Why do cognitive abilities progressively go down the more tired you are, sometimes to the point of having your mind go "blank"? | AskScience Blog

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Monday, April 16, 2018

Why do cognitive abilities progressively go down the more tired you are, sometimes to the point of having your mind go "blank"?

Why do cognitive abilities progressively go down the more tired you are, sometimes to the point of having your mind go "blank"?


Why do cognitive abilities progressively go down the more tired you are, sometimes to the point of having your mind go "blank"?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 09:43 PM PDT

Why can't I receive information from the future via delayed choice quantum eraser with a different beam splitter?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 09:58 PM PDT

It seems that you cannot send information to the past (aka receive information from the future) with delayed choice because the waveform interference pattern cannot be understood with the screen alone because you need to first examine the detectors to make sense of the dots on the screen.

The current thinking seems to be that you cannot send information across time because in the scrambling "eraser" section of the experiment, we send photons through a beam splitter which results in 50% landing in detectors C and the other 50% in detector D. Due to the fact their interference patterns subsequently are perfectly out of phase, you cannot decipher waveforms with the screen alone because without being able to reference the information in the detectors, the screen alone just looks like a bunch of unorganized dots with no apparent interference pattern.

However, is there a beam splitter available to science which could send most of the photons to one of the two detectors (for example, 99% go to detector C once they are in the eraser portion of the experiment).

It would seem to me that if there's a beam splitter than can send most of the photons just to detector C (99% instead of 50%), you would pretty clearly be able to see either a waveform or not, despite a little bit of fuzziness.

This idea also seems like it would not violate nature's rules about not having certainty about path information to get the waveform interference pattern.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORLN_KwAgs

https://youtu.be/MuvwcsfXIIo?t=4m

https://youtu.be/VYZQxMowBsw?t=3m18s

submitted by /u/printThisAndSmokeIt
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What determines which X chromosome becomes active during the X inactivation process?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 09:32 PM PDT

Shortly after the conception of a female mammal, one of the X chromosomes is inactivated. I'm curious as to what determines which of the two X chromosomes becomes the active one in a given cell?

edit: clarifying question.

submitted by /u/Moonpenny
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In the winter underneath frozen streams and rivers, what microbial colonies live there and thrive there?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 09:30 PM PDT

I'm just wondering since I'm sending a cryolander down to a frozen river next year and I'm wondering if anything lives and thrives there other than fish. Thanks.

submitted by /u/zyzzyne_
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What is the scientific/biological reason for wanting to squeeze anything we deem cute?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:57 PM PDT

It doesn't matter what it is. When it's cute we must touch it and preferably squeeze it. Why??

submitted by /u/RedRaiderRx09
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Are eyes like telescopes? The bigger they are the more light they can detect? If so how big would they have to be in order to see nebulae unassisted?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 04:58 AM PDT

How is caffeine removed from coffee?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 03:53 PM PDT

I'm wondering how the process works by removing caffeine from coffee to make decaffeinated coffee

submitted by /u/LucidDreamState
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What makes our sunsets so beautiful and vibrant on some evenings, and others not so vibrant?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 02:00 AM PDT

Is it possible to create a molecule containing a noble gas ?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 05:31 AM PDT

For example, would it be possible to take away an electron from a Helium atom and then force it to link with a Hydrogen atom ?

submitted by /u/composedEdius
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In reactions (chemical or nuclear) where light is a product, is there an acceleration phase that photons undergo or do they simply exist at C?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 07:46 AM PDT

In combustion reaction or nuclear reactions light is a product of the reaction. Is there a point where photons have to be accelerated to the speed of light or do photons only exist at C?

submitted by /u/GuitarCFD
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Structurally, how can you tell the difference between the aorta and superior vena cava?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 02:20 AM PDT

I am currently studying the structure of the heart in biology and, after dissecting a heart am unsure of how you can tell what is the aorta and what is the superior vena cava. I have put a link with images of the heart I dissected if it helps.

https://imgur.com/a/sRcxs

submitted by /u/maxthekillbot
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A creationist told me that science, under uniformitarianism, basically assumes that things have always occured as they do now. Is this true? If it's true isn't that a problem?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:48 PM PDT

