AskScience AMA Series: I am Rodney Dietert, immunotoxicologist and author of The Human Superorganism. Ask Me Anything! |
- AskScience AMA Series: I am Rodney Dietert, immunotoxicologist and author of The Human Superorganism. Ask Me Anything!
- Why is there only one human race?
- What is the difference between quantum mechanics and quantum field theory?
- How does human daily intake of calories compare to other animals? Do we require much more energy or is it roughly linear with size?
- Where do the laws of thermodynamics come from?
- Conceptually, why is the quantum Lagrangian of the form e^i*theta?
- Can a remote magnet slightly deflect charged particles to help shield an interplanetary vessel from radiation?
- If the event horizon of a black hole were an impenetrable solid, what would happen to things falling into it?
- Has the ratio of people with certain mental disorders roughly remained the same throughout history?
- How do gravity assists have a net positive influence on momentum?
- In what applications would it benefit to have an asynchronous computer?
- When a spacecraft gets a "gravitational boost" from a planet, Newton's laws of motion tell us that the planet gets a "gravitational drag". With enough spacecraft, could we ever inadvertently alter the orbit of a planet?
- Do gases have a pH level?
- What does it mean for the time evolution of a system to be unitary?
- What evidence has been found to support/refute baryogenesis?
- How do plants know which direction they have to orient their leaves in order to get more sunlight?
- Does knowing the prime factors of two numbers, but not the value of the numbers themselves, provide any information about the sum of the two numbers?
- Are storms near the equator generally more intense than storms in the northern and southern hemispheres?
- Are there other substances that work as analgesics other than opiates?
- Do insects get old in a manner that mammals do?
- What is the difference between an atom being unstable and an isotope being unstable?
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 05:00 AM PDT I am Rodney Dietert, author of the book THE HUMAN SUPERORGANISM and a Cornell immunotoxicologist who studies noncommunicable diseases, immune development, environmental health hazards, and the microbiome. AMA! My passion is to help reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases that are today's number one global killer and the cause of myriad human disabilities. My work at Cornell University draws upon newly-emerging concepts about human biology to argue for a paradigm shift in both self-care and healthcare to one that uses more holistic and personalized approaches for health, wellness, and human safety based emphasizing the microbiome. This effort has led to new research papers, lectures, an appearance in the award-winning documentary movie, Microbirth, and now THE HUMAN SUPERORGANISM (July 12 publication). Among the things I love talking about are:
Please do Ask Me Anything! AMAs are posted early to give readers a chance to ask question before the AMA starts. Rodney Dietert will be here from about 2PM ET/11AM PT/7PM UT for two hours. [link] [comments]  |
| Why is there only one human race? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 05:06 AM PDT This question is not about why the other species that could be considered human (e.g. the Neanderthals) died out but instead is going to sound a bit racist, I'm sorry for that, it's not my intention. My question is about why we don't classify the currently alive humans into biological races like we do with both plants and the animal kingdom. Do we consider ourselves above nature or is it to try to avoid conflict and steer away from an implied class system, "us" and "them" mentality and the superiority some would feel over others as was the case in the past (and arguably still is)? Wikipedia states that the term "race" - while informal - can be defined by a variety of factors including geographical (e.g. can you tell where someone is from just by looking at them as is the case for the carrion crow and the hooded crow?). It seems pretty clear that this can be applied to humans with their looks giving a rough indication from where their ancestors are from. That alone seems like it would be ample reason to classify different races or even subspecies when talking about animals, so why is it not done for humans? [link] [comments]  |
| What is the difference between quantum mechanics and quantum field theory? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 04:47 AM PDT |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 05:47 AM PDT |
| Where do the laws of thermodynamics come from? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 01:24 AM PDT Obviously I'm not saying they don't have value but, where do these ideas come from? 1: Energy can't be created or destroyed. I guess this one makes sense and I get why it's there but... why is that a law? Is there some experiment of some kind that proves this, or hints so strongly towards it that it's the most reasonable explanation? This law sort of just seems like it'd be nice, but the universe needn't care if it makes our calculations more simple or whether or not things are predictable. 2: The entropy of the universe will always increase. This is probably a lot more difficult to explain - but again, why would the universe care about order? 3: The entropy of an system will approach a minimum at as it nears 0 Kelvin. I honestly don't even understand this one (kinda embarrassed by that). Anyways, are these just laws in the way that it would be very convenient and therefore we should just assume these are true, or is there a compelling case to say there is certainty that these are true and not the guise of an old man who didn't want to deal with really hard maths when he didn't need to. TL;DR Are the laws of thermodynamics actually real or just assumptions of the universe to make maths easier. [link] [comments]  |
