Life of Pi: could the hippo have survived?

Life of Pi: could the hippo have survived?
Do small creatures such as flies and other insects get cancer? Or is it only larger animals with longer lifespans?
How does the mRNA from the new vaccines enter our cells?
What are the difficulties with manufacturing, distributing, and storing a vaccine that requires storage at -94 degrees Fahrenheit?
Is boiling hot water more effective at killing bacteria than a dish soap?
Can malaria lay dormant for several years before a person develops symptoms?
Is there a "blueprint" of a vaccine that can be shared for production?
Why the covid vaccines need our own body to produce the viral protein instead of the protein being in the vaccine itself?
What is happening to your skin when you get a scratch (like from a dogs paw) but the skin isn’t broken, it just raises up and disappears within a few hours?

Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:22 AM PST

For the benefit of those who haven't seen it, Life of Pi is a philosophical movie based on a book about an Indian boy whose family owns a zoo. His family move to Canada and transport their animals by ship, which tragically sinks somewhere in the Pacific ocean, drowning most of the passengers and animals.

Now, during the scene where the ship is sinking you see distressed humans and animals. However, you also see a hippo swimming gracefully away underwater. Is there a chance the hippo survived, or would it eventually have tired out and drowned if it hadn't found land quickly?

TL;DR, could a hippo survive a shipwreck in the middle of an ocean?

submitted by /u/UnexpectedIncident
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Do small creatures such as flies and other insects get cancer? Or is it only larger animals with longer lifespans?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 09:08 PM PST

Furthermore, has cancer always been prevalent in humans and other animals such as cats/dogs/horses? Or is cancer something that is a side effect of humans becoming medicinally advanced enough to let us and other animals have longer lifespans?

submitted by /u/Toshariku
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How does the mRNA from the new vaccines enter our cells?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 08:03 PM PST

From what I understand most vaccines use a "vector" to deliver the payload to our cells, in order to trigger the immune response.

But with these new mRNA vaccines there appears to be no vector. They just inject mRNA into the body directly and our cells just "slurp it up" somehow?

submitted by /u/thosewhocannetworkd
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What are the difficulties with manufacturing, distributing, and storing a vaccine that requires storage at -94 degrees Fahrenheit?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 06:57 PM PST

Apologies if this is the wrong subreddit, but I've seen all the positive news around the Pfizer vaccine. Reading all the successes of the trial, I noticed the storage temperature is -94 degrees Fahrenheit.

I have some understanding of pharma / biologics manufacturing processes and know that traditional cold chain 2-8 degrees is a huge process to maintain. Thus, hearing this vaccine requires -94 degrees seems like it's going to cause a significant number of operational issues especially when scaling production.

Is there severe risk of the vaccine breaking down if mismanaged, what type of protocols do end users need to follow to ensure efficacy etc.?

submitted by /u/mj258
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Is boiling hot water more effective at killing bacteria than a dish soap?

Posted: 12 Nov 2020 12:35 AM PST

submitted by /u/Pikacess
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Can malaria lay dormant for several years before a person develops symptoms?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 04:47 PM PST

If so, how does that work?

submitted by /u/elchinguito
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Is there a "blueprint" of a vaccine that can be shared for production?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 03:00 PM PST

With the recent news of the vaccine success and with numerous other vaccines in phase 3 trials I was curious as to how sharing would work. Is there a kind of blueprint that the vaccine creators could share to other countries or labs that would allow them to produce the vaccine on their own? I imagine this is relevant considering the transportation concerns and very hot climates of many of the most affected and impoverished countries. If only the original creator of the vaccine (Pfizer, or whoever else) is allowed to manufacture it, wouldn't it dramatically slow down actual vaccination rates as compared to global widespread production? I have only read reports of Pfizer owned factories manufacturing vaccines.

Furthermore will there be a patent on this vaccine? Costs are at a lot of countries' minds right now, exorbitant economic costs should hopefully not limit their recovery efforts.

Finally do we have any kind of idea of development time for future strains? The flu requires a shot every year, in the case that covid also requires this do we have any idea if we will be able to develop a new vaccine in time?

submitted by /u/AlgebraicMisery
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Why the covid vaccines need our own body to produce the viral protein instead of the protein being in the vaccine itself?

Posted: 11 Nov 2020 02:41 PM PST

submitted by /u/EasierThanIThought
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What is happening to your skin when you get a scratch (like from a dogs paw) but the skin isn’t broken, it just raises up and disappears within a few hours?

Posted: 10 Nov 2020 01:51 PM PST

submitted by /u/MrGritty17
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