id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
8271g5 | atomic superposition. | [
{
"answer": "I'm presuming this is to do with the Pauli Exclusion principle but I might be misunderstanding your question.\n\nBasically the Pauli Exclusion principle states that electrons (and all other matter) can't have the same state in a system (like an atom). Electrons also have specific wavelengths where ... | null |
v8gtv | Where does adaptation end, and evolution begin? | [
{
"answer": "Adaptations are driven by evolutionary pressures. Without the genetic possibility of developing calluses, it's not going to happen. No matter how much time I spend in water, I'm not going to develop gills. [Lamarkian inheritance](_URL_1_) is generally disproven. \n\nThere are traits that are pas... | null |
1192mq | If you become Paraplegic, would it make sense to amputate the limbs you have no feeling? | [
{
"answer": "Why would you do that? Besides the risk of surgery, what if a repair treatment or assistive device is developed why would enable use of those limbs?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6981448",
"title": "Extended physio... | null |
n3h01 | What would happen if the Earth's rotation was slowed by 1% due an unknown phenomenon? | [
{
"answer": "The day would be 14.4 minutes longer. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So, lets talk about ways that this can happen. In order to change earths rotation speed, you have to do something to the system. \n\nOne possibility is changing the geometry of earth such that the [moment of in... | null |
x4wkk | Books on Jewish American history | [
{
"answer": "One book that helped my immensely during my undergrad and beyond was [The Jew in the Modern World](_URL_0_) by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz. I'm not too sure what type of book you are looking for but this is a fantastic documentary history. It's a collection of primary sources organized by... | null |
2mioky | would two consenting minors having sex be considered rape? | [
{
"answer": "Rules vary by state and country. For example: In 2006, the Canadian government passed a bill to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, while creating a close-in-age exemption for sex between 14-15 year olds and partners up to 5 years older, and keeping an existing close-in-age clause for sex betw... | null |
10vowt | Does such a thing as a 3-D or Cubic matrix exist? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, they're called Rank-3 tensors. An example is the [Levi-Civita tensor](_URL_0_). The highest-rank tensor I've seen is 6 dimensions, in a lecture about complex fluid dynamics.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "8094016",
... | null |
625aca | How did San Francisco get the reputation as America's "gayest" city? | [
{
"answer": "Some helpful geographical context for your question.\n\nWhile the SF Bay Area is a massive metropolis, San Francisco never absorbed the surrounding areas in the way that New York City and Los Angeles did. (Metropolitan consolidation failed in 1912 after Oakland's voters, across the Bay, axed an an... | null |
9ujalh | why do musicians make those awkward facial expressions when they really get into the music? | [
{
"answer": "I can't give much of a technical answer, but as an amateur musician I can say that certain passages/verses have a feel to it. Kind of like how scary movies elicit a frightened expression out of a person, or how those oddly satisfying videos draw out a blissful expression, the same goes for music. T... | null |
32zmww | how does a major motion picture (such as batman vs. superman) have enough footage for an "epic" trailer, but have nearly a year left before release? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how the were shot and what the editing process is\nIn modern films it takes almost as long to edit and add the CGI as it does to shoot the film so somebody would storyboard the trailer and they would finish the footage needed for this first\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
d32svb | how do companies like apple and qualcomm continue to produce faster and more powerful chips year after year? are engineers still making new discoveries in the industry or have we had this technology all along and are controlling the rate at which our technology improves? | [
{
"answer": "The engineers aren't making breakthroughs, we do have the technology. However, they aren't exactly controlling the rate which our technology improves.\n\nUltimately it comes down to costs. Apple could build a beast of a phone right now but it would cost 10,000 so no one would want to buy it. So, th... | null |
s246p | My parents have always put batteries in the fridge, is there any scientific data that says they'll stay longer while in the fridge? | [
{
"answer": "The reaction rate that causes the loss of charge will be slowed at lower temperature, but not by very much.\n\n\\(_URL_0_]",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Zn-C batts keep better at lower temps, but: \"Alkaline cells have long shelf storage life. After one year of storage at room te... | null |
