Similar to increasing wealth gap, are we experiencing an increasing educational gap? Are well-educated getting more educated and under-educated staying under-educated? | AskScience Blog

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Similar to increasing wealth gap, are we experiencing an increasing educational gap? Are well-educated getting more educated and under-educated staying under-educated?

Similar to increasing wealth gap, are we experiencing an increasing educational gap? Are well-educated getting more educated and under-educated staying under-educated?


Similar to increasing wealth gap, are we experiencing an increasing educational gap? Are well-educated getting more educated and under-educated staying under-educated?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 10:14 AM PST

Edit: Thanks everyone for many different perspectives and interesting arguments!

One of the points brought up was education and degrees. In this question, I don't necessarily equal attained education with received degrees but rather with actual acquired knowledge, including knowledge gained through non-institutional education.

I realize we need quantifiable ways to measure educational attainment and awarded degrees is one of them. Though imperfect, it is better than non-existent. One just has to be careful about interpreting what exactly that number tells us. It also begs the question: What is the best way to measure acquired knowledge?

In case there is a trend of a growing educational gap, what concerns me is the possible emergence of an educational divide. Depending on the definition of "educational divide" and high-quality data available, such divide might potentially be underway.

submitted by /u/akuataja
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If camera lenses are circular, why do they produce a rectangular image?

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 03:43 AM PST

Do you sweat if you are submerged in hot water?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:44 PM PST

Everyone knows how the CO2 cycle works, but how does methane cycle work?

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 05:39 AM PST

is it possible for multiple planets to share the exact same orbit?

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 03:13 AM PST

if so, have we found examples of such?

submitted by /u/mfairview
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What was the largest landmass or land feature discovered by satellite?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 04:31 PM PST

Inspired by a question in /r/AskHistorians which asked whether there was land discovered by satellite imagery, I'm curious as to what the largest landmass or land feature discovered by satellites may be.

I was unable to turn up anything via Google Scholar, though maybe my Google-fu is insufficient.

Landsat Island (25m x 45m = 1,125m2) is the only one I can find that is apparently notable.

submitted by /u/Hydrazeen
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How did people think stars work in the run up to the discovery of nuclear fusion and energy?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 06:41 PM PST

Why does the far side of the moon look so different than the near side of the moon (none of the characteristic dark splotches)?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:56 AM PST

Just saw this cool gif of the moon, and it struck me how different the near side of the moon (that we see from Earth) looks from the far side.

The dark splotches that make up the "man in the moon" seem largely absent from the far side. I've since learned that the "splotches" are called Lunar Maria and are formed from ancient lava flows, but I haven't stumbled across any explanation why they all face one side.

Do we have any strong scientific explanation or theories why the Lunar Maria all face the Earth?

submitted by /u/FroodLoops
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Does light really make one lightyear per year, even though space is expanding?

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 01:25 AM PST

Let's say we had a star 1 mio lightyears away. While its light travels to us, the space itself in between is expanding, so the light has to travel a longer distance. Technically, the light therefore should take more than 1 mio years to reach us, even if the star was exactly 1 mio lightyears away originally. Am i correct or do i miss something?

submitted by /u/Morpfium
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Would there be any advantage to making an interstellar spacecraft "aerodynamic" since there is no air? Is there an alternate concept of "vacudynamic" design which would provide benefits?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 04:34 PM PST

How does your brain react to a Missing/failing organ?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:53 PM PST

Is the ideal human weight based on calculated averages, or is it based on observable evidence that the body performs its best at a certain weight?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:31 PM PST

Homo sapiens' nearest relatives live in hierarchical bands, but hunter-gatherer bands are egalitarian. Most agricultural societies are hierarchical. Was the reemergence of hierarchy cultural or did farming allow for the reappearance of previously culturally supressed hierarchical instincts?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 08:53 PM PST

Or, do dominance hierarchies actually exist in hunter-gatherers, but without aspects we would otherwise associate with hierarchy e.g. socially dominant individuals exist but without the coercive power to take extra food, or extra mates, etc?

submitted by /u/Seswatha
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Does frosted glass let in less light than clear glass? If so, why?

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 05:41 AM PST

How did quantum physicists come to the conclusion that phenomena like radioactive decay has no cause rather than concluding that there's an unknown, random-like variable causing it?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:04 PM PST

I'm majoring in philosophy of science and this leap from determinism to probabilistic-determinism is amazing but I'm having trouble understanding the need to make that leap. I'm trying to understand how scientists were able to weigh the likelihoods of the two competing philosophies. One claims a cause is probably there somewhere (albeit inductively) but is observationally random. The other claims, against all prior experience, a cause is not needed (and according to some people, not possible according to accepted quantum theory).

Also, how is the situation different from dark matter and dark energy - cases where we don't know the cause of observed phenomena, yet declared and labeled the causes as unknown variables rather than uncaused phenomena?

I've been told to look into John Bill's "No Go Theorem" and also something to do with experiments in optics or light, but never had it actually explained.

Thanks!

submitted by /u/Seraphrawn
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Why do some microorganisms look like bugs or insects? Is there any correlation between them?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:28 PM PST

Are there any examples of animals 'practising' an ability, in the way we as humans do?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:22 PM PST

In the sense that certain humans feel the desire to become increasingly proficient in an ability - performing a musical instrument, athletics, video games, etc.

I suppose the question I'm asking is - is practising some personal ability, something we have developed due to our intelligence (or a consequence of it), or is it 'instinctive'?

submitted by /u/sevenhours37
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How do we detect new, exotic, stable particles in the LHC and other similar colliders?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:59 PM PST

How is Digestibility Determined or Measured?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:50 PM PST

I see foods or diets say something is more digestible or easier to digest all the time. What is being measured here?

Is it lower incidence of complaints? Speed through GI tract? Fecal volume? Just marketing?

Very curious what this means, scientifically.

submitted by /u/dza76wutang
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What are the fastest mass-having things in the universe?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 02:22 PM PST

this xcd was motivation behind the question

https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

submitted by /u/ti-83calcmastrrc
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Human eyes have evolved to be able to see in a wide range of light intensity, have different parts of the world evolved slightly different from another according to their specific need?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 03:45 PM PST

In the sense that back in time a few millennia and beyond, some group of people living in a place that is primarily cold would have no as much use for their eyes to be able to see with dim lunar reflection light as they would not venture out much, as opposed to some group of people who lives in a much wormer place and can use the advantage of seeing properly in dim light for night hunting or so? Other reasons around those lines or completely different ones as to ask if there is any clearly defined group of people geographically or ethnicly (if thats a word) that has a different "range" of light they can see properly in? If yes or no, is there another clear example of different group of people having different a slightly vision characteristics compared to another group?

submitted by /u/mrsievert
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Why does Hawking Radiation result in loss of mass, and why does the loss of mass speed up as the black hole get's smaller?

Posted: 03 Feb 2018 04:30 PM PST

So, my understanding is that Hawking Radiation is when a pair of particles spawn into existence where one is outside the event horizon of a black hole and the other is inside. The outside one shoots off into space resulting in Hawking Radiation. But what happens to the one on the inside? Since it's essentially captured by the black hole, why doesn't it add to its mass?

Also, I've heard that Hawking Radiation speeds up over time, resulting in tiny black holes 'exploding' out of existence (I think i saw this on a MinutePhysics video). But it seems to me the opposite would happen. The larger the black hole, the more surface area its event horizon has, and the more chances for the particle pairs to be created with one on the inside, and one on the outside.

What am I missing?

submitted by /u/VegasTamborini
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