| Conceptually, why is the quantum Lagrangian of the form e^i*theta? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 02:18 AM PDT I'm trying to figure out where the wave-like properties of quantum systems arise, and the Lagrangian / action appears to be the source for the path integral interpretation (??) I looked at the math on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_integral_formulation#Quantum_action_principle but didn't really follow it and wonder if there is a more conceptual explanation. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 12:29 AM PDT As far as I can tell a ring shaped magnet placed a few hundred or thousand meters between a space ship and the sun, should be able to deflect incoming charged particle. Maybe not by much, possibly only a degree or two. But that should be enough since by the time it reaches the ship it will be tens of meters off target, therefore missing the ship. Does this not work? I can't find any resources or designs like this. What stops this from being a viable option to help shield astronauts from radiation on their way to mars? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 12:20 AM PDT For example lets imagine we use some kind of magic to crush the Earth beyond its Schwarzschild radius and then make the event horizon perfectly impenetrable, nothing gets through, and finally we drop an astronaut into it. What sort of energy release upon impact are we looking at here? Any weird quirks our "magic black hole" would have (other than the impossible event horizon)? [link] [comments]  |
| Has the ratio of people with certain mental disorders roughly remained the same throughout history? Posted: 10 Jul 2016 02:22 PM PDT I'm wondering if things like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and so forth would have also been around in the same ratios in a population in, say, feudal times. I ask because on the one hand, I can imagine technological and cultural factors playing a large role. There are connections between PTSD and war such that a generation in peacetime might have many fewer cases of PTSD. On the other hand, if certain circumstances cause mental health issues in a population to wane or wax, is it also possible that some mental health issues used to exist and no longer do? Or that some new ones have arisen in new circumstances? [link] [comments]  |
| How do gravity assists have a net positive influence on momentum? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 05:56 AM PDT So... We have all heard of the "gravity assist" or "slingshot" in orbital dynamics. I was looking into it yesterday, (I've been playing a lot of Kerbal Space Program) and it just didn't make sense to me. How can you use a planet to speed up? Won't the planet take away the same amount of momentum it gave to the ship in the first place, and the ship will come out with no net gain? For example, If I have a ball attached to an elastic rope, and I have a friend stretch it out while I hold the rope, it has lots of potential energy. The rope is like Gravity. Then my friend lets the ball go and it flies toward me because the tension (gravity) is pulling it. But once it gets past me, it immediately begins slowing down and eventually reaches the same velocity as before. How can a planet, with gravity constantly acting upon a ship, result in a net gain of velocity? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| In what applications would it benefit to have an asynchronous computer? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 08:41 AM PDT That is, a computer without a master clock source, operating solely on asynchronous logic. To my knowledge, there are a few "low-level" applications, like inexpensive desktop calculators, but are there any high-performance situations that might require such a design scheme? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 08:31 AM PDT |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2016 08:26 AM PDT I've only heard of liquids getting tested for pH levels, but if pH is just a measure of H+ / OH- concentrations, does that mean that solids and gases can also have pH? If so, how do you measure the pH of a solid or gas? [link] [comments]  |
| What does it mean for the time evolution of a system to be unitary? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 08:07 AM PDT I've seen this term used to describe quantum systems and wondered what it meant and the implications of it. [link] [comments]  |
| What evidence has been found to support/refute baryogenesis? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 06:35 AM PDT |
| How do plants know which direction they have to orient their leaves in order to get more sunlight? Posted: 11 Jul 2016 01:37 AM PDT I have observed that my plant's leaves tend to orient perpendiculary to the sun rays, what makes me think that they have a way to measure the incidence of the sun rays? Also I'd like to know how they actually move. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2016 04:44 PM PDT To clarify the question, let's say I know that x has the prime factors 2, 3, and 5, but I don't know how many times it has each factor; it may have each factor once, making x = 30, it may have 2 and 5 once but 3 twice, making x = 90, etc. Similarly, I know y has prime factors 7, 11, and 13, but I don't know how many times it has each factor. With this information, can I infer anything about the value x + y? The specific values in the example above are just made up to illustrate a point. Please feel free to use other numbers if those happen to work better. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2016 01:08 PM PDT |
| Are there other substances that work as analgesics other than opiates? Posted: 10 Jul 2016 02:22 PM PDT Not considering NSAIDs, which are generally used to treat mild cases of pain, are there any other substances besides opiates that can work as analgesics? [link] [comments]  |
| Do insects get old in a manner that mammals do? Posted: 10 Jul 2016 09:02 AM PDT Losing their endurance, speed, durability, brainpower etc.? Or do they remain same during all of their life? [link] [comments]  |
| What is the difference between an atom being unstable and an isotope being unstable? Posted: 10 Jul 2016 02:04 PM PDT And are there any other meanings of the term that apply to different areas of chemistry? [link] [comments]  |
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