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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

With today's discovery that hydrogen and anti-hydrogen have the same spectra, should we start considering the possibility that many recorded galaxies may be made of anti-matter?

With today's discovery that hydrogen and anti-hydrogen have the same spectra, should we start considering the possibility that many recorded galaxies may be made of anti-matter?


With today's discovery that hydrogen and anti-hydrogen have the same spectra, should we start considering the possibility that many recorded galaxies may be made of anti-matter?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 06:23 PM PST

It just makes me wonder if it's possible, especially if the distance between such a cluster and one of matter could be so far apart we wouldn't see the light emitted from the cancellation as there may be no large scale interactions.

edit: Thank you for all of the messages about my flair. An easy mistake on behalf of the mods. I messaged them in hope of them changing it.

submitted by /u/DaKing97
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Why does the point of maximum power for a solar cell exist? How do you calculate its position?

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:15 AM PST

What I am talking about is the point called "MPP" on the third graph on this page.

The current just suddenly starts going to zero when the voltage hits a certain point, meaning that the resistance has also reached a certain value. How do you predict where that point will be located and why is it that way? Need it for school. Thank you.

submitted by /u/santa_snickers
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What is the science behind extremism, such as "all-or-nothing" and "black-and-white" beliefs, and why is it hard for some to find a middle ground?

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 05:22 AM PST

Just as an example that pops into my head: take proponents of two opposing politics -- republicans and democrats. Or take capitalists/communists, or theists/atheists, etc.

One can find extremists on both sides who accept their doctrine whole-sale and condemn any deviation from it. What is the science behind this and in particular, why is it difficult for some people to find a middle ground?

submitted by /u/_4___
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What is the most exotic element known?

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:11 AM PST

I just seen some stuff about anti matter and got to thinking. What is the most exotic element known to us?

Bonus points if you can tell me a little bit about it. Chemistry has always been a sudo hobby of mine.

submitted by /u/ZZZZZiiiiiLLLLL
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What can I do to better understand the concept of higher dimensional space like hyperspheres?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 04:25 PM PST

I am trying to understand hyperspheres but every time I think I understand what I am reading/hearing I realize I don't. I can do hypothetical ideas like quantum mechanics but these things seem to much for me to grasp.

submitted by /u/Towns10
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What would it mean if we proved that P = NP, or P != NP ?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 08:46 PM PST

What are the implications of proving one way or another?

For example, proving that P = NP would it mean that cryptography is "useless"?

submitted by /u/SiulOdracir
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Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 07:05 AM PST

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science

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!

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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In general, are anxiety disorders more likely to be caused by GABA or Serotonin deficiencies?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 02:25 PM PST

Is Deal or No Deal just a 30min long version of the Monty Hall Problem?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 02:21 PM PST

While baking Christmas cookies I left GSN on as background noise. Eventually Deal or No Deal came on so I went to change the channel because I like GSN for the trivia not the random luck based games. As I was scrolling through the TV guide, I was thinking to myself that at the very end of Deal or No Deal when the contestant is given the option to switch the case they initially took for the last remaining case (when only two cases are left) that the entire game turns into an extended version of the Monty Hall problem. Is this true? If so what's the percent chance increase that the new case is the million dollar case if you decide to switch? (assuming that one random case and the million dollar case are left in play).

submitted by /u/_I_Crazy_I_Chef_I_
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Is a water soluble calcium salt less likely to be ionized in stomach acid than a poorly soluble calcium salt?

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 12:51 AM PST

Pretty intense.

Long story short: HMB is sold as FA (free acid) and HMB-CA (calcium salt), the selling point on the FA is that it has better absorption (HMB), but I realized a while back that calcium ionized in the stomach due to the present acid, but I was reading this, which states:

"tomach acid markedly increases dissolution and ionization of poorly soluble calcium salts. If acid is not properly secreted, calcium salts are minimally dissolved (ionized) and, subsequently, may not be properly and effectively absorbed."

I have been reading a lot and realized there is someone out there who may have the answer, and would love to give it.

submitted by /u/Plz_Pm_Me_Cute_Fish
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Biology: What causes some logs of wood to exhibit different color hues within the same tree?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 10:58 AM PST

We cut down a plum tree some weeks ago when we noticed that the wood of that specific tree has two very different hues displayed in the cross section. The different colors are also very clearly separated. See images below for the logs in question.

