- AskScience AMA Series: I'm Gene Kritsky, known as the Indiana Jones of cicadas. I'm here to present new discoveries about these "bugs of history," when to expect them, what to do about them and how you can participate in mapping the next brood. AMA!
- I don't understand why nuclear fusion isn't energy-neutral. As in, the mass defect is identical to the increase in binding energy required for the Helium nucleus, so, shouldn't that just be where the mass defect energy "goes"? Hydrogen bombs work, though, so, I know I'm missing something.
- When and how did the Cape Floristic Kingdom form?
- Roughly how many virion are released when an infected cell ruptures?
- Do dogs have a Fusiform Face Area or do they recognize each other by smell?
- What are the latest data on transmission of COVID-19 from vaccinated to unvaccinated people (e.g., children)?
- Are people with 47,XYY more likely to have an XY child than an XX child?
- Are the COVID vaccine trials accelerated or in any material ways different from normal drug/vaccine trials?
- How do IVF embryos not induce an immune response when transferred to a third-party uterus?
- Air Pollution - How is it attributed as causal factor for extra deaths or reduction in life expentancy?
| Posted: 25 May 2021 04:00 AM PDT Hi! I'm Gene Kritsky, PhD (Entomology, 1977, Illinois) Professor of Biology and Dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. I'm a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I have published over 250 papers and 10 books, including two on periodical cicadas. My cicada research has attracted national attention with appearances on the ABC Evening News, CBS Evening News, the Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, and CNN Science News. My work has also been featured in U.S. News and World Report, USA TODAY, Parade, People, Discover, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science News, The Scientist, and many international publications. I have been called the Indiana Jones of cicadas. I'll be on at 2 p.m. ET (18 UT), Ask Me Anything! Here's a link to the story the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, published about me: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/05/09/brood-x-cicadas-gene-kritsky/7349531002/?gnt-cfr=1 Username: /u/usatoday [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 May 2021 11:49 AM PDT So, I understand the idea of conservation of mass/energy, and that if you converted even a very small amount of matter into pure energy, it converts to a surprisingly large amount of energy. Thus, why nuclear fusion creates a whole bunch of energy, that, there is this discrepancy in mass, called the "mass defect" between the total mass of the two constituent molecules (two deuterium molecules, let's say, in this case), that get combined to form a single Helium molecule, and, that amount of mass that "vanished" during the fusion, can't literally just vanish altogether, it has to either become energy, or go somewhere or do something (law of conservation of matter/energy etc), and, thus we get the energy-output of the extremely energy-outputting event that is nuclear fusion (well, at least very energy-outputting when it comes to the fusion of lightweight elements, anyway. I know it gets more complicated once you're dealing with elements heavier than Iron and all that, but I digress). Anyway, but the thing that confused me is, it seems like the binding energy for the Helium nucleus that gets formed by the two dueterons is larger than the total binding energy that the two deuterons had (prior to fusing) by EXACTLY the same amount as the energy you'd get from the amount of matter of their mass defect getting turned into pure energy, in terms of their total combined mass vs the mass of the Helium nucleus that they become. So, shouldn't it just be an exactly, flawlessly energy-neutral event, then? Like, if that amount of energy, that the mass defect would've put out, when that amount of mass gets converted into energy, is EXACTLY the amount of energy that is required for the higher binding energy needed to the Helium nucleus compared to 2x the binding energy of the deuterium nuclei, then, shouldn't that just be where that mass defect energy "goes", thus meaning no energy output to the outside world, when deuterium/helium fusion occurs? I mean, I know that clearly I'm missing something here, since, of course, we know for a fact that hydrogen bombs (among other fusion-related things) do work, and are extremely exothermic and so on, thus the gigantic explosions and fireballs and so on... Anyway, yea, so, I know I'm missing something here, as far as how this actually works, but, I'm not sure what it is. [link] [comments]  |
| When and how did the Cape Floristic Kingdom form? Posted: 24 May 2021 12:45 PM PDT The world is thought to have 6 floristic kingdoms dominated by certain assemblages of plant taxa, and all but one cover a massive amount of land. The one exception to this is the Cape Floristic Kingdom of South Africa, which is only about 2 million acres in area (smaller than the state of Connecticut) but has the highest amount of endemism of any non-tropical region, and is still considered its own floristic kingdom despite its extremely small area. Why and how did this region even form instead of just staying like the surrounding Paleotropic region, and how long ago might it have formed? [link] [comments]  |
