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Why do vultures and other birds of prey circle dead animals instead of just going to eat them right away? | For one thing, it actually doesn't waste that much energy. Birds of prey can glide great distances without flapping their wings, so by gliding in a circle they can linger around one position without exerting themselves too much. It's even better for them if there's a "thermal", an updraft of warm air - they can actuall... |
why when if you have a dvd with scratchs you used toothpaste to fix it | There is a relatively thick layer of protection on the surface of the DVD. When a scratch occurs, it can deflect the light of the laser causing the DVD to be mis-read. Toothpaste has polishing agents in it that polish out the scratch, thus restoring the surface. Fun Fact: this protective layer is so strong that some sa... |
Why do we get sleepy when we have eaten a lot of food, or filled up our stomachs? | Before eating our energylevels are generally low. When eating it takes some energy to digest the food and convert it into energy. So when you just finished your food your energylevel is still really low and what remains is used to digest the newly eaten food and therefore you get sleepy Digestion requires a lot of ener... |
- If betting on sports is illegal in most states then how can high profile politicians (like governors and congress critters) publicly bet each other on the outcome of games? | Most gambling laws in U.S. states don't attempt to regulate wagering between individuals. In most states, it's not illegal at all for a group of people to have a poker game, or to make private wagers on sports or anything else between themselves. However, in most states, it is illegal to run a poker room or a sports bo... |
When a country makes a public declaration (denouncement, general warning, etc.) how do other countries find out about it? | Embassies are one way. Diplomats and their teams within the country perform the job of communicating such information to their respective governments. If a country wants to make a public declaration they may also formally submit a statement to the local embassies to make sure the message is received in exactly the way ... |
- how do people solve Rubick's cubes so insanely fast? | Rubiks cubes are pretty cool when it comes to how mixed up a cube can actually be. No matter how long you spend altering a cube it will never be more than 20 face turns away from being solved. This means that if you know all the rules to solving them, its just a matter of how fast your hands can moveAlgorithms. They me... |
Why can US deploy troops wherever they want in the world? Why does US do that? What are the international laws around this? | There's a thing called Status Of Force Agreement, it basically allows a foreign nation to station troops in a host country: _URL_0_ The war in Afghanistan started after Bush asked the Taliban to disclose Osama Bin Laden. 9/11 was considered an attack on the USA, and it was considered an attack on all of NATO, so the US... |
Why do we have earwax and why is it there even if we want to get rid of it? | Earwax, also known by the medical term cerumen, is a yellowish waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals. It protects the skin of the human ear canal, assists in cleaning and lubrication, and also provides some protection from bacteria, fungi, insects and water. _URL_0_This is a fantastic pod... |
why are racist insults significantly more taboo than sexist insults, or insults to any other demographic for that matter? | The n-word resonates more than other slurs because American children are generally taught about slavery and segregation in detail, at least one month a year. Slurs for Asians, Hispanics, etc. are still considered terrible, but there isn't the same *narrative* attached to the public consciousness, so they're not quite a... |
Why do we use pigs to hunt truffles but dogs to sniff out most other things? | It is in that specific type of pig's nature to seek out the truffles. Dog use is becoming more widespread though. From _URL_0_ > As truffles are usually found underground, you have to have a way to gather them! This is where detection animals come into play because of their superior olfactory capabilities. > Traditiona... |
Why does Internet service slow down or stop intermittently every day? Aren't we paying for X amount of meticulously controlled speed? | If you have a residential Internet connection, you're not paying X amount for a meticulously controlled speed. You're paying X amount for Internet up to a certain speed. The lines are way oversubscribed- Comcast can't actually provide 100Mbps 24/7 to everyone on the block they offer it to, but since most people only us... |
what is the Riemann hypothesis | Are you familiar with the concept of the root of a function? The function x^2 - 1 has two roots, 1, and -1. Because if you put those numbers in place of x, you get zero. 1^2 - 1 = 0 and ^2 - 1 = 0 as well. The Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that a more complicated function has roots that all share a special featu... |
How does video streaming work? | It's basically the same as sending a video file except instead of waiting for it to finish, you start playing what you've got and cross your fingers that the other guy can send faster than you can watch. Breaking it down: 1. Someone connects a camera to their computer.2. Their computer looks at the video feed coming in... |