I believe to understand how tree rings are formed, so i was wondering if this case was also mostly caused by climate. Or does the color come from changes in soil or air quality? Other trees (apple) which were also cut down around the plum tree did not exhibit the same colors, so is this something specific to plum trees or a mutation?

Another theory I had was that since the dark coloration is at the center, maybe it's something like the 'nutrition highway' of the tree where all the water and nutrients go through the plant? I looked up anomalies for wood, but couldn't find what I'm looking at so i hope a Biologist or even a Dendrologist could shed some light on this.

Pictures of the logs in question: http://imgur.com/a/vzYJF

submitted by /u/doberlec
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With advancements in storage transfer rate, is there potential to unify storage and RAM? If so, how would computing differ from the current model?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 11:07 AM PST

A person grows up for 15 years in country A where language A is spoken. He then moves to country B where language B is spoken; he lives there for 60 years. Yet he speaks language A better and speaks language B with an accent. Why is that?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 02:14 PM PST

I am curious how a person can spend the vast majority of his life speaking language B yet is more comfortable with language A

submitted by /u/FuckUYouFuckingFuck_
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Voltage drop. How is the electric potential formula related to voltage drop?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 07:52 AM PST

Correct me if I am wrong. I know that voltage drops across a resistor but I don't understand how. With the Hydraulic analogy, the increased resistance requires more voltage, but that doesn't explain what's happening with electric potential. Electric potential difference is voltage. But what causes the electric potentials to change? It has to be either the Q or r according to ϕ=kQ/r, since k is constant. But it can't be Q, because the source terminal charge isn't changing. So it must be r, right?

In an electric circuit going from positive terminal to negative terminal, proton flow direction (conventional to make things easy). 1. Voltage decreases. Because for a proton to reach lower electric potential energy, it must go from high electric potential(proton source charges) to low electron potential(away from proton source b/c proton repels proton) 2. Distance from source charge, the positive terminal, increases is why voltage decreases? (using the formula ϕ=kQ/r)

But in a voltage drop across a resistor 1. electrons slow down and increase in collisions, causing a distance to increase and resulting in voltage decrease? [Also, after the resistor, electrons speed back up to original current speed, since current,I, is the same before and after a resistor?] 2. this would mean the majority of the distance traveled by the protons would be in the resistors. 3. But that fails to explain how resistors in parallel have the same voltage.

I understand that somehow the voltage drop is related the resistors dissipating heat from the Joule heating law P=R(I2)

How is voltage drop related to the electric potential formula ϕ=kQ/r? I haven't found anything to explain this

submitted by /u/tkaz44
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Is there a usage of quantum physics in our body?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 05:48 AM PST

What is the difference between Reyleigh and Tyndall scattering?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 08:01 AM PST

From their wikipedia pages, I see that Tyndall scattering is specifically on particles suspended on a fluid. But why is that different from Reyleigh scattering. They both let low wavelength light pass through while scattering higher wavelength light. The Tyndall scattering wikipedia page explains that Reyleigh scattering involves smaller particles, but it doesn't cite any sources, and I don't see why changing particle size would give two distinct phenomena.

submitted by /u/AbsolutelyHalaal
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Do metric miles change in an airplane?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 07:42 AM PST

Metric miles are 1/4000th of the circumference of earth, and that's how they were established, correct? So if you increase the circumference, as you do when you increase the radius from the earth's core to you (EG when in a flying airplane), shouldn't the distance of a metric mile change?

submitted by /u/tapetkabinett
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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Symmetry of a snowflake through an electron microscope shows both sharp and round edges. Do we understand the causal factors as to why this occurs?

Symmetry of a snowflake through an electron microscope shows both sharp and round edges. Do we understand the causal factors as to why this occurs?


Symmetry of a snowflake through an electron microscope shows both sharp and round edges. Do we understand the causal factors as to why this occurs?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:50 PM PST

Just came across this pic. Stunning symmetry.

submitted by /u/ZipZowie
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How accurate must the time of launch be for spacecraft on a slingshot path?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 05:08 AM PST

Since these missions rely on the position of planets in space, what kind of margin of error are we talking about for the time of launch? Would a few hours delay screw the whole thing up?

submitted by /u/the_jumping_brain
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Discussion: MinuteEarth's newest YouTube video on reindeer Meat!

