanics. It is fundamentally a classical theory.",
"GR knows absolutely nothing about wavefunctions, or the Schrodinger equation, or anything else necessary to understand quantum entanglement."
] |
[
"Why is permeability represented as a complex number and what is the physical meaning of real and imaginary parts of it?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"To add to this, imaginary exponent is really a mathematical convenience in solving time-dependent equations. You can do everything without using complex exponent, but algebra of dealing with sines and cosines becomes more cumbersome."
] | [
"Permeability is only complex when you have an electromagnetic wave. It isn't when you consider static magnetic fields.",
"The real and the imaginary part refer to the in-phase and out-of-phase responses respectively."
] | [
"(Regular) Permeability is the response of a material to an applied DC field, so it is a real number.",
"Generalised permeability is the (frequency-dependent) response of a material to an applied AC field. Now, our response has not only an amplitude but also a phase shift, so we need two real numbers to represent... |
[
"[Human Body] A gluten allergy has a cool name: celiac disease. Do other allergies have names as well? Or is a gluten allergy a special case?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"This question doesn't make sense. \"Peanut allergy autoimmune disorder\" isn't a thing. Please take a look at the Wikipedia entries on allergies and Celiac disease.",
"Perhaps you are asking \"are there diseases primarily characterized by an allergic reaction or intolerance to some substance?\"",
"In which cas... | [
"Celiac disease is not the same thing as a gluten allergy. It is an autoimmune disorder. It is possible to be allergic to gluten without having Celiac."
] | [
"Okay then... Are there specific examples of peanut allergy autoimmune disorder names?"
] |
[
"How is meth different from ADHD meds?"
] | [
false
] | You know, other than the obvious, like how meth is made on the streets. I am just curious to know if it is basically the same as, lets say, adderal. But is more damaging because of how it is taken, or is meth different somehow? Edit: Thanks so much everyone for your replies. Really helps me to understand why meth fucks people right up while ADHD meds don’t(as much) | [
"Methamphetamine is actually prescribed sometimes for ADHD. Its drug name is Dexosyn. See: ",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine#Medical",
"The only difference between Dexosyn and street meth is purity and formulation (although to be fair, formulation is pretty important for determining the effects ... | [
"Ok so apparently I am the first medicinal chemist to discover this post! I have some things that I could shed some light on that nobody else has seemed to cover!",
"So, yes, amphetamine, the main ingredient in adderall, is extremely similar to methamphetamine. In fact, meth is simply amphetamine with an added me... | [
"Most of the good stuff has been covered, but what hasn't been covered is that both amphetamine and methamphetamine are analogues of a chemical that is already in your body called phenethylamine.",
"This is used by your body to regulate dopamine and a number of other neurotransmitters, and all that amphetamine an... |
[
"Linguists: since Vietnamese is a tonal language, and so is Chinese, could Chinese be written in an alphabet?"
] | [
false
] | I know some Chinese and I do understand that there's Pinyin, however, there are words which have the exact same pronunciation and different meanings, so Pinyin couldn't be used as spelling. I read some wiki and found that there were systems for Romanization, but none worked or were too complicated. | [
"however, there are words which have the exact same pronunciation and different meanings,",
"You do realize that happens in pretty much every language?",
"so Pinyin couldn't be used as spelling.",
"Why not? In English we can tell the difference between \"That's a pretty rose.\" and \"Jesus rose from the dead... | [
"Pinyin could be used perfectly fine as spelling. In Chinese, as in English, we deal with homophones by context."
] | [
"Linguist here. There's no reason why an alphabet couldn't be used for Chinese. Spoken Chinese has no visual aid to disambiguate between homophonous words, all you have is the linguistic context, and that's all you have in writing, too. It's an illusion of unfamiliarity that we would have a hard time disambiguating... |
[
"How close to the galactic center would I need to be to see orbiting systems moving with the naked eye?"
] | [
false
] | Sure I can see satellites moving across the sky, but how close to the center of the Galaxy would I need to be to see systems/stars moving across the sky with the naked eye? | [
"The actual ",
" of the orbits of stars doesn't really change much across the Milky Way - they all go at about 200 km/s. Stars take less time to orbit in the middle, but that's not because they're going faster - it's because they have less distance to travel. Even in the very centre of the galaxy, the fastest sta... | [
"So I thought I'd actually try to run through the number. Apparently, angular resolution of the human eye is about 1 arcmin, or 0.3 mrad (from ",
"Wikipedia",
"). And let's say the star would have to traverse this arc in half a second.",
"That gives travel distance of 500 km (for the fastest system you mentio... | [
"And at that distance it would be enormous, filling the sky, and probably blinding and cooking you, so that wouldn't help either."
