Why haven't we selected for Avocados with smaller stones? | AskScience Blog

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Friday, September 24, 2021

Why haven't we selected for Avocados with smaller stones?

Why haven't we selected for Avocados with smaller stones?


Why haven't we selected for Avocados with smaller stones?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 04:42 PM PDT

For many other fruits and vegetables, farmers have selectively bred varieties with increasingly smaller seeds. But commercially available avocados still have huge stones that take up a large proportion of the mass of the fruit. Why?

submitted by /u/Chlorophilia
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You can get "yellow" either by having monochromatic light at ~590 nm, or by combining red and green light. Why do these two physically different types of light both end up looking the same?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 06:56 AM PDT

Mixing different frequencies of light doesn't create a new monochromatic light, it's a superposition of all of the individual frequencies. So how is it that combining RGB colors produces the same colors that you can get by varying the frequency of light?

submitted by /u/jugglesme
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Have the symptoms of normal colds and flu become more severe under lockdown? Is there a level of 'generic immunity' which we can lose over time?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 12:30 AM PDT

The question comes from an entirely anecdotal place, but that was hands down the worst cold I've ever had. And that was with three negative tests, including a PCR.

Is there anything within existing medical knowledge which might support or explain this? Colds evolve constantly and new strains always circulate, but does going longer between infections ironically cause the body to become even more vulnerable to them?

submitted by /u/ChaosKeeshond
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How do scientists know when a species is extinct?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:56 AM PDT

What happened to H1N1 virus that caused the swine flu pandemic of 2009?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 04:28 PM PDT

Does it still exist? Why is it no longer a pandemic?

Will the same happen to covid-19?

submitted by /u/grasshoppereartquake
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We all know it's dangerous to drink alcohol during pregnancy, but is it more dangerous to drink alcohol during earlier stages of pregnancy, or later stages?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 02:18 PM PDT

Let's say there are three women. Woman A is 10 weeks pregnant, Woman B is 20 weeks pregnant, and Woman C is 30 weeks pregnant. Let's also assume that each woman is 140 lbs and shares similar physical traits (outside of them each being in different stages of pregnancy). Finally, if it's even relevant here, let's assume they each share the same level of alcohol tolerance (unless the stage of one's pregnancy directly affects how one's body processes alcohol).

Now let's say for some reason they all decide to get drunk every night for a week straight after not having drank alcohol during their pregnancies so far. They each drink a whole bottle of wine each night (which according to this BAC chart would equate to about .16 BAC for a 140 lb person, assuming they each drink the whole bottle in one hour).

This scenario is full of assumptions, and obviously drinking any amount of alcohol at any point during pregnancy is a dangerous, terrible idea. But in this scenario, would one of the three women likely have inflicted more damage on their baby than the other two? Or would the effects likely be the same for each woman's baby, regardless of what stage of pregnancy each woman is in?

edit: corrected estimated BAC

submitted by /u/Hipp013
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Where are antibodies produced in the body and is there a relationship between specific cells and vaccine type?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 09:58 PM PDT

I was just wondering with my recent Pfizer jab: do mRNA vaccines replicate in the area around the injection site? Or is there some cell specificity? Or is the site of antibody production just the local cells (muscle cells)?

Then in contrast, do viral vectored vaccines (e.g., Astrazeneca) have to circulate to specific cell types to use for antibody replication?

Thanks

submitted by /u/Sassafras_albidum
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How does the new "whitest paint ever" actually work? (How do selective thermal emitters work)

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:15 AM PDT

There's a lot of news currently about this new paint that simultaneously can reflect sunlight and emit infrared out into space, so it's able to cool down below ambient temperatures and maybe help with cooling down buildings and stuff.

This generally seems to make sense, but what I don't understand is how a material can selectively emit thermal radiation. As I understand it, thermal radiation is caused by the random jostling of the particles in the material so it is broad-spectrum. How can this paint emit its heat as radiation but only in certain frequencies?

Does this mean that the atoms in the paint can only jostle with specific energies somehow?

Edit: some additional clarity. The paint's IR emissivity is selective, meaning it mostly emits IR from 8-13 μm wavelength. I want to know why these frequencies are selected for, and specifically what is emitting them. Electrons jumping in their orbitals? something about the motion of the atoms or molecules?

submitted by /u/Strange_Magics
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How was dementia treated in the early to mid 1900s?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 02:14 PM PDT

Do more tropical systems in a season affect winter weather on land? Do more hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico lead to colder water temps and colder weather on land? Hurricanes feed off of the warm water and rains cold water back down while also blocking the sun temporarily.

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 08:43 AM PDT

My Grandfather, who was a South Georgia farmer, used to say that the more hurricanes we have in the gulf in a given season means winter will be colder but drier. Any truth to that? As I get older and learn more about climatology it seems reasonable.

submitted by /u/GrassAndKitties
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What effect does chromosome count have on an organism?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 06:38 PM PDT

I don't mean when theyre missing or incomplete, i mean the whole amount. Humans have 23 pairs, dogs have 49, but then seemingly less complex things like certain plants and moths have over 300-400. Why do things need and have the amount of chromosomes they do?

submitted by /u/pinkufur
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How do bacteriostatic antibiotics eliminate an infection?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 08:18 AM PDT

So bacteriostatic antibiotics only inhibit the growth/reproduction of bacteria, without directly killing the bacteria. How does this clear an infection? Do the bacteria die if they can't reproduce?

submitted by /u/working_entrepreneur
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If no one taught us what is supposed to smell good and bad, would we still recognise the same odours as pleasant and unpleasant? Or would we smell anything with a neutral approach? How does our brain decide which smells we like?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:07 AM PDT

Why are the bands in a sarcomere of a muscle called specifically A Band, I Band, and H Band?

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 05:12 AM PDT

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