What plesiomorphic (ancestral) traits of our common ancestor have humans retained but chimpanzees and bonobos have lost? | AskScience Blog

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Thursday, October 3, 2019

What plesiomorphic (ancestral) traits of our common ancestor have humans retained but chimpanzees and bonobos have lost?

What plesiomorphic (ancestral) traits of our common ancestor have humans retained but chimpanzees and bonobos have lost?


What plesiomorphic (ancestral) traits of our common ancestor have humans retained but chimpanzees and bonobos have lost?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 08:20 AM PDT

Is there a theoretical limit to how large a star could be, and what are the limiting factors? What about black holes?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:39 PM PDT

How do we realistically measure distances to stars outside of the milky way and how do we prove universal expansion?

Posted: 03 Oct 2019 01:05 AM PDT

I understand the parallax method, but how can that be trusted when we don't know the speeds of the objects we measure or the speeds of the objects we are measuring against. I also know the speed we orbit our Galaxy, and the speed we orbit the sun. I dismiss the speed of Earth's rotation for the sake of the question and I also dismiss the fact that orbits aren't round but rather more like a spirograph. How do we measure distance to a star with any kind of accuracy whatsoever, when were moving so fast inside of two different systems, and we don't know the speed the Galaxy it's in is moving, or it's rotational speed, no do we know the speed that star is orbiting it's Galaxy? Please help me understand this.

submitted by /u/gkitchens1
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When electrons leap from one orbit to the next are they in between orbits ?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 05:39 PM PDT

Electrons can only move around certain orbits around a nucleus. If they are agitated (or the opposite) they leap from one orbit to another.

When they move from one orbit to the next to the neutrons exist between orbits while they move? Or do they pop out from one orbit and reappear at the next without moving through space ?

submitted by /u/Captain_Resist
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Does technology inflame our political polarization?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT

With technological advancement comes increased complexity. Does ones availability to information increase confirmation bias, therefore, leading to amplified polarization of beliefs, values, and mores? Especially evident in today's politics, where it seems more and more difficult for people to compromise.

submitted by /u/akobylski1
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Does density of a substance change discontinuously at its melting point?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:42 PM PDT

Does the density as a function of temperature for a pure substance change discontinuously at its melting point? Or does it merely change very fast but nonetheless continuously.

For example, wikipedia says that mercury changes from a solid density of 13.69 g/cm^3 to a liquid density of 14.184 g/cm^3 at its melting point of -38.83 degrees C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element))). But if I had a super precise heat control that could let me control the temperature down to hundredths of a mK if necessary (and plenty of time to let the sample fully equilibrate), could I get a mercury sample of, say, 13.9 g/cm^3?

I had always thought of density as changing discontinuously during melting, but I realize now that at least some other phase change properties are not totally discontinuous even when we may think of them that way. Electrical resistance, for instance, is not totally discontinuous when undergoing a superconductivity phase change, but instead transitions rapidly over a few mK. This is even the basis of very sensitive thermometers called "Transition Edge Sensors (TES)" (http://web.mit.edu/figueroagroup/ucal/ucal_tes/). See especially the figure http://web.mit.edu/figueroagroup/ucal/ucal_tes/files/page14_1.png

So does density during melting behave like electrical resistance during super conductivity transition (IE changing fast but nonetheless continuously with temperature)? Or is it truly discontinuous, with no possibility of achieving a density between the two transition values, regardless of how finely one can control the temperature?

submitted by /u/thernometer
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Can we remove too much carbon from the atmosphere?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT

Imagine an alternate universe where we are just as technologically advanced as we are now. The only difference is that we are kind of 'reset' at a normal level of carbon in the atmosphere. We discover a new technology that actually removes carbon from the atmosphere. Being how are, we use it veraciously across the entire globe.

Is it possible to have kind-of the opposite problem we have now where too much carbon is being removed from instead of added into the atmosphere? If so, what would be happening to our planet if we did remove large amounts of carbon and put is in a net negative from 'normal'?

submitted by /u/dsw1088
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What's actually in space?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT

Are there anything in the so called empty space if interplanetary or interstellar space? If so what is it and how did it get there?

submitted by /u/evanerfbdgcn
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Does the orientation of the rotation the accretion disk in a Super Massive black hole match the orientation of the spin of the galaxy itself? And in case of quasars?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:18 PM PDT

Is there a relationship between how many babies are born to a member of a species and their chance of living to reproductive age?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:53 PM PDT

I remember hearing that the less likely an animal is to make it to age of reproduction the more babies are born to a female of that species. However I've been unable to find information on this since I heard it. Is this true?

submitted by /u/clocks212
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Why do Iron fillings highlight the field lines of a magnet?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT

I understand that there is a magnetic field surrounding a bar magnet and they make a torus shape. And that the iron filings are showing that when we sprinkle them over the top.

