Do NSAIDs (Paracetamol, etc...) slow down recovery from infections? |
- Do NSAIDs (Paracetamol, etc...) slow down recovery from infections?
- How can I estimate radiation exposure to x-rays in my practice?
- Why can our brain automatically calculate how fast we need to throw a football to a running receiver, but it takes thinking and time when we do it on paper?
- How is actual sleep different from "sleeping" via anesthesia?
- What goes on in squirrel nests?
- Why does the ISS need to "re-boost" in order to stay in orbit?
- Has a particle physics result that reached 3-sigma subsequently not reached 5-sigma and been abandoned?
- What is the weak nuclear force?
- What are the surface properties of a cooling dwarf star?
- Is it purely coincidence that the human sleep cycle roughly matches the day and night cycle of Earth or is it the time of day that determined our sleep habits?
- Is the Earth the only other place in the solar system (other than the Sun) where nuclear reactions have taken place (fusion *or* fission)?
- Effects of environmental determinism on colour perception/discrimination/terms?
- If you put an object that was perfectly red in a room with absolutely no red wavelengths, what colour would it be?
- What keeps neutrons in the nucleus of an atom?
- [Physics] What happens to neutrons that are ejected from nuclei through various processes (fission, knocked out by high energy photons, etc)?
- Stabilization of N- and C-terminus in amino acids?
- Can paper products be used to sequester carbon?
- Since electron energy levels are discrete, why are absorption spectra continuous?
- Are there any animals that build upon the tools/structures/techniques they utilize from generation to generation?
- I have many questions about melanocytes; Does melanocyte distribution affect skin-tone evenness, and if so, what affects the distribution of melanocytes? Do darker-skinned people have more melanocytes, or just make more melanin? etc.
- If I stretch a metal bar, it becomes thinner at one point, and then suddenly it snaps. What is the molecular-level reason why it doesn't keep becoming thinner and thinner?
- Why do I see the dark part of a crescent moon?
| Do NSAIDs (Paracetamol, etc...) slow down recovery from infections? Posted: 04 Feb 2017 04:39 AM PST NSAIDs (paracetamol, ibuprofen and others) can be used to reduce fever and inflammation. But as I understood it, fever and inflammation are mechanisms the body uses to boost the effectiveness of the immune system. Does the use of NSAIDs therefore reduce the effectiveness of the immune system in combatting an infection? If so, has this effect been quantified (e.g. "on average recovery time for infection X is Y% longer with a daily dose of Z")? And is there any effect when NSAIDs are used when there is no infection (wounds, headaches, etc...)? [link] [comments]  |
| How can I estimate radiation exposure to x-rays in my practice? Posted: 04 Feb 2017 12:57 AM PST I'm a veterinarian that has to do a lot of x-rays, and usually the owners hold the animals. Most owners have no clue (I still get asked daily if they have to turn off their mobiles), but some are interested in knowing more about risks. I know that holding an animal for x-ray just once results in very little exposure to radiation, but just how little? Knowing the kV and mAs and the distance from the main focus, can I provide a good enough estimate of exposure? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2017 06:09 PM PST I was playing some catch the other day with a friend of mine. He would run off down the field, and I would throw the ball, and 90% of the time it was an accurate throw to him. The other 10% was due to wind difference, so I would adjust the throw and make it to him. All of that is done automatically in our brains, and it works pretty fast. Now, why is it that when we see the same situation, but on paper, it takes time to calculate all of that information. Is it because our brains see the actual numbers compared to real world events that are happening right there? Or shouldn't our brain be able to pick that information and automatically translate it, as if it were happening right there? Edit: fixed wording. But man, this blew up, and got a lot of great responses for this. Initially had it marked as physics, but I see it got changed to psychology. Very interesting. Thanks for all that took time, and made the explanation better for me! [link] [comments]  |
| How is actual sleep different from "sleeping" via anesthesia? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 01:02 PM PST |
| What goes on in squirrel nests? Posted: 04 Feb 2017 07:01 AM PST A bit of context. I live in Eastern Canada, and grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are everywhere. They build conspicuous "nests" made of twigs and leaves, up in the canopy of trees. Naïvely, I accepted what I was told as a child, namely that those are where squirrels retire to hibernate for the winter... But here's the thing: not only do the nests seem a bit too small and flimsy to shelter the squirrels in any meaningful way in -30°C weather and winter winds, but the critters are scampering outside all winter long. So they manifestly don't hibernate. What exactly do squirrels actually do with those structures? [link] [comments]  |