| Roughly how many virion are released when an infected cell ruptures? Posted: 24 May 2021 04:10 PM PDT I don't expect a precise answer and expect it varies with virus and cell type but I really have no idea what order of magnitude range is plausible. [link] [comments]  |
| Do dogs have a Fusiform Face Area or do they recognize each other by smell? Posted: 24 May 2021 07:39 AM PDT Do dogs have an area of the brain for recognizing human faces? What about other dog's faces? Or do they recognize you by scent more than by face? What's the neuroscience and psychology behind the inter- and intra-species recognition among dogs? Not sure what flair to use for this... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 May 2021 07:56 PM PDT Hoping to learn of some peer reviewed articles or even unpublished scientific studies. A lot of what I've seen so far is conjecture or hypotheses from doctors or scientists that transmission likelihood may be lower for vaccinated individuals. News sources and the CDC seem to suggest that the studies to gather the data are ongoing. [link] [comments]  |
| Are people with 47,XYY more likely to have an XY child than an XX child? Posted: 24 May 2021 08:22 AM PDT So I recently learned about some genetic conditions such as Kleinfelters, Turner Syndrome, Trisomy X and 47,XYY. I saw that XYY syndrome does not necessarily affect fertility. So I am curious whether that means that someone with XYY would be more likely (2/3 rather than 1/2) to pass on a Y chromosome to their child than an X? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 May 2021 07:43 PM PDT I am absolutely not seeking to invalidate or even call in doubt the legitimacy of the vaccine. But one of the more ... hmmm ... sane vaccine hesitancy is based on how accelerated the vaccine was developed. I am just wondering if the trials are known to be as rigorous as any other drugs or vaccine to invalidate that argument. [link] [comments]  |
| How do IVF embryos not induce an immune response when transferred to a third-party uterus? Posted: 24 May 2021 01:06 AM PDT When an embryo formed by the in vitro fertilization of the father's sperm and the mother's egg is transferred into another woman's uterus (a third party, not the mother), is there an immune system response involved anyhow? Since the body's very sensitive to foreign cells (as seen in the case of transplant recipients, who have to face the possibility of organ rejection, in the absence of which they still have to take immunosuppressant medication throughout their lives), how does someone else's embryo that's been inserted artificially into the uterus not elicit an immune response? How is it possible to carry such babies to term at all? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 May 2021 07:57 PM PDT Recently, I came across an article that states that air pollution causes 8.8 M extra deaths a year. Also, there were some tidbits that sparked some extra questions in me. So, I'm looking for someone knowledgable in this area to please clarify my questions as I'm not from a Science background. 1) Let's take a simple example of accidents. We know how many people died due to motor vehicle accidents, as its easy to attribute the cause of a death to particular accident. But, how can we attribute deaths or 'extra' deaths to something like air pollution? 2) Poorer countries with bad air quality also have worst healthcare systems, more poverty and other such factors. How can air pollution be attributed as a 'causal' factor to additional deaths, and not just a 'correlated' factor? 3) From the article linked above, this is a specific statement that evoked my interest. "The link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease, as well as respiratory diseases, is well established. It causes damage to the blood vessels through increased oxidative stress, which then leads to increases in blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and heart failure.". Can someone please explain to me how this link was established epidemologically? Is this observed in humans or is this a link established via animal models? If in humans, I'm curious on what sort of studies and how were they designed to infer such a link. 4) Another interesting statement from the article above "When they looked at individual countries, the researchers found that air pollution caused an excess death rate of 154 per 100,000 in Germany (a reduction of 2.4 years in life expectancy), 136 in Italy (reduction in life expectancy of 1.9 years), 150 in Poland (reduction in life expectancy of 2.8 years), 98 in the UK (reduction in life expectancy of 1.5 years), and 105 in France (reduction in life expectancy of 1.6 years)." I'm guessing extra deaths or reduction in life expectancy are interchangable. How could one calculate this number? Thanks in advance for shedding light on this topic and providing clarifications. [link] [comments]  |
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