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Do I need to go to a top college to be successful in computer science? | I'm currently a freshman in college majoring in computer science. The college I am going to is a smaller, local college that definitely is not prestigious or world renown. I was wondering how much influence the college I went to will have on my future attempts at getting a job. I have a passion for tech and coding and ... | There might be a starting height cap and a starting wage cap difference but ultimately you will not want for jobs if you are doing software engineering at all, many companies hire on the spot for passing a basic programming test and will put you in at some pretty great wages.
Note a Bachelor's degree opens a whole ... | 21 | 16 |
ELI5: why didn’t humanity advance technologically for thousands of years when it comes to things like electricity and other electrical power devices like WIFI, but now humanity is advancing rather rapidly? | The ability to produce excess stuff allowed more human resources to be focused on new technology and methods. This further increases productivity (since we started at a low level) and this frees up even more human resources to do new stuff.
Prior to the industrialization, most (say around 80-90%) of the world's popula... | 130 | 43 | |
How do I productively discuss the "realness" of human constructs like money, finance, law etc | In particular, I find that people like to say "the stock market isn't real", and in an abstract way, they are right, but there is so much more to it. Love, marriage, law, political borders, money, finance - are there better terms, phrases or concepts that address the impact of topics like this I can use to come to an u... | The term is socially constructed. Social constructs are very real, and any social constructivist will tell you as much. Just because something isn’t a part of the natural furnishing of the world it doesn’t mean it’s not real. | 28 | 73 |
Why are some viruses only transmitted by blood/sex and some only by saliva | Reading about HIV I got wondering *why* it's not transmitted by spit? What's special about blood and sex fluids that saliva lacks?
And then I realised that the cold & flu are transmitted by coughing/sneezing (presumably saliva) and I've never heard anyone get the flu from sex.
Why do some viruses get transferred ... | Viruses rely on receptors on the outside of cells to recognize cells (and gain entry into them). Different cells have different receptors, and so different viruses recognize different types of cells.
The same way that a lock pick will not get you into a door with a digital keypad, and a circuit analyzer will not get ... | 11 | 52 |
ELI5: What is the common cold? | I had an idea that it was just an extremely common virus that we can't cure. However, upon looking it up some sources say that there are over 200+ viruses that cause the common cold. Does that mean the common cold is just some blanket term we have for viruses that cause these symptoms? | The common cold is a syndrome (a constellation of symptoms) which can be caused by several different viruses. It's difficult to count the number of viruses because of how many strains, variants and subvariants exist if each. But it's thought that the most colds are caused by rhinoviruses, while many of the others are ... | 27 | 30 |
Pros and Cons of Auditing the Fed. | I'd like to hear thoughts on the recent bill from some economists. | It's a tough issue because it's at the intersection of 2 important, popular beliefs and some question whether they can coexist in this case. Those 2 beliefs are:
1. That transparency is generally a good thing.
2. That the Fed should remain immune to short term political pressures.
While some people maintain that the ... | 13 | 22 |
ELI5: How on earth is the "Chance of Rain" calculated? | Meteorologists collect lots of information about weather. They measure wind speed, cloud clover, how much it rains, the barometric pressure, etc. With all this information, they notice patterns and can use those patterns to predict the weather to some extent.
For example, if in the past, it rained 40% of the time wh... | 19 | 22 | |
What is the purpose of eyebrows? | I was pondering this question earlier today while thinking about extremist groups that shave their eyebrows. What is the anatomical function of eyebrows? | Eyebrows are hypothesized to have two main functions: to prevent debris, such as dirt, sweat, or dust, from falling into the eyes from above (in addition to the protection offered by eyelashes) and to offer an additional means of facial expression. | 15 | 15 |
ELI5:What is the purpose of Nautical Miles and why dont we just use regular Miles or Kilometers for ocean or air travel? | Nautical miles are useful because 1 nautical mile is 1 minute of latitude, or 1/60th of a degree of latitude. It makes them useful when navigating on charts, where latitude and longitude are in degrees and fractions of degrees. | 171 | 117 | |
[Star Wars] What exactly did they take from Jango Fett to make his clones? | Was it blood? A Hair Sample? Cheek swab? How much did they need? Did he have to come back to donate more later on? | It's not specified, but it's likely blood, tissue samples and bone marrow. He did in fact had to regularly return to supply additional samples, which was plot point in Clone Wars - since there was no more any Jango Fett, kaminoan cloners faced an issue that their supply is limited. | 48 | 17 |
ELI5 why credit inquries lower one's credit score | If one is simply looking up her or his credit score and is not making a purchase on credit, why does his or her credit score take a hit? | You may check your own credit rating as often as you'd like with no impact to your overall rating.
Creditors (without your knowledge, i.e., those credit card offers you get in the mail) may check your credit rating as often as they'd like without impacting your overall rating.
Creditors (acting on your behalf, as in ... | 301 | 674 |
Does Occam's Razor eliminate teleological explanations for phenomena? | Here's an example:
Why does a bacterium swim up a glucose gradient to a food source?
The reductionist way to answer this would be to examine the glucose receptors, and what protein messengers they trigger, which result in deformations in the outer membrane.
The teleological answer would say that the bacterium goes t... | One important thing to remember is that Occam's Razor is a guideline for theories that have equal explanatory power. It is open to a teleologist to insist that his or her account has more explanatory power, and that, for this reason, its greater complexity does not count against it.