9gff9b | why aren’t languages becoming more like each other? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. In fact TV is doing away with various local dialects, especially in England. \n\nAlso England used to say “zed” for z but the prevalence of American kid tv shows has them simply saying “z” more often. \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That is not how languages work... | null |
3mr15n | how is nasa 100% sure microbes aren't attached to the rovers and similar probes? when 99.99% sure means we're possibly spreading our alien microbes to other worlds. | [
{
"answer": "They aren't, and in fact, they're quite sure there _are_ microbes. They just get all of them they can.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They aren't 100% sure, and in fact we've found microbes that have survived into space. Simply put, it's hard to be 100% sure of anything. Sometimes... | null |
7ee999 | if i boil a kettle does everything inside become sterile? if so how long does it stay sterile? | [
{
"answer": "Actually sterilized? No. Boiling water and steam are damned effective at killing germs, but you generally need much higher temperatures than you'll achieve in a kettle to reach an effectiveness where you can call it sterile (99.9999999% of microbes killed). In particular, bacterial and fungal spo... | null |
uno95 | If happiness and sadness are reactionary and fleeting emotions, since we generally return back to neutral baselines- depression is the pathological deviation towards staying sadness. Is there a pathological condition where a person will consistently stay happy? | [
{
"answer": "There is some speculation that such a condition exists.\n\nBi-polar - I disorder is characterized by alternating between episodes of major depression (extreme sadness) and episodes of mania (extreme elation). Bi-polar - II is characterized the same way, but they experience smaller \"hypomanic\" rat... | null |
2kfags | why do hunters tend to kill game by aiming for the lungs or heart? wouldn't a head shot be quicker and more humane? | [
{
"answer": "They aim for center mass because it's less likely to miss.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "An animal's head is really hard to hit, both because it's smaller and it tends to move around a lot. Aiming for a headshot means you're more likely to miss.\n\nA gunshot to the heart or lung ... | null |
auvd8o | is it possible to have a minor stroke and not know it and not have any lasting health effects? | [
{
"answer": "Yep. It's called a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and they often wont cause residual deficits, though the initial (transient) symptoms can mirror those of an actual stroke and can be quite concerning at first, or may be subclinical (i.e. undetectable). Having experienced a TIA does indicate incre... | null |
1fv7gw | How exactly do appetite-suppressants work? | [
{
"answer": "There is little evidence that caffeine is an effective appetite suppressant on its own. At least two recent studies have found no effect in a human sample. It is, nevertheless, possible some of the effects of caffeine (e.g. stimulation, anxiety) could indirectly lead to a decrease or increase in a... | null |
61tpf6 | Victor Davis Hanson and the question of the middle-class infantrymen | [
{
"answer": "Thanks for the follow-up! I'm glad to see people are still reading my older posts :)\n\nBefore I get down to answering your question, there's one thing I'd like to clear up:\n\n > I noticed that VDH says that this shift in warfare happened during or after Salamis (480BC) which would put it a few c... | null |
3o717l | time variations in different parts of the universe | [
{
"answer": "Mainly parts of the universe that are close to really strong gravity sources -- near neutron stars, pulsars, or black holes.\n\nAs Einstein demonstrated, gravity bends space but also slows time. The closer you are to a source of gravity, the slower time passes -- in your frame of reference.\n\nThe ... | null |
4xkw6s | Is it a coincidence that the first four planets nearest to the sun are all much smaller then the four other planets? | [
{
"answer": "No, it definitely isn't. The conventional explanation is as follows:\n\nThere are three main types of neutral materials in the universe, which (listed in decreasing order of abundance) are:\n\n1. Gases (Hydrogen and Helium)\n2. Ices (Water, Ammonia, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide)\n3. Ro... | null |
2lgskp | How popular was Uncle Tom's Cabin in the south? | [
{
"answer": "Another question: Were there any contemporary reviews of the book published in Southern Newspapers that criticized it as a lie/slander?\n\nI'm imagining something along the lines of how Pravda's review of Solzhenitsyn's \"The Gulag Archipelago\" had the title \"A vile slanderer seeking to earn fil... | null |
3f598l | why is there such a demand in asia for rhino and elephant tusks? how did it start? | [
{
"answer": "Traditional Chinese Medicine uses herbs and powders and other natural ingredients to cure various ailments. They believe it will cure things such as impotence or even cancer. So, there's high demand for these items.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It is a \"traditional medicine\" f... | null |
4objz8 | When designing Second World War era tanks how much consideration went into crew survival once the tank was hit? | [
