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Monday, March 27, 2017

AskScience AMA Series: We are members of 500 Women Scientists, an organization working to build an all-inclusive and diverse scientific community. Ask Us Anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We are members of 500 Women Scientists, an organization working to build an all-inclusive and diverse scientific community. Ask Us Anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We are members of 500 Women Scientists, an organization working to build an all-inclusive and diverse scientific community. Ask Us Anything!

Posted: 27 Mar 2017 05:00 AM PDT

500 Women Scientists is a grassroots organization started by four women who met in graduate school at CU Boulder and who maintained friendships and collaborations after jobs and life took them away from Boulder. Immediately following the November 2016 election, we published an open letter re-affirming our commitment to speak up for science and for women, minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA. Over 17,000 women from more than 100 countries have signed in support of 500 Women Scientists, pledging to build an inclusive scientific community dedicated to training a more diverse group of future leaders in science and to use the language of science to bridge divides and enhance global diplomacy.

500 Women Scientists works to build communities and foster real change that comes from small groups, not large crowds. Our Local Pods help create those deep roots through strong, personal relationships. Local Pods are where women scientists meet regularly, develop a support network, make strategic plans, and take action. Pods focus on issues that resonate in their communities, rooted in our mission and values.

With us today are six members of the group. They will be answering questions at different points throughout the day so please be patient with receiving answers.

  1. Wendy Bohon (Dr_Wendy) - Hi, I'm Dr. Wendy Bohon! My research focuses on examining how the surface and near surface of the earth changes as the result of earthquakes. I also work on improving public education and perception of science, particularly seismology and earthquake hazards. I'm a woman, a scientist, a mother and a proud member of 500 Women Scientists!

  2. Hi, I'm Kelly Fleming, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow and co-leader of 500 Women Scientists. I firmly believe that for science to serve all of society, it must be accessible to diverse people - including underrepresented minorities, immigrants, women, and LGBTQIA people. Although I don't do research anymore, my Ph.D. is in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, where I studied reactions that help turn plant material into fuels.

  3. Tessa Hill - I am Tessa Hill, an oceanographer at UC Davis, based at Bodega Marine Laboratory. I study impacts of climate change on the ocean, including ocean acidification, which is a chemical change occurring in the ocean due to our carbon dioxide emissions. I am excited to be working with 500 Women Scientists to encourage a diverse, inclusive and thriving scientific community. You can find me on Twitter (@Tessa_M_Hill) and our lab Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/oceanbiogeochemistry

  4. Monica Mugnier (MonicaMugnier) - Hi, I'm Dr. Monica Mugnier. I'm an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. My lab studies how African trypanosomes, the parasites that cause African sleeping sickness, hide from our immune systems. You can read about our work in more detail at www.mugnierlab.org. When I am not pondering parasites, I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can make the scientific community a more welcoming place for everyone.

  5. Kathleen Ritterbush - Hi, I'm Dr. Kathleen Ritterbush, Assistant Professor of paleontology at the University of Utah. My students and I study mass extinctions and ecosystem changes of sea animals from the time of the dinosaurs and earlier. I believe science careers should include all kinds of people, engage our communities, and support work-life balance.

  6. Hi there, I'm a planetary volcanologist. I study the physics of volcanic processes on the Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars using combinations of satellite data, field work, and laboratory experiments. I'm currently transitioning from a position as a postdoctoral fellow at a public university to one at a federal agency. Because I'm a federal employee, I think it is prudent to remain anonymous but I am happy to answer as many of your questions as I can!

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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Last year, CERN released 300 terabytes of Large Hadron Collider data. Why does particle physics use so much data?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 05:51 PM PDT

Do chaotic systems behave normally under tiny variations of the initial conditions?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 11:50 PM PDT

Take for example a double pendulum. If you varied the initial condition by an arbitrarily small amount, surely there would be a point after which the trajectory wouldn't change.

If you did this tiny change enough times, the trajectory would eventually be different too. Would it be continuous? How can we describe the way the system changes under small enough intervals?

submitted by /u/Ninjaofdoom
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Are fingerprints genetic at all? Would you be able to tell that someone is related to another person if their fingerprints are similar?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 11:39 AM PDT

Why is the maximum spin of a black hole 84% the speed of light?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 01:58 PM PDT

Are there any fusion reactions using plain hydrogen?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 04:32 PM PDT

I've looked around and found ones using the isotopes deuterium and tritium and even a helium isotope helium 3. However all of those would require a refining process to isolate those isotopes from the much more abundant regular versions of those elements.