Another thing is that the example y... | 17 | 15 |
What is the societal purpose of dignity? | Assuming dignity is a social construct (another question would be if this is a valid assumption to make), it must be serving some purpose to the society. Has this been explored in any way by social science and if so, where could one look for relevant studies? Thanks! | Honor and reputation was more important in the past when costs of monitoring were greater. Thus, organizations and institutions developed to fill this lack of information. For example, the idea of a duel was to signal an investment in reputation (willing to risk the fire consequences). Interestingly, dueling pistols we... | 12 | 21 |
[Super powers] What if you had the ability to manipulate the Higgs field, would this be a useful super power? God-like? Completely Useless? | You would be able to change the mass of objects at will. Particles passing through the higgs field is part of gives matter mass. If you could change the localized density of the field, you could make things heavier if you made the field denser, and lighter if you did the opposite. You could in theory make localized bla... | 14 | 29 | |
ELI5:What happened to unbleached paper products? | Back in the 90's environmentally conscious consumers learned to shop for unbleached paper products to reduce the amount of toxic materials required for production. It meant the product were invariably very off-white but still fully functional. Seems like these products have totally disappeared from retailer shelves. W... | Basically they found far more environmentally friendly ways of achieving the same effect without bleach. Mostly this will be hydrogen peroxide. This is H2O2 - water with an extra oxygen molecule. It breaks down into water and doesn't pollute and is cheap and easy to produce. Things that used to be 'unbleached' are more... | 48 | 122 |
eli5: how did Hellen Keller understand what words meant | I know I sound dumb but I’ve been thinking about this and I just need answers please help | A very patient caretaker/instructor. There are movies/books about this for more detail if you want more than base level. But Hellen would feel the instructor's throat. Each sound we make feels different. Just like learning any language, Hellen was able to then feel her own throat and find out how to make the same sound... | 189 | 131 |
CMV: Hospitals delivering babies should have a policy of assumed paternity testing unless both parents express that the opt-out. | There are many things hospitals do during or shortly after delivery as a matter of policy. Many new parents don't even realize they are being done, or didn't realize they would be done until the delivery. This includes a hearing test, blood typing, and testing for around [31 different disorders](https://www.babycenter.... | How are the samples from the father being obtained? You would surely need to ask the alleged father's permission to take samples from him, so it essentially amounts to offering the father a paternity test, which doesn't seem that different than the current system. | 22 | 24 |
ELI5: What is the purpose of "Not to be removed except by consumer" tags on mattresses, pillows, and the like? | There are laws requiring certain items (for example, upholstery, mattresses) to be labeled clearly showing what they are made of. It's illegal for the store or the wholesaler to remove the tag before the final consumer buys the item, because they are entitled to know what it's made of. | 74 | 129 | |
Disregarding the fact that people are considered mature or an adult at age 18(in most countries). At what age do different philosophers consider a person an adult? | I'm guessing that people have different ideas of what's the ideal adult age. I think that I could consider myself an adult at age 25 and beyond. I could call myself an adult at age 18 anytime but I wouldn't feel like one. | What we mean when we say that someone is mature is that they have developed a certain set of capacities. These capacities can be a number of things, including things like the capacity to drive a car well. But the most important type of capacity we tend to associate with maturity is rational capacities. The reason that ... | 11 | 17 |
ELI5: Ninth Amendment | Canadian here. What is the meaning of the Ninth Amendment, and what are examples of laws that would violate the Ninth Amendment. | It basically allows for the possibility that the founding fathers didn't account for 100% of the rights a person has and will always have and allows for "common sense" interpretations of those rights so that they don't need to be explicitly stated in the bill of rights for them to exist and be real.
It's basically mea... | 26 | 20 |
[Terminator] Why doesn't skynet use chemical and or biological warfare against humans? | I haven't watched the Terminator:Genesis , if they do use that against them then I'll have to watch it. If they didn't use it then why don't they? Why don't they engineer a superbug that resist all medications and kill all humans. Why kill them with machine guns and laser guns when you can just sprinkle them with virus... | Those methods work less effectively when the population is scattered and scarce. You need humans moving between places to effectively transmit a disease between populations and the remaining humans may not be traveling between clusters enough to make it worth while. Any survivors would have immunity as well. It’d be mu... | 39 | 40 |
How does Hegel's use of the term "phenomenology" differ from its usage in 20th century phenomenology? | I'm new to the history of philosophy. I know a bit about Hegel and the phenomenological tradition that proceeds Husserl, like Heidegger, Sartre, etc. I can tell that, for instance, Husserl and Hegel mean different things when they consider phenomenology, but I don't know enough to really understand what the fundamental... |
One of the most salient differences is that Hegel conceives his phenomenology as a progressive process that involves different stages whereas 20th century phenomenology is a method of describing a phenomenon. One is diachronic, the other is synchronic. The two also have different aims so they mostly just share the ... | 50 | 122 |
ELI5: How do chip design engineers make sure that there is no interference between different circuit modules due to electromagnetic fields, given that every circuit component is very close to each other? | Specialized design, simulation, modeling, testing, and careful material design. They make sure that the traces are the right shape and length so as to not act like antennas, using ground layers and traces to shield, and more design requirements. Things like the encapsulation materials are specially designed to restri... | 219 | 636 | |
I want a PhD in humanities. But I'm not a strong candidate and in my last year of undergrad. What can I do? | I recently had tough extenuating circumstances. I have poor GPA from a completely different major (STEM) that I started out with. I am essentially rushing to finish my new major this year. I do however work closely with my professors, will have research, good grades on my major classes.
Conventional wisdom is to get ... | Would you work at a CC in rural Arkansas to pursue this dream? Would you be willing to move every year or so as an adjunct, being paid less than your college graduate friends without PHDs? Unless you passionately want to do the career, I'd think hard. And not just because you will have trouble getting into a leading ... | 49 | 28 |
CMV: Sports students should not get special treatment or exemptions. | One student's extracurricular hobby shouldn't come with special allowances, exemptions, and treatment unless other students also receive the same allowances, exemptions, and treatment.
This bothered me as a student, and infuriates me as faculty.
It's simply not fair that random athlete #2254 gets to skip a class for... | Would you hold music students to the same standard?
In high school we'd have about 5 days off school to travel to and from national marching band finals or an out of state competition. In the winter, percussion ensemble would do the same for about 5 days, and the concert band would take anywhere from 5-10 day tour som... | 14 | 34 |
I have a professor who thinks political philosophers and moral philosophers are necessarily not analytic philosophers. Is this an idea people generally entertain or is she just insane? | I argued about this with her at the end of class for about ten minutes. I brought up that political philosophers like Nozick and Rawls as well as moral philosophers like Singer identify as analytics and are in analytic departments but she didn't accept my answer, claiming that moral/political philosophy is just not ana... | Some people use the term "analytic philosophy" to refer to a short historical movement headed by Russell and Moore (amongst others). If that's what she has in mind it half makes sense, provided you're willing to ignore Moore's *Principia Ethica*.