{
"answer": "Several pivotal design changes on the M4 Sherman tank were sparked by complaints about crew survivability, as well as general comfort for the crew. \n\n[Wet ammunition stowage](_URL_4_) reduced the risk of flash ammunition fires after a Sherman was hit from around 80 percent to 5-10 percent and in ... | null |
3j33s8 | Has a US President ever not been to one of the States at the time of his Presidency? | [
{
"answer": "You can add Eisenhower to /u/boneisspirit 's list of 5 non-visitors. (Don't even have to rely upon the dodge that he may just have missed AK or HI because they weren't states during most of his presidency. Eisenhower visited both in the Summer of 1960--while they were states and he president. So he... | null |
4ohkdv | Why is the king James version of the Bible considered by a lot of churches to be the best version? | [
{
"answer": "We tend to call this \"King James Version Only\"-ism. The [wikipedia](_URL_0_) page is reasonably well-written, if you want an overview.\n\nAt its heart it's a view of both the textual tradition of Greek and Hebrew texts that undergird the KJV, usually coupled with a view of the process of translat... | null |
v1aof | Does a brain have a gender? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, brain cells have chromosomes in them, including gender chromosomes (X, Y). Meaning difference in genes and expression of those genes. Not to mention gender affects the development of the brain.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a sexually dimorphic area in the brain kno... | null |
2l2i91 | Did Joseph Kennedy lobotomize his daughter, Rosemary Kennedy, to preserve the reputation of his family? | [
{
"answer": "Found a [source](_URL_0_) describing the lobotomy on p. 179 of Personality Theories: Critical Perspectives.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I guess I'm just ignorant on the subject, but is lobotomizing someone else (like getting your daughter lobotomized because you fearcher acting... | null |
1lykrr | How does the Brain know which nerve receptor is sending a message ? | [
{
"answer": "The brain knows because the signal is conducted from the spot of sensation through a chain of neurons up to the brain, like dominoes. The more interesting part is something called \"lateral inhibition\", which causes a decrease in firing frequency for the neurons flanking a stimulated neuron. Thi... | null |
4nl418 | why are transgender issues suddenly all over the place? | [
{
"answer": "Causes are fashion for many people. And transgender issues are currently the most fashionable. I say this as someone who fully believes that trans people deserve equality and freedom from persecution, but also as someone who recognises that people clearly bandwagon.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
2sbkm2 | Why is it that we can recognize sarcasm in speech, but not through text? | [
{
"answer": "According to older communication theory ([Ruesch & Bateson 1951](_URL_0_)), we recognize sarcasm through \"metacommunicative\" messages in other \"channels\". These include tone of voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, body postures, or an amalgamation of these. They function as \"instruction... | null |
4hwo1f | what is the painful tingly feeling in your feet when you jump down from something? | [
{
"answer": "Typically when you jump, you adjust your feet unconsciously so that the force of landing is not applied only to your foot/ankle, but also parts of your legs. Sometimes when you take a wrong step or jump/fall in an unexpected way, you can land such that the force cannot be redistributed from your fo... | null |
1usyi4 | What's making these ice pieces slowly move onto land like this? So bizarre I can't explain it...VIDEO inside. | [
{
"answer": "This is a lake shore property. The ice is coming off the lake, moved by the wind. Imagine a *huge* sheet of ice, several square kilometers, and blow a strong, steady wind across it. The force from all the wind adds up and can be enough to push the entire ice sheet slowly, but steadily onto land. Th... | null |
ij9w8 | If alien beings have a sense of sight, is it unlikely that they can see the same wavelengths as us? | [
{
"answer": "There are a couple of reasons why the spectrum we see in is convenient. One, is that the atmosphere is [fairly transparent at those frequencies](_URL_0_) meaning that much of the light of the sun makes it to the surface. This is called the [optical window](_URL_2_). Second, visible light frequencie... | null |
6dufjm | What is the insignia on this cannon?? | [
{
"answer": "a Cannon bearing a Crown symbol and the initials GR for Georgios Rex reference to the reigning monarch King George.\n\nIt's a British cannon, i think the actual fabric was in scotland.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5139555... | null |
wekoa | "pot odds," "pot equity," and the "independent chip model" in texas hold'em | [
{
"answer": "Pot odds - the amount of a call divided by the amount of a pot before the call. \n\nIf there's $100 in the pot and you have to put in $20 to call a bet, you're getting 5:1 pot odds. Meaning if it's the final action and you win one time for every five you lose, it's worth the call.\n\nClosely assoc... | null |
