AskScience AMA Series: We're infectious disease experts here to answer your questions about monkeypox. AUA! | AskScience Blog

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Wednesday, July 6, 2022

AskScience AMA Series: We're infectious disease experts here to answer your questions about monkeypox. AUA!

AskScience AMA Series: We're infectious disease experts here to answer your questions about monkeypox. AUA!


AskScience AMA Series: We're infectious disease experts here to answer your questions about monkeypox. AUA!

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 02:15 AM PDT

In early May, reports began circulating about confirmed cases of monkeypox, an orthopoxvirus similar to smallpox. As of mid-June, there were over 2100 reported cases of monkeypox in dozens of countries. While a great deal is already known about the science of the monkeypox virus, this outbreak has raised several new questions about its transmissibility and impact on human health in both the short and long terms. With the world's attention heightened to such disease outbreaks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this seems like a good opportunity to provide answers and help alleviate concerns.

We are experts in infectious diseases who are here to provide the facts about monkeypox and counter the mis-information that has been spreading about this disease. Join us today at 2 PM ET (18 UT) for a discussion, organized by the American Society for Microbiology, about the monkeypox outbreak. We'll answer your questions about the symptoms of monkeypox and how it spreads, current strategies for treatment and prevention, and what can be done to contain this (and future) outbreaks. Ask us anything!

With us today are: + Dr. Christy Hutson, Ph.D., M.S. (u/CHutson_CDC)- Branch Chief, Poxvirus and Rabies Branch, Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention + Dr. Reeti Khare, Ph.D., D(ABMM) (u/DenverIDLab)- Director, Infectious Disease Laboratory, National Jewish Health + Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, Ph.D., MS, SM(ASCP)CM, SVCM, MBCM, FACSc (u/DocMicrobe)- Regents' Professor, Texas State University System, University Distinguished Chair & Professor, Clinical Laboratory Science + Dr. Rachel L. Roper, Ph.D. (u/RroperECU)- Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University

Links: + Monkeypox: What We Do and Don't Know About Recent Outbreaks + Monkeypox Clinical Update with Dr. Daniel Griffin + CDC Monkeypox page + WHO Monkeypox page

Please note that we will NOT be making medical diagnoses or recommending any medical treatments or procedures for individuals.

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If light has no mass, why is it affected by black holes?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 06:46 PM PDT

Why can CTE only be diagnosed by autopsy, and is there a chance this could change anytime soon?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 07:59 AM PDT

Why does Australia have such high concentrations of uranium?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 05:18 AM PDT

Does earth's specific gravity facilitate life or do all the other variables dictate that life would have prospered anyway and adapted to almost whatever gravity our planet had.?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 07:54 AM PDT

i.e. is our gravity also in a Goldilocks zone?

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Would there be higher gravity if Earth didn't spin?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 07:10 AM PDT

Does the Earth's spin cause an outwards centrifugal force. Theoretically if there was a planet with earth's mass that didn't spin or span slower would it have a higher gravity? I assume that if there is a difference its negligible though.

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Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 07:00 AM PDT

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

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!

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Would tides have been more ferocious a billion years ago, when the moon was closer to Earth?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 10:59 AM PDT

Why do different acids (citric, malic, lactic, etc.) taste different?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 05:10 AM PDT

From what I've heard, we have 5 or 6 different types of taste buds, one of them being able to detect acids in food. Why do different acids such as malic, citric and lactic acids have a distinct taste to them? Does it have to do with aromatics or do we have different varieties of acid taste buds that can distinguish between acids?

submitted by /u/Marssunrise
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Are there distinct protons/neutrons in a nucleus, or is it just a "soup" of quarks?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 07:12 AM PDT

When the nucleus decays there are definite nucleons coming out, but what about the bound nucleus itself? And can you somehow demonstrate that there are distinct nucleons inside it, similar to how Rutherford's gold foil experiment shows that there's a distinct nucleus inside an atom?

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Why is a bone marrow transplant not always 100% effective at curing blood cancers?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 04:54 AM PDT

I was reading earlier today about the kinds of ailments that bone marrow transplants are used to treat (as I am thinking about signing up on the registry to donate), and I noted that in the case of leukaemia, chemotherapy or radiotherapy is used to completely destroy the recipient's immune system first.

However, whilst relatively good, there are still figures that suggest that survivability over the years following treatment is not always that high, some still slip through the gaps.

But what causes these deaths after transplants over a long time since the procedure? Do the recipients somehow reject and attack the donated marrow? Does the new marrow eventually fail? But the recipient's immune system was destroyed, why can't the received marrow/immune system exist indefinitely, or a repeat/follow-up transplant procedure performed further down the line?

A follow-up question I have is are there grounds for marrow transplants to be used to treat immunodeficiency disorders such as CVID? I also read that some investigation has been performed into treating MS with bone marrow transplantation.

This is a long one, thanks in advance!

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Is brilliant green (zelyonka) actually an antiseptic?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 11:47 AM PDT

I don't think this is used in Western countries, but nations that were part of the former USSR seem to still use a liquid brilliant green solution as a wound treatment (similar to/as well as iodine).

It's something I grew up with and never really thought about, but when I looked it up today, I'm not really understanding if the dye itself has any active ingredients. Per my understanding, over-the-counter zelyonka is just the brilliant green dye crystals dissolved into diluted alcohol, so... Is it only antiseptic because of the alcohol? Or does the brilliant green actually have antiseptic properties on its own?

