- AskScience AMA Series: I'm Helen Pilcher, science journalist, comedy writer and former cell biologist. I've just written a book about whether or not it's possible to bring dinosaurs, dodos, woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons and Elvis Presley back from extinction. AMA!
- Where is, or why doesn't the Kuwait Fires in the early 90's show up in the atmospheric CO2 charts?
- Do electrons become more likely to be found in certain places as the temperature approaches 0K?
- Why is the mortality rate of liver cancer so high in spite of the liver having such a great regenerative potential?
- A large body of water produces a tone when it's hit by rain. What frequency is the tone?
- At what age do Orangutans grow their facial flanges, and how long do they take to grow?
- Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
- How many OH and methanol masers may be observed per day over the entire sky?
- What happened Ido Bachelet and leukemia nanobot research?
- If a sufficiently large asteroid came close enough to Earth to interact with the atmosphere, but didn't collide with Earth itself, could it heat the atmosphere to a catastrophic degree?
- Why do we not see stars travel towards white dwarfs "status"in HR-diagrams?
- Can you have a space with half a dimension?
- Is there a way to make light (such as one from a projector) bend around an object and still shine on a surface without being distorted?
- What matters more in determining the yield of a fission reaction- the quantity of reactant present, or how much that reactant is compressed?
- When we measure the distance to a black hole, what are we actually measuring?
- Can sound or light waves be "pushed" faster to surpass it's normal speed?
- What happens to information in a black hole?
- How are the Thermodynamical and Statistical Mechanical definitions of entropy related?
- What is the origin of the force that holds a gyroscope up?
- Why is there no band gap in metals?
- Do all functions have integrals? And if not, is that a proven fact or are they simply undiscovered? Is it possible to look at a function and know for certain whether or not it has an integral?
- How much of an apartment building sized asteroid would burn up on entry?
- If the probability of success in a trial decreased by 10x each time, would a success ever occur after a large amount of attempts?
| Posted: 11 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST I'm a tea-drinking, biscuit-nibbling science and comedy writer with a PhD in Cell Biology from London's Institute of Psychiatry. While I was a former reporter for Nature, I now specialize in biology, medicine and quirky, off-the-wall science, and I write for outlets including New Scientist and BBC Focus. My new book Bring Back the King, discusses the possibility of bringing back entire species from their stony graves. Unusually for a self-proclaimed geek, I was also a stand-up comedian, before the arrival of children meant I couldn't physically stay awake past 9pm. I now gig from time to time, and live in rural Warwickshire with my husband, three kids and besotted dog. I'll be here to answer questions between 7 and 9pm UK time (3-5 PM ET). Ask me anything! [link] [comments]  |
| Where is, or why doesn't the Kuwait Fires in the early 90's show up in the atmospheric CO2 charts? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 01:57 PM PST I was talking with my buddy about CO2 emissions and got on the subject of natural sources. Volcanoes and forest fires and such. Then it proceeded in to the Kuwaiti oil fires, so I googled it. "The total amount of oil burned is generally estimated at about one billion barrels. Daily global oil consumption in 2015 is about 91.4 million barrels;the oil lost to combustion would last 11 days at modern usage rates." So I assume that this would cause a spike in the atmospheric CO2, but when I look up charts, I don't see a spike? What's the best most accurate chart? I'd assume something like the NOAA would be up there. When I look up others, like CO2.Earth, there's actually a big drop in emissions around that time. I'm not a data guru, maybe I'm missing or misinterpreting the data. Can someone maybe shed some light on this? Update: The idea before this was answered was, with all that extra CO2 belching into the atmo with little effect, is CO2 really that bad if the Kuwait fires aren't causing a huge spike. And I didn't like this, yet if it was the case and what my conclusions drew to, then I guess I'd accept it until someone taught me better. But thanks to thanks to /u/CrustalTrudger, for cranking out some math so my brain could understand and see the big picture and 180ed the train of thought that was heading down a track that I disagreed with. Now I'm thinking, if all the oil being burned barely made a dent in overall CO2 emissions, man, we humans pollute alot! THANKS EVERYONE!!! I'M HAPPY I DIDN'T GO FULL RETARD ON CLIMATE CO2 EMISSIONS:-) [link] [comments]  |