But why do the iron filings display them as lines? I thought they would be a somewhat smooth distribution.

Is it some sort of frictional mechanism with the filings and the paper maybe?

submitted by /u/tip-top-honky-konk
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Is it possible to have a non-gaseous planet with permanent storms like Jupiter? And what would the conditions have to be for that to happen?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:45 AM PDT

Were there more forests in Western Texas, Nevada, and Arizona before Europeans arrived, or has the landscape stayed pretty much the same?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 11:53 AM PDT

Is it possible for the pentose sugars, ribose and deoxyribose to form a bond with each other?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:57 PM PDT

I understand that hexoses can (glucose + fructose, glucose + galactose). So then what about ribose + deoxyribose?

submitted by /u/Dakmury
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What is the biomechanical significance of "bird hips" in dinosaurs?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:05 AM PDT

It's my understanding that the dinosaur clade is grouped together by their hip-bone structure which is similar to modern day birds. This seems a bit odd since dinosaurs probably did a bit more walking and running than most species of bird. The only exceptions would be ostriches, cassowaries, and extinct terror birds. Even then they were bipedal which is characteristic of only a segment of dinosaur species. What made this trait so significant it endured millions of years of natural selection?

submitted by /u/Humble_Skeleton_13
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Why is the allergic response different than the immune response?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:17 AM PDT

In my physiology class, like most classes, we're learning that the allergic response is a hypersensitive response to nonpathogenic antigens. We learn about it as a facet of the immune system. But if it's the immune system? Why isn't it a normal immune response? If it's only for nonpathogens, why is there a response at all?

The symptoms are so different, I can't tell why the allergic response exists at all--it doesn't actually seem to do anything to support the goals of the immune system.

submitted by /u/KittyScholar
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How was the dot product for 4-vectors in Minkowski space derived?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 05:39 PM PDT

I've asked my TAs and they say that the (+---) metric comes from the fact that c remains the same in all reference frames, but I'm not sure where to follow from that both mathematically and with a scientific explanation.

submitted by /u/_Sunny--
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Are the solutions to a linear second order differential equation near the repeated root "continuous?"

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 11:27 AM PDT

I know that the form of the solution changes when the characteristic polynomial has a repeated root, and that's causing some confusion. For the same set of initial conditions, will infinitesimally varying the constants to or away from sqrt(b2 -4ac)=0 cause x(t) to shift in a continuous way, or is it discontinuous? Physically, it seems like it should be continuous, but the change of form of the solution makes it seem discontinuous.

submitted by /u/Platyturtle
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Is glucose just naturally damaging? Why is high blood sugar bad? Can normal people have blood sugar issues?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 08:12 AM PDT

I've done a little reading about diabetes and it got me asking some questions. It seems like there's a consensus that high blood glucose levels damage your body. Does glucose always cause damage? Is there a level below which glucose doesn't cause damage? Is it more of an optimum level where you have a trade off between damage and body energy (which obviously affects tons of things)? Can spikes in non diabetic people, from drinking a bunch of soda for example, cause small amounts of damage?

submitted by /u/kittenTakeover
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How did Earth's tectonic plates form and why do they move?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:04 AM PDT

To what degree does the pronunciation of a word determine it's potential obscenity/slur-ability?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:46 PM PDT

The average word is just about as exciting as the dictionary makes it out to be, while a chosen few are singularly responsible for generations of smack-downs, tears, persuasion and death--since they came to be.

Just say it. "Fuck." It's one of life's real treasures.

Is it because it physically feels good to say? Do the rules change depending on the language?

submitted by /u/LampsLookingatyou
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Would a sodium ion have the same properties when in an ionic compound and just by itself?

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:44 PM PDT

So because ionic bond is caused by the oppositely charged particles attracting, does this mean that in an ionic compound all the ions would still retain their original ionic properties?

submitted by /u/saynotomarijuanaweed
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