] |
[
"How are trajectory adjustments made to far earth objects? How long does it take before these probes or rockets respond to commands from earth?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"I know a little bit about commanding the mars rover, which is about 3 1/2 minutes away at lightspeed.",
"Basically, they schedule a set of commands with stop points for verification of status.",
"So the schedule will be like \"Move rover 200m due south, then stop and wait for confirmation, then turn 90deg west... | [
"I don't know about every step, but they basically send a series of instructions in a batch to be executed, and then check how well they executed.",
"Yah, this is to prevent an unforeseen change in the outcome of step A from making step F impossible or damaging to the craft. ",
"If they were on a different angl... | [
"Most really far objects like deep space satellites etc. are largely one way transmitting their data",
"As an example, New Horizon's close fly-by at Pluto was so short the spacecraft couldn't get any feedback from Earth. After that it needed over one year to send back all the data."
] |
[
"If it gets continually harder for Voyager to transmit images back to Earth, can we send a series of other spacecrafts after it to \"leap frog\" the information back?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Voyager's cameras have been switched off since 1990 (straight after the ",
"pale blue dot",
" photo was taken) simply because they're not passing anything to take photos of.",
"If you mean data in general it looks like the ",
"deep space network",
" is sensitive enough to continue receiving data from the... | [
"Yeah, pretty much a vast sea of darkness. Space is a pretty damn aptly named place. Sure, the Oort Cloud is out there, but the bodies in the Oort Cloud, like bodies in the asteroid belt, are absurdly far apart. Maybe there could be some readings to take with other instruments, but a camera out there would be pr... | [
"Also, the Oort cloud would take 10 to 20 millennia to reach at Voyager's speed.",
"EDIT: ",
"Obligatory Carl Sagan Video"
] |
[
"Are the neural connections giving way to two images linked by an analogy similar physiologically in any way?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"I don't understand your question. Could you try rephrasing it please."
] | [
"Ideas aren't stored in individual neurons. However, it is the case that certain areas of the brain are organized \"semantically\" meaning that pictures of different kinds of animals, say, activate nearby regions of cortex. Pictures of tools activate another set of regions. Part of the proximity just comes from the... | [
"Sorry for the confusion, my question probably stems from a misunderstanding/ignorance of the way neurons work in relation to ideas. I was wondering whether neural structures and connections physically mirror our thoughts. I initially wondered if an analogy between two seemingly unrelated ideas was reflected in the... |
[
"If all of the matter and energy in the universe was uniformly distributed, would it eventually coalesce into planets, stars, galaxies, etc?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"This is essentially what the Millennium Simulations did:",
"\n",
"http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/",
"\n",
"http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/millennium-II/",
"\nwhich simulated the formation of large scale structure in the universe. Here you can take a look at the collapse t... | [
"If everything was perfectly distributed (not possible), no clumping would occur. Thankfully, the quantum fluctuations which naturally cause slight density giggles were blown up by the expanding universe and formed the seeds for our universe's large scale structure."
] | [
"Thanks for those links. I found this on wikipedia regarding the Millenium simulation: ",
"each \"particle\" represents approximately a billion solar masses of dark matter",
". But I guess what I was really pondering as a starting point was a scenario in which there was only uniformly distributed atoms and mole... |
[
"Is it possible to use more natural gas in a vacant home than a home with 4 people living in it?"
] | [
false
] | the house is completely furnished with 5 gas appliances. Only 2 have a constant pilot lite. It is 3200 sq feet, The furnace is set at 62 degrees, and the out side temp average is 45 degrees, The gas company says it is"well known in the industry" that a vacant home will use more gas than a family of 4. How is this possible? | [
"Humans, on average put out 100W. They also use TV's, computers, radios, microwaves, etc. which use electricity and produce waste heat. Lets just assume that the people are home on average 12 hours per day. That is 17MJ/day contributed by the people inside the house. Since the house is at a higher temperature the h... | [
"the only gas for a vacant house would be heating. ",
"so i suppose it is possible if the family take cold showers, eat cold food and sleep in the same bed."
] | [
"It is completely furnished, window coverings and all, and is equipped with 5 appliances. it is set at 62 only because it has dipped in the 30's with high humidity and I want to protect the contents. It is a well insulated home and would not think a furnace set at 62 would have to turn on very often. According to t... |
[
"What is the evolutionary benefit for a gap between the infundibulum of the Fallopian tube and the ovary itself?"