2s86nu | what are the actual statistics on what muslims believe? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_ This should do.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Globally, 28% of muslims do not have an issue with suicide bombings, while in the USA, 19% of muslims do not have an issue with suicide bombings. \n\nSo if you take the population of muslims (1.7 billion), and multiply that by... | null |
mpxcz | what was europe trying to do by instigating the euro? | [
{
"answer": "it was to facilitate the development of the european union into a fully economically integrated block. \n\nby having the same money, people could travel easily from nation to nation in the euro zone without exchanging currency. \n\nthe most important reason was to remove currency risk from inter-eu... | null |
3dpg74 | what's the difference between emergency care and urgent care, and why is ec so much more expensive? | [
{
"answer": "Emergency Care is part of a hospital and has the full resources of the hospital available to it. Urgent care is basically a doctor's office that is open around the clock. An emergency room will likely have surgeons that wait around just in case someone needs to go to surgery. They will have other s... | null |
36m9ml | how are the transistors in a cpu/micro-controller controlled? | [
{
"answer": "Transistors just work because physics. A waterwheel does the same thing; it's not configured, it's simply made such that physics will force it to do what we want. \n\nAs /u/LondonPilot said you make the logic gates or other useful circuits by combining it all together into interesting setups. You c... | null |
6qketo | If you move a wild bug far from its home but the same environment will it go back home or make a new life there? | [
{
"answer": "It really depends on the insect.\n\nMany insects, I believe including grasshoppers, typically do not have one nest or other type of \"home\" they can return to. Most insects also do not rely on being part of one society or group. They live where they happen to be at the moment, and if they can't fi... | null |
6ycb8b | There have been a dozen or so species in genus Homo; why did all but one sub-species disappear? | [
{
"answer": "You've asked a good question, and the only real answer is that archaeologists and paleoanthropologists simply do not have enough data to fully support any hypotheses on the extinctions of pre-modern *Homo* species. Among the hypotheses that have been promoted are, of course, intraspecies violence,... | null |
9z1uqd | alcohol and painkillers | [
{
"answer": "The metabolism of acetaminophen produces a toxic intermediate (NAPQI) that is usually rapidly eliminated.\n\nHowever, if the breakdown pathway is overwhelmed, such as in an acetaminophen overdose or by ethanol, that intermediate may not be rapidly eliminated, possibly causing liver damage.",
"p... | null |
f2heiw | how do they make intricate objects with glass (and other things)? | [
{
"answer": "They take glass components that are melted to something called working and softening temperatures. These allow the melt to be soft enough to mold with a rod and yet viscous enough to resist flowing much like honey just a lot slower moving. Things like a rose can be made by using pliars to physica... | null |
3jagen | what happened that resulted in canada going into a recession. | [
{
"answer": "The main reason for the recession is the current crash in oil prices. For Canada to get out of the recession oil prices need to hit $70 a barrel, that is the sweet spot for companies to start spending money on drilling again. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": ... | null |
5twjek | how is wifi not damaging me but other kinds of radiation are? | [
{
"answer": "Plenty of kinds of radiation isn't damaging. For example, there's the megahertz-range radiation being blasted at high levels by giant towers all over the place- they send out a signal referred to as an \"FM radio station\". \n\nThere's also tons of smaller devices peppering you with high levels of ... | null |
6kgbn6 | How did apple pie become an icon of American culture, even inspiring the phrase 'as American as apple pie', when it's a popular pastry in several European countries. Especially when it's also an icon of Dutch culture, even appearing in a Dutch cookbook in 1514. | [
{
"answer": "/r/AskFoodHistorians might be a good place to cross-post this",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Can you give a source on the dutch cookbook?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sorry to see no answer incoming, but there is [this old thread](_URL_0_) I found. Unfortunatel... | null |
b65xd4 | What was life like in areas of France occupied by Germany in the First World War? | [
{
"answer": "There wasn't actually that much of France under German occupation during the war. After the breakdown of the Schlieffen plan and the race to the sea, the front line more or less stabilised, although there would be shifts as various offensives took place. You can see on [this map](_URL_0_) that most... | null |
3eru4u | what is another solution to shootings, outside of gun control? | [
{
