AskScience AMA Series: We are Cosmologists, Experts on the Cosmic Microwave Background, "The Hubble Tension", Dark Matter, Dark Energy and much more! Ask Us Anything!

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• AskScience AMA Series: We are Cosmologists, Experts on the Cosmic Microwave Background, "The Hubble Tension", Dark Matter, Dark Energy and much more! Ask Us Anything!
• Can vaccinated individuals transmit the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus?
• In Molecule Dynamics modelling, why are calculations initiated at 0K and slowly heated to the desired temperature, rather than initiating at 300K immediately?
• Do forests grow back after a fire (better/same/or worse) than deforestation cause by logging?
• Does the immune system attack bacteriophages even though they don't pose a threat to human cells?
• What stops things such as water from entering your bloodstream when you get a cut?
• Questions about infectivity and prevalence of various COVID strains?
• How are islands formed in small ponds?
• Why are inelastic collisions between nuclei and heavy charged particles rare?
• How does transplanted skin tissue in frogs influence development of their nervous system?
• Do pets significantly contribute to global warming?
• A textbook in my Lab Tech course says that for the liver to become impaired in the production of glucose, over 80 percent of the organ has to be dysfunctional. Does this mean that the liver can compartmentalize production of massive amounts of glucose in only a small portion of its surface area?
• Would getting multiple flu shots increase immunity?
• Can animals suffer from depression?
• Is there objective evidence for our mind's "inner world" of experiences?
• Venus’ atmosphere is 96.5% Carbon Dioxide meanwhile Mars’ is 95% CO2. Why does Mars not experience the same greenhouse effect that Venus, and Earth with a much lower CO2 concentration, do?
• I watched a video about how infant’s hearts slow down when in water so they use up less oxygen, is this trait continued into adulthood? If not is it possible to manually slow down your heart?
• What causes a superconductor to stop superconducting with very large magnetic fields or electrical current, despite still being below the critical temperature?
• Are spike proteins unique to coronaviruses?
• Transferable Gut or salivary Microbiome diseases?
• When someone with synesthesia associates a quality with say, a certain number, is there a pattern/tendency among people with synesthesia, or is it random?
• How does tidal locking occur/work?

AskScience AMA Series: We are Cosmologists, Experts on the Cosmic Microwave Background, "The Hubble Tension", Dark Matter, Dark Energy and much more! Ask Us Anything! Posted: 09 Jul 2021 05:50 AM PDT We are a bunch of cosmologists from the Cosmology from Home 2021 conference. Ask us anything, from our daily research to the organization of a large conference during COVID19! We have some special experts on Inflation: The mind-bogglingly fast expansion of the Universe in a fraction of the first second. It turned tiny quantum fluctuation into the seeds for the galaxies and clusters we see today The Cosmic Microwave background: The radiation reaching us from a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. It shows us how our universe was like, 13.4 billion years ago Large Scale Structure: Matter in the Universe forms a "cosmic web" with clusters, filaments and voids. The positions of galaxies in the sky shows imprints of the physics in the early universe Dark Matter: Most matter in the universe seems to be "Dark Matter", i.e. not noticeable through any means except for its effect on light and other matter via gravity Dark Energy: The unknown force causing the universe's expansion to accelerate today "The Hubble Tension": Measurements of the universe's expansion rate, which are almost identical but, mysteriously, slightly discrepant (aka the [sigh] "crisis in cosmology") And ask anything else you want to know! Those of us answering your questions tonight will include Alex Gough: u/acwgough PhD student: Analytic techniques for studying clustering into the nonlinear regime, and on how to develop clever statistics to extract cosmological information. Previous work on modelling galactic foregrounds for CMB physics. Twitter: @acwgough. Katie Mack: u/astro_katie cosmology, dark matter, early universe, black holes, galaxy formation, end of universe Twitter: @AstroKatie Shaun Hotchkiss: u/just_shaun large scale structure, fuzzy dark matter, compact object in the early universe, inflation. Twitter: @just_shaun Tijmen de Haan: u/tijmen-cosmologist PhD student: experimental cosmology, galaxy clusters, South Pole Telescope, LiteBIRD Charis K. Pooni (she/her): u/cosmo_ckpooni PhD student: Probing Dark Matter (DM) using the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Previous work on modelling recombination, reionization, extensions to LCDM. submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments]

Can vaccinated individuals transmit the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 09:06 AM PDT What's the state of our knowledge regarding this? Should vaccinated individuals return to wearing masks? submitted by /u/misplaced_my_pants [link] [comments]

In Molecule Dynamics modelling, why are calculations initiated at 0K and slowly heated to the desired temperature, rather than initiating at 300K immediately? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 04:17 AM PDT I've been reading papers on mechanism studies of various enzymes. In these papers, they start at 0K and slowly heat it to 200K, then hold, then slowly heat 300K again in their computational software. Why is this? submitted by /u/Hoihe [link] [comments]

Do forests grow back after a fire (better/same/or worse) than deforestation cause by logging? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 07:55 PM PDT I may need a rephrasing; Do forests regrow healthier after a wild fire or after they have been clear cut for their timber? submitted by /u/EscarGoland [link] [comments]

Does the immune system attack bacteriophages even though they don't pose a threat to human cells? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 07:02 AM PDT submitted by /u/PapikaBun [link] [comments]

What stops things such as water from entering your bloodstream when you get a cut? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 09:54 PM PDT Lets say i'm swimming in a lake and somehow while swimming i get a cut, whats stopping the water from just entering my bloodstream and completely screwing up my circulatory system? submitted by /u/Sol33t303 [link] [comments]