] | [
false
] | I was talking with some colleagues today about female reproductive anatomy and I could not think of any reason there should be a gap between these two structures. Maybe it has to do with embryological development, but if that is so, wouldn't we have evolved to remove this "shortcoming"? Usually any defect in the process of egg moving from ovary to Fallopian tube is fatal (to the embryo and mom). So you would think that this would be strongly selected against... Your thoughts? | [
"While I can't comment on that structure specifically, Evolution doesn't necessarily lead to the overall best outcome, just what is locally more competitive (eg, 3 hands might be better, but since we have two, two with fingers is better). This gap might not serve any purpose but could be a hang over from a pathway ... | [
"This video",
" shows fairly well how the infundibulum acts as a sort of \"gate keeper\" for the ovum. It moves closer in response to chemical signals from the follicle, then aids the ovum in moving into and down the Fallopian tube.",
"Because this process requires signalling from the follicle itself, this sugg... | [
"This is merely my informed speculation, but seems sensible to me.",
"There is no evolutionary benefit. Not all structures have an evolutionary benefit, some in fact have clear evolutionary detriment, but are retained none the less. The reason for this is the low probability of mutations that alter this structure... |
[
"Why does tetanus cause a red line to form on your arm?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"You’re mostly correct, but the red streaking is more likely due to lymphatic spread of disease rather than hematologic. Also, this phenomenon is not unique or limited to tetanus. The tetanus booster given to the person in question was likely not to treat a tetanus infection, but instead prophylactic as tetanus is ... | [
"Tetanus is a bacterial infection that enters the body at the site of injury. If left untreated, the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and travel to other parts of the body, where it causes muscle spasms, respiratory distress, fever, and a ton of other serious problems. That red line is the infection spreading up ... | [
"This is more Likely phlebitis caused by the local infection and Inflammation in the vein. You were smart to go the doctor, as this can lead to sepsis which can be fatal. The Tetanus shot is precautionary and not necessarily the “bug” that was causing the Infection."
] |
[
"Say we have the technology to create controlled black holes in nearby space. Could we theoretically use black holes and their gravitational bending of light like lenses in a giant telescope?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"A black hole will bend light, but it will not act as a lens with a focal length. That is, one will not be able to form images.",
"A focusing lens bends light more the farther it passes from the center of the lens (the optic axis). A BH does the opposite, bending light more if it passes near the center."
] | [
"Well in terms of gravitational lenses. Yes those do exist. Hubble has found a lot of galaxies that appear stretched and skewed due to large gravitational forces between it and other galaxies (dark matter). Some of these lenses are also just right to actually magnify the things behind it."
] | [
"Assuming your ring is circularly symmetric then no light will be bent within the ring due to the ",
"shell theorem"
] |
[
"Is aquatic locomotion via jumping (e.g., dolphins) more efficient than travelling submerged?"
] | [
false
] | We see dolphins do this all of the time. People usually say it's for "fun", but that smells of anthropomorphism to me. I've seen large pods of dolphins off in the distance all jumping en masse as they cross large distances more-or-less in a straight path, as if they were trying to get to a key hunting area or something. Does temporarily leaving the water for a ~100x less viscous fluid (air) offset the energy lost by repeatedly deviating from a direct path parallel to the water surface? | [
"Perhaps I misused the term viscosity. I wasn't talking about the intermolecular forces that resist flow through a fluid, but rather the total amount of fluid friction a fluid can exert on an object. From what I understand, this is a very complex concept involving the shape of the object, the inertial forces of the... | [
"Well, there are other reasons to do it besides just energy. Other cetaceans are known to come out of the water to get a better look at things. "
] | [
"leaving the water for a ~100x less viscous fluid (air)",
"Just FYI, viscosity is rarely very important, and it isn't here. Water is more difficult to move through than air primarily due to the density difference (a factor of 830)."
] |
[
"How much does a 'tough mind' have to do in your immune system or fighting off a virus?"
] | [
false
] | So I was just in an argument with my brother over how he thinks his 'tough mindset' has helped him fight off sickness for like 6 years. He seems to think that he consciously controls his immune system by fighting off any sickness by himself. Is there any scientific basis for this or is he just talking poppycock? | [
"Or that stress weakens the immune system, doing badly causes stress, and if you're confident you'll do well you probably will."
] | [
"Or that stress weakens the immune system, doing badly causes stress, and if you're confident you'll do well you probably will."
] | [
"http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/the-power-of-positive-thinking/",
"\"One recent study, for example, polled healthy first-year law students at the beginning of the school year to find out how optimistic they felt about the upcoming year. By the middle of the first semester, the students who had been confident th... |
[
"If we were to create a giant pie chart of human age, which age would have the biggest slice today?"
] | [
false
] | To clarify; which age is the most common right now in humanity? as in 11 years olds , 12 year olds, 50 year olds, etc etc. | [
"You're looking for a specific type of histogram called an age pyramid. These can be made for specific communities or populations, but here's one I found for the entire global population with previous records and estimated projections for the future:",
"http://populationpyramid.net/",
"The general trend for the... | [
"Unfortunately no, it's not my area of expertise at all."