"answer": "it does appear that higher levels of education decrease violent behaviour. gun awareness decreases violent gun crimes. and also a huge one with kids is co-curriculars. when kids are on sports teams or in clubs they have no time to shoot up schools.\n\nall in all i realize the states are never givin... | null |
5deyeu | how can games companies sell unfinished games and in some cases games that are unplayable (activision)? | [
{
"answer": "Simply answer, because consumers keep buying them.\n\nLonger answer, due to the new and easier channels of distribution, mainly pre-order, digital downloads, etc. games can be bought way before any serious reviews by game critics or consumers alike have been established.\n\nSo by the time the probl... | null |
6apjl9 | why do so many websites (mainly news sites) now have a "continue reading" button a few lines down the page? why not just show the whole article to begin with? | [
{
"answer": "Ad revenue. They can deliver you twice as much advertising by having you click to the next page. It also helps because their analytics will get a boost because you're viewing multiple pages on the website.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've wondered this - have to assume there's ... | null |
22u6ae | what is happening in bunkerville between the rancher cliven bundy and the feds? | [
{
"answer": "Mexico lost territory in Western North America to the US during the Mexican American War, and so the land was transferred to the Federal Government. In effect, 80(ish)% of Nevada land is owned by the Feds. Ranchers can use this land to graze their cattle, but must pay a grazing fee in order to make... | null |
5oj2i6 | During the late Medieval and Renaisance period, when Kings derived their right to rule from divine mandates, how did people view republics & elective monarchies? Were they seen as less legitimate than herditary monarchies? | [
{
"answer": "For most of the medieval period, in Italy at least, republican governments could only guarantee an uneasy peace between dynasties, and at best institutionalized warfare. I have a very specific example of fighting consequential to Republican government [here](_URL_0_). However, other republics were ... | null |
36ff5j | Is there dark antimatter? | [
{
"answer": "One of the things we learn from the merger of special relativity and quantum mechanics is that each particle has a corresponding antiparticle.\n\nHowever, for some particles (e.g., the Z^(0) and the photon), the antiparticle and the particle are the same, while for others (e.g., the electron or a q... | null |
arz0mw | why is e120 carmine (red dye made out of bugs) still being used instead of an artificial dye? | [
{
"answer": "A dye is just a chemical that happens to be a certain color. In this case it is bright red. The chemical can often be produced in different ways but with different costs. It might be possible to make Carmine with organic chemistry but it would require a lot of expensive processes. Both in terms of ... | null |
1d8hio | why is chocolate milk cheaper than regular milk? | [
{
"answer": "Milk is graded by quality at the dairy, similar to, for example, steaks' prime or triple A. High grade is used for direct consumption, other grades go through various processing according to the grade. A lower quality grade is less expensive as there is less market for it. Milk just below top g... | null |
2j05pi | why have basements come to be considered "scary" places, such as in horror movies? | [
{
"answer": "Basements are underground, poorly lit (in general), cold (in general), damp places that you do not generally go into all the time. Each of those things adds to it being uncomfortable and disconcerting, which in turn makes it \"scary\". ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"pro... | null |
ks8uq | how to read this chart on google finance | [
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) I provided a decently long explanation including how to read a similar chart. Read through my second comment and see if it makes sense. \n\nNote: given that the market has been active for a week, the numbers and prices may be slightly off for the IBM options. \n\nLet me know if t... | null |
atnlu0 | how does a breathalyzer detect blood alcohol content by blowing into them? | [
{
"answer": "Every time you breathe, you'll have a small amount of alcohol molecules being turned to gas and transferred to your lungs, and it's those molecules that a breathalyser checks.\n\nThe more alcohol in your blood, the more alcohol molecules get turned to gas and breathed out.",
"provenance": null
... | null |
4j2wyb | Was it ever a common military tactic to aim for the horses instead of the riders in medieval combat? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Many people aimed for the horses instead of the riders. \n\nRoman writer Vegetius wrote this in his text on Roman warfare:\n\n > The armed chariots used in war by Antiochus and Mithridates at first terrified the Romans, but they afterwards made a jest of them. As a chariot of this sort does n... | null |
2uwr8b | Along with rationing what strategies were used to address shortages of materials during wwI and wwII? | [
{
"answer": "Germany heavily tried to synthesize rare materials with varying success. Stuff like rubber for example.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "43364352",