The scope of the universe, and how that relates to the statistical probability that we are the only intelligent life in the universe. | Space is vast, but so is time. We've been advanced enough to emit radio signals for just 100 years. The universe is 14 billion years old, but it's fair to say that life needs complex elements like iron and oxygen, which ar created in stars. So maybe the age of our Solar system, 4.5 billion years, is a fair guess at the... |
How do things get off the reddit front page? | My understanding is that it's not popularity, it's trend. Things move up when people upvote on it *right now*, but the push of the upvote fades over time. So unless people keep upvoting every day, it'll sink down.Reddit's algorithm, at the basic level, is based on time - newer submissions will be higher than old ones. ... |
When your butthole bleeds from wiping too much, does your body do something different to prevent bacteria and such from entering your body? | Because it's a highly vascular area of your body. There are more blood vessels running through there than most of your body so bacteria get whisked away and don't have time to fester and cause an infection. |
How is it that ballerinas, break dancers etc. can spin around so much without getting dizzy? | I don't know about break dancers but ballerinas and figure skaters have a trick for this. They pick a spot in the distance and keep their eyes on it. As they spin past that point they will snap their heads around to catch it from the other side. So, for most of the rotation their head is stationary. You can see it in t... |
Whales in the oceans, elephants on the lands; why there's no giant flyable birds in the air? | We live in a 3 dimensional world. This results in something called the "square-cube law", which states that as an object grows in size its volume grows faster than its area. For example if we have a 1 foot cube it has 1 foot in volume. But a 2 foot cube has 8 cubic feet in volume. A 3 foot cube has 27 cubic feet of vol... |
How do chemist do experiments with boiling water when there's no such thing as a "real" boiling point? | This is actually a really neat exploration of what we scientists call "confounding factors". These are details about the set-up of an experiment that can affect what our measurements say, but don't actually affect the underlying scientific principle. There is a "real" boiling point for water that depends only on the at... |
Why does the water used for tea and many instant meals have to be boiling? | Instant meals are designed for the water to be a specific optimal temperature. Boiling water has the convenient property that it's always at the same temperature, so you don't have to fiddle with a thermometer to figure out when to put the water in. The water used for tea *doesn't* have to be boiling, and in fact the v... |
Why are the seas and oceans salty? | The salt comes from dissolved rock salt, that's why it's there. So perhaps the question is, why aren't lakes and rivers generally salty? The answer is the water cycle. Everything drains into the oceans, where water evaporates and then falls as rain. Salt, however, does not evaporate with water. So the salt collects in ... |
Why, when I swat a fly or other small bug in mid-air, doesn't the impact either kill it or disorient it to the point of landing on something? | You can only hit the bug as hard as the bug can hit you. Punch a feather in mid air, or a piece of paper, no damage is done. Physics 101Yes, that is correct. Mainly because they have exoskeletons. Unlike humans, bugs have skeletons outside the body. When you try to swat them mid air, in their perception, you are moving... |
How does having a fever hurt you and how do pain relievers help? | A fever is the body raising its internal temperature to destroy whatever pathogen is causing the body irritation. The body isn't perfect. The fever can be too extreme or last too long. Heat doesn't just destroy the bad, but also the good. Pain relievers help relieve pain by blocking pain receptors. Pain is a sign of so... |
How do the parasites that infect insect brains and such actually manipulate the host body's movements ? | Screws with the hormone system .Doesn't make the ant do things, more it changes the way the ant behaves. EG. not make the ant climb, but make it really like the feel of sunlight so it goes and seeks that high place clear of shade. |
What would truly happen when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force? | It's not a possibility. For one to exist the other cannot. Either the force is stopped or the object is moved. ONE of those 2 things has to happen logically. Assuming some grand celestial event is redundant as logic would just state that if the immovable object prevented the force from moving it, said force was stopabl... |
Why are some cuisines significantly spicier than others? | continuing on from previous explanations, the main theory is that spicy food is eaten in hotter places because heat induces food spoilage and spices help with that. Liking the taste of spices became something that was passed down the generations as those who ate spices were healthier . If you want to know more about th... |
The difference between the CIA & FBI | The CIA is tasked with gathering information in other countries and with covert operations, and it's only supposed to operate outside the US. Since 911, that has loosened somewhat. The FBI is tasked with federal law enforcement. They do handle counter intelligence as well, by finding spies inside the USA and that sort ... |