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 09:09 AM PST

Reindeer meat could've entered North American cuisine and culture, but our turn of the century efforts to develop a reindeer industry were stymied by nature, the beef lobby, and the Great Depression. Check out MinuteEarth's new video on the topic to learn more!

We're joined in this thread by David (/u/goldenbergdavid) from MinuteEarth, as well as Alex Reich (/u/reichale). Alex has an MS in Natural Resources Science & Management from the University of Minnesota, and has spent time with reindeer herders in Scandinavia and Russia, with caribou hunters in Greenland and Canada, and with many a Rangifer-related paper on his computer.

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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I often hear about psychological experiments in the past, such as Milligrams, Stanford Prison that could not be done or even replicated today because of informed consent rules. Although obviously informed consent rules are more humane, do they harm psychology as a science?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 04:47 AM PST

I was thinking of jury studies, where there is a huge difference between "Do you sentence this man to death" and "Would you sentence this man to death". I discussed this with a psychologist friend who insisted that this is somehow compensated for, but I am skeptical and think perhaps he drank the kool-aid. How do you test whether or not ICBM crews are going to actually launch without actually putting them in that position?

submitted by /u/GenericUsemame
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Parrots and other bird mimics can seemingly imitate any sound. Are there any sounds that would be physically impossible for a bird to make?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:45 PM PST

How did chemists know the specific molecular makeup of chemicals, as well as the specific molecular changes taking place in the reactions they worked with in the 19th and early 20th centuries?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 11:34 PM PST

Does frequent exposure to the smell of food or drinks affect our sense of taste?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:08 PM PST

(Astronomy) If the sun will eventually turn into a red dwarf and expand, will the orbits of the planets change?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 03:28 PM PST

How do houseplants 'know' it's winter, given that I have lights and heating on most of the time?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 10:46 AM PST

A lot of advice for house plants suggests watering them less over winter, because their growth is reduced. But how do they detect triggers such as shortening day length and lower temperatures in such an artificial environment?

submitted by /u/SSANNEarchy
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Why does a piece of cloth act as such a good filter against odors and aromas and gases? Wouldn't the airborn molecules easily pass through the pores?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 11:20 PM PST

Title says it all

submitted by /u/gamer_alien
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Say a man have a 600,000 km long stick. What would happen if the man give a push to the stick other end of the stick? Will the motion immediately arrive at the other end of the stick?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 02:45 AM PST

How are packing problems solved? Since they are a sort of optimization problem, can optimal solutions be found by hand using calculus?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:56 PM PST

I want to write a paper on packing for school. Let's say I have a square. This square is 9 units by 9 units for a total area of 81u2 . I have rectangles, each with an area of 10 u2 that I want to pack into the box. How do I go about maximizing the number of these rectangles I can fit into the box? I know that the answer is 8, but how could I arrive at this conclusion with calculus?

Can I write out an optimal solution using rectangles of specific dimensions?

Alternatively, if someone could suggest some sort of packing problem solution generator program (preferably with an image output to display the packing) I could examine that would also be nice!

submitted by /u/Niggardly_Elucidator
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The reflex arc misses out the brain, the spinal cord 'deals' with the response by sending a signal back to the effector. By that logic, can quadriplegic people respond to a stimulus, say for example a needle stabbed into their hand, if aforementioned quadriplegic had a clean break at their neck?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:20 PM PST

Is it true that all of the Iron in the Unieverse is produced only via nuclear fusion in stars?

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 12:58 AM PST

I've read this statement that every single atom Iron is produced in the stars (including the iron in our blood and body.) and was curious if it is true.

submitted by /u/ogitocherpi
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Did complex eyes evolve once or multiple times from simple eyes or vice versa? Or did they both evolve from a simpler type of eye?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:32 PM PST

EDIT: compound! not complex

submitted by /u/willbell
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Is there a ATP/ADP Recycle Limit?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 01:26 PM PST

ATP becomes ADP after hydrolysis which in turn becomes ATP again through the oxidation of glucose. How many times can this cycle be repeated for one molecule before a new molecule must be created? Can this process be repeated indefinitely for one molecule?

submitted by /u/grindsman
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Why is the Western side of the US so hot and arid compared to the East?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:12 PM PST

We have organizations that look for intelligent life, but are there any major projects with the aim to make our presence known?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 04:50 PM PST

Monday, December 19, 2016

[Astronomy] Do we know enough about the heavy metal output of supernovae to speculate as to what the mass of the first generation of stars was? What do we know about the first stars?

