Can plants be "fat"? | AskScience Blog

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Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Can plants be "fat"?

Can plants be "fat"?


Can plants be "fat"?

Posted: 08 May 2018 08:33 AM PDT

Edit: Oh guys, this is amazing. Thank you all

submitted by /u/Medesimo
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How dense were dinosaur populations (e.g., t-Rex, velociraptor, brontosaurus) at the height of their respective time periods?

Posted: 08 May 2018 10:39 AM PDT

For example, was the T-Rex population similar to that of mountain lions or more similar to that of field mice?

submitted by /u/stbillings
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Do relativistic light sources decelerate?

Posted: 09 May 2018 05:33 AM PDT

Relativistic beaming is a process by which the light emitted by an isotropic source appears biased in intensity in the forward direction.

My question is: given the intensity of radiation is greater in the forward direction, will the source not be acting like a photon drive, and hence decelerate? Furthermore, won't people in different reference frames observe different decelerations? And what about the frame in which the source is stationary?

submitted by /u/MaximilianCrichton
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How does the nutrients of a banana and its peel change as it ripens? Is nutrients transferred between the peel and the banana in any way or are they separate entities? If so, what is the mechanism of transfer?

Posted: 09 May 2018 06:29 AM PDT

Is there a point/limit when a cluster of mass can/will become a planet?

Posted: 09 May 2018 02:17 AM PDT

So, my idea was as follows:

In the next hundreds of thousands of years (of humanity will survive that is) humans roam around the solar system/galaxy and increased amount of space debris is jettisoned to space; could this potential cluster of space debris tip over a certain point/limit until it starts the process of becoming a planet? (Of course we need to imagine that this space debris needs to be stationary somehow and all of it needs to be all in the same area, ignore that fact)

I know this is really far fetched, because of the sheer enormous amount of mass needed for it.

But could it be theoretically possible to walk on a human made planet?

Is there a reaction/process that a cluster of mass goes through as it "evolves" into a planet?

submitted by /u/M3nt4lcom
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How does tuned mass damper work?

Posted: 09 May 2018 06:43 AM PDT

I understand that the tuned mass damper oscillate in the opposite direction of the building it is installed on to reduce the the "shake" the building experiences and allow it to return to normal, but I do not understand how the values of the frequency of oscillation of the building and the damper compare, any lurking physicist help out? thanks!

submitted by /u/friedbreadsticks
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How does one’s current gene expression impact genetic heritability in one’s offspring? Is it different for mothers and fathers?

Posted: 09 May 2018 06:58 AM PDT

I've been learning about gene expression and how environmental changes have an impact on proteins, etc. How does this have an impact on what genetic information is passed along to one's offspring? For example, a twin study done on astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly showed changes in gene expression, but not DNA. However, I was wondering if any children produced before and after such a space flight, would be impacted by the change in gene expression as to what their own DNA make-up might be? Would it impact other things like RNA?

Since a female's eggs have already been formed in utero, does her own environmentally shifting gene expression have any impact on the DNA and/or gene expression of the eggs throughout her life, prior to fertilization? Since a male makes sperm continuously, what is the impact of gene expression for his offspring?

Are there any questions I'm not asking that relate to this question of heritability for offspring in relation to environmental adaptations for parents? Thanks!

submitted by /u/JustMeRC
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Is there a quantitative way of measuring tiredness?

Posted: 09 May 2018 04:15 AM PDT

I was about to go to sleep last night and was thinking "I don't have to get up as early as usual tomorrow morning, so I can put my alarm clock back a bit. I wonder; would I feel better-rested if I kept my clock at its normal alarm time, and just snoozed it, or would I feel more rested if I pushed the alarm back a bit? How would I measure tiredness? Is there such a measure?" then I went to sleep.

So yeah, is there a way that doctors (neuroscientists?) measure tiredness? Is that even feasible? When diagnosing, for example, insomniacs etc. do they measure this kind of thing?

If there is some quantitative measure of tiredness, what is it based on? Reaction times? Some brainwave thing? Or something else entirely?

submitted by /u/cow_co
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What is the chemical reaction formula for bleach reacting with human skin?

Posted: 09 May 2018 06:41 AM PDT

Bleach's equation is :

4 NaOH + 3 Cl2 = 2 NaCl2 + 2 NaClO + 2 H2O

I want to know the reaction of bleach with the human skin in the form of an equation.

submitted by /u/DrMasquerade
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Why do two stroke gasoline engines have to use mixed fuel? Why aren't they designed with a separate oil system?

Posted: 08 May 2018 06:53 PM PDT

The main problem with two stroke engines is that they do not burn cleanly, thus restricting their use to small applications despite their high power to weight. I do not understand why they must have the fuel be the lubricant instead of having separate oil and fuel like 4 stroke engines.

submitted by /u/bananas401k
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Will the earths core ever cool down?