"title": "Rationing in the United States",
"section": "Sectio... | null |
2aut5f | why are intelligence agencies allowed to break the law in foreign countries by spying on their citizens? | [
{
"answer": "Black ops are, by definition, illegal. If they weren't, there'd be no need for them to be a secret.\n\nBeing a spook is basically being a criminal for the government.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "10501",
"title": ... | null |
209pgl | Was there much tension between Dixiecrats and the rest of the Democratic party before the Southern Strategy, LBJ, Nixon, etc.? | [
{
"answer": "There was a lot of tension between the Dixiecrats and the mainstream of the Democrat Party in the late 1940s. They walked out of the 1948 Democratic Party's National Convention and organized a third party. It is best known as the Dixiecrats today, but its... | null |
39xkla | why old phones had a rotating disk with holes in it, and you need to turn the disk to dial the numbers? | [
{
"answer": "Old phones used pulse dialing and each digit was represented by a number of pulses. You would move the disc in one direction with your finger, and then when letting it go, a spring would move it back at the correct speed to create pulses. Each number position created 1 pulse. So if you moved the di... | null |
3eldf7 | upon reading about sandra bland, i have to ask: what civil rights do i have as a citizen when a cop pulls me over? (ex. cigarette) | [
{
"answer": "I would really like to know what rights I have in California. The only one I know of is the right to remain silent. :/",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You have the right to free speech. You have the right to be secure in your person and papers. You have the right to remain silent. ... | null |
32wauc | whats going on in south africa? why are foreigners being targetted and what economic issues is it experiencing? | [
{
"answer": "First I must say. I am not a South African and not a expert at all but I think I can show some insight. If I am wrong, please correct me. \n\nSouth Africa is a ''broken'' nation. There still are big differences between White, Coloured and Black. Not only in terms of wealth, but also education, lang... | null |
5hzbua | how both big mmo games & small online games are hosted | [
{
"answer": "OK, there's a few levels:\n\n1) Peer to peer: no central servers at all, except maybe one matching people up into games (not even that on some old games: having to connect via typing in the IP address of whoever was hosting was common on a lot of older games). Games are hosted on one of the players... | null |
1x5dx6 | Who lived in Britain before the Celts? | [
{
"answer": "Although I'm not sure how far back you're looking, I'll start with the Bronze Age immigrants to Britain known as the Beaker People. Originally from Spain, these travelers ventured over in approximately 2500 BC, and flourished on the British Isles. They constructed elaborate gold and bronze jewelry,... | null |
1ge4gl | How does human muscle fiber compare to that of other animals? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know of any specific studies to point you to, but I do remember that one group of scientists had done this study among primates. Turns out a female orangutan (in heat)is pound for pound the strongest primate. They tested using a one-arm pull test. Humans max out at around 200 lbs.-maybe 4... | null |
hxgus | Why do sound waves not affect each other? | [
{
"answer": "They do, in fact, interact with each other. In very much the same way that water does, actually.\n\nA frequency (or pitch) of audio has a certain wavelength, or size. This is the distance it takes for the sound pressure in the air to complete a full cycle of compression and rarefaction. Square room... | null |
4rhy5l | why are feral children often incapable of adapting to civilization? are they permanently learning impaired? | [
{
"answer": "Areas of the brain that typically used for various social behaviours are pruned if inactive. This is why for instance if you don't learn to speak by age ~12 or so you will never really learn to speak. \n\nWe've evolved to have these traits in our brains but they only work if exercised in a commun... | null |
1hbaaw | the origin of species | [
{
"answer": "I'm currently reading it also.\n\nAs I understand it, it's just a collection of his observations about the evolution of different species over time. Being that it was written so long ago, there are things that he observes and speculates over where he was surprisingly correct, and then other cases o... | null |
17zztg | How common was casual sex throughout history? | [
{
"answer": "Just ignore pretty much everything said in that thread. The idea that sex is a purely biological urge, and thus it occurs in the same frequency throughout time and space, is absurd. I can be sure of this because it [varies a great deal based on country today](_URL_0_). Sex is highly culturally spec... | null |
1fv2or | [META] AskScience open house! | [
{
"answer": "Thanks to all the mods as well, they help keep the discussions on topic and informative. With that said, I'm very satisfied with the subreddit. Here's to a goal of 1 million.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'd really love it if you gave a shot at making the journal club a weekly f... | null |