| Do electrons become more likely to be found in certain places as the temperature approaches 0K? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 03:46 PM PST I know that you can never know the position of an electron, and that molecular movement decreases as the temperature goes down. Once you get very close to absolute zero, do electrons slow down? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2017 06:36 AM PST Edit: Even if detected early, cancer has a high mortality rate, which I find especially unintuitive. My thought was that, if detected before metastases form, the tumor could be removed with most of the liver without loss of function of the organ, drastically minimizing surgical risks (as comparison: lung cancer has to be carefully removed without damaging the lung, while the liver could be operated out almost completely with the tumor if necessary). [link] [comments]  |
| A large body of water produces a tone when it's hit by rain. What frequency is the tone? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 07:28 PM PST When it's raining at sea, you can hear a tone produced by the rain hitting the water. It seems to vary by intensity. What is the maths behind the frequency produced? [link] [comments]  |
| At what age do Orangutans grow their facial flanges, and how long do they take to grow? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 10:50 AM PST Hi, r/askscience. I'd like to know at what age do male Bornean and Sumatran Orangutans grow their facial flanges/cheek pads? And once the pads have started growing, how long does it take until it's fully grown? I'm also unclear whether or not all males grow them or just dominant males. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Posted: 11 Jan 2017 07:04 AM PST Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary 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! [link] [comments]  |
| How many OH and methanol masers may be observed per day over the entire sky? Posted: 11 Jan 2017 06:25 AM PST I have heard these masers are ubiquitous and that they are regularly observed, yet I was wondering if there is a quantitative estimate associated with how frequently they are actually observed (or can be observed). [link] [comments]  |
| What happened Ido Bachelet and leukemia nanobot research? Posted: 11 Jan 2017 06:51 AM PST During the spring of 2015 Ido Bachelet and his team started testing their nanobots on a leukemia patient. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2017 04:03 AM PST If it came very close to the moon, could it disrupt its orbit causing tidal effects on Earth? [link] [comments]  |
| Why do we not see stars travel towards white dwarfs "status"in HR-diagrams? Posted: 11 Jan 2017 05:44 AM PST I see stars traveling from blue giants to red giants and I see stars travle from the main sequence up to become giants. Why is there a large space between the main sequence and white dwarfs? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/H-R_diagram_-edited-3.gif [link] [comments]  |
| Can you have a space with half a dimension? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 07:26 PM PST I've read that fractals can sometimes have a fraction of a dimension, but people say that the number really only describes how much bigger it gets when you double its size. What they don't describe is WHAT is getting bigger. Does a menger sponge have have a "volume" measured in m2.7268 ? If so, how do you point to a coordinate in the fractal? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2017 11:31 PM PST I was watching this video about a projector that can make any surface an Android touch screen. If someone were to click a button on this projection, their hand would make a shadow and block off the image it is in front of. Is it possible to bend light around an object such as a hand so that the rest of the projection is not distorted? How might they implement this technique into their technology? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2017 12:40 PM PST I'm not really a science major, but this question has been bugging me for a while. I get the basics of how a fission reaction is triggered, just not how it scales. [link] [comments]  |
| When we measure the distance to a black hole, what are we actually measuring? Posted: 11 Jan 2017 04:22 AM PST Let's say that the sun was replaced with a solar-mass black hole, so that the earth's orbit didn't change. We would say that the new black hole was 1 AU, or 8 light-minutes, from earth. But what exactly are we measuring? If we measure the time it takes a beam of light to actually travel from the earth to the black hole, we wouldn't measure 8 minutes. We would measure an infinite amount of time. Similarly, if we got into a near-light-speed spaceship and traveled to the event horizon, it would take much less than 8 minutes to get there. So if neither the stationary observer nor the near-light-speed traveler measures the trip as taking 8 minutes...by what metric are we concluding that the black hole is actually 8 light-minutes away? It seems like black holes would always be infinitely far away, from our point of view. [link] [comments]  |
| Can sound or light waves be "pushed" faster to surpass it's normal speed? Posted: 11 Jan 2017 03:22 AM PST Might be a dumb question but could sound be "pushed" faster than 340m/s? Are there any factors that affect the speed of it? [link] [comments]  |