How does a flood go away? | eventually given enough time, the water goes downhill towards the ocean. a flood is just when the surface downhill isn't steep enough to keep the water flowing out of an area faster than the water flows in. |
What keeps the iron in my blood from getting rusted? | The iron in your blood does not consist of pure metallic iron. Instead, the iron atoms are bound up in hemoglobin molecules in red blood cells. Hemoglobin carries oxygen by binding the oxygen to the iron atom, so you can *kind of* think of the iron as rusting every time it picks up an oxygen molecule, and "un-rusting" ... |
Why does my phone use (or seem to use) battery faster when it gets lower? | If your battery is low, it actually takes more energy for your phone to draw energy from the battery to use. Think about it like a CapriSun. When the pouch is full, it takes almost no energy for you to draw that delicious juice out of the container, but when it starts to get empty, you have to work harder to get all th... |
Why does a change in environment make me feel more motivated to work? (Especially if I've been working from home for a long time) | When your environment is always the same, your brain has no new information to process and goes into sleep mode. Therefore you also work less attentively or don't focus on the teacher. When something changes, your brain works on higher speed to process all the new information. This also makes you more motivated. |
why does kitchen paper towel have those bumps all over it? | If I had to guess, it adds more surface area allowing it have more grip on surfaces and absorb more liquidsThe quilting helps to absorb more fluid. Paper towels are usually two-ply. The top layer is quilted, or raised, while the lower one is flat. This creates small air pockets between them that suck water in, increasi... |
Why do dreams feel so realistic? | because your brain doesnt check for absurdity when you're dreaming. silly things can be realistic, because you're just not capable of making a distinction. plus it's complete submersion. anything you do online still comes through a screen, but in your dreams it's the only thing your eyes and brain are focused on. |
How does Google make money off of Gmail and Google Drive? | I doubt they'd ever charge for them. That's not how the business model works. What they do, though, is analyse every e-mail you send or receive, and every document you save or share. They learn as much as they can about you. Then, you visit a completely unrelated webpage, and they're able to pull up their profile of yo... |
Which doctors and nurses work in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital? Do they all have to be experts in everything? | No doctor is an expert in everything. A patient will receive care from the most relevant doctors. An ICU will have doctors with a variety of specialties.Physicians in the ICU typically specialize in Pulmonary and Critical Care and they look over the medical patients in the ICU . When a specific patient has complicated ... |
Is Wi-Fi evenly split between users? | The decision is made by the router and there are ways to go about changing it. Typically the router will give each device as much bandwidth as it wants at any given time. If it's out of bandwidth to give then typically it will split the bandwidth evenly. A 50 Mbps Wi-Fi router may slow if you have 5 devices all streami... |
How long can you go without eating before you start to be in actual danger of dying? | There’s something called the rule of threes for survival situations. You can survive 3 minutes without air 3 hours without shelter in harsh weather 3 days without water 3 weeks without food', "3-4 weeks. 2 weeks in, yer lethargic as hell, especially if you're active. You'll lose body mass like crazy. Speaking from firs... |
Why isn't there a universal currency by now? | Because individual governments want control over their own currencies, because it really plays into economic policy. Like, the Chinese government controls inflation much more strictly than Western countries. Also, in Europe you had Greece on the Euro, but Greece had some bad policies that tanked its economy, devalued t... |
Can someone explain the "America Invaded the Middle East for Oil" argument? | Six trillion dollars seems really off but the argument is based on the fact that Iraq and other countries were found not to have weapons of mass destruction or anything the US claimed they had so they could invade. It also centers on the fact that middle eastern countries have a huge oil reserve and if they are in conf... |
Why moving around makes me feel like I don't need to pee as badly | There are groups of muscles, like a sphincter, which everyone learns to use to control the release of urine from the bladder . When you get up and move around, those muscles tighten involuntarily so that everyone doesn't go around peeing themselves when the bladder gets full. When relaxed, in a sitting position, those ... |
Why do showers always go extremely hot and cold before settling on the desired temperature? | As someone who has worked on shower valves and systems, What /u/Herdnerfer said is semi correct. The hot water tanks are usually always on, but the water that reaches your shower first is all of the water that has been sitting in the pipes since you last showered. This has to get run out before the hot water appears. B... |