1hxslu | Have there been any conclusive studies done on sugar/calorie-free energy drinks? | [
{
"answer": "I'm sure someone can go more in-depth on some of the ingredients but here's some information on two of them. Artificial sweeteners are always a topic for discussion. The linked drink uses acesulfame potassium and sucralose which according to [_URL_2_](_URL_4_) is not linked to increased cancer risk... | null |
2z1622 | dogs and cats cry; why don't they perform a similar function to a human's laugh? | [
{
"answer": "Actually, research suggests that they do laugh but it is on frequencies that we can't hear or discern. I know I've had a few dogs that have been ticklish between their paws, or at least seem like they \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Laughter is a function of being surpr... | null |
c16v99 | how is a blood clot not a death sentence? | [
{
"answer": "The clot stays in one place. The big danger is if it’s dislodged and then travels to the heart or lungs or brain. Some pharmaceuticals can dissolve a clot, some don’t necessarily impact the existing clot but prevent new ones from forming. In some cases, a physician will actually go in and try to ex... | null |
14jtd6 | Why do mammals give birth from their vaginas? | [
{
"answer": "Mammals give birth through their vaginas because a vagina is, by definition, the tube leading from the uterus to the outside of the body, and that's the tube that has to be used.\n\nOther vertebrates aren't any different, save that their vaginas open into a cloaca before going outside the body. In... | null |
lcbgq | free trade and fair trade. | [
{
"answer": "They're two completely different things (I can see where it's confusing, though).\n\nFree trade: trade between nations with very few or no restrictions at all.\n\nFair trade: a label given to certain products certifying that the people who made them (usually third-world farmers, etc.) were paid a f... | null |
1pycmi | Who were the local law enforcers in Medieval Germany? | [
{
"answer": "Law enforcement was mostly organized on a local level, in towns or small villages. In the villages mostly by the \"owners\" of that villages, the lower nobility or the owners of the farms.\n\nThe Lower Law (niedere Gerichtsbarkeit, don't know if the translation is correct), also called *Thing* or p... | null |
2f0q2a | Can an adhesive stick to oxygen or other air molecules? | [
{
"answer": "The problem I see with this is that gases don't have a \"surface\". I could certainly see gases dissolving and equilibrating in an adhesive, and possibly being physically absorbed to the surface of the adhesive (also at equilibrium). However, if you apply your adhesive to a gas, and then move the o... | null |
j3xwt | Why and how do drugs get you "high"? | [
{
"answer": "As far as we can tell, mostly by acting like existing neurotransmitters, or by releasing those neurotransmitters, or by causing a buildup of those neurotransmitters.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[This should answer your question](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
qfvjb | minecraft | [
{
"answer": "You can kind of think of it as computerized legos. \n\nMinecraft has two main forms of play: Survival and creative. Creative is the easiest to explain-- you have unlimited block materials of all sorts of colors and textures, as well as electrical components (Wire, levers, push blocks), interactive ... | null |
2ws3ty | During WW2, was there an Allied equivalent of doctors Josef Mengele or Shiro Ishii (of Japanese medical experimentation Unit 731?) | [
{
"answer": "There was lots of human experimentation by the Americans during World War II, but most of it was much more consensual, less horrific. [Volunteer conscientious objectors were used for research on a starvation study at the University of Minnesota](_URL_0_), for example, as part of research funded by ... | null |
5pzfbv | Bounties and sniper combat during the Vietnam War | [
{
"answer": "I think the fundamental question you need to ask yourself when considering the concept of bounties is the following: Was it actually a reality during the Vietnam War? \n\nThe truth of the matter is that there simply isn't much evidence supporting the existence of bounties beyond field reports and t... | null |
1xsy6v | why do some people black out from high levels of g-forces while other don't? | [
{
"answer": "There are 2 types of G-forces: Positive and Negative\n\nPositive G's force your blood into your feet, you black out due to lack of blood in the brain.\n\nNegative G's force the blood into your head, you red out as the pressure in your brain increases.\n\nFighter Pilots wear specialized equipment to... | null |
66a2pv | At r/TIL, there is a post trending with people in the comments section saying the FBI sent a letter telling Martin Luther King Jr. to kill himself and the FBI/CIA later killed him. Is this true? | [
{
"answer": "While the letter is anonymous (in the sense that it's not signed and it's not on any letterhead), [a complete copy was found in J. Edgar Hoover's files](_URL_0_) and a congressional investigation verified that it was sourced from the FBI. Whether Hoover himself wrote it is apparently unclear, but h... | null |