| Why does the ISS need to "re-boost" in order to stay in orbit? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 08:05 PM PST The main common justification for this re-boosting I've heard is that since it is in low orbit, it is constantly falling a little bit and if it was farther away from earth it wouldn't need this. However, I just took my first physics course and we learned the equation for Centripetal Force is mv2/r, so from my understanding of this equation, why doesn't it just speed up in general in order to maintain a constant orbit. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 08:22 AM PST Famously, the higgs boson result was confirmed when the chances that the higgs finding was not real was no more than 1 in a very large number (5-sigma). Recent news articles on CP violation have reached 3-sigma. Has there been a promising result that got to 3 or 4 sigma, only to never get to 5-sigma significance? [link] [comments]  |
| What is the weak nuclear force? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 02:59 PM PST Whenever i hear about the 4 fundamental forces, i always hear 3 of them explained very to fairly well, and then we get to the weak nuclear force and whoever is explaining mumbles something about radiation and quickly moves on. So, reddit, what is the weak nuclear force, and what does it do? [link] [comments]  |
| What are the surface properties of a cooling dwarf star? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:09 PM PST when a star (like ours) dies it expands and collapses again after collapsing it should still be pretty hot but its not heavy enough to become a black hole so it will become a dwarf star the dwarf star should be pretty hot and dense but heat keeps radiating away so my question is: when it cools down (after a long time) it should become cooler, so what would the surface of that dwarf star be like if the surface had ~200°C (solid? liquid?) and if it cooled down even more to about 20°C could you just walk on it or will it never be solid in any way [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 08:26 PM PST For example, if days lasted 48 hours on Earth instead of 24 hours, would humans have adapted to stay awake for all the daylight hours and sleep for twice as long or do humans biologically need around 8 hours of sleep to function regardless of the amount of sunlight? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 09:48 PM PST |
| Effects of environmental determinism on colour perception/discrimination/terms? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 06:38 PM PST I know there has been a lot of research on colour term universality vs linguistic relativity, but does anybody know of much research on environmental determinism or other forms of determinism (e.g. lifestyle) on colour perception, discrimination, number of basic colour terms in language, etc.? Berlin & Kay (1969:15-17) speculate a little about why industrialised societies seem to have more colour terms but it's all very speculative and it's not based on anything empirical. Has anybody does any research on these sorts of topics since then? Thanks for your help! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 07:30 PM PST Asking because I know objects are certain colours because of the light they reflect. So if there were no wavelengths of that colour to reflect, but there was still visible light to illuminate it, what would you see? [link] [comments]  |
| What keeps neutrons in the nucleus of an atom? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 03:39 PM PST They have no charge so what force keeps the neutrons in the nucleus? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 12:41 PM PST Do they just float around in space or do they attach themselves to existing atomic nuclei? Is there a significant amount of exclusively neutron material in our universe that simply exists unbonded to an proton? I don't think I've ever heard of neutrons existing by themselves outside of special cases like a neutron star (exclude these cases), so it made me curious. [link] [comments]  |
| Stabilization of N- and C-terminus in amino acids? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 09:15 PM PST My professor stated that an amino acid like glutamic acid will lower the pKa of one of the COOH groups to dissociate its proton, while the other COOH group while increase its pKa to prevent dissociation (which would cause repulsion due to like charges). I can't seem to find this anywhere in my textbook or online. Can anybody confirm if this is correct, and if so, what effects does this have on amino acids on a larger scale? [link] [comments]  |
| Can paper products be used to sequester carbon? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 12:39 PM PST With concerns about CO2 emissions and talks about deforestation releasing sequestered carbon, I'm curious about factory farms and their ability to sequester carbon. Trees essentially turn air into wood, wood which is pulped up into paper, paper that is then thrown away or recycled. I'm wondering if subsidizing paper products to increase the number of factory farms could have any signifant impact on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. [link] [comments]  |