Higher education in the US | I just wanted to add that medicine and law, in the U.S., are postgraduate education, and require one to have an undergraduate degree before starting their course of study. For most, a prospective student must also take a standardized admissions testThere aren't a lot of ways to explain the US higher education system to... |
Why is something like steak able to be eaten more acceptably whilst undercooked while something chicken isn't? | Chicken and pork are likely to carry diseases, specifically salmonella and trichinosis. Steak and fish are less likely to have disease, so rare steak and sushi are safe as long as they're sourced properly. |
Is there a reason why we start to not like a song as much after listening to it over and over? | You're mind is no longer surprised by all of the little subtleties that were so intriguing before you knew they were coming. |
Why things are so much more expensive in Australia | Taxes and the cost of actually bringing the product to the country as we are sort of surrounded by water There are weird super high taxes on many things. A common example are video games, a new game in australia usually sells for around $100.Because people are willing to pay it, by and large. If sales plummeted due to ... |
With over 350 million citizens in the United States, how is it even possible that the same two families become presidential hopefuls ? | Because having a husband, or a father and a brother, who were President, means your family has the money, influence, and connections needed to be a serious presidential contender.The biggest hurdle to becoming a political hopeful is getting people to notice you, which is the first step in raising money, getting media c... |
Why cant you use a mirror to see something in the far distance without contacts/ glasses(Provided you need them)? | The image of object in the mirror is not on the surface of the mirror the same way a painting is on the surface of a canvas. If you look at a specific detail in a painting, and alternately close one eye and then the other, that detail will be on the same spot of canvas. But if you do that with a mirror, the detail that... |
How does shaving gel turn into foam? | Chemical reaction to oxygen. Like you are five: Once the stuff inside the compressed tube meets the air it goes all crazy and changes. |
How come when we squint we can see things a bit more clearly? | Because you are approximating a pinhole. By doing this you reduce the surface of the lens in your eye, which increases the depth of field, just as stopping down a camera lens increases the depth of field. To give you an example of this, hold your finger up in front of you and close one eye. Now if you focus on your fin... |
How does the stability of a wineglass on a mattress when you jump on it represent its comfort? | It represents that a person next to you tossing and turning will not affect you on your side of the bed |
what does the pancreas do exactly? | It helps digest food and also regulates the concentration of key molecules in the body - for example, blood glucose. That's why when the pancreas stops working properly, you can get diseases like diabetes.Here's hoping the kid knows that hormones are If not, just call them "substances" i guess. I'll use "substances for... |
I'm growing my facial hair and have some stray red hairs in my beard. Why is this and am I in danger of one day having ginger children? | According to my first year biology textbook: Dark hair is dominant over light hair, however the gene for red- or not-red hair is inherited separately, with red being the dominant trait. If you have a recessive blond gene and were to reproduce with a blonde woman it is possible you would pass along the recessive light-h... |
Can someone explain this ? Donut UFO orbiting the sun. Spotted 2 days ago on NASA telescope. | According to Life's Little Mysteries, a scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory, or NRL, theorizes the object in space is just a collection of streaks left by cosmic rays that hit the camera's CCD sensor. "The streaks in question are consistent with energetic particle impacts on the CCD, something which is apparent ... |
Why do some people cry more easily than others? | Some people are more sensitive, and it seems these days people believe that crying is an act of manipulation, rather than genuine emotional upset. I don't understand how for some people sensitivity has become such a negative trait, that crying has become something to shame someone over. |
Why are some swords single edged, opposed to double edged? | A sword requires a certain amount of metal in order to remain sturdy enough to function, and the thickness of a sharp blade isn't enough. A blade with two sharp edges is going to be heavier and wider than a sword with one, so if you don't need two edges it is more efficient and superior to only have one edge.It has a l... |
In the 17th century, the average lifespan was half of what it is now. Were we always capable of living this long or did we extend life with modern medicine? | The reason the average lifespan has increased so dramatically isn't because people are necessarily living longer, its because of a massive reduction in *infant* mortality. Average lifespan is a tricky statistic for that reason. If you have six kids and one dies at age 1 but the rest live to be 60, their average lifespa... |