Can dogs have recessive genes show up in later generations?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:02 PM PDT

Does driving a nail into a tree actually "hurt" it?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 04:02 PM PDT

Assuming for the sake of argument that it's a rustproof nail (so that infection isn't a factor), does that nail actually harm the tree in any way? Or is the idea that it hurts the tree simply me projecting?

submitted by /u/VagabondVivant
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Has a gravitational force been observed between massless particles?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 03:04 PM PDT

Light is attracted to mass by gravity (black holes, gravitational lensing). Due to Newton's 3rd law (For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction) the light will assert a force on the mass via gravity. Extending this, is a gravitational force between photons? And is it large enough to be observed?

I understand at high energies, pair production will be a factor, but I was thinking about lower energies than this.

Additional question: If you shine two lasers of wavelength X metres in parallel, Y metres apart, how long will it before the beams converge due to gravity.

I'm not sure about my logic here. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

submitted by /u/12ShotsThenHome
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Has there ever been a documented instance where a planet in a binary star system orbits in a figure 8 motion around both stars?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:52 PM PDT

How does magnetic field density behave when there is more than one wire generating current? Is it cumulative, or is it more complicated than that?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 05:36 PM PDT

I'm doing some research on ELF magnetic fields generated by electrical wires and appliances. All of the diagrams I've seen of magnetic field strength in relation to distance from the source show just one point source. What happens if there's more than one? For example, in parallel high voltage power lines? Would the density in Tesla or Gauss simply be a matter of calculating the intensity relative to each point and adding or is there more that I have to take into account?

submitted by /u/Slid61
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Would it be possible to build telescope using long pipes or multiple sheets with aligning holes?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 06:31 AM PDT

Would it be possible to get an image if one constrained the light to a direction with long pipes in a matrix that only let light through if it is coming from given direction? It could also be made of sheets that basically do what the pipes are meant to do but with longer and longer intervals of space between, and some absorption area around the holes.

submitted by /u/jarmoj
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Time is relative. I can understand this on a basic level, but how can time be faster in the past?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 09:28 PM PDT

I was reading a list of facts about time and this concept confuses me. I can't seem to wrap my brain around it. Can anyone explain?

"It appears that distant galaxies are moving faster than nearby ones, which suggests that the universe is accelerating as it expands. One physicist has suggested that the reason distant galaxies appear to move faster is because in the past, time was faster. If he's correct, this means that in a few billion years, time will be frozen."

https://www.factinate.com/things/43-fast-facts-time/

submitted by /u/cinymin
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How fatal would a natural nuclear reactor like that at Oklo be to nearby life?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:26 PM PDT

How much radiation would such a reactor produce?

How fatal would this be to nearby life? Either due to radiation or heat production.

How large might the irradiated area be?

How much larger or smaller could such a reactor feasibly be?

submitted by /u/Admortis
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Why do transformers need a magnetic core when you can just put a coil in another coil?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 08:22 PM PDT

So, if I'm not mistaken, a transformer works by guiding the magnetic field from one coil into the center of another coil, thus generating a current. If that's the case, isn't it easier to just put a coil inside another coil, and not only it would be easier to make but it would also allow you to avoid eddy current losses? Thanks in advance

submitted by /u/qwerty-_-123
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Tree rings are often used to estimate historical atmospheric temperatures. However, numerous other variables (rainfall/snowpack, herbivory, volcanic activity, fires, etc) also affect the growth rates of trees, so why do we place so much trust in tree rings to measure past temperatures?

Posted: 15 Apr 2018 02:31 PM PDT

For example, say a tree was in its optimal temperature condition for two consecutive years in the distant past. Also imagine that the same tree was in sub-optimal rainfall conditions in the first of those two years, but in optimal rainfall conditions in the second year. This change in conditions would cause the tree to grow faster in the second year than in the first.

From what I understand (which may be wrong), scientists today would see that tree's rings and, in the absence of other evidence, surmise that the temperature was higher in the first year than in the second simply because of the difference in size between those consecutive rings. Obviously, this would be false, because the temperature was the same in both years.

submitted by /u/Wonderful_Toes
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Is it possible to gain more weight than the physical weight of the food you are eating?

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 05:49 AM PDT

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