There's gotta be something that she has in mind. | 14 | 17 |
ELI5: How do some people with Dissociative Identity Disorder exhibit abilities while in some personas that there real self can't do? | I was reading about the case of Billy Milligan, who had Dissociative Identity Disorder and had 24 documented personalities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Milligan#Personalities
One of these personalities could write and speak in Serbian and was extraordinarily strong. The page doesn't say that Billy, in his norm... | As for how, the general consensus is that he learned at least some of the language somewhere, and that it took off from there. There are multiple cases dealing with brain injuries that deal with complete changes in personality and sometimes complete changes in language, so an alter ( alternative personality) knowing a ... | 43 | 116 |
ELI5: how is it possible people can create things like working internet and computers in unmodded Minecraft? Also, since they can make computers, is there any limit to what they can create in Minecraft? | Minecraft provides the fundamental elements required to build a computer: circuits (wires), logic gates, memory and a clock, as well as mechanisms for input (programming) and output. With these basic building blocks you can theoretically simulate a functioning computer, though there are practical limits to how easy it ... | 5,389 | 10,792 | |
ELi5: How does smoking cause cancer? | Chemicals in tobacco cause damage to the DNA in cells in the body. These cells then divide into other cells with a higher number of mutations then they would have without the damage. The higher the number of mutations the greater the risk that one of those mutations will cause the cell to become cancerous.
Every time... | 12 | 27 | |
ELI5:Why isn't the remote finder feature common on TVs? | When you turn on the TV manually, a sound comes from the remote until you press a button. Why isn't this feature on all smart tvs? | Most TVs use IR (infrared), which require line of sight to the TV - (the remote sends a series of invisible 'blinks', like morse code).
The TV doesn't have a way to send a blink out, and even if it could, the remote is probably lodged inside a couch saying "screw you hippy i'm taking a nap, come and find me, suckah"... | 36 | 57 |
Can erbium be used to stop a nuclear reaction? | I saw on periodicvideos that erbium is a nuclear poison. It was described as killing any nuclear fission dead. If that is true, at what scale can it do this. Is it possible to produce a sort of safety kill switch for nuclear reactors? Or is the amount of erbium required just too massive? Or is there a reaction that mak... | The particular situations you're referring to (fission reactors or weapons) rely on chain reactions involving neutron-induced fission. Neutron-induced fission reactions often release more neutrons, which can further cause more fission, and so on.
If you are able to remove neutrons from the system, for example by absor... | 11 | 16 |
The physics behind breaking boards in karate | I was just curious and decided to work up a simple physical model of breaking boards, so I was hoping you guys could verify this idea:
**Motivation:** As with many other martial artists, I've broken my share of boards in my day. I've found that if you hit a board and it doesn't break, it hurts like an SOB. But if yo... | The conclusion is qualitatively correct, but you should analyze collisions from a momentum point of view instead of an energy point of view. The reason is that energy needs to take into account the sound, heat, deformation, etc. that are generated from the collision. Momentum is just straight up conserved.
Your fist ... | 10 | 21 |
Published philosophy papers less than ten pages that most first year college students would be able to pick up and read? | After years of despairing at the quality of papers in my intro course, I'm realizing that we don't read a whole lot of good models of philosophical reasoning. So I was thinking of basing a course around short, self-contained, well-reasoned papers that a) make explicit distinctions, b) consider counter-arguments, c) req... | Gettier's "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? ". It's incredibly short and concise given the kefufle it raised.
Edit: Nagel's "What is it Like to be a Bat?"
Historical Answer: Descartes's Meditations | 16 | 48 |
ELI5: Why only humans need to cook food to eat it? | Cooking food can be thought of as the first stage of our digestive system. Cooking breaks down the food, and allows our digestive tract to more effectively use the energy and nutrients...
In fact it's thought that the discovery of cooking (and resulting huge leap in energy intake for relatively little output) was the ... | 56 | 90 | |
ELI5: Why does the game of Chess seem so prone to having incredibly young prodigies who can beat masters who have been playing for decades? | It seems like there have been numerous individuals who were recognized as savants at Chess at a young age, and were able to take down some of the greatest players in the world. What about Chess makes it possible where a young child could naturally see the best move possible, when going against the world's best? | They study the technique of the master that they're going to be competing against, and learn how to counter that one guys strategies. The chess master, on the other hand, has no idea who this kid is and so they will not be prepared for whatever moves they decide to make.
Also, strategy designed specifically to beat a... | 582 | 667 |
If our tears are salty, why does salt water sting our eyes? | I've always been curious as to why my eyes burn underwater in the ocean but my tears always taste salty. | Great question! Let's consider any differences in those two types of saltwater. Now aside from microorganisms and other nutrients and minerals present in seawater the main difference is that the oceans are saltier than our tears. That is not to say our tears are not salty- medical fluids such as IV drips or contact sol... | 64 | 99 |
ELI5: Vehicle mpg as it relates to speed | An argument broke out at work today . A co-worker pondered if you have to go 100 miles why not go 100 mph as opposed to going 50mph . He figured you'd get there twice as fast and since the engine is running half the time you'd use the same amount of fuel. He surmised that because of the gearing in a transmission you'd ... | RPMs of the engine are taken into account, as well as air resistance. Air resistance doesn't increase evenly. Going 100mph is much more than twice as hard as going 50mph, from an energy standpoint.
Gently going 50mph in your highest (most efficient) gear for 100 miles will save you a LOT of fuel over going 100 miles ... | 92 | 161 |
CMV: I like the idea of Universal Basic Income, but I do not believe that it would be sustainable. | A friend of mine recently showed me [BasicIncome](https://www.reddit.com/r/basicincome), and I find it intriguing. The benefits look great if a UBI system could replace Welfare and Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare, but I do not believe that this system could ever exist because the US Federal Budget is not large enough. On R... | Let me present a case study of four people, then a social level explanation.
