So atmospheric CO2 levels just reached 410 ppm, first time in 3 million years it's been that high. What happened 3 million years ago? | AskScience Blog

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

So atmospheric CO2 levels just reached 410 ppm, first time in 3 million years it's been that high. What happened 3 million years ago?

So atmospheric CO2 levels just reached 410 ppm, first time in 3 million years it's been that high. What happened 3 million years ago?


So atmospheric CO2 levels just reached 410 ppm, first time in 3 million years it's been that high. What happened 3 million years ago?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 06:35 AM PDT

what happened 3 million years ago to cause CO2 levels to be higher than they are today?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-just-breached-the-410-ppm-threshold-for-co2/

submitted by /u/Bluest_waters
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Why can't I use lenses to make something hotter than the source itself?

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 04:33 AM PDT

I was reading What If? from xkcd when I stumbled on this. It says it is impossible to burn something using moonlight because the source (Moon) is not hot enough to start a fire. Why?

submitted by /u/Yrjosmiel
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If E=mc^2, my total energy is constant as my mass is constant. If I gain potential energy because I went up an elevator, my energy level changes but my mass is constant. What gives?

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 06:29 AM PDT

It seems like there's a discrepancy. Does E=mc2 not represent your total energy?

submitted by /u/Negropolis
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Why do muscle cramps hurt?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 02:04 PM PDT

I understand that muscle cramps are involuntary contractions of the muscle, but when our muscles contract voluntarily, it doesn't hurt. What about an involuntary contraction causes pain?

submitted by /u/HarryButtfarb
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I fill the bottom of a bottle cap with my blood and let it dry overnight. Then I put the dried disc in a cup of water. the color leaves the disc and seeps into the water. I'm left with a translucent, slimy material. What is it?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 05:23 PM PDT

Why does water tend to follow the path of a nearby object instead of going straight down?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 07:41 PM PDT

For example, when pouring water from a mostly-full glass, it will cause the water to follow the side of the glass instead of fall perfectly down. Also, a sink will do the same to your arm, or finger.

submitted by /u/sbundlab
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What happens with degenerate wave functions in an atom?

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 07:36 AM PDT

If a linear combination of some wave function that satisfies the Schrodinger equation for a given situation (for example, the electron in a hydrogen atom) also solves it, then there are multiple wavefunctions to describe one state. What happens to the electron with regards to this? What wavefunction does it assume? Does it matter?

Thanks!

submitted by /u/DanielDC88
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My textbook says "a complete explanation of why entropy increases with increasing molar mass is beyond the scope of this book." Could someone explain to me why?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 11:40 PM PDT

I'm learning general chemistry and currently on entropy.

I thought a simple way of explaining it would be because atoms with higher molar mass have more subatomic particles within them which leads to more possible microstates.

Instead my textbook says "the energy states associated with the motion of heavy atoms are more closely spaced than thsoe of lighter atoms. The more closely spaced energy states allow for greater dispersal of energy at a given temperature and therefore greater entropy."

I do not completely understand what they mean by that explanation.

What is the full reasoning behind why my textbook implies that it is much more complicated?

submitted by /u/Hamster_Huey
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How do electrons "jump" to different energy levels without existing in-between the levels?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 06:58 PM PDT

Why do the noble gasses have such a small gap between their melting and boiling points compared to other elements?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 07:06 PM PDT

Why did scientists in the '60's think that Mars was covered in vegetation?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 10:53 AM PDT

Text from an article in Science Digest in 1963

Mars has pronounced seasonal variations, with the seasons about twice as long as those on earth, during which the surface temperature ranges from -120 to +30 degrees Celsius. When the northern hemisphere is in the "winter" season the dark green areas change to brownish gray. Based on this, we speculate that some simple form of life - lichens and mosses - is likely to exist on Mars. The reddish-orange areas show little color change with the seasons.

And then later in the article:

Most of the surface is desert consisting of granulated or powered iron oxide. A thin layer of vegetation covers about one-quarter of the surface, and a thin ice cap forms at the poles, the sides of both these regions changing with the seasons....

Full article here: http://imgur.com/a/Td5fK

What changed in our knowledge of Mars over the years that these scientists were wrong about?

submitted by /u/PyroNecrophile
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How deep are the atmospheres of the Jovian planets?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 02:01 PM PDT

In gas giants, how deep do their atmospheres go? I understand that Jupiter will likely have a different atmospheric depth than say Uranus, so maybe it would be easier to express the values as a percentage of the radius of the planet. Additionally, what (if anything) would we find at their cores?

submitted by /u/ewalls1
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[Medical] How do they treat patients that are infectious enough to be dangerous?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 01:47 PM PDT

Someone posted a while ago about seeing a biohazard room at a hospital where there were no visitors allowed and the doctors had to wear scrubs. It got me thinking- if a patient was sufficiently contagious, how would the doctors deal with it? How would they clean the room afterwards? If the patient died, what would they do with the presumably still dangerous corpse?

submitted by /u/alderaanirebel
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The Fukang meteorite is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old, how is it that people manage to estimate its age?