] | [
"I liked this ted talk (religion and babies) and it's relevent.",
"http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ezVk1ahRF78&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DezVk1ahRF78"
] |
[
"Is the 10mg Phenylephrine dosage of Sudafed PE I just bought for my flu a waste of money?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Hi RedDyeNumber4 thank you for submitting to ",
"/r/Askscience",
".",
" Please add flair to your post. ",
"Your post will be removed permanently if flair is not added within one hour. You can flair this post by replying to this message with your flair choice. It must be an exact match to one of the f... | [
"Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"medical advice",
"/r/AskScience",
"guidelines.",
"If you disagree with this decision, please send a message to the moderators."
] | [
"Then you need to change your post/frame your question to fit within the guidelines that I've linked. We are very strict with people asking for medical advice, of which any answer to \"Is the 10mg Phenylephrine dosage of Sudafed PE I just bought for my flu a waste of money?\" is definitely advising you on medicine.... |
[
"Where does the energy from this claimed \"perpetual motion\" machine come from?"
] | [
false
] | Let me begin by saying that I DO NOT believe this to be a perpetual motion machine, nor do I believe that they are even possible. I simply do not understand where the energy is coming from to overcome the friction, move the bar up, etc. It appears the overhead bar with a magnet is locked in place until the gear comes along, unlocks it and pushes it up so that the cylinder can rotate without the two attracting each other. Lets assume they are not using some hidden power source or motor. My knowledge of physics math is at a high school level but I understand the principles in effect. Please help me find the piece I am missing. Thanks! | [
"Thanks for sharing, it's a slick video. Sorry for being a downer, but I think that it's actually very appropriate to assume that a hidden power source is being used. The wheel appears to be taking several revolutions to accelerate to top speed. That means that energy is being added to the system well after the ini... | [
"This is one of the better one of these I have seen At the end of the day though there cannot be more energy in the system than that introduced by initially dropping the bar, unless of course there is a hidden energy source.",
"My first thought was that the bar was dropped from an initial height higher than it ge... | [
"You can see the piece start to slow down towards the end, you're correct by stating that perpetual motion or \"free energy\" devices are not possible, the simplest laws of physics and thermodynamics will promise you that. Now lets explain how this little thing works!",
"The magnets arranged in opposite polarity,... |
[
"Are temperature screenings an effective method of detecting COVID-19 in public places?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Yes and no. Having a fever isn't specific to COVID, but is a fast and easy way to tell if someone has some kind of illness. It's also possible to be infectious for COVID without a fever. ",
"But it's quick, easy, and cheap, which are also important for a screening tool to be effective."
] | [
"Follow up question. What's the purpose of temperature screeenings? Are they done to detect someone who has clear symptoms, and therefore should be self-quarantining anyway if honest? Or is there the possibility that someone with COVID might have a high fever without feeling any symptom (therefore you catch someone... | [
"One of the most common symptoms of COVID is having a fever. These temperature screenings are just a quick way to check if someone MAY have covid. Of course not everyone with a fever has covid, but for safety reasons it’s assumed if you’re running a fever it’s not worth the risk. Since people can be asymptomatic, t... |
[
"Are humans a reservoir species for any known animal illnesses?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Yes. It's called reverse zoonotic disease transmission or zooanthroponosis. Examples include methicillin-resistant ",
", influenza A virus, ",
", and ",
". ",
"Here",
" is a paper on the subject."
] | [
"Americans infected with measles infected dogs with canine distemper between 150 and 100 years ago. ",
"Panzera, Y., Sarute, N., Iraola, G., Hernández, M. and Pérez, R., 2015. Molecular phylogeography of canine distemper virus: Geographic origin and global spreading. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 92, pp.... | [
"Though they have similar names, foot-and-mouth and hand-foot-and-mouth disease are two different things. The former is a serious livestock disease while the latter is a painful but usually mild illness that affects mostly toddlers."
] |
[
"Why are solar panels typically blue and shiny?"
] | [
false
] | It seems counter-intuitive. In my mind they should be matt, black to absorb as much sunlight as possible. | [
"This is because silicon is best at absorbing light in the redder end of the spectrum, including infrared. Smaller wavelengths, on the blue end of the visible spectrum, are reflected more. So when the sunlight hits the solar cell, silicon likes to absorb the red and reflect the blue. This changes with different mat... | [
"Is this a surface effect, or does the light penetrate into the silicon before the interactions occur? ",
"This overview",
" suggests that it's a surface effect."
] | [
"while there are surface effects to worry about, this is largely due to the bandgap energy. Silicon takes 1.12eV of energy to generate an electron. photons with less energy than this don't do anything, while photons with more energy waste the excess as heat. thus, it is best to absorb photons that have the same ene... |
[
"If measles was eradicated in 2000, then where did it come from when it made a resurgence in Minnesota recently?"