The first of these people is unemployable in the mid 21st century. They have a slight speech impediment that makes them unsuitable compared to other applicants in their field. In our time, they might make hamburgers at a McDonalds, but in the... | 17 | 20 |
CMV: Workers should not be pressured to go back to the office after “vax” and mask mandates are lifted. Remote jobs are the future. | Indeed, we were all rushed into the pandemic’s side effects. Personally, I almost didn’t notice how much had changed because as an artist, I spent most of my time working in isolation without any interactions unless prompted to by a colleague to collaborate or speak at a talk. But for most people who are active employe... | I mean, in law, for example, it’s pretty useful to have people able to easily talk to each other.
That doesn’t mean everyone needs to be in every day, but it’s not sensible to have people going to court without having come to the office to meet the client and talk about the case.
Moreover, in law, like in a lot of fi... | 338 | 1,709 |
How do scientists determine what a planet core is made of ? | There are no direct methods, but there are several indirect methods that we can use. First off, it depends on the kind of planet you are studying.
Let’s start with gas giants like Jupiter. Our first step would be to look at the moons circling it, from their orbits we can get a really good guess at what the overall mas... | 14 | 17 | |
ELI5: Quantum physics experiments suggest that reality doesn't exist until it is measured or observed. What the heck? | Observed does not mean by a sentient being. Observed simply means interaction in this context.
Here's an analogy:
Say you're measuring the temperature of water with a thermometer that starts off with a temperature, say 20C, and the water you're measuring has a temperature of 50C.
If you're measuring a pool, it doesn... | 15 | 25 | |
why arent non normal distributions emphasized more in studies? | i dont work in science, mostly economics and business data - i have almost never seen NON right skewed distributions. i mean, everything in the business space seems to start at 0 with big outliers. does that mean we are always supposed to use nonparametric methods or something? its just crazy how ubiquitous normal dist... | A large number of hypothesis tests do not require normally distributed **data**- they require approximately normally distributed **sampling distributions**, or **residuals**, or **conditional distributions** of some sort. For example, in a paired t test the data does not have to be normally distributed, it is the diffe... | 42 | 32 |
Why is the quantization of gravity so hard to prove? If mass if quantized, why does it not follow that gravity is also quantized? | >If mass if quantized, why does it not follow that gravity is also quantized?
Mass isn't quantized. There is no reason, a priori, why a particle cannot have any value for its mass. Indeed, in the Standard Model, the masses of the fermions are parameters that must be fixed according to experiment.
Also, energy is... | 22 | 17 | |
ELI5: why are train tracks filled with stones? | Isn't that extremely dangerous if one of the stones gets on the track?
#Answer below
##Do trains get derailed by a stone or a coin on the track?
No, trains do net get derailed by stones on the tracks. That's mostly because trains are fucking heavy and move with such power that stones, coins, etc just get crushed!
##... | Those stones (called track ballast) serve four primary purposes:
- Load-bearing (it distributes and bears the weight of the railroad ties)
- Facilitation of water drainage away from the ties
- Keeps out vegetation that could interfere with the structure of the track
- Helps keep the ties in place | 4,877 | 4,858 |
ELI5 how do arm prosthetics work especially when you have almost your whole arm gone? | Sensors are placed to pick up signals both electronically and physically from remaining muscle structures left around the stump
These are used to actuate the various artificial muscles of the prosthetic either through mechanical action or electronic/pneumatic actuators | 14 | 21 | |
ELI5: how a double-blind study works, and why it is considered so reliable | Double-blind studies are usually used in medicine. They are to control for the placebo effect.
Let's say you have a new drug and you want to test how well it treats a disease. So, you get a whole bunch of patients with that disease. You give half of them the new drug and half of them a sugar pill (you could also give ... | 38 | 53 | |
CMV: Palestinian refugees are held to different legal standards than all other refugees, and this is blatantly unjustified and unjust. | All refugees are held to different standards based on where they are from and what country they are attempting to flee to. Despite the UNs efforts there is no uniform way of handling refugees, nor should there be. No nation is required to accept refugees and they are fully entitled to set whatever rules they want for r... | 23 | 125 | |
How Does A Towel Gaining/Losing Water Function On A Atomic Level | I was thinking about this early, but couldn't think of a reason that satiated me. My basic hypothesis was that, the towel functions like a net and "catches" the water and the water "escapes" when it evaporates into a gas.
I don't feel quite satisfied with this answer though and would like a tad more elaboration/corr... | Atomic level is too small, you need to look at molecular or even the micro scale for that phenomena.
A towel is designed so that it has a relatively porous structure with a lot of surface area and interconnected pathways. These porous channels allow for water to be wicked away from your skin and travel into the cloth... | 52 | 105 |
ELI5: Why do we continue using the existing credit card technology over all these years despite them being so prone to digital theft and insecure? | Some say that chip based cards offer improved security, but finally everything ends to the 16 digit number, the 3or4 digit CVV number and the expiry date. And as we have seen in the case of wikileaks, the limited number of companies like Visa, MasterCard that control payments can also force a financial blockade. So why... | 1. From a consumer perspective, credit cards are way more secure than cash. If someone steals your credit card (or credit card data), in the US, you are liable for at most $50 in charges, and all of the major credit card companies will even cover that for you. So sure, it's insecure from a technical perspective. But as... | 40 | 153 |
AskScience AMA Series: I'm Patrick Long, M.D. and I am a geneticist with a specific interest in the adult genetics field. I just started an adult genetics clinic, SequenceMD, to address the needs of this widely underserved population. AMA! | Hi Reddit! SequenceMD team here: we are Dr. Patrick Long and genetic counselor, Alisha. We're here to answer any questions you may have about medical genetics or... anything!