[Astronomy] Do we know enough about the heavy metal output of supernovae to speculate as to what the mass of the first generation of stars was? What do we know about the first stars?


[Astronomy] Do we know enough about the heavy metal output of supernovae to speculate as to what the mass of the first generation of stars was? What do we know about the first stars?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 07:04 PM PST

Are liquid abrasives (toothpaste, rubbing/buffing compound, etc) more effective in thinner layers?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 04:01 PM PST

I have noticed while working on my car and hand-buffing scratches that liquid abrasive products seem to be more effective when less is used. Do liquid abrasives lose efficacy when excess material "cushions" the effective abrasive surface from the cloth?

submitted by /u/MissBelly
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If it were possible to travel east to west in a straight line, how fast would I need to be going for the sun to stay in the exact same spot in the sky? (say high noon or 12:00)

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 07:16 PM PST

Does the brain receive the full resolution of our retina? Or is there some sort of preprocessing that reduces the number of pixels?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 06:11 AM PST

Why do pure red and blue lights on the same plane appear to be at different distances?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 06:40 PM PST

With Christmas coming up, I've been reminded of a phenomenon I first noticed nearly 20 years ago. Pure red and blue light, say a flat display of Christmas lights, appears to me at different distances despite being on the same plane.

Photographs of red and blue lights do not do the effect justice, so I've created a demonstration image that is much more pronounced. (oddly enough, though the blue appears father it experiences more parallax as I move my head around. This is the opposite of what one would expect if if the blue was actually farther than the red)

In line with the photographs of pure red and blue not always exhibiting this effect, I noticed that slightly non-pure colors also fail to reproduce this effect well. In MS Paint the default RGB values for their reddest red and bluest blue are 237,28,36 & 63,72,204 respectively and did not reproduce the effect. I selected 255,0,0 and 0,0,255 for the original demonstration image.

I've seen this effect in Christmas lights, pure red and blue on LCD monitors, CRT monitors, and even on businesses. You'll notice that the business photo is just white and blue, so perhaps it's something more to do with blue light, but it seems more pronounced when compared to red. In fact, I just tested this with Pure R, G, & B text and confirmed it's only blue that exhibits this effect for me.

I've tested this effect with others. My wife didn't see it when looking at Christmas lights, but did notice it when I created these demonstration images. My current hypotheses are:

  • Chromatic aberration of the glasses we both wear. I'm not sure about this because my daughter noticed the effect and doesn't wear glasses.
  • Chromatic aberration of our eye's lens, cornea, and/or vitreous fluid (I think this is my leading hypothesis after reading up a bit)
  • There's something different about the depth at which the blue cones detect blue light
  • Some combination of previous hypotheses. This hypothesis seems to be supported by what I found on this page while googling.
  • Some other reason.

So, why is this happening?

submitted by /u/zornathan
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How does vertical thermosyphon evaporator works?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 06:33 AM PST

What is the pressure drop in evaporator that allows circulation?

submitted by /u/EngineerGirl_thrwaw
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What gives neural networks an advantage over other machine learning solutions?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 05:51 AM PST

Are some genes more susceptible to evolution than others?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 05:43 AM PST

I vaguely remember Dawkins writing in The Selfish Gene that it could be possible that evolution selects for 'evolveability'. Making it easier for mutations to hit genes that make (for example) butterflies be attracted to different flowers, but not genes that are important for them wanting nutrition.

He said (if I remember correctly) that there was no real evidence for this, but that it could be possible.