] | [
false
] | I am specifically referring to the US Here. Measles was declared eradicated in the US in 2000. Basically, if the virus was eradicated, then where did it come from to be be able to infect someone who was not vaccinated? Does it just evolve constantly and naturally? Are we basically surrounded by measles virus all the time? Did someone bring it back from another country and it infected one of the unvaccinated children in Minnesota? | [
"Measles was declared eradicated ",
" in 2000, thanks to decades of vaccination efforts. It's still a problem in some places elsewhere in the world, though.",
"The primary cause of measles outbreaks in the USA is travel. Someone brings back the virus, and infects someone who isn't vaccinated, and it spreads fro... | [
"Theoretically yes. That's why there is no smallpox anymore, we eradicated it worldwide.\nOne potential issue is if the Measles virus is also carried in animals which could infect humans, or if the virus is very stable (maybe frozen in tundra permafrost) in the environment and could get humans infected years down t... | [
"If a virus jumps the species barrier once, there is nothing stopping it from doing it again, but it wouldn't be the same disease, so it wouldn't be measles.",
"Although in this case, there is something stopping it - measles evolved from a cow virus called \"rinderpest\", which was finally eradicated in 2011 than... |
[
"Say a 1kg piece of steak takes 1 hour to cook in the oven, if you cut that piece of steak into 500 gram pieces will it take 30 minutes to cook?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Most likely not; it should take less time. Cooking in an oven is an outside-in process, where heat is transferred from the air in the oven to the surface of the steak, and then it moves from the surface to the inside parts of the steak. So the time to raise the interior to a specific temperature is more appropriat... | [
"This, the only thing you can conclude is that it would take less time. Three dimensional transient heat transfer would require sets of partial differential equations to model (which would be complicated further by the steak's weird geometry and somewhat non-homogenous nature) - definitely not linear. ",
"This is... | [
"Agreed; heat transfer is generally modeled by the diffusion equation. Diffusion time scales as L",
" D",
" so I'd expect it to take a quarter the time."
] |
[
"Can you lungs remove small pieces of material (eg, plastic shavings, wood chips, metal filings)?"
] | [
false
] | I recently inhaled a small piece of plastic and was wondering if/how the body gets rid of pieces of foreign material? | [
"Large objects that are inhaled (e.g. a piece of food) are caught before the trachea divides into the right and left main bronchi. Things that get down further than that can become lodged in the main bronchi and have a greater tendency to end up on the right side because of its greater slope.",
"Smaller inhaled f... | [
"The answer is the same. The airways are lined with mucus that traps small suspended particles and moves them upward, where they are coughed out.",
"This system isn't perfect. Certain microscopic particles tend to get through and reach the deep parts of the lungs themselves, where they are hard to physically disl... | [
"Cool thanks. I figured there was some kind of mucous elevator, but wasn't sure. Good info!"
] |
[
"If planes flying in a V formation, like geese, save fuel, would this also be true for cars ?"
] | [
false
] | C-17's flying in a V formation, like geese, is a current TIL saving 10% fuel = millions of dollars. | [
"No.",
"The reason a V formation lowers drag for aircraft is ",
"vortex shedding",
" off the wings. Basically, it's a result of flow going around the wingtips resulting in a swirling air current. If another plane, bird, etc, hits the upward part of the swirl, it gets free lift. (Not really free, but it was wa... | [
"This is vortex shedding: ",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_shedding",
"You're referring to wingtip vortices, but otherwise your explanation is a good one."
] | [
"Kind of. In ",
"car racing",
" it is a common technique to follow another car in close proximity to reduce air drag. It reduces fuel consumption and delays when you have to do your pit stop."
] |
[
"What part of science do you still find it hardest to wrap your head around?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"The absence of time before the big bang."
] | [
"Yeah that's another aspect of mine that's still mind-boggling. There wasn't anything sitting around empty forever before the Big Bang happened, there just wasn't a ",
" the Big Bang."
] | [
"exactly. Higgs boson is another concept that I cannot fully understand. If the higgs field is responsible for providing mass to every other particle, what provides mass to the higgs boson? and why does every particle stop gaining mass at certain point?"
] |
[
"Can we have lenses for sound?"
] | [
false
] | So that we could derive information about our surroundings similar to what optical lenses provide. | [
"You could, but if it's a solid, the index of refraction will be huge, and almost all of the sound will be reflected. And if it's a gas, then it will just dissipate. You could use a heater to make sure the closer air is warmer, and therefore has a higher speed of sound, but any air currents will mess it up.",
"Al... | [
"You are describing acoustic metamaterials, they are basically the acoustic version of an optical lens using periodic arrays of specific materials to manipulate sounds or other vibrations like phonons.",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_metamaterials"
] | [
"Wow, that is very interesting! Could we place an array of microphones behind such a metamaterial lense, in order to take an acoustic \"picture\" of a scene?"
] |
[
"Does evaporation begin instantly and happen continuously?"