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 03:07 AM PDT

I just wonder how it's even possible to date something to be that old, and based on what evidence would someone give it that estimate?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2129747/The-beautiful-mysterious-Fukang-pallasite-meteorite.html

EDIT: Added link

submitted by /u/AdelZee
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If you had a large spherical radioactive sample, how much radiation would reach the surface?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 02:28 PM PDT

Suppose you have a spherical sample with total activity of A0 decays/second, and an "activity-density" of A0/(4/3piR3). Further assume the direction of the radiation is uniformly distributed. Each photon released has a probability of e-x*u of reaching the surface due to Beer's law, where x is the distance the photon travels through the sphere.

Since the sphere will absorb a significant portion of the radiation, the radiation emitted out of the sphere should be a lot less than the activity of the sample would suggest. Is there any analytical way of determining this, or must it be done numerically?

submitted by /u/BaryonicM
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How is it that the concept of an Electromagnetic Field avoids the problems caused by the concept of a "Luminiferous aether" with regards to relativity?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 09:44 AM PDT

When people talk about a "field that permeates all of space" I picture something either like a 3 dimensional grid, or like a liquid that fills up the universe. However, it seems that something like that would create a universal frame of reference with regards to the propagation of light, which the theory of relativity states does not exist. What's a better way to conceptualize a field to avoid this problem?

(I apologize if this question makes no sense, I don't really understand this stuff at all)

submitted by /u/xpersonx
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A year has Pi*10^7 seconds, where is the connection?

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 01:03 AM PDT

My mind got blown by this fact today .. but I can't see the connection between a year (orbit around the sun) and the number Pi*107.

Can you help me? :)

submitted by /u/ChowiexEU
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What makes mercury and gallium liquids at room temperature when elements around them on the periodic table are solids?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 11:03 AM PDT

How do bots bypass captcha?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 06:07 PM PDT

Science or scam? "13 year old builds FREE energy device for under $15!"

Posted: 25 Apr 2017 05:46 AM PDT

If you google "13 year old free energy", you'll get about a bunch of news outlets reporting on this kid. Immediately red flags went up. We all know energy has to come from somewhere. There was a user a while ago that debunks this kind of thing. If anyone knows who they are and can tag them, that would be super.

The news video claims " imagine this scaled up 20x." Currently, the kid is powering some LEDs with his device. If this is legit, I doubt it's going to scale appreciably. So, who wants to help figure this thing out?

YouTube Link to video in question.

submitted by /u/Kilo__
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When we substract two natural numbers we get integers, when we divide two integers we get rationals, when we take roots of a positive rational we get reals, of a negative one we get complex. What is the next step?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 11:32 PM PDT

Will internal combustion engines ever reach a point where they emit zero carbon dioxide?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 10:12 PM PDT

Will internal combustion engines ever reach a point where they emit zero carbon dioxide? Is this even achievable?

I say 'near' because the mining and refining of oil and gas isn't carbon neutral and probably won't ever be.

Although I am aware of projects like the Shell Quest Carbon Capture project, that are aiming to sequester carbon in the earth rather than the atmosphere, I am still doubtful of ever achieving this.

As a huge supporter of renewable energy and the growth in that field, I'm trying not to suffer from my own confirmation bias online and in the media... it's beginning to look like we are reaching a turning point for this technology that could be great for this planet.

BUT..My gut feeling tells me that the most profitable companies in the world are oil and gas related, and will do anything to maintain the status quo.

On top of that the U.S and the world in general is heavily invested in O&G, and has built infrastructure to transport it everywhere - that and the recent technological innovations in extraction have the potential to create an environment where Oil stays cheap. If it's cheap, it will prolong the adoption of greener energy.

Anyways - this question has been on my mind for a few months now and I'm wondering if this is even possible. Will we ever have ICE's that are carbon neutral?

Not sure what flair I should use, should his be under chemistry?

Thanks!!

submitted by /u/lvngstn
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Why the information paradox defies unitarity?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 02:43 PM PDT

I am trying to understand the information paradox.

Consider a wave function of two entangled particles, and one of them falls into a blackhole and reaches the singularity, since nothing is well defined there at that point the wave function looses information without having been collapsed, so far so good in term of understanding.

This implies that unitarity is not conserved, and this is the part that I don't understand. Unitarity is the principle that the integral of the magnitude of the wave function in all space must be equal to one, and from that it follows that any operator times it's complex conjugate must be the Identity matrix, and I understand that (I can prove it), but I don't understand how nor why falling into the black whole and loosing information violates unitarity.

Why can't there be a "black hole operator" which is unitary and that represents the changes made to the wave function?.

If Unitarity is not preserved then, is it by being bigger or smaller than 1?, if it is smaller, does this mean that there is a chance of nothing happening?, if it is bigger, does that mean that something will definitely happen?, I can't really get my head around probabilities greater than 1.

Thanks a lot

submitted by /u/Frigorifico
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By treating genetically transferrable conditions, are physicians effectively allowing the passing-on of them, and possibly even lowering life expectancy long-term?

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 09:08 AM PDT

If so, why is life expectancy still on the rise? What are the ethical arguments for/against this? (i.e. survival of the fittest)

submitted by /u/caramelcooler
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