Posted: 08 May 2018 06:25 PM PDT

Since the earth is constantly rotating wont that cause friction with the magma, creating more heat? So will the core ever reach a cool state? Can liquid even create heat through friction?

submitted by /u/Faydid808
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Is showing the same ad to the customer multiple times like what happens on TV effective?

Posted: 08 May 2018 07:39 PM PDT

How long does it take a rain cloud to 'rain out' itself on average?

Posted: 08 May 2018 03:48 PM PDT

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science

Posted: 09 May 2018 08:12 AM PDT

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Engineering, Mathematics, Computer 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!

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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Do nuclear weapons like the ones used on Japan, move the clouds/affect the weather significantly?

Posted: 08 May 2018 08:42 PM PDT

I'm watching a world war II documentary and I've always been fascinated by radiation and atomic weapons. Do the blasts such as the one at Hiroshima significantly push nearby pre-blast natural clouds or affect the weather in the days after the explosion? I've always thought nukes we're THE weapon, and want to kind of understand my perceptions of their power.

submitted by /u/Jackanapes95
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How is the dark matter in the solar system organized? Is it moving?

Posted: 08 May 2018 05:50 PM PDT

A few key premises of my question:

  • There's a bunch of dark matter in our system, sort of invisibly superimposed on top of the familiar sun, planets, asteroids, and other bodies
  • Dark matter is influenced by the curvature of space, so it presumably prefers to gather in the gravity wells of the sun and the planets
  • Dark matter cannot be compressed the way that baryonic matter can, so there is something like a maximum possible density of dark matter, which might mean that a comparatively small amount of dark matter could fill the space in our system

So, I envision a kind of parallel solar system, albeit one whose bodies may be less interesting because they don't interact with most of the energy in the baryonic system, and because I assume they don't really generate anything analogous to geothermal energy, which might drive movement.

What does this parallel solar system look like? Is it a colossal, solid sphere of matter that encompasses the entire system? Is it a disk? Or is dark matter clustered around the planets? Or is there not even enough to fill the sun's gravity well? How does it move? Is it like a big ball of sand, whose individual grains are free to move? Or is it more like a lump of rock?

Thanks!

submitted by /u/rogert2
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Is there any long term possibility of containing (or hopefully reversing) the ecological contamination of the Great Lakes?

Posted: 08 May 2018 12:55 PM PDT

I've read around a bit, but I haven't found a really satisfactory answer.

Is it possible for us to reverse the effects at some point, or are these invasive species here to stay?

I know that one of the solutions is to prevent the dumping of ballast tanks in the Lakes. Are there others that might be more effective at ridding the Lakes of these species (instead of just halting the influx)?

For those of you who don't know, the Great Lakes were pretty much physically isolated from the rest of the aquatic world for a really long time. Once we opened the St. Lawrence Seaway (and built a bunch of locks) we managed to bring in invasive species from elsewhere that the Lakes weren't ecologically ready for (apparently ship-borne in ballast tanks, which were dumped when they arrived in the Lakes). Zebra mussels are a good example of one such species.

submitted by /u/Pr3ssAltF4
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How do fish get around beaver dams?

Posted: 08 May 2018 03:45 PM PDT

Obviously, fish getting blocked by man made dams is a major engineering problems, so why is that not so much of a problem for beaver dams? If it isn't, why can't we just apply the beaver solution to our man made dams?

submitted by /u/LiterallyBismarck
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Is a decimal made of up all numbers in sequential order an irrational number?

Posted: 08 May 2018 07:23 PM PDT

IE: 0.123456789101112131415161718192021...

And if it does, does this number have any special meaning, or just one of many irrational numbers?

I want to lean towards yes, because if it technically contains all numbers, does that mean at point down the line the number contains all the digits of Pi too? Bonus question: Does Pi theoretically at some point down the line have a point where it repeats all of the digits of Pi? I tried googling it and didn't come up with much.

submitted by /u/Ariacilon
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Doesn't the Coastline paradox apply to everything?

Posted: 08 May 2018 03:21 PM PDT

You can zoom into anything, measure it and the small details would make its surface area basically "infinitely" big, no?

submitted by /u/nexusnuva
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What is the difference between GPS and Satellite Communication?

Posted: 09 May 2018 03:27 AM PDT

I can't seem to find anything that discusses the difference between these two systems (or if they are even two systems), so I'm applying to you, reddit hive mind, for an answer.

Specifically, what interests me is why one can't send a message over the GPS network in the same way one could over the Iridium network, and why a GPS location can't be followed if it isn't shared via a mobile network. Isn't the satellite receiving my GPS location? Why can't I opt in to that information being shared? If that were the case, I could walk around and spell out "HELP" with my track, and fellow mountaineers could see it in real time.

Background, I'm a mountain guide and often head out to remote places with no mobile network coverage. I'm contemplating buying a small satellite messaging device to stay in touch (like the Garmin InReach), and I'm wondering why a phone's GPS can't do the same thing. And if it isn't possible yet, why not and could it ever be?

submitted by /u/Danniel33
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