We'll start by answering our own question: why adult genetics? Genetic testing is a routine part of the diagnostic workup for many childhood ons... | One of the major challenges in this field is patient confidentiality, and how genetic information from one family member necessarily gives information about others. For example, a child testing positive for trinucleotide repeats in Huntingdon's disease means that the parent will have it, even if they're not symptomati... | 83 | 1,270 |
ELI5: How are people with dementia able to have "good days" when they remember people or events that they wouldn't normally recall? |
Your brain is always getting information from the environment around you: what you hear people say, the color of the walls, what you see people do, the feeling of your clothes against your skin, what cards you have in your hand when playing a card game, and so on. Not all of that information is important. When you'... | 63 | 122 | |
ELI5: What makes mathematics factual? | The ELI5 answer is that math is more or less like a game. Mathematics is carried out by a predefined set of rules on a predefined set of objects. Because the game never changes, the allowable moves never change, and so the possible outcomes never change. Any situation in which the rules of the game are allowed is there... | 36 | 27 | |
[WH40k] What does the recruiting process for the space marine chapters entail? | What qualities do they look for? Who does the recruiting? Do the various chapters look for different things? | It varies by the chapter but in general they're all looking for strong young men who already represent the very best their people have to offer. A lot of chapters make their home on worlds where life is not easy. Environmental hardship, frequent warfare, it doesn't matter as long as there's a natural selection going on... | 35 | 26 |
Why are water molecules curved? | Why don't the charges of the hydrogen repel each other and hold the molecule in a straight line? | The geometry of a water molecule is determined by the outermost electrons around the oxygen. You have two electrons in each of the bonds between oxygen and water, but you also have two pairs of electrons that oxygen holds onto all on its own. If we just had the two electron groups from the bonds you would be right, the... | 243 | 259 |
ELI5: What does it mean that the Carbon in our atmosphere has passed the point of no return? | In this newly released article it states Earth is passed the point of no return and we're all fucked basically. Are we really that screwed over and is there really no way to reverse such a fuck up?
EDIT: http://www.complex.com/life/2016/09/enjoy-earth-while-it-lasts-atmospheric-carbon-levels-pass-point-no-return | Scientists anticipate that there are certain feedback loops, which mean the warmer it gets, the easier it is to get warmer.
Imagine sitting in a waggon with rusty wheels. The wheels are so locked up that even though you are on a slight decline you aren't moving. You add a few books to the wagon for more weight and no... | 61 | 56 |
Why can't we see well underwater? What is different about the eyes of aquatic animals? | The key difference is in the lens of the eye that handles focusing the image onto the retina. When focusing, the "work" is done as light transitions from one material to another, as the index of refraction changes, which causes the light to bend.
Outside the water, this is (roughly) air -> lens -> vitreous humo... | 91 | 235 | |
How does Quantum Entanglement work? | How do the particles that are entangled manage to always do the opposite of the second one? Are they communicating with each other if so how? Otherwise is it some kind of force? | There is no known mechanism by which the particles "send a message" to one another. The phenomenon is the result of creating a system of two or more particles whose wavefunctions depend upon one another. By measuring an aspect of one particle, its wavefunction is collapsed to known value, which causes the other particl... | 1,819 | 3,055 |
Advice for PhD student asked to "modify data" by adviser | My friend is a STEM PhD student, whose adviser asked him to modify data for a publication. Note that this version of the paper has not yet been submitted to a journal. The student was asked by the adviser to modify data in a couple ways.
First, is scaling raw data by multiple orders of magnitude, and then presenting t... | From an outside perspective, that sounds really sketchy--but it might be worth trying the get in contact with someone who works in a very closely-related field (perhaps someone else in the department?) just to ask if the proposed alterations are common practice. Obviously fraudulent data of any kind is a huge problem, ... | 68 | 70 |
CMV: Younger generations have it harder than their parents |
At least when it comes to making their way in the world. A few decades ago, it was possible to live a fairly comfortable lifestyle on a single income. My Dad had classmates who started working at the mill out of high school, and while they worked darned hard, they made a decent income.
Today, it's all but impossibl... | A lot of what you are saying is correct in terms of finding jobs and education and paying for it.
However, your parents and grandparents had no support system to cope with bullying and mental health issues. They were far less healthy and had to breathe cigarette smoke constantly. They could do little if they experien... | 39 | 33 |
Why do legumes (mainly thinking about peanuts and soybeans) seem to be more allergenic than other foods? | Partly due to protein content - generally, proteins are more likely to cause allergy than other compounds.
This combines with a genetic component which suggests that individuals with certain allergies are more likely to have children with those allergies, so common allergies remain common because of genetic predispos... | 208 | 377 | |
How can certain bacteria and viruses be deadly to one species but completely harmless to another? | Edit: Wow. Thank you all for the great answers! | You could potentially get many answers to this question! One example is if the pathogen's surface proteins recognizing specific cellular receptors that exist on one species but not the other. If they cannot recognize and attach to the cell, they are not infectious. Another variation is the immunity of the species and w... | 973 | 3,070 |
ELI5: How does "weed and feed" know the difference between the grass it should feed and the weeds it should kill? | Different organisms have different physiologies. Same way chocolate is fine for human consumption, but will kill dogs. Monocots like grasses have different cellular components than dicots like dandelions and other types of weeds and herbicides can be designed to differentiate them. | 40 | 46 | |
Why don't greenhouse gases reflect just as much incoming sunlight as they trap? | The common explanation of greenhouse gases is that sunlight that would bounce off the Earth out into space instead bounces off the greenhouse gas, trapping that heat on Earth.
But if greenhouse gases simply reflect solar radiation, wouldn't they also reflect from the "outside", too, thus preventing solar radiation fr... | Greenhouse gasses, like the glass of their namesake, are transparent to most of the visible light spectrum, but more absorbent of infrared light (ie heat radiation).
When visible light passes through the atmosphere and hits the earth, it warms up the earth, which then re-radiates that energy to space as infrared.
S... | 48 | 26 |
An article is coming out that might make my thesis obsolete. I don't know what to do. | **[UPDATE HERE]**(https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia/comments/hmagml/update_an_article_is_coming_out_that_might_make/?)
