AskScience AMA Series: We are women scientists from the Homeward Bound expedition, recently returned from the inaugural voyage to Antarctica! Ask us anything! | AskScience Blog

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Wednesday, March 8, 2017

AskScience AMA Series: We are women scientists from the Homeward Bound expedition, recently returned from the inaugural voyage to Antarctica! Ask us anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We are women scientists from the Homeward Bound expedition, recently returned from the inaugural voyage to Antarctica! Ask us anything!


AskScience AMA Series: We are women scientists from the Homeward Bound expedition, recently returned from the inaugural voyage to Antarctica! Ask us anything!

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 05:00 AM PST

Hello /r/AskScience! Homeward Bound is a ground‐breaking leadership, strategic and science initiative and outreach for women, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. The initiative aims to heighten the influence and impact of women with a science background in order to influence policy and decision making as it shapes our planet. The inaugural 2016 voyage took place from 2 - 21 December 2016 and was the largest‐ever female expedition to Antarctica. We care about science, the concerns of others, and we think science can unite us towards seeing and managing the planet as our global home. Ask us questions about our Antarctic journey, the Homeward Bound Initiative, and why it matters, especially now, for there to be gender equity in leadership. We'll be back around 2pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time to start answering!

Answering questions today are 5 participants from the inaugural Homeward Bound expedition:

Heidi Steltzer, Ph.D. Heidi is an environmental scientist, an explorer, and a science communicator, sharing her passion for science with others. She is an Associate Professor at Fort Lewis College, Colorado. She studies how environmental changes affect mountain watersheds and Arctic systems and their link to our well-being. Heidi's research has been published in Nature and featured in the media, including the New York Times. Find her on social media and Medium.com @heidimountains.

Anne Christianson is a current PhD student in the Natural Resources Science and Management program at the University of Minnesota, researching the intersection between climate change, biodiversity conservation, and women's justice. She holds a Bachelor's degree in environmental policy from St. Olaf College and a Masters in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management from the University of Oxford. Previously, Ms. Christianson worked in the U.S. House of Representatives writing and advising on energy and environmental legislation, for Ocean Conservancy advocating for science-based marine policy, and held the position of Vice President of DC EcoWomen, a non-profit organization working to empower women to become leaders in the environmental field. A 2016 Homeward Bound participant, Ms. Christianson was enthralled by Antarctica, and inspired by the 75 other women striving to create a global network of female change-makers.

Dyan deNapoli is a penguin expert, TED speaker, and author of the award-winning book, The Great Penguin Rescue. She lectures internationally about penguins, and is a sought-out expert on radio and TV, including appearances on BBC and CNN. A participant on the inaugural Homeward Bound expedition, she returns to Antarctica next year as a lecturer for Lindblad/National Geographic. A four-times TEDx speaker, Dyan's inspiring TED talk about saving 40,000 penguins from an oil spill can be viewed on TED.com. She is on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as The Penguin Lady.

Ashton Gainsford is an evolutionary biologist and recently submitted her PhD thesis to the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. Her research questioned what constitutes a species, highlighting the importance of animal behavior to the outcomes of hybridization, a common and significant evolutionary phenomena where closely related species interbreed. Her research on coral reef fish using behavior and genetic tools provides novel insights into the ecology and evolution of species. She is passionate about the marine environment, women in science, and diving. She joined the Homeward Bound network in 2016 to build future collaborations and learn within a program aimed to elevate each woman's leadership abilities and capacity to influence in the future. This was highlighted in an article written for 1MillionWomen. Connect with her on twitter at @AshtonGainsford.

Johanna Speirs, Ph.D, is a climate scientist with specific research interests in climate variability and change, alpine hydrometeorology and Antarctic meteorology and climatology. She works for Snowy Hydro Ltd. (a government-owned renewable energy company operating in Australia's alpine region), and specialises in understanding weather and climate processes that effect water resources in the Australian Alps. Johanna maintains an affiliation with the University of Queensland's Climate Research Group following her PhD on Antarctic meteorology and climatology. She wants to live in a world where quality science is used to make more informed decisions in the way this planet is managed. She thinks Homeward Bound is a pretty inspiring initiative to help get more women to the decision-making table. See google scholar for her publications, or find her on twitter @johspeirs.