| Since electron energy levels are discrete, why are absorption spectra continuous? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 01:51 PM PST It's pretty standard in intro-level chemistry or physics to talk about absorption/emission spectra that have discrete lines like this, where each line corresponds to an electronic transition. Pretty simple. But I've found that absorption curves (like this) come up more often, and I can't figure out how the continuous peaked curve corresponds with the quantum image. I've been under the impression that absorption curves are also produced by electronic transitions, so I don't quite get what the difference between the two is, and under which conditions each would be produced. All I can really say is that I've done tons of spectroscopy tests that produced curves, and never whatever type of test is necessary to produce the discrete spectra. I'm guessing it has something to do with the thermal energy of the individual atoms and molecules, which is variable in a sample and thus produces slightly different transition energies for each molecule? I'm also pretty sure I'm conflating at least a couple concepts here. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 11:31 AM PST Similar to humans in that we learn and adapt from those who came before us. Is a beaver dam more structurally sound today than it would have been 400 years ago? Is a happy face spiderweb stronger through geometric design today than in the past? Do animals use better materials for their tools now than they did 50 generations ago? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 11:13 AM PST What I (think that I) know: I know that melanin is a skin pigment that determines how dark or tan a person is, and that it's production is somewhat determined by genetics combined with UV exposure. From my understanding, things like freckles, age spots, melasma, and general uneven skin tone are all caused by an uneven distribution of melanin in the skin. It is also my understanding that treatments (such as hydroquinone) aimed at improving the evenness of skin tone - or even just overall lightness - often work by targeting melanin production and somehow inhibiting or reducing the amount of melanin produced by cells, whereas other treatments (like lasers and IPL and chemical peels) destroy or break apart or burn-off the melanin. I've even heard of a drug (Melanotan) that increases melanin production to make someone more tan. And finally, I've learned that melanin is produced by certain cells called melanocytes, and that treatments aimed at changing pigmentation often are targeting the action of these cells, and that melanoma is specifically cancer of these cells. What I don't get: Where my understanding falters, is in why melanin is produced more in one spot of skin than another, or more in one person than another, and how that is determined by melanocytes. Do people with darker skin have more melanocytes, or just produce more melanin with the ones they have? Why would a melanocyte two inches over from another, with the same amount of UV light exposed to it, produce a big blob of melanin (an age spot or freckle) whereas the other didn't? Or is the case that the melanocytes aren't evenly distributed themselves - in which case, why does that happen? And related to that, if melanocytes aren't distributed evenly, why don't skin care treatments target the cells themselves, instead of their action? Is it possible to target and destroy melanocytes like the procedures that destroy hair follicles for permanent hair removal? Or is there a way to grow or even transplant more melanocytes where they are lacking (like how hair follicles are moved to treat male-pattern baldness)? And if melanocytes are moved with a skin graft (like in a burn patient) - do those melanocytes act the same as they always did, or do they change based on new factors (like host genes)? Would skin donated by a tan person stay tan if transplanted to a less-tan person, or would it fade over time? Even more curious to me, is what about melanoma in relation to melanin and melanocytes distribution? I've heard that people who are tan have less likelihood of getting it - but wouldn't they either have less melanocytes, or less active ones? Wouldn't they be at a lower risk of their melanocytes growing and dividing out of control, then? Or are they at greater risk for melanoma in the same way that they are at greater risk for other melanin-related pigmentation changes like age spots, and if that's the case, would it decrease someones cancer risk if they could get more melanocytes and/or produce more melanin (or more evenly)? That's a lot of questions, I know - but I appreciate any responses! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2017 07:08 AM PST Eg see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkSLZKxlRk I understand the material stretch curve and elastic-inelastic deformation, but what "changes" between the regime where the material is stretching in inelastic deformation and the regime where it just suddenly snaps? [link] [comments]  |
| Why do I see the dark part of a crescent moon? Posted: 03 Feb 2017 05:37 PM PST When it's a crescent moon I can obviously see the crescent made of the sun's light reflected off the moon. But I also can make out the dark disc of the unlit remainder of the moon. Why is that? My guess would be that the dark part is fractionally lit enough for me to differentiate it from the light reflecting off the atmosphere but I'd like to be sure. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from AskScience: Got Questions? Get Answers.. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