My advisor is currently unreachable, so I'm asking you guys here.
I'm currently working on my master's thesis which is a systematic review. Today I happened to search the systematic review protoco... | Congratulations! You have just shown that you can generate scholarly questions that other people find interesting. Empirical evidence that at least 1 person is interested in your thesis work, more than many people can unequivocally say.
Take the next hour to freak out about it, it still sucks because you feel like ... | 131 | 59 |
Can anyone give examples of economic systems that are very different to what we are used to? | I was reading [Legal Systems Very Different From Ours](http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Course_Pages/legal_systems_very_different_12/LegalSystemsDraft.html) and it was interesting to see systems that are cohesive and worked in ways that I'm not used to. I guess I'm just looking for more of the same in different f... | I would recommend reading "The Gift" by Mauss. The gift exchange system described in this book is not an economic system in the usual sense, since only a small portion of all the consumption goods are exchanged in this way, but is a very interesting market.
It's rather difficult to summarize, but some hallmarks of the... | 43 | 93 |
Reviewing a bad book (Humanities) | Has anyone got any pointers for writing a bad book review?
My honest opinion on the book I've got to review is that the research is dated, poorly argued, misses several key areas and is full of theoretical flaws (anachronisms, misundertanding of manuscript traditions, use of old transations etc). The book is also ext... | Are you doing this review for the publisher, reviewing a manuscript that might get published, or are you reviewing (in an article to be published in a journal) a book that has already been published?
If it's the former, then have at it. The publisher needs to know whether or not to publish, and your responses can help... | 15 | 27 |
ELI5: How come people around the world all use the same math, but we all speak different languages? | If you think about it, math is the language that helps humans understand the universe. Different aspects of math originated from different places around the globe. How come math has been able to stay globally consistent, but spoken languages are all different depending on where you live?
I hope my question makes sens... | Math is way more universal than language. You can change words and their definitions, but you can't change logic.
Although the old Babylonians split numbers in steps of 12 rather than 10.
Most peoples split them into steps of 10 because that's how many fingers we have. | 333 | 290 |
What bonds my atoms to my body? Why don't they merge with this chair I'm sitting on? | Atoms in molecules bond because they want to achieve a lower energy state. Most of chemistry is the study of why exactly atoms bond and for molecules they way that they do. So, the really simplistic answer is that the molecules in your cells are more attracted to each other than they are to other objects. Solid objects... | 12 | 32 | |
[Classic Doctor Who] was the TARDIS ever depicted as actually flying the way it sometimes is in modern Doctor Who? | I'm well-versed in the modern episodes, but have only seen a handful of the classics. In the current series the TARDIS is always described as disappearing one place and appearing somewhere else instantaneously, but we randomly have images of it actually flying in spacing or flying through the time vortex. Was it ever... | A few factors in play.
Timeframe perspective - When the TARDIS appears to vanish or appear from nowhere it's actually the TARDIS translating to/from the Time vortex. The view you see is locked to your (the camera's) timeframe, which the TARDIS is entering or leaving.
Being 'part of events' - When we see the TARDIS '... | 31 | 76 |
What do living organisms do to prevent bacteria from decomposing them that dead organisms are unable to do? | Basically why does decomposition begin after death? | Our bodies form many barriers that stop bacteria from entering our tissues. Even though we have bacteria on our skin, in our gut and many other places, we have very specialized cells lining these areas. They defend our bodies by numerous mechanisms: secretions that capture bacteria, cilia that push bacteria away from s... | 20 | 25 |
ELI5: Wheels, wagons, and chariots were invented thousands of years ago. Why, then, did it take all the way until the 1800s for the bicycle to make its debut? | Materials, manufacturing techniques, and road conditions.
We had to reach a point where metallurgy and materials made a bicycle beneficial. You can make a bike out of wood and metal, but its gonna be extremely heavy, prone to breaking, and difficult to ride. Without extremely smooth solid roads you would be slamming a... | 43 | 27 | |
How clearly can we see objects in other galaxies? | I have always been curious as to just what kind of details we can see, and what can only be theorized. For instance, we can count how many moons Saturn has, but can we tell the same for a planet in another solar system? To my understanding it would really come down to just how much light is being reflected from these p... | Our telescope resolution is what limits us to see detail on objects in other galaxies. An object can be incredibly bright, but unless the optics you're using have the proper resolving power, it will look like a big bright blur.
Telescopes have specific resolution that depend on their size and ability to see beyond th... | 10 | 16 |
CMV I believe affirmative action should be based on wealth not race | I do not believe race to be a dominating factor if someone needs additional help and support that affirmative action brings. In fact I believe it promotes racism and damages race relations.
However I do believe that coming from a poor family gives you a distinct disadvantage in life compared to being from a rich fami... | If you consider universities, the most common users of affirmative action, the problem with your view is that in conflates two disadvantages: access and acceptance. Consider two comparisons:
A middle class white student and a middle class black student apply to the same university with the same CV. Absent affirmative ... | 31 | 201 |
If the liver can regrow from a piece in 30 days, then why isn't liver scarring treated by removing a bit and letting it regrow? | Liver is an organ that is known for its regenerative ability and therefore able to take a lot of abuse before it's scarred beyond repair.
One of the reasons that your suggestion isn't a standard treatment is that liver is highly vascularized organ and even a small nick can cause severe bleeding. Also, liver scarring ... | 130 | 240 | |
ELI5: Why are there typical breakfast foods and dinner foods? Is there a biological reason where we want certain nutrients at different points in the day or is it just a social construct? | Imagine you are are a preindustrial farmer. You get up before dawn, toil in the field all day, then go back home when it gets dark.
For breakfast, you want something hot that will give you a lot of energy, but can be prepared quickly.
For lunch, you want a cold meal you can take with you and eat when you get hungry... | 46 | 38 | |
ELI5: How do some stereo sounds sound like they are coming from both sides rather than the middle? | Example: when listening to music on headphones, the vocal is usually in the center, inside your head, whereas instruments sound like they're outside your head on both sides, even though the volume is the same in both channels. | So the way our brains interpret the direction a sound is coming from is to listen for differences in the sounds reaching each ear. So when stereo speakers (placed at an equal distance) are playing the EXACT same sound, our brain interprets that as coming from directly in front of us.