Why is flopping so widely accepted and utilized in football (soccer)? | It's definitely considered unsportsmanlike, but it's one of those things where your opponent is going to do it, so you do it. It's just sort of become part of the game's strategy at this point, which I 'd say is unfortunate. But it's such a big part of the game because the possible rewards for drawing a foul call are s... |
Why is there a squeaky popping noise when you skim stones on a frozen lake? | The speed of sound is different in different materials. In ice, the speed of sound is faster than in air. When the stone impacts the ice, the wavefront spreads out, and continually transfers to the air, so you'll actually hear the sound from the ice right next to you, before you hear the sound from the impact, all the ... |
How the Miami Marlins are doing what they're doing? | Just my opinion, this is probably what is happening: The Marlins ownership was able to convince Miami-Dade county to pony up 3/4 of the cost of the new stadium for a couple of concessions: they would change their name to reflect the city , they would create X amount of new jobs, and they would field a competitive team ... |
How some people can live perfectly fine on 4 or so hours of sleep and others can't function without 8??? | I work in sleep deprivation research in healthy human subjects and the best guess at this time is genetics, as we've seen relatives display similar resistance to the effects of sleep loss. We haven't identified the exact genes or biomarkers responsiblewith 100% precision but we've isolated some variants and most of the... |
Where do people that work in the middle of nowhere live? | "Ain't this a geographical anomaly 2 weeks from anywhere!" George Clooney, *Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"* |
How do natural channels get footage of inside an animal nest or ant colony? | Generally it's because of really expensive and powerful cameras. Often they use motion-sensor cameras that only record the time around when they sense motion, and so they can be placed in things like nests when they are unoccupied then conserve battery power and record when there's motion within the nest. Things like a... |
how can somebody be sued for more money than they can earn in a lifetime and where does this money come from and how do they pay it back? | Well, first it's important to understand that just because an individual sues for X amount of dollars, does not mean they will ever be awarded that amount even if they win the case. When you sue someone, you typically sue for the maximum possible amount that can be awarded in damages. Then the court decides what amount... |
Why are we told not to shower when there is lightning? | Lightning wants to get to the ground and it wants to do that through the first thing it can reach. So houses are often built with a system to collect lightning that would strike the house and funnel it into the ground. It moves the electricity through your metal pipes. So showering during an electrical storm exposes yo... |
Why doesn't Japan fully acknowledge and apologize for their actions in WWII? | The Japanese government has apologized. But nothing the Japanese government ever says is acceptable enough. Plus, while the government has apologized, Japan is a democracy and some people within it--right wing hardliners, who have gained a lot of power in the past 15 years or so--are unapologetic and are trying to rewr... |
How come we don't have individual control of our toes like we do our fingers? | Because you're not practicing with them. When a child is born they practice moving their fingers, as you grow you predominantly use your fingers to interact with your surroundings. Train these similar muscles and tissues in your toes and you'll get better at individual control of the digits |
How would universal basic income actually help poor people? | Your example about the situation post slavery is good, but it misses one important thing. The former slaves still had to work for that wage, and would be virtually unable to get any other kind of work. A recently freed slave would almost never have been able to get their own stable income outside of the land owner. No ... |
what happens to the water elevation of a lake when a drop of water falls in? | it evenly distributes. Any time you have a raised area in the water it will "spill" over since there is nothing holding it back. It will continue to "spill" until it is even with everything else. |
How did frozen broccoli left in the microwave for 4 days get infested with bugs? Where did the bugs come from? | Microwaves are not perfectly sealed. The device that makes your food hot usually needs some outside airflow so it doesn't overheat. If the broccoli was as smelly as you said, it's entirely possible a few insects followed the smell to its source. |
What did women do about their periods before the invention of things like tampons, pads, etc? | Ever heard the expression "being on the rag?" Yeah, that's because women would generally just use rags in the same manner that modern women use pads. They just get washed afterwards.> What did women do about their periods before the invention of things like tampons, pads, etc? Do you realise that there are millions of ... |
