- AskScience AMA Series: Hi! We're Drs. Rebecca Schmidt from UC-Davis, and Cindy Lawler, from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of NIH, and we work on how environmental factors can increase risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Ask us anything!
- Where in your body does your food turn brown?
- As Everest grows about 1cm taller each year, is there a limit to how high it might get?
- Do nuclear reactors create Plutonium?
- On a thermodynamic level, how is it possible that both nuclear fusion and fission release energy?
- Do flowers produce pollen when they're not planted, i.e. if they're in water in a vase?
- Has the structure of an atom's nucleus been proven?
- Does a star fuse the iron at the end of it's life?
- Why don't nucleic acids precipitate during Slating-out extrations?
- What happens to a neutron star as it loses energy?
- Why do stars flicker in the night sky?
- What would happen if it was possible to split a proton using a quark?
- How did we find out what's at the center of the Earth?
- Do beavers reuse old dams/nests?
- Are there any planets that don’t orbit a star?
- Quick history of astronauts countering Van Allen radiation belts?
- Electric field lines in classical electromagnetism?
- Question About Carbon Dating: How Do We Know Prehistoric Levels of Carbon 14?
- Why can hyperventilating cause lethal changes in pH?
- Do we have any of the same cells from when we were born or have we virtually replaced ourselves?
| Posted: 02 Apr 2019 04:00 AM PDT Today is the 12th annual World Autism Awareness Day. In honor of that, we're here to answer your questions about how our environment can influence risk of developing Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, in our most vulnerable population -- our children. Autism encompasses a group of complex disorders involving brain development. Autism symptoms appear very early in childhood and include difficulties in social communication as well as restricted patterns of behavior and interests. Once considered rare, current estimates indicate that autism affects about one in 59 children in the United States. Scientists now know that ASD is most influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, supports autism research aimed at understanding how environmental exposures early in life may combine with genetic susceptibility to alter brain development to create the core symptoms of autism. One way we do that is to support researchers, like Dr. Schmidt, on her work focusing on maternal folic acid intake during pregnancy. Her research has found that maternal folic acid, the synthetic form of folate, is one of the first modifiable factors identified to date with the potential to reduce occurrence of ASD by 40 percent if taken near conception. Folic acid appears to protect against ASD especially in mothers and children who are genetically susceptible to ASD. Further, her provide evidence that folic acid supplements near conception might counter risk associated with gestational environmental contaminant exposures, like pesticides, air pollution, and phthalates. Her recent work shows that taking prenatal vitamins that contain folic acid in the first month of pregnancy is also associated with reduced recurrence of autism by about half in younger siblings of children with autism who are at higher risk due to shared genetics and environment. She is also looking at potential ways that folic acid might protect against autism. There are many ways the many nutrients in prenatal vitamins could be critical for brain development and could protect mechanistic pathways implicated in autism, such as epigenetics, DNA repair/synthesis, mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Dr. Schmidt hopes that future research to understand the pathways involved could improve our understanding of autism etiology. Dr. Schmidt is also helping to lead the NIEHS-funded Markers of Autism Risk in Babies (MARBLES) study, which is a longitudinal study for pregnant women who have a biological child with ASD. The MARBLES study, which began in 2006, investigates possible prenatal and postpartum biological and environmental exposures and risk factors that may contribute to the development of autism. Ask us anything about Dr. Schmidt's research on folic acid, the MARBLES study, or other NIEHS-funded research on the environmental risk factors of ASD! Your hosts today are:
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| Where in your body does your food turn brown? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 10:59 AM PDT I know this is maybe a stupid question, but poop is brown, but when you throw up your throw up is just the color of your food. Where does your body make your food brown? (Sorry for my crappy English) [link] [comments]  |
| As Everest grows about 1cm taller each year, is there a limit to how high it might get? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 05:14 AM PDT |
| Do nuclear reactors create Plutonium? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 06:08 AM PDT From my understanding, enriched uranium used in reactors has at best 20% U-235 content, while the majority is U-238. Since neutron radiation transmutes U-238 > U-239 and then decay of U-239 > Np-239 > Pu-239 how much plutonium is created by the fission process? And why isn't this radioactive 'waste' used since plutonium is fissile? [link] [comments]  |
| On a thermodynamic level, how is it possible that both nuclear fusion and fission release energy? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 11:44 PM PDT I know fission involves splitting atomic nuclei. Splitting a larger nucleus into smaller nuclei I think would be entropically favorable and would have a negative deltaG. So it follows that fission would release energy. Following that logic in reverse would imply fusion would not release energy at all and actually be endothermic. This is obviously not true but I'm wondering why. [link] [comments]  |
| Do flowers produce pollen when they're not planted, i.e. if they're in water in a vase? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 05:07 AM PDT Someone at work whose mum is a florist was saying she bitches about people in her shop complaining of hayfever-like symptoms, as apparently flowers not planted don't produce pollen. I have a feeling that this is bullshit but I can't find anything online in my own searching. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Has the structure of an atom's nucleus been proven? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 01:54 AM PDT I've seen in textbooks that the nucleus of an atom looks like several sphere compacted into a bigger sphere, or whatever. My thoughts are that this would have minute effects on how the nucleus affects the atom as a whole from atom to atom of the same element. Is this real? Do two atoms of the same element with different proton and neutron arrangements have miniscule differences in behavior? Or, does the arrangement not exist and it's more like some kind of 'energy soup' or light show? [link] [comments]  |