When an audio engineer is mixing m... | 28 | 16 |
ELI5: What's with (what seems like) the sudden increase of gluten free foods, restaurants, diets, etc.? | Is there really an increase of people with Celiac Disease? Or are there benefits to being gluten free? | There are a few people with Celiac Disease, for whom a gluten-free diet is medically necessary. Beyond that, it's just a fad. Companies advertise products as gluten-free (gluten-free water!, gluten-free tupperware!) in order to make money. It's of no benefit if you don't have the disease. | 27 | 21 |
ELI5 Top-level government direct exchange is often said to proceed via a 'secure line' - how is such a line secured? | It varies of course but usually it involves something like end to end military grade encryption and only moving the call over infrastructure which is difficult for a listener to compromise, such as military communications satellites or secret fiber optics cables. There is no such thing as communication that is impossib... | 13 | 16 | |
If natural fruit juices contain large amounts of sugar, why do we only seem to refine sugars from a select few plants (sugarcane, sugar beets) instead of from fruits in general? | I understand that there's differences in the sugar composition (sucrose as a disaccharide vs glucose/fructose as monosaccharides, and that fruits contain more fructose), but I don't understand why "alternative" sugars like HFCS seem to be a relatively new thing, and limited to basically just corn so far as I'm aware.
... | Cost and consistency. You know exactly what compounds need to be removed from beets or cane every time to produce the same sugar. Strawberries or apples will not yield the same product through the same process (flavours, non-sugar compounds, inconsistent seeds/pulp), and both have (IIRC) lower - and more inconsistent -... | 83 | 200 |
Is there a language-agnostic way to learn how to write multi-threaded programs? | Is there a language-agnostic way to learn how to write multi-threaded programs?
That is, without consulting each language, library etc. separately? | Not really, but there are only a few different ways to do concurrency, so a lot of your knowledge transfers:
- The threads/locks/semaphores model.
- The actor model.
- Promises/futures/tasks model. | 18 | 18 |
ELIF: What is the difference between Sunni's and Shiites | Sunni and Shia are two denominations of Islam. They split up from each other a long time ago because they disagreed on who should lead Islam when the founder, Muhammad, died. Because of this they have different religious leaders, writings, and philosophies. | 42 | 50 | |
ELI5: Why does stress tend to decrease performance at complex tasks? | I speed solve Rubik's cubes as a hobby, and I've noticed that my solve times are consistently worse when I'm feeling anxious about my performance than when I'm relaxed and in the moment. However, I've heard stress and anxiety described as a response by the nervous system meant to heighten an organism's performance in h... | The stress response evolved to improve our performance at a very specific set of tasks: fighting or running for our lives. So things like energy, blood flow, and stuff like that improve. But some things also get worse at the same time: notably for your example, rational thinking and fine motor skills.
It's possible, ... | 41 | 51 |
CMV: The upcoming presidential debates should have questions that measure cognitive capability and knowledge of the US government as well as the world economy/geography. | During the debates they should ask both candidates things like "What is the current federal debt" as well as a geography section where they are given a list of countries to point to (specifically countries with US military installations/deployments)
Even some SAT level math questions or reading comprehension/LSAT logi... | A few counterpoints for you to consider:
1) The candidates' ability to articulate their stances on the issues, reasons for those stances, and intelligently address counterpoints already gives you evidence on their cognitive abilities,
2) Biden and Trump have very different approaches to governance, which impacts how ... | 170 | 771 |
Why do tightrope walkers carry a long beam? | In addition to what has been said before, the beam significantly increases the walkers rotational inertia around the rope axis. So the same small imbalance in center of mass causes much less acceleration with the beam in hand. The walker has to react much less quickly to correct his position. | 16 | 19 | |
ELI5: What is the difference between Chaos Theory and The Butterfly Effect? | I thought I knew what The Butterfly Effect was, then someone (well, Life is Strange did) explained Chaos Theory, and they sound like pretty much the same thing? What is the difference? | Chaos Theory describes the circumstances in which something like the Butterfly Effect can take place. Chaos Theory is (among other things) a set of highly sensitive conditions which allow the Butterfly Effect (the precipitating dramatic effect of a small change on a sensitive system) to occur.
Chaos Theory is the lin... | 87 | 77 |
[General] Why do high tier civilization eventually regress? | So something I've always wondered is why do some stories for example in Man of Steel and many others where highly advance civilization with the ability to do things like bend space, terraform or even harvest stars for energy.
Why would they all of sudden decide to regress into an era where things are stagnant where r... | Advancement is to achieve a period of time where work is no longer necessary, and the civilisation can pursue their true dreams (be it expansion, leasure, culture, etc).
Take the Eldar of 40K, they began to basically explore every sin to find the greatest pleasure imaginable. They forgot to keep pushing themselves an... | 25 | 19 |
ELI5: Have relationships between organisms that had been established before molecular biology been confirmed with genetics? | If I’m not mistaken, a lot of the relationships between different organisms (tree of life) were first established in the 19th century and were done so by looking at similarities in form and function and is the basis for scientific names. Since the development of genetic analysis, has there been an effort to go back and... | Yes. Modern taxonomy is mostly based on molecular biology and genetic similarity, not form and function, and has indeed revealed that many of the original groups weren't descendants of common ancestors after all. Of course, form isn't a *complete* coincidence, so a lot of this took the form of small adjustments moreso ... | 20 | 34 |
What new philosophical ideas have emerged in the last 50 years? | Amidst the noise of the internet, social media, technology, it's easy to think we live in unprecedented times. And of course we do, but I'm wondering if there are any breakthroughs in the realm of ideas... along the lines of say Descartes or Kant?