How does a computer turn itself back on when commanded to restart? | Assuming you're referring to a "warm reboot", it never really turns off. You send a "reboot" signal to the BIOS. The Operating System terminates all programs and processes and then tells the BIOS "Hey! I'm shut down!" At the same time, everything in memory is reset, completely clearing it out. The address bus also rese... |
When people say your body "attacks" a virus, what exactly does your body do. | It's very complex, and there are lots of different methods involved, so I'll just mention one of the more interesting ones. Your body produces proteins called "antibodies". They're kind of Y-shaped, and the "top" of the Y is such that various chemicals can latch onto it. The bottom end changes shape when a chemical lat... |
Why are snacks in vending machines more expensive than snacks in stores? | Because people are willing to pay it. Vending machines offer instantaneous convenience, often in areas where there are no other options. For example, if you're at a fair, there's a vending machine right there, and you can't go to the store and buy snacks without leaving the fair for like 20 minutes, waiting in line to ... |
Where does a HDD store its "table of contents"? | At the first part of the disk there is an index of partitions. At each partition, there is an index which explains what file system is used. And each file system has it's own way of storing the directory structure. So to be short: You don't know unless you know the partitions and the file systems used. |
why, sometimes, when I'm laying down trying to sleep, does it feel like my bed is shaking? | Have you seen the exorcist? That may contain the answers you seekDo you live in a city with a metro/underground train system? |
What is the logic behind the Imperial measuring system | The imperial system of measurement was slightly different before standardization. Originally the measurements were defined by the builder's own body measurements. A foot was literally the length of the builder's foot. Other measurement were defined in terms of the width of the thumb, an armspan, a handspan, and so on. ... |
Why can I go a day without food at home but when I am at school I feel so hungry after a lesson? | Possibly because you are much more active at school/see other kids eating/smelling more food?', "Are you bored at school and entertained at home? If so, it may be to do with your attention: if you're bored you will notice the bodily sensation of hunger. If at home you are interested in a game, book or film and TV then ... |
What is the difference between mental addiction and physical addiction? | A physical addiction means you will have literal withdrawals when you quit. A mental addiction simply means you desperately want to do something. For instance, I can be addicted to playing video games or smoking pot, but if I quit I'm not gonna have physical withdrawals. Alcohol, on the other hand, would cause literal ... |
I just chopped up a pineapple, and now my fingers feel weird | Pineapple has some [really strong enzymes] in it which can break down proteins. So you've probably stripped a bit of skin off. Do too much pineapple and you can loosen your teeth because it digests your gums.see a doctor immediately. it is likely that you have accidentally chopped off parts of your fingers. Note: pinea... |
What exactly is black ice, and how is it formed differently to normal white ice? | Black ice isn't black, it is just a thin coating of ice, so thin that it is more transparent than thicker accumulations. It appears black because of the asphalt underneath it. |
How do solar sails/photonic propulsion work if light is massless? | Light is massless but not momentum-less. You know that whole E = mc^2 equation? Well, that isn't the entire thing, actually. The actual equation is E^2 = ^2 + ^2 where p is the momentum of the object in question. Photons have energy, and even with zero mass, they still have momentum, and so they can impart that momentu... |
How does a DVR machine identify commercial breaks so they can be skipped later? | I'm not sure about now, but previously there were a few black frames between the show and the commercial. The black frames were only on for a fraction of a second, so a person wouldn't notice it, but the switching equipment would. The DVR would detect those black frames. as being the end caps to the commercial break.Th... |
(For DIY) Why is it more common to paint (house) wall with paint rollers but use spray can for cars? | If you google "rustoleum roller paint job" or the like, you'll find plenty of people who have rolled a paint job on their car for ~$50. With the right kind of paint, some thinner, time, and patience, it can totally be done. The hardest parts would be getting in all the tight spaces a sprayer would do better, and highly... |
How do reward systems make you addicted? | Excitement and anticipation are powerful motivators. If you repeat an activity, and get rewarded for it, your brain releases endorphins and other chemicals. Keep doing it and you begin to react with pleasurable chemicals *before* you open the box, the anticipation starts the cycle of your brain's reward center. It's ba... |
Why do greenscreens need to be green? | The way chromakeying works is that you select one solid color to replace entirely, in this case, green. Thus, if you were using a white background instead, the white of the actor's eyes would become part of the background as well. If you used black, and they had black hair, their hair or a shadow or a black shirt would... |