| What happens to information in a black hole? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 05:57 PM PST Basically I've been trying to learn about space time, relativity, and black holes. Now I am not a scientist by any stretch however these things have always fascinated me. Now I've done some googling pertaining to the question I'm about to ask, I'm looking to make sure I understand correctly. When it is said that "information is lost" when something goes into a black hole, does that mean that if a electron (or whatever it is) goes into a black hole it is just I guess shredded so that everything that made it an electron (or whatever) is just disassembled and I don't know if scattered is the right word, but scattered within the singularity? So the pieces are still there but they're disassembled and so on? Or just gone and there are no pieces? Thanks in advance for the explanation. [link] [comments]  |
| How are the Thermodynamical and Statistical Mechanical definitions of entropy related? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 08:40 PM PST There exist two definitions of entropy in Physics, Clausius entropy (dS=dQ/T) and Boltzmann entropy (S=k ln W). These two expressions seem completely different and yet it can be seen that they are equivalent, as they are both used together when deriving the Boltzmann Distribution and Planck's Law (Planck's derivation). Since Clausius's entropy came first, it seems to me as if Boltzmann's entropy is derived from it, but the closest thing to a derivation I've seen is the change in entropy of an ideal gas under isothermic expansion. Anyone care to enlighten me about how one is derived from another? [link] [comments]  |
| What is the origin of the force that holds a gyroscope up? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 03:12 PM PST I understand why the gyroscope behaves like it does. Using the Poisson bracket notation it is easy to achieve the equations of motion, so please try not to go in depth with the conservation of angular momentum explanation. What I don't understand is how this behaviour is consistent with Newton's equations of motion. I will use this image in order to explain myself properly: https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/wp-content/high-res/1885-1891/gyroscope-1600.jpg In the image, the rod can apply a force on the center of mass only in directions perpendicular to the z axis (Let z axis be normal to the surface of the Earth). We know that gravity applies a force in the "-z" direction. Now there should be at least two more forces that allow the system to behave like it does. Since the center of mass wont accelerate on the z axis, the total force acting on it on the z axis should be 0. Then we should have a force, lets call it force1, in the "+z" direction that cancels the gravitational force. Also the gyro in the image will rotate around the z axis even though it had no initial radial speed. Thus; there should also be a force, call it force2, that starts that motion and fades away as the system reaches the equilibrium state, when the gyroscope rotates with a constant angular velocity around the z axis. Do such forces as force1 and force2 exist? If they do, what type of forces they are and what are the applying agents? My questions may be ill-stated and my assumptions preceding the questions may be wrong. I guess I'm missing something fundamental and obvious here. I may clarify any points I made if necessary, so please point out if there are any ambiguities in my argumentation. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Why is there no band gap in metals? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 10:29 AM PST Additionally, I understand the overlap of s and d bands in the alkaline/alkaline earth metals and transition metals. What I don't understand is why group 2B elements conduct electricity. Do they overlap with the higher in energy p band? If so, why don't they have a band gap like semiconductors? My chemistry book doesn't cover this all that extensively and I want to fully understand it before continuing to the next subject. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2017 08:22 AM PST I'm taking Calculus AB, and this question occurred to me in class today. [link] [comments]  |
| How much of an apartment building sized asteroid would burn up on entry? Posted: 10 Jan 2017 12:04 PM PST I read this article: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/earth-was-almost-hit-by-an-asteroid-and-no-one-saw-it-coming Aside from the ridiculous drawing which shows the asteroid as almost the size of the moon, it got me thinking: how much of that asteroid would burn up on entry? Would the entry itself cause a massive shock wave? Basixally, what would have happened if it had hit us? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2017 06:00 PM PST Let's say there's a game in which the odds of winning is 1/10. If I don't win, I get to play again, where the odds of winning is 1/100. The odds of winning decrease by 10x each time I don't win, but I'm free to continue forever. Let's say I'm at a super high number, attempt #10E18... but still haven't won. Is it possible that I'll ever win, if I go forever? And at what point should a win be expected by? [link] [comments]  |
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