] | [
false
] | When I pour myself a glass of water, does it immediately begin evaporating and continue evaporating until it's all gone? | [
"Depends on the conditions surrounding the water. If the air around the water is \"saturated\" (i.e. 100% humidity), then there will not be evaporation*. If the air is not saturated (humidity less than 100%), then some water will be evaporating as soon as it leaves its closed container, whether that be a water pipe... | [
"So when it rains (or snows), does that mean that there is over 100% humidity where the clouds are? "
] | [
"That's correct. Inside clouds made of liquid water droplets, the humidity is always 100% or greater, because otherwise the cloud droplets would very quickly evaporate.",
"The topic gets a lot more complicated when we take ice into account, because the humidity with respect to ice is different than humidity with ... |
[
"Are there any animal species where both sexes are sexual selectors?"
] | [
false
] | First off: sorry if I use any terminology wrong. As I understand it, pretty much every animal species has one sex (usually female) that is the sexual selector, so they're basically the "choosy" one. The other sex (usually the males) then has to sort of earn the right to mate through like fighting or just having the right body parts or dancing, etc. But I always get the impression that the males will pretty much just mate with any willing female. Anyway, I was just thinking: wouldn't it be advantageous if both sexes were selectors? Like if both sexes were choosy and therefore both had to be at the top of their game so to speak in order to mate, wouldn't the fitness of the species be better overall? | [
"Sure, lots of species work this way. It's called mutual mate choice.",
"First, why shouldn't an animal be \"choosy\" in the first place? The important thing to understand is that selection is driven by what's good for the ",
", what's good for the species as a whole is irrelevant. So think about it from the... | [
"Hmm, good question! I don't think so? At least when the two sexes are cleanly demarcated.",
"All extant animals inherited ",
"anisogamy",
" - that is, the binary compartmentalisation of sexes (male and female), with asymmetric investment in gametes; small (sperm) vs. large (eggs) - as a basal trait, and have... | [
"A couple of thoughts: ",
"Re: your last statement, I'm not sure that it would be advantageous because there are significant costs to trying to attract a mate, like increased risk of predation in animals with flashy colors or feathers, risk of getting hurt in fights, and so on. ",
"Also, there are lots of herma... |
[
"How much of the deadliest toxin known to man, botulinum toxin, is present in Botox and how is it distributed uniformly in Botox in such small quantities?"
] | [
false
] | Botulinum toxin has an LD50 of 1.3–2.1 ng/kg. Billionths of a gram are deadly. A fraction of the lethal dose is used in Botox; how can such a small amount of proteins be measured and distributed uniformly? Their exact process is proprietary so i'm not expecting a definitive answer, but I would like to know more about how such a small quantity can be reliably measured and handled, and how much of the potent toxin is likely present in Botox. | [
"The answer is dilution and some very sensitive equipment.",
"There are 8 serotypes of the toxin (A-H). Botox and Xeomin use serotype A and Myobloc uses serotype B. Different strains of ",
" make different types. These types are typically differentiated through a ",
"mouse bioassay that uses monoclonal antibo... | [
"This is so interesting. I can’t even find a follow up question, I think you covered everything. Thank you"
] | [
"Kevmomo gave a great answer. I'd like to add that all biologic products require a potency assay. The mouse LD50 assay is very accurate with low variability, and is used in addition to physiochemical methods for ensuring the final dosage is within specification. That being said, botulinum products are not considere... |
[
"Why does my runny nose clear up quickly when I get up and walk a short distance to blow my nose?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"I'll piggyback. Why is it that when I have a stuffy nose, whenever I work out, through the duration of the workout I can breath just fine, but soon after I'm done, the stuffy Jose returns?"
] | [
"To piggy back off that, human nasal cavities have a moderated amount of specialized tissue to control air flow. This tissue is very similar to erectile tissue found in human genitals (a venous plexus), and allows for tissues in the nasal cavity to expand. For example, have you ever noticed that you normally only b... | [
"To piggy back off that, human nasal cavities have a moderated amount of specialized tissue to control air flow. This tissue is very similar to erectile tissue found in human genitals (a venous plexus), and allows for tissues in the nasal cavity to expand. For example, have you ever noticed that you normally only b... |
[
"At what point does a liquid become so viscous that it's considered a solid?"
] | [
false
] | Is there some sort of cut off point, or what? | [
"Is there some sort of cut off point, or what?",
"In short, no. If it has a measurable viscosity, it isn't a \"true\" solid. ",
"The popular definitions of \"liquid\" and \"solid\" don't rigorously exist in the science of rheology, which is the field that deals with how things flow (or don't flow). ",
"Some t... | [
"Edit2: As someone pointed out, peanut butter and cement are bad examples because they're mixtures of both. There isn't really a cut off point because liquid v. solid are two different phases defined by things other than viscosity. Viscosity is the resistance to continuous shear deformation but it only really appli... | [
"Lipsticks are a great example of this. When standing, it's a solid, but once you apply to it to the skin, the shear is enough for the surface to liquefy and spread on the skin. It's not just a matter of melting (melting points of lipstick are usually a bit above 50C and humans don't run that hot). To achieve that,... |
[
"What causes testosterone to increase in men?"