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How are neurotransmitters in a brain measured?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 02:00 PM PDT

I've heard things like "adenosine increases while awake and decreases when sleeping". How is adenosine (and other NTs) measured in a living human? My understanding is the only way to measure neurotransmitters is to cut open the brain, which you can't do on a living person.

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Does freeze drying damage paper? If not, why?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 03:41 AM PDT

Recently there was a heavy downpour and I was told that the nearby library had to freeze dry books/papers in their magazine. Apparently, there had been a small water leak and parts of their inventory got wet.

I have then been searching online, how the process of freeze drying actually works and found several sources. However, while reading I began wondering: These processes usually create ice crystal inside the material they want to dry. How does paper survive this process?

I can imagine, that the paper isn't too rigid, it can bend and deform given pressure unlike cell walls. Cell walls seem to be rather fragile as ice crystals can break them. However, if paper had been completely drenched/soaked in water, I would expect at least some damage to the paper. But apparently, freeze drying seems to be a very safe method, why is that?

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Are all dioecious plants able to be feminized?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 12:14 AM PDT

In cannabis, you can force female seeds with colloidal silver. Is this possible in other dioecious plants? Would colloidal silver be used for all dioecious plants or would you need another chemical or process?

Say you wanted to feminize a kiwi vine, how might you do this?

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Can an embalmed human body be preserved in epoxy resin?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 05:36 AM PDT

As in it would continue to physically appear the same as the day it was embalmed. Like if I had an aquarium fish tank the size of a room, and filled it entirely with resin, the body at the center, would it continue to appear the same 100+ years from now?

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Why don't we feel the heat from the core/mantle?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:06 PM PDT

Most if not all heat we experience on the surface comes from the Sun, but the core and mantle are also very hot, much closer to us and they have been around for a really long time, so how can the crust be so much colder?

submitted by /u/Nome_Qualquer
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How did cells evolve receptors for pathogens?

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 03:04 AM PDT

Hello everyone hope you have a great day. So I just began studying the immune system and I have some questions. So if I understand it correctly so far, when pathogens enter the body they have to get recognized somehow, so the body can destroy them. So pathogens have these pamp (pathogen associated molecular patterns) that get recognized by the phagocytes with the help of "toll like receptors". Also my textbook says something about opsonins, chemical compounds that " mark" the pathogens so phagocytes can recognize and destroy them.

My questions are: 1) How did the cell evolve those toll receptors? Was it randomly but they stayed bc they are useful? Let's say you have a cell that no pathogen has ever interacted with it. So logically, the cell hasn't any receptor for it (or it has but it was a random generation-im not sure how it works). 2) From my understanding, opsonins bind to the pathogen somehow and help the phagocyte recognize it. So opsonins have a lock-key relationship with phagocytes? It would make sense for the cell to recognize molecules that are part of the cell. But how do opsonins bind to the pathogens? My textbook isn't going on detail.

Thank you for reading so far and sorry if my questions are stupid. Also sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, English isn't my first language.

submitted by /u/nextleveldumbness
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Why did all the extinct ice age megafauna die out at the start of this current interglacial period when they presumably survived multiple previous interglacial periods? Surely humans could not have killed all the mammoths in Eurasia and North America?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 11:59 PM PDT

Thanks

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Does humidity affect animals that don’t sweat to cool themselves in a similar way as it does humans?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 03:46 PM PDT

Do animals that don't sweat to cool themselves feel hotter on humid days, like we do (all else being equal)? Or is this sensation unique to animals that sweat, because humidity reduces our ability to cool ourselves?

submitted by /u/0010MK
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Can every radical expression be "condensed"?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:03 AM PDT

Can stuff like (21/3 + 31/4)1/2 (or any arbitrary combination of radicals and powers) be put into a "nice" form that's just one radical (e.g. something like a(b1/c) where a, b, and c are rational numbers ) ?

Or I guess - build an expression using rational numbers using the operators of addition, multiplication, and taking roots - can such an expression always be condensed to involve just one root?

How would you even begin to prove this if it is the case?

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What electrode material is used in industrial hydrogen production using electrolysis?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 12:21 PM PDT

I have messed around quite a bit electrolyzing materials in order to generate hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine. I had very limited means and it was just a hobby project, but a consistent problem I had and I saw others having on the internet is the corrosion of the anode. Even stainless steel or graphite could not stand the test of time and I can imagine platinum electrodes are prohibitively expensive for industrial scale. Other options such as Mixed-metal-oxide seems too expensive for gigawatt scale production as well. Most hydrogen manufacturing websites only mention marketing buzzwords ("ultra high density" / "innovative corrosion resistance") and no technical details. Perhaps it's all a bit of a trade secret, but I am quite curious!

Sidenote, I can imagine it getting messed up when messing with NaCl electrolysis with chlorine and carbon steel electrodes. But if I recall correctly even NaOH solutions with stainless corroded after some time. So my question focusses specifically on hydrogen production.

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Can vultures drink stagnant water?

Posted: 05 Jul 2022 03:31 PM PDT

After a heavy rain, I saw a vulture in the ditch drinking fresh rain water. That made me wonder if vultures are picky about their water intake. Can their stomach acid/immune system handle the many bacteria found in stagnant water without them getting sick? Obviously fresh water is preferred.

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