If I have a kid in my twenties and a kid in my seventies, assuming we're using the same sperm cell would my age affect the phenotype of the kid? | I'm not sure how you can do this, but let's play with the idea. If it's the same sperm cell, then technically it should have the same DNA, so if your wife provides the same egg cell, then the phenotype shouldn't alter. However, recent studies on epigenetics have shown that things you do throughout your lifetime can "me... |
How did horses survive without us trimming their hooves? (Pic of what mean inside) | Hoof overgrowth like that usually occurs because the horse is confined too much . Wild horses spend a great deal of time moving around, and that action will wear down hooves. Additionally, in wild populations, the lines particularly prone to hoof problems should be weeded out of a population via natural selection.Wild ... |
How does recycling get sorted after it is picked up? | Everything that can be automated is automated. For example, magnets separate iron and big fans separate aluminum . But distinguishing plastic from paper, or glass from ceramic, isn't that easy and has to be done by hand. I remember I visited a recycling center some years ago as a student and they showed us the process:... |
Why is China destroying Tibet's culture and discriminating against their citizens? | Well, the Americas used to be occupied by indigenous people who had been here for 10000 years. In the US we killed them, destroyed their culture, and took over their land for our own economic and political benefit. While open genocide isn't the model the Chinese used to control Tibet, the end reason is just the same. C... |
Why doesn't California mandate the waste water be used for agriculture if people are that grossed out by it? | How would you pump it from the cities to the farms? No reverse canals or pipelines currently exist. |
Why have some evolved with poor eyesight? | We have not "evolved" poor eyesight. However, poor eyesight has not, in recent times, been evolutionarily selected against, so it is perhaps more common than it once was. Unless a trait causes those with it to be less likely to mate or survive to mate, it will *generally* not be selected againstA lot of the problems ar... |
How come sometimes you can actually be too tired to fall asleep? | Your sleep cycle is governed by two processes: homeostatic and circadian. The homeostatic process builds up what is referred to as "sleep debt". Every hour you are awake, the more sleep debt you will eventually need to pay off. The circadian process is cyclical. It is associated with things such as the melatonin levels... |
Are Reddit bots actually bots? | Most bots are actually automatic most of the time. Things like LinkFixerBot or CaptionBot can run completely automatically. CationBot is probably the most notable "joke" bot that is actually fully human. Any automatic bot has to have a normal Reddit account, so if the bot's "owner" wants to, they can easily log in usin... |
Why does a clock make a tick-tock sound and not tick-tick? | The 'tick tock\' sounds we associate with clocks harkens back to the days of pendulum clocks. In those, the pendulum has a mechanism which allows the hands to move forward by one gear every time it swings back and forth . Hence, the 'tick\' sound is when the pendulum swings one way and the 'tock\' is when it swings bac... |
Why is there a sex offender registry but no murderer registry in the US? | The way it's viewed, true or not, is that sex offenses come from an incurable psychological problem. Drug addiction can be in remission, murder can be a crime of passion, child molester never goes away. I don't know if that's all true, but that's how it's viewed. |
Is the new weed policy in Colorado different from the one in Holland? | Colorado, on the state level, has completely legalized the sale and recreational use of Marijuana. The Netherlands has a policy of non-enforcement for "soft-drugs" like marijuana. They do not enforce laws normally, but possession & personal use can be met with a fine if one is acting up. Additionally the "Coffee Shops"... |
what is a wormhole and how does it work? | A wormhole is an idea. Most equations in physics would still make sense if the shape of the Universe included some indirect connections between distant points. By traveling between these distant points through the worm hole you might find the distance was shorter than the non-wormhole path. This would save lots of time... |
Why do middlemen exist? | Because running a store takes a lot of work and effort. Some suppliers do this, but many don't. In a nutshell, they would have to start shouldering responsibilities like inventory management, website management, store front management, shipping orders, customer service , etc. By selling to a middleman to resell, they c... |
Whats the difference between a 50mm prime lens and a standard zoom lens at 50mm? | From [Wikipedia]: > While a prime lens of a given focal length is less versatile than a zoom lens, it is often of superior optical quality, wider maximum aperture, lighter weight, and smaller size. These advantages stem from having fewer moving parts, optical elements optimized for one particular focal length, and a le... |
How long after a global catastrophe would things like GPS and SatPhones work? | The satellites would operate for years . However, without updates from the ground the GPS satellites would lose accuracy long before they stopped working. |
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