We are scientists from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology coming to you from our annual meeting — which is virtual this year! We study fossils. Ask Us Anything!

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• We are scientists from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology coming to you from our annual meeting — which is virtual this year! We study fossils. Ask Us Anything!
• Do microwaves destroy nutrients in ways that stoves or ovens do not?
• Why is heat emitted as infrared?
• Why is there no cure for the influenza virus yet? Is it because it's too difficult or is it because there is no funding (not important enough)?
• Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
• How does heat cause the breaking of covalent bonds in thermal cracking?
• How did birds develop wings?
• What deadly viruses could we feasibly eradicate in the future - which ones will probably always be around?
• Do viruses develop unique DNA or RNA based on their host?
• Are temperature screenings an effective method of detecting COVID-19 in public places?
• When you boil a pot of water, bubbles form, how do the bubbles form, where do they come from, and what gas are they?
• Is fat that is created in the human body from protein put in a higher tier for use as compared to fat from carbs or sugar ?

We are scientists from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology coming to you from our annual meeting — which is virtual this year! We study fossils. Ask Us Anything! Posted: 14 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT Hi /r/AskScience! We are members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, here for our 7th annual AMA. We study fossil fish, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles — anything with a backbone! Our research includes how these organisms lived, how they were affected by environmental change like a changing climate, how they're related, and much more. You can follow us on Twitter @SVP_vertpaleo. Also, it's National Fossil Day in the US. Please join us in celebrating! Our experts today are: Matt Borths, Ph.D. (/u/Chapalmalania) is the Curator of Fossils at the Duke Lemur Center at Duke University in Durham, NC. His research focuses on the evolution of carnivorous mammals and primates, especially in Africa and North America. He is also part of several teams working to network natural history collections. Dr. Borths co-produced the paleontology podcast series Past Time (www.pasttime.org). Stephanie Drumheller, Ph.D. (/u/UglyFossils) is a paleontologist at the University of Tennessee whose research focuses on the processes of fossilization, evolution, and biology, of crocodiles and their relatives, including identifying bite marks on fossils. Find her on Twitter @UglyFossils. Eugenia Gold, Ph.D. (/u/DrEugeniaGold) is an Assistant Professorin the Biology Department at Suffolk University in Boston, MA. Her research focuses on the evolution of the brain in dinosaurs. Dr. Gold also created www.drneurosaurus.com and co-authored She Found Fossils (and Ella Encontró Fósiles), a children's book about women in paleontology. Josh Miller, Ph.D. (/u/PaleoJosh) is a paleoecologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on Pleistocene paleoecology, taphonomy, and using fossil and subfossil records to help conserve and manage modern ecosystems (Conservation Paleobiology). Find out more at JoshuaHMiller.com. Ali Nabavizadeh, Ph.D. (/u/vertpaleoama) an Assistant Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. His research investigates the comparative anatomy and evolution of herbivorous dinosaurs, dicynodonts, and proboscideans. He is specifically interested in the muscles of their skulls and jaws, and the functional morphology of how they feed. Find him on Twitter: @Vert_Anatomist. Adam Pritchard, Ph.D. (/u/vertpaleoama) is the Assistant Curator of Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, VA. His research focuses on the evolution of reptiles during the Permian and Triassic periods, a time of great change that saw the rise of the dinosaurs. Please check out the Virginia Museum of Natural History at vmnh.net. Dr. Pritchard has also co-produced the paleontology podcast series Past Time, available at www.pasttime.org. Gabriel-Philip Santos, M.S. (/u/vertpaleoama) is a paleontologist and educator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Los Angeles, California. His previous work focused on the paleontology of Southern California, particularly the evolution of marine mammals. Today, his research has shifted to education and DEI in STEM as a National Geographic certified educator and cofounder of the Cosplay for Science Initiative. You can find him online as @paleoparadox. Karie Whitman, M.S. (/u/vertpaleoama) is a fossil preparator and research technician at the Duke Lemur Center's Division of Fossil Primates. She carefully uncovers fossils from the rock they are encased in, makes them sturdier, and puts broken pieces back together. She can also make realistic copies of fossils for museum display. Find her on Twitter @whitmankl. We will be back to answer questions starting around noon (Eastern Time/4PM UTC) to answer your questions. See you soon! submitted by /u/VertPaleoAMA [link] [comments]

Do microwaves destroy nutrients in ways that stoves or ovens do not? Posted: 14 Oct 2020 03:35 AM PDT Setting aside any conspiracy theory, I was looking for scientific evidence (with citations if possible) that support or debunk the claim that microwaves destroy nutrients, or are otherwise less healthy, than heating (or reheating) food on a stove or in an oven. (No, this isn't some homework assignment I've been given - look at my post/comment history and you'll see I'm a 39yo dude who's not in college :) Thanks! submitted by /u/agent_uno [link] [comments]

Why is heat emitted as infrared? Posted: 14 Oct 2020 03:25 AM PDT I understand all objects above 0 Kelvin emit thermal energy in the form of infrared but why is it that specific part of the spectrum and not radio waves or visible light for example? submitted by /u/Chicken_Dimmer [link] [comments]

Why is there no cure for the influenza virus yet? Is it because it's too difficult or is it because there is no funding (not important enough)? Posted: 14 Oct 2020 08:45 AM PDT submitted by /u/kremata [link] [comments]

Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Posted: 14 Oct 2020 08:08 AM PDT Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary 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 [link] [comments]

How does heat cause the breaking of covalent bonds in thermal cracking? Posted: 14 Oct 2020 07:27 AM PDT submitted by /u/alalala001 [link] [comments]

How did birds develop wings? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 09:47 AM PDT I understand gradual evolution like a species of rabbit becoming faster over time, or small mammals increasing in size to become grazing herbivores like cows because the incremental changes grant advantages. A rabbit that is slightly faster than another will have a higher chance of reproduction, but wings are essentially useless until they reach a point where they allow for flight. It's not like a land animal that has half a wing will have any advantage over one that has none. Did a mutation occur where an animal had functional wings after one generation? My question isn't specific to wings but it was the most obvious example I could think of. submitted by /u/asabasa [link] [comments]

What deadly viruses could we feasibly eradicate in the future - which ones will probably always be around? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 01:33 PM PDT submitted by /u/softserveshittaco [link] [comments]

Do viruses develop unique DNA or RNA based on their host? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 05:46 PM PDT That is, if I get a virus, and you get a virus, and then person 3 and person 4 get that virus from one of us, is it possible to know, via DNA/RNA, which one of us gave the virus to 3 or 4? Put another way, once Bob gets a virus, is it possible to trace that virus back to Bob via DNA or RNA? Or are any mutations just random, so you can identify virus variant 1 and virus variant 2, but you can't trace them back to an individual? (The idea of a "Bob-flavored" virus is gross but kind of what I'm asking.) submitted by /u/thunderbumble [link] [comments]

Are temperature screenings an effective method of detecting COVID-19 in public places? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 08:13 AM PDT submitted by /u/JusYap15 [link] [comments]

When you boil a pot of water, bubbles form, how do the bubbles form, where do they come from, and what gas are they? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 07:22 AM PDT submitted by /u/-The-Goat [link] [comments]

Is fat that is created in the human body from protein put in a higher tier for use as compared to fat from carbs or sugar ? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 03:31 PM PDT submitted by /u/Squirtleburtal [link] [comments]

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