3d3kz2 | How did the Mongols achieve crazy speed from their multiple horses? | [
{
"answer": "There's a big difference between carrying a rider and following along unmounted; the steppe mares favored by the Mongols weigh in at about 600 lbs, so a 180 lb man with some basic provisions is going to be a third of their body weight. It's much more efficient to shift the weight between your stri... | null |
2es5f5 | why do people criticize findings from data in saying "it's just correlative/correlation does not mean causation"? isn't everything we know about everything just from correlation? | [
{
"answer": "So what you're saying is that, as we increase funding for NASA, we're dooming more and more people to die at their own hand by hanging? \n_URL_0_\n\nSimply put, variables are eliminated in a well-done study until causation is clear. It's not just that the people that got the drug got well; it's al... | null |
1w4oio | Why do temperatures fluctuate more when it is cold but stay more consistent when it is warm? | [
{
"answer": "There's two main factors to this:\nA) Humidity. In the winter, there's very low humidity (because it's cold and air holds less moisture the colder it gets)... so temperatures can rise and fall by a lot more than in the summer.\n\nB) The temperature difference between the subarctic and subtropical ... | null |
37kmid | why house of cards politics won't work in real life. | [
{
"answer": "Because in the show, Frank Underwood is some sort of super-persuasive Machiavellian. In real life, I doubt the president would even be able to convince his own party to go through with America Works.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In more general terms, \n\nHouse of Cards made som... | null |
1tbgwf | why would people get coal in their stocking for being naughty? | [
{
"answer": "In the days when most people heated their homes using open coal fires, a lump of coal was considered a completely commonplace and worthless item. It's the sort of thing that a very naughty person might receive from Santa, so that they can see he's been and decided they're not worthy of any decent g... | null |
3brtx8 | When did the Arabs become known as "Arabs?" | [
{
"answer": "Arabs were first mentioned in both Biblical and Assyrian texts of the ninth to the fifth centuries BC where they appear as nomadic pastoralists inhabiting the Syrian desert. The fact that the name begins to be used by both cultures during the same period suggests that \"Arab\" was how these pastora... | null |
6vgbjh | When a nuclear bomb goes off underwater. Does it create a giant air bubble? | [
{
"answer": "It creates a massive steam bubble, it doesn't last too long (not sure on actual time it is there for) but something interesting happens when the \"bubble\" is there. The gas makes the bubble expand until it reaches the maximum size it can as the pressure forcing the bubble to expand becomes weaker ... | null |
6i1vkx | Would a supercomputer (from a government, University, organisation like NASA, ...) be able to mine all the bitcoins at once? | [
{
"answer": "No. For two main reasons.\n\nFirst of all, Bitcoin mining started out using CPUs. They're in every computer and they can do pretty much any computational task reasonably effective, but they don't really excel in anything. Then people figured out that graphics cards (or specifically, GPUs) are very ... | null |
trqcr | What will happen to the planets that aren't destroyed when the sun supernovas? | [
{
"answer": "[Here you go :3](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The biggest thing to consider it that our sun will not supernova but will expand to encompass the Earth and then contract to about the size Earth. [Here is a short video](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answe... | null |
5j4rfp | After Stalin died, were there any measures taken by the Soviet government to avoid someone amassing power on scale like his? | [
{
"answer": "follow up question. What, if any, affect did these measures have on Nikita Khrushchev coming to power 3 years after Stalin's death?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Although it is difficult to say whether there were distinct policies in place to prevent the future build-up of power ... | null |
vuj4x | If childbirth is one of the most painful experiences one can go through, how come it does not render the person unconscious as when having other forms of pain inflicted? | [
{
"answer": "This is r/askscience. Anecdotes, speculation, and off-topic posts are removed. Please mind the guidelines, and remember to include citations/sources when possible. Thanks!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Apart from folklore and cultural bias, what evidence is there to suggest that ... | null |
5nh6o9 | what does it mean for a language to be recursive? | [
{
"answer": "An example in English:\n\nI rode the bus which almost ran out of gas with my friend who has never been to Europe which is a continent.\n\nWith brackets inserted to show recursive structure:\n\nI rode the bus [ which almost ran out of gas ] with my friend [ who has never been to Europe [ which is a ... | null |
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