Questions about infectivity and prevalence of various COVID strains? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 02:09 AM PDT Is infectivity/ability to spread the only factor determining how dominant some COVID strain will be? Or are there other factors (if so, which? ) If yes, how come that all of recently dominant COVID strains (alpha, beta, gamma and now delta) are, apart from being more infective, also more virulent? That is, how come we haven't come across some COVID strain that is more infective, but less virulent? Or have we just been extremely unlucky in that regard? submitted by /u/Let_There_Be_Fire [link] [comments]

How are islands formed in small ponds? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 07:04 AM PDT I know the ponds can be formed by glacial movement, but how do islands end up in being formed the middle of them? submitted by /u/XboxSqueaker [link] [comments]

Why are inelastic collisions between nuclei and heavy charged particles rare? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 06:57 AM PDT Hello everyone, I am currently studying light matter interactions, particularly in the context of medical physics. It gets mentioned frequently that Bremsstrahlungs-losses from heavy charged particles (inelastic interactions with the atomic nucleus) are rare because the probability decreases one over the projectile mass squared. Does anybody have an intuitive explanation for this? submitted by /u/BrknKybrd [link] [comments]

How does transplanted skin tissue in frogs influence development of their nervous system? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 06:47 AM PDT Years ago I heard a podcast about studies done using frog tadpoles where stomach (ventral) and back (dorsal) skin transplants in frogs produced changes in neural development. The tadpoles had small skin patches removed from their backs and stomachs and grafted onto the opposite locations (back to stomach, and stomach to back, done at the same time within the same animal). When the frogs matured and stomach skin that was located on the back of the frog was tickled the frogs scratch their stomachs. When the back skin on their stomachs was tickled the frogs scratch their backs. I was fascinated by this but can't really understand how the transplanted skin tissue could influence nerve development. The podcast presenter explained that this changed the understanding of embryo development but I can't remember their explanation for that either. Sadly, I've tried to find a scientific article online that the podcast referenced but I can't find one. Has anyone heard of this? Can someone provide me with an explanation, or better yet, a reference? Thanks! submitted by /u/Inanimate_Rod [link] [comments]

Do pets significantly contribute to global warming? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 06:31 AM PDT So this is my question. Do pets (more specifically cats and dogs) significantly contribute to global warming? or more especially: should they be taken into account when we speak about global warming or is their impact neglible? submitted by /u/kondenado [link] [comments]

A textbook in my Lab Tech course says that for the liver to become impaired in the production of glucose, over 80 percent of the organ has to be dysfunctional. Does this mean that the liver can compartmentalize production of massive amounts of glucose in only a small portion of its surface area? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 08:12 PM PDT In other words, can a 75 percent dysfunctional liver produce the same amount of glucose in a small working area? submitted by /u/Squaragus_Asparagus [link] [comments]

Would getting multiple flu shots increase immunity? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 05:53 AM PDT All the talk of covid boosters, as well as just thinking about most vaccination regimens in general, got me thinking: would getting a second flu shot a month or two after the first increase your immunity? I know the flu shot is notoriously not always properly targeted at the dominant strain, so obviously it wouldn't help much in that regard, but would a second dose boost overall immunity and specifically to the targeted antigens like we see with other booster shots? Or is there something about flu shots in particular that would make this not the case and not provide any extra benefit? submitted by /u/joeco316 [link] [comments]

Can animals suffer from depression? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 05:04 AM PDT I know (or think at least) that animals are able to feel emotions (like sadness), but are they able to suffer from depression, low self esteem and so? O does that require a higher level of consciousness? submitted by /u/erafitas [link] [comments]

Is there objective evidence for our mind's "inner world" of experiences? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 04:50 AM PDT Aside from our own individual, personal, experiences, do we have any scientific evidence for the existence of conscious experience? I know we can tell if someone is conscious by looking at their brain with various tools, but do we have anything, other than anecdotal evidence, to suggest that such brain signals correspond to an inner, subjective experience? I feel sure there must be something as it's such a basic thing to know about, but can't think what. submitted by /u/Rain_On [link] [comments]

Venus’ atmosphere is 96.5% Carbon Dioxide meanwhile Mars’ is 95% CO2. Why does Mars not experience the same greenhouse effect that Venus, and Earth with a much lower CO2 concentration, do? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 04:39 PM PDT Why is Mars so cold? submitted by /u/Extalir [link] [comments]

I watched a video about how infant’s hearts slow down when in water so they use up less oxygen, is this trait continued into adulthood? If not is it possible to manually slow down your heart? Posted: 09 Jul 2021 03:03 AM PDT submitted by /u/Raptorbrando [link] [comments]

What causes a superconductor to stop superconducting with very large magnetic fields or electrical current, despite still being below the critical temperature? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 10:29 AM PDT submitted by /u/Lost4468 [link] [comments]

Are spike proteins unique to coronaviruses? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 07:39 PM PDT Or are there things in my body that have "spike proteins"? Or are spike proteins just a misnomer or something like that? submitted by /u/DrasticAnalysis [link] [comments]

Transferable Gut or salivary Microbiome diseases? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 10:59 PM PDT Are there any transferable gut or salivary microbiome diseases? Any known case studies? I'm wondering if you can transfer enough gut or salivary microbiota to a partner to negatively effect them. submitted by /u/Bored2001 [link] [comments]

When someone with synesthesia associates a quality with say, a certain number, is there a pattern/tendency among people with synesthesia, or is it random? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 01:33 PM PDT submitted by /u/fromRonnie [link] [comments]

How does tidal locking occur/work? Posted: 08 Jul 2021 04:17 PM PDT I get what it is, what I don't get is why it happens? It just seems like it's too perfect for a moon to have rotate and revolve around its planet at the same periodicity? Let alone for it to be a frequently occurring phenomenon. submitted by /u/judojoker [link] [comments]

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