Of course philosophy has splintered into a multitude of disciplines sin... | Kripke is probably the living philosopher who is closest to "Kant" status, Naming and Necessity was revolutionary, his reading of Wittgenstein reinvigorated the field and so on. David Lewis is also up there, his modal realism and counterpart theory has left an indelible mark on the field. The two of them dominate any d... | 26 | 47 |
ELI5: How does Googles new AI work? | It is called machine learning and is quite complex.
What it boils down to is that you break a problem into discreet parts, or steps.
You show the machine all the different steps it can do. Then you tell the machine what the desired "win" condition is.
It goes and compares all the different steps and series of steps ... | 63 | 178 | |
I don't think its a good idea to treat illnesses that are genetic because we are increasing their rate in the human population CMV | By treating people with heart problems are we not just allowing them to make more babies who will then have heart problems? I realize that as a doctor it is your obligation to treat the patient and it would be absolutely unacceptable to let them die on this premise, but in this situation it seems like the human populat... | If we can (relatively) cheaply manage or cure a genetic disorder in a person, how can we deny them the chance at a better life (or even life, period) on the basis that their future descendants will suffer from the same affliction, which by all estimates will be as easy or easier to cure by the time they are born. And w... | 45 | 80 |
ELI5: How did the Vikings and other seafarers of yore manage to sail to specific locations (ports, beaches) when the compasses they had only indicated direction? | Compasses can indicate direction but not really the specific paths they would have to take to reach specific ports or beaches. So although those sailors would have known that they're going, say, a direction like SSW, how could they know that they're on the right path to hit the port or beach they wanted to get to? If t... | Most "seafarers of yore" overwhelmingly tried to keep within sight of a coastline whenever they could. In situations where this wasn't possible, they referred to the stars, ocean currents, and (when available) compasses. Vikings were pretty good at this, Polynesians were *great*.
It is hard to overstate just how impor... | 33 | 29 |
[Star Wars] Why is technology so advanced, yet so seemingly outdated? | Unequal distribution of technology and resources. Xenophobia and limitations due to biological differences in adapting technology. Prolonged periods of technological regression from war and calamities. | 62 | 59 | |
How can a radiating body be in equilibrium with its environment? | The [Black Body Radiation article on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation) says:
"Black-body radiation is the thermal electromagnetic **radiation** within or surrounding a body in **thermodynamic equilibrium** with its environment, emitted by a black body (an idealized opaque, non-reflectiv... | There’s two questions: How can a radiating body be in equilibrium, and how can we use a temperature to describe systems which clearly aren’t in thermal equilibrium.
1. If you imagine a body that’s in thermal contact with another, but no heat can conduct or convect between them, for the two bodies to be in thermal equi... | 30 | 72 |
CMV: Recycling should be easier. | With the current recycling there are 6 types of recycling: Glass recycling, paper recycling, metal recycling, plastic and textile recycling and finally electronic recycling. With each having its own sub categories: most noteably plastic: with 7 sub types of plastic.
With there being at least 13 types of recycling, th... | It's not that you "make it less complex" you rather decide where you're going to handle the complexity. For example do you handle it at the individual level where you teach people through idk PSA or other public campaigns how to recycle stuff or do you force companies or government agencies to provide centralized facil... | 15 | 60 |
Why is water tasteless? | Sometimes you can taste the minerals in it, but in general it is tasteless. Why is this? Is it really tasteless, or have humans over thousands of years adapted to its real taste? | Water / H2O is an integral part in cells and is therefore always present around the proteins on the surface of olfactory / "smell detecting" cells. Such a system would nearly always fire and apparently a system which could offset this by detecting the *change* of water-smelling over time hasn't evolved anywhere. | 38 | 35 |
Economists: Is wealth a finite resource? | I have no training in economics outside of Micro/Macro 100 level classes I took 15 years ago. But I've been pondering this for a while and I'm sure there is an answer (or two).
Here's what I'm thinking, tell me where I'm wrong:
* money is essentially a representation of work.
* There are a finite amount of people... | Well, let's start with the easy stuff.
1. In 1800, everyone was poor.
2. Now, in 2012, about a billion people are extremely rich, five billion are in economies that are growing, and one billion are still around 1800 levels.
Clearly, something happened. If wealth were strictly finite, then there's no way we could have... | 20 | 17 |
CMV: Not everyone could/should go to university | There’s a big movement, especially among more left leaning liberals that higher education should be free and/or is a right. While it’s not doubt true that Education is an incredible tool for social mobility (and what I believe is the key for POC to rise up in this country), it is not feasible for everyone to go to univ... | Regarding the first point, there's a pretty important distinction between "higher education should be free", and "higher education is a right". Namely, the first doesn't necessarily entail trying to get *everyone* in.
Universities still have a limited number of spots. You can only cram so many people into a lecture ha... | 19 | 63 |
What's more effective at reflecting heat, a sheet of aluminum that is polished or a sheet of aluminum painted white? | I've been wondering if something that was polished to a mirror finish was better at not absorbing heat through light than something painted with pure white paint. Any responses are appreciated! | It very likely depends on the details of your paint and of the light that you want to reflect. Something you see as "white" is going to be broadly reflective of all visible wavelengths, but it may absorb some of the IR or UV spectrum. If the incoming light has significant intensities of those non-visible wavelengths in... | 14 | 19 |
[DC/Marvel] What is Magic exactly in each universe, and who are its top users? | Is it divine (Gods and stuff), is it some sort of natural energy, is it something beyond comprehension?
Who are the big names in each universe who use magic, what type of magic do they use? Can anyone use magic in these universes or is it a natural-born gift? | Magic in the Marvel multiverse is a discrete type of energy. It's the energy that is generated by the will of sentient creatures, and is empowered to alter the fabric of reality.
Magic in and of itself is natural, as in it is a regular and normal part of the structure of the multiverse. There are lots of subtypes and ... | 37 | 37 |
ELI5: How does my body know if my vision is in focus or not? What tells my eyes to adjust? | Your brain knows from experience what things should look like and what things look like when they're out of focus. When you see something that your brain thinks looks out of focus, it controls muscles in your eye to change the shape of the lens on the front of your eye until they appear correctly.
This is why when ... | 13 | 15 |
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