| Does a star fuse the iron at the end of it's life? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 06:31 AM PDT So this was a lot harder to find out than i thought. People write it so loosely. They say when a star fuse silicon into iron its going to "die"/go supernova, and it cant fuse iron because it takes to much energy. So fusion stops and it implodes because it does not have that pressure of fusing. Other say when it starts to fuse iron it require more energy than it gives off, and so its going to loose energy and "die"/go supernova so in general does it actually fuse some of the iron or does it stop at the silicon to iron and it does NOT fuse the iron?. I know that it takes a lot of energy to fuse iron, and that iron is at the top of the "binding energy curve" so it does not give of more energy if fused. and that it makes heavier elements when it goes supernova, its just this "little" detail. [link] [comments]  |
| Why don't nucleic acids precipitate during Slating-out extrations? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 06:25 AM PDT *Salting-out I understand that the process precipitates proteins by interecting with their charges and making them "less soluble", but how is DNA "protected" from this? [link] [comments]  |
| What happens to a neutron star as it loses energy? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 04:52 PM PDT So a neutron star has oviously a finite amount of available energy, like any other star. I'm expecting it will cool down over a very long time, but then what? Will it undergo an explosion, like a red giant turning into a white dwarf? Will it just cool down, like a white dwarf turning into a black dwarf? If a neutron star has no longer sufficient energy to glow, what would it look like to a human observer, if it was lit by the light of a star like our Sun? [link] [comments]  |
| Why do stars flicker in the night sky? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 07:21 PM PDT |
| What would happen if it was possible to split a proton using a quark? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 02:56 PM PDT I'd like to preface by saying I'm extremely new to splitting atoms and the technology behind it. I've been doing some research into nuclear energy and I think I understand the very basic concept of a neutron is fired at an atom which causes a chain reaction of the atom continuously splitting which creates energy. I know that inside protons are quarks, not too familiar with those but I'm learning. My question is if we could capture quarks and fire them at a proton would that create the same amount of energy, or any energy at all? [link] [comments]  |
| How did we find out what's at the center of the Earth? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 06:22 PM PDT Dumb question, but obviously we never reached the center, yet we the core is made of metal. How did we find this out? And the center of the Earth can also reach incredibly high temperatures. Why is it so hot in the center? Is it mainly due to magma or is there another factor? [link] [comments]  |
| Do beavers reuse old dams/nests? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 04:36 PM PDT |
| Are there any planets that don’t orbit a star? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 02:44 PM PDT |
| Quick history of astronauts countering Van Allen radiation belts? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 10:40 PM PDT I vaguely remember being told that the first astro(and kozmo)nauts didnt know or care about the Van Allen radiation belts, and that they got stupidly lucky surviving pasing trough them. Is this true, and when did space agencies started protecting astronauts from radiation? I would be very gratefull for a answer, or a link to a very simple article/video on the subject. I did try googling the answer myself, before bothering you lovely smart people. But all the search results for Van Allen belts are 1 short wiki article and 700 000 MOON LANDING HOAX ILLUMINATI DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT ATLANTIS LEVITATION!!!!!! Im afraid that if I look at that search page any longer I might get brain cancer, so please save me from cancer. [link] [comments]  |
| Electric field lines in classical electromagnetism? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 11:21 AM PDT This may be a dumb question for most people here, but this has been bothering me for awhile, and I am just a layman. Positive charges have lines "pointing away" from the charge while negative charges have lines "pointing toward" the charges. Other than it's the "direction of the electric field," I don't know what the lines actually represent, and I don't know what the electric field actually is, but it looks like positive charges emit unlimited electric energy for as long as the charges exist, and negative charges consume unlimited electric energy. But unless I am missing something, electrons and photons have finite energy. Any help appreciated. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Question About Carbon Dating: How Do We Know Prehistoric Levels of Carbon 14? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 10:28 AM PDT Hey all! I've been reading about radio carbon dating and I think I understand the basics. Carbon comes in two stable isotopes and an unstable isotope, Carbon 14. Carbon 14 is created in the atmosphere and eventually finds its way into the food cycle and into our bodies. We date things by looking at the percentage of Carbon 14 that is left in remains. What I don't understand is how do we know that the amount of Carbon 14 that was around 20k years ago is similar to what we have today? Hypothetically, say I die today and my body has 10% Carbon 14 and 90% stable Carbon. From what I understand, and in basic terms, in ~5k years my remains would have 5% Carbon 14 and 95% stable Carbon. So what evidence is there that 20k years ago there were similar levels of Carbon 14 in living organisms? What if, 20k years ago the atmosphere wasn't producing as much C14 and something died containing only 1% C14 and 99% stable carbon? We find it today and it only has 1/16th of the 1% of C14 and we assume its age is much older? I'm sure there is a way we can tell, but I was just curious. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding anything or if my question needs more information! Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Why can hyperventilating cause lethal changes in pH? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 11:01 AM PDT |
| Do we have any of the same cells from when we were born or have we virtually replaced ourselves? Posted: 01 Apr 2019 07:44 AM PDT |
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