] | [
false
] | Do you know of any activities, events, or circumstances that cause testosterone to increase - or remain high - in men? I wondered if there were any similarities with primates, whereby an alpha in a troop of primates may have the highest levels, and defeating rivals causes testosterone spikes. There's obviously quite a lot of outdated science (and broscience) surrounding this topic, hence me coming here first. Thanks for your help. | [
"ignore both of those other answers. Your body will adjust your testosterone level to always be the same (depending on age).",
"To raise that level noticeably, you have to add extra testosterone.",
"Since the steroid is illegal, the only way to do it is eat something that your liver turns into testosterone (a p... | [
"It’s not illegal, it just has to be prescribed, and managed by a doctor. At least in the United States. Been on TRT a few years myself, and the improvement in quality of life can’t be understated from when I was low."
] | [
"Do we know ",
" testosterone causes increased libido? If so how?"
] |
[
"What would a hypersphere \"flattened\" into three dimensions look like?"
] | [
false
] | This kept me up last night as I tried to imagine it. We can take a three dimensional sphere and flatten it to two dimensions like this So what would a 4 dimensional hypersphere that has been flattened into three dimensions look like? | [
"Well this depends on how you flatten it, like you can flatten an ordinary sphere into a flat plane lots of different ways. ",
"This wikipedia page",
" does a decent enough job of explaining a lot of how they look and behave in different dimensional projections."
] | [
"I can't even imagine. This is as close as I can get. What do you get when a 3d sphere passes through a 2d plane? You get a circle that appears, expands and then contracts before disappearing. The circle is a 2d cross section of the sphere. Easy enough right? Now let's extrapolate. What do you get when a 4d hypersp... | [
"You're presuming that the 4th dimension is time.",
"By convention, when referring to an n-dimensional shape, solid, or whatever the term is for higher-dimensional entities, all n dimensions are assumed to be spatial dimensions as opposed to temporal ones.",
"Certainly, it could be a temporal dimension, but whe... |
[
"Water seeping in towels. How does it work?"
] | [
false
] | If I place a dry towel on top of a wet carpet, it will eventually draw water from the carpet and become damp, without any pressure or action on my part outside of placing it on top of the wet carpet. How does this occur? What force is at work? How does the water move upward against the pull of gravity? Is there a point in which the towel will become "filled" with water and no longer draw water from the carpet? | [
"It is due to capillary action. The force responsible for the capillary action is the intermolecular forces between the liquid and the surfaces of the towel. Basically, the water, a polar molecule, is attracted to any polar parts of the surface of the towel. Adding to the effect is the intermolecular force between... | [
"Great explanation. I will look up capillary action and learn more about it. thank you."
] | [
"I think it is a little more complicated and subtle than this. Since the water starts off in the carpet, it is already in an environment with favorable intermolecular forces. It is even plausible that the water would be ",
" attracted to the carpet than the towel. For instance, some carpet is made of nylon which ... |
[
"Is tidal locking between celestial objects in orbit only possible if there is liquid on/in them?"
] | [
false
] | for example liquid water or a molten core, even an atmosphere. I would have thought it'd be necessary to have some kind of dynamic behaviour for this phenomenon to take place. Thanks science-people, this has been bugging me for literally 2 minutes EDIT: fantastic answers, thankyou! | [
"Well, keep in mind that all solids also deform, to some extent. The earth's mantle, for instance, is very malleable (hence tectonic plate movement, and such).",
"So, no. Liquid is not necessary."
] | [
"Liquid is not necessary, but it helps a lot.",
"The more the orbiting body can be deformed by gravity, the more rotational energy is lost due to tidal friction.",
"Solids deform, but liquids deform more. Gases deform a lot, but on most satellites, don't have enough mass to contribute. "
] | [
"I always thought of it this way: If the moon were a perfect sphere and you stuck a bandaid to its surface, eventually that bandaid alone would tide lock the moon to the earth."
] |
[
"Is there way to determine, theoretically, the force produced by a magnet?"
] | [
false
] | I know it's a pretty poor question, but the stuff online is really hard to follow. Like, I'm talking about pure magnets - no electricity involved. I know electrostatic and magnetic forces are apparently the same thing but in just different frames of reference, but some equations I've found, , relate it to Volts and Amps which I am not dealing with. Essentially, I'm just looking for a way to determine the magnetic Force (in newtons) produced by a specific magnet. That is, a similar way that gravity is determined: a coefficient by the factors which are proportional and inversely-proportional i.e. F=G m2/d Any help would be appreciated. If not, I guess I could try ELI5 or something. | [
"It's a bit more complicated because magnets attract as dipoles. There's a Wiki article on the topic: ",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_between_magnets"
] | [
"Force is measured in Newtons or pounds. Gauss, along with Tesla, are the standard units for magnetic field."