Has anything been found on this since then?

submitted by /u/Rietendak
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Is there an increase in serum AST in hemolytic blood disorders ?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 05:27 AM PST

Hello /r/askscience, I am a med student and today we wondered about the question in the title. In our biochemistry class, we were explicitly told that there is AST in RBCs, so obviously increase in serum AST is the consequence of hemolysis. However, today in an oncology class a hematologist/oncologist told us that this fact is never used, and he cannot think of a single disease of RBCs that would lead to increase in AST (obviously excluding those involving liver and other AST-rich organs and tissues). What do you, the medical professionals of /r/askscience, think about that ? Thank you.

submitted by /u/ASTRBC
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[Physics] If everyone on Earth stood very tightly packed in one area, would we have a gravitational pull? What would we be able to pull in?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 02:01 AM PST

When did the perception of pediatric head trauma change from the misconception that children would recover better because of enhanced neuroplasticity?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 01:16 AM PST

I've read in many places that childhood head injuries were often seen as warranting less concern than injuries of similar severity in adults because the developing brain had a greater degree of "plasticity" and this meant it could compensate for the negative impact of the injury. The current research says that childhood head trauma is actually usually more severe than adult injuries of similar severity because it impairs the development of normal abilities.

At what point did this perspective start to change and since when has the "more recent research" started to correct this misconception? Would it have been the eighties, the nineties, or earlier? When did this knowledge start to become mainstream in the medical community?

submitted by /u/tobiasnash
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Why "binary" alkaloid and not a dimer?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 02:18 AM PST

If indol makes chemical bonds with dihydroindol it isn't considered as a dimer but rather "binary" alkaloid. Anyone know why this is not branded as a dimer?

submitted by /u/Terglav
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What happens to a planet between two binary stars?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 01:04 PM PST

It's been a while since I've taken any physics course and I was legit stumped by this question. Came up because of a D&D sesh with this particular setting, if anyone's curious.

What I'm wondering is, if a planet is right in the middle of two binary stars orbiting each other, what happens to the planet? Does is it move at all?

submitted by /u/LilPhattie
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[Medicine] Why are some medicines required to be taken with food, and others to be taken on an empty stomach? What's the difference, and can they be designed to work in different ways?

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 03:24 AM PST

I'm currently on a course of antibiotics for an ear/throat infection. These are the kind that you have to take on an empty stomach. The instructions are "Two hours after food, or one hour before food". This is inconvenient, as it means you have to carefully plan both your pill-taking and meals.

I've also in the past taken some medicines which required me to take them with food, or just before. These are much easier to take, as you just make sure you eat something when you take it.

What is the difference? Why must some be taken on an empty stomach and others not? Is this an inherent feature of the drugs being delivered, or is it "designed" in some sense? What is it about certain drugs which requires food or no food?

Basically just very curious about how and why there is a difference :)

submitted by /u/low_flying_aircraft
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Why do stars fuse for so long?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 02:52 PM PST

Why is it that stars take billions of years to use all of their material? Why doesn't the material burn up (fuse) all at once or more quickly?

submitted by /u/ColdPorridge
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Have any animals evolved to counteract Human impact on nature?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 09:26 AM PST

I know that Humans have adapted to our habitat, but what I'm curious about is that how the animal kingdom has reacted to that.

This might include anything from small changes in their diet, I'm just curious as to a couple of adaptions.

submitted by /u/Pengking36
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How do they measure altitudes on other planets without "sea level" as a reference point?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 05:07 PM PST

Is there a light-independent method for tattoo removal?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 12:19 PM PST

The only tattoo removal services I'm aware of rely on laser burns in order to progressively remove the ink. Is there any other approach, for example, from the top of my head, solvents that dilute it?

submitted by /u/bowling_brawls
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Is there any reason for the base pairs of DNA are the ones we have? are there theoretically possible other base pairs?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 10:03 AM PST

We have Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine as the base pairs of DNA, but are there other amino acids, even theoretically, that could form DNA? do they need to be those 4 molecules?

submitted by /u/poptart2nd
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Does CVID limit cytokine production?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 10:24 AM PST

Every paper I read says something different about the cytokines released/reduced in CVID. Can someone please clarify for me if CVID limits cytokine production and why exactly it does?

submitted by /u/Gmoore5
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Why do bald men (and perhaps women) maintain a ring of hair after they go bald?

Posted: 18 Dec 2016 05:09 PM PST

I was on the subway and saw several men with varying degrees of Baldness. One thing they had in common was that they all still maintained a ring of hair around the crown of their heads.

submitted by /u/hekatonkhairez
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