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If something is a temperature of absolute zero, does that mean the electrons around the proton have completely stopped?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 04:39 PM PST

Or is it just at a molecular level Rather than atomic

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Are there any examples of vague speciation? For example species B can reproduce with A and C but A and C cannot reproduce.

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 07:08 PM PST

when Earth had a uniformly warm climate, how did plants in areas with a 5-6 month long polar night handle it?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 07:59 PM PST

Did plants even grow in such areas at all, despite having the perfect temperature conditions?

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Why is the fossil record poor for the Mesozoic in the Midwestern part of the USA?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 07:58 PM PST

How do atoms work in pilot wave theory?

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 05:02 AM PST

The classic example for why the concept of electrons doing trajectories around the nucleus is wrong is that they would continuously lose energy via radiation. Pilot wave theory assigns trajectories to particles. This seems contradictory, how is it resolved?

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Is there any meaning to the phrase "twice as hot" or "twice as cold" as 0 degrees?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 10:54 AM PST

My understanding of temperature is that it's mostly a measurement of how fast molecules move. Do molecules move twice as fast at 80 degrees celcius as they do at 40? That's absurd, right?

Co-workers are arguing among one another.

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What determines how radioactive an element is? (How much radiation an element gives off).

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 02:04 AM PST

What determines how radioactive an element is...or to put it another way, how much radiation it gives off? Uranium and Americium both emit an alpha particle, but must be handled differently.

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Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 07:04 AM PST

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...".

Asking Questions:

Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions.

The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists.

Answering Questions:

Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience.

If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here.

Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here.

Ask away!

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Will I generate more power if I focus sunlight with a magnifying glass onto a solar panel?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 11:24 AM PST

In what ways is our solar system like or unlike other solar systems?

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 05:55 AM PST

I just read something about how we have an estimated 200 dwarf planets, and I know we have 8 planets with a potential 9th. IIRC we have two asteroid belts as well.

Do most solar systems have what we have? Is ours typical? Or do we not know that yet?

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Do Black holes and anti-matter Black holes have different characteristics, and if so what are those characteristics?

Posted: 08 Mar 2017 06:29 AM PST

I know they both consist of having an Event horizon and a singularity, but other then that, what makes them different?

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'Astronomy' Why does fusing an additional proton to a heavy element such as lead not emit energy? Instead, absorbing energy?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 05:20 PM PST

Is there a similar disease for birds like mad cow disease(Bovine spongiform encephalopathy)?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 02:32 PM PST

I tend to feed birds in the garden and I chuck the chicken leftovers out the back for themselves to feast on every sunday. I had figured that it was fine as I never heard any issues arising from it, but I am now wondering if I have set a unfortunite rolling castastrophy upon myself in the form of zombie birds...

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Could ocean water freeze under the high pressures/low temperatures at the ocean floor?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 02:22 PM PST

Why is water densest at 4 degrees Celsius?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 11:48 AM PST

I was taught in my HS Chem class a few days ago that water is densest at 4 degrees Celsius. I asked my less than stellar teacher why that is, to which she responded "it just is that way". So why is it densest at 4 degrees Celsius? Why wouldn't it be denser closer to freezing?

submitted by /u/TheThingInTheCorner
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When undersea currents flow over abyssal ridges, is there a marine equivalent of a rain shadow ?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 01:26 PM PST

When marine currents rise to cross a ridge, does the sea bottom on the far side receive a reduced level of biological debris? Is there a "marine rain shadow"?

submitted by /u/cucutano
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Are there underwater supervolcanoes?

Posted: 07 Mar 2017 05:08 AM PST

I know that we are aware of supervolcanoes on land and the world is mostly ocean, are there supervolcanoes that are underwater? And if so, what would be the result of one of those erupting?

submitted by /u/WHYAREWEALLCAPS
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