] | [
"Force is measured in Newtons or pounds. Gauss, along with Tesla, are the standard units for magnetic field."
] |
[
"Why are there lefties?"
] | [
false
] | [deleted] | [
"Short answer: we don't really know. But there's a lot that goes on between genes and \"deciding\".",
"First of all, in the literature they usually refer to \"right-handedness\" vs. \"non-right-handedness\", on the grounds that so-called lefties are actually just generally less lateralized and more or less random... | [
"While I'm not sure, I just want to share a link to the leftie-subreddit: ",
"r/Southpaws"
] | [
"Partly because it's hard to find a left-handed mouse or right-handed baseball glove, and partly because left-handers aren't reversed, they're just less lateralized (in the literature they're usually just called \"non-right-handed\")."
] |
[
"How exactly does earth's moon affect the planet and how does the existence of multiple moons affect other planets?"
] | [
false
] | null | [
"Fascinating, thank you very much. Quick follow-up, is the moon still moving further from earth, so that in a few million years the days on earth would be even longer? Also interesting to know, that the sun's gravity is affecting the ocean as well."
] | [
"Yes indeed it is! The moon is moving away from our planet at about 4cm (1.6\") every year which in turn means the Earth's rotation is also slowing. ",
"This will continue until the moon takes roughly 47 days to make one orbit around the Earth as compared to 27 days in the present."
] | [
"Newton's law of universal gravitation is the best way I could possibly explain your question. This great equation states that every mass in the universe attracts every other mass because of the gravitational forces between the two. Taking the Earth and the moon as an example of this, the force of gravity is propor... |
[
"If the Earths magnetic field reversed tomorrow, what would the likely consequences be?"
] | [
false
] | would communications be knocked out? what effect (if any) does the reversal have on animals? | [
"Depends, if it simply reversed in a single day to it's original intensity but opposite polarity probably not much. I would think that that it would kind of interfere with our systems the same way a large solar flare would. ",
"I think the worry that geophysicsts have, is how long that transition actually takes.... | [
"from the sidebar:",
"If you cannot clarify your answer in excruciating technical detail, don't answer at all. This is to reduce layman speculation, which is generally not helpful."
] | [
"from the sidebar:",
"If you cannot clarify your answer in excruciating technical detail, don't answer at all. This is to reduce layman speculation, which is generally not helpful."
] |
[
"How is it stimulants make people feel energetic/awake?"
] | [
false
] | So I have been curious about this. I know a little bit about how the energy is made for humans(ATP), but how is it a stimulant like caffeine works on our body? is it all psychological? Is it a trick it plays on our body? Or some other thing that I am missing. Thanks! | [
"Feeling energetic or awake has little to do with the actual amount of the ATP floating around in your cells. Caffeine mainly does 2 things to cause the \"wakeful\" sensation that you feel:",
"Caffeine acts as a mimicker of another neurotransmitter called adenosine, which causes you to feel ",
" by slowing down... | [
"No, it's a releasing agent. Very high doses also provide significant MAOI actitity. Reuptake inhibitors include cocaine and methylphindate(ritalin).",
"\"bath salts\" contain a mixture of 2 or more of both types of drugs, which is why they tend to cause psychosis at lower doses."
] | [
"No, it's a releasing agent. Very high doses also provide significant MAOI actitity. Reuptake inhibitors include cocaine and methylphindate(ritalin).",
"\"bath salts\" contain a mixture of 2 or more of both types of drugs, which is why they tend to cause psychosis at lower doses."
] |
[
"What actually causes a coefficient of friction?"
] | [
false
] | From my understanding, coefficients of friction are different according to the surfaces. My physics teacher told me how some people get paid for determining what the exact values of these coefficients are through using equations with known masses and solving for μ (mu). However, I never understood what factors actually made a coefficient what it was. So, what actually causes a coefficient of friction? | [
"The most fundamental answer is the ",
"electromagnetic force",
". This force governs almost all of the physical interactions in the world, aside from gravity. In the case of two materials, say a wood block sliding down a metal table, each material's surface atoms interact with each other via the electromagne... | [
"Well, the coefficient of friction is kind of an oversimplification. We're just relating the normal force to friction. In actuality, friction changes depending on other factors, not just the materials and their fundamental coefficients. Wheels, for example, can change things. The shape of what's making contact matt... | [
"The coefficient is dependent on many things. In addition to the other answers given, one of the major components is the roughness of the surfaces that are sliding past each other. If you look at ",
"a table of coefficients of friction",
" you will see that they have values listed for dry surfaces and greased s... |
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