Is there a fusion reaction that uses just plain hydrogen?

submitted by /u/Idle_Redditing
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Why is AVI format no longer the preferred video format choice?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 04:15 PM PDT

It used to be much more popular, but seems to have been taken by MKV and MP4 formats. Why?

submitted by /u/shroomery1
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Can we predict chemical stability?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 12:50 PM PDT

Is it possible to see trends and make predictions in chemical stability of some species? For example, take CO and CO2, in the case of carbon monoxide, the oxygen has to share one electron pair completely with the carbon to fill the octets, would this make this molecule less stable than CO2? And also SO and SO2, SO2 has a structure in which S has to lend electrons to the O atoms to get octets which gives a net charge, would SO2 be less stable than SO by this logic?

submitted by /u/MappeMappe
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What would someone see after vision was denied for decades?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 01:42 PM PDT

I'm curious about 2 situations (normal anatomy in both): 1) vision denied at birth (darkness, blindfolded or eyes closed) and then vision restored at age 30. 2) normal vision until 2 years of age and then vision denied for 30 years before being restored. I know in the first case, the visual cortex wouldn't develop properly, so they wouldn't be able to see, per se. But would there be any sensation when they opened their eyes?

submitted by /u/styvx
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How typical is it for a planet's poles to be its coldest regions? Are there planets that have one of their poles pointing towards the star that is extremely warm?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 11:46 AM PDT

Are there any species that migrate East-West?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 11:01 AM PDT

I understand the reason for the North-South migration because of seasonal temperature changes, but are there any East-West migrations? Maybe to follow precipitation?

submitted by /u/muddy_wedge
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Why don't polysaccharide vaccines work for children under 2?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 11:50 AM PDT

Learned this back in my preclinical years but never really understand it, can someone explain this for me?

submitted by /u/Alcoholic_Gingerbeer
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Can coral bleaching be reversed?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 10:45 AM PDT

I keep seeing on the news "go see the Great Barrier Reef now before its gone forever" because of climate change. Is it possible to save or revive all of these dyeing corals? Or if they're dead, are they dead for good?

submitted by /u/elizabethbrooks
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Does viscous liquids like honey create sonoluminescence like in water?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 08:29 AM PDT

What is the difference between medical steroids and athletic steroids?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 10:23 AM PDT

Do elder people who suffer memory loss start losing different "kinds" of memories in a particular order?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 10:14 AM PDT

When my grandmother developed dementia, the first memories she started losing were memories about her homes first, then followed by memories about people she knew, then followed by memories about other things, etc...

Now it seems my grandfather is developing dementia as well, or Alzheimer, he is still pretty much aware of his surroundings but he too is starting to suffer memory loss, and he too is starting from memories about his home, he doesn't recognize it anymore or he thinks his home is still the one from his youth.

Is it just casual that both my grandparents started losing different memories in what seems to be the same order, or is there an actual pattern for what memories you lose first when you suffer memory loss?

submitted by /u/tribdol
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Is water unusually weird?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 03:23 AM PDT

There's a lot of talk about the strange properties of water (ice being heavier than liquid water etc.). Does water really have less predictable characteristics than other substances, or has water just been studied and talked about more because it's importance to us?

submitted by /u/Furishon
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Is galaxy shape related to galaxy age?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 01:28 AM PDT

I'm the questioner's dad. My son can't type yet, so I just recorded his question. Here it is:

https://youtu.be/tDPhv-Kcg0w

"...I wanna know, actually, if young galaxies are really irregulars, the middle aged ones are kind of like spirals, like this galaxy, the Milky Way, and then, like, the elliptical ones are really old galaxies."

Thanks.

submitted by /u/Pagzma
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What makes a dishwasher safe item "safe"?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 08:03 AM PDT

What is happening when we put seashells to our ear and "hear the ocean"?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:43 PM PDT
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Sunday, March 26, 2017

Apéritifs and digestifs supposedly stimulate your appetite and aid in digestion, respectively. Is there any evidence/science behind this?

Apéritifs and digestifs supposedly stimulate your appetite and aid in digestion, respectively. Is there any evidence/science behind this?

Apéritifs and digestifs supposedly stimulate your appetite and aid in digestion, respectively. Is there any evidence/science behind this?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 01:06 PM PDT

I was reading this article on the difference between an apéritif and a digestif, and was wondering if there's any actual science behind the claims, or if it's more tied to other factors, like maybe culture?

submitted by /u/N8CCRG
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Did any animals other than Archosaurs develop additional skull openings?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 11:51 AM PDT

Most known amniotes are either synapsids, diapsids, or anapsids, (the latter two part of the sauropsids), which have either two, four, or no temporal fenestrae in the skull. However, the archosaurs evolved extra openings from their diapsid ancestors, the antorbital and mandibular fenestrae. Are the archosaurs the only known amniotes to have developed additional skull openings, or are there more?

submitted by /u/Spike52656
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Can electrical breakdown, such as lightning or electric arc, be considered as quantum tunneling effect?

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 02:48 AM PDT

Why can't we use smaller wavelengths of light instead of electron microscopes?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 09:17 PM PDT

We have telescopes that can see ultraviolet light coming from the sun, and computers that can transform that info into visible colors. Yet we can't seem to use that same technology to bounce ultraviolet light off of specimen and get better resolution. Why is that?

submitted by /u/Sammy197
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[Engineering]How do advanced driver aids that use radar and/or laser to function (lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, high beam assist, etc.) interfere with police band radar/laser if at all?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 08:32 PM PDT

Does a "simple" video have a smaller file size than a "busy" one?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 10:28 AM PDT

If I'm watching a video that has very little activity on the screen (like a music video on YouTube that just has the album cover) will that have a similar file size to something that is a lot busier? I feel like the video codec should be able to recognize that there isn't anything happening and reduce file size accordingly. Thanks

submitted by /u/Whoisjason
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Structurally, how do the skeletal muscles of short and tall people differ? And what are the mechanisms that underly the difference in lean body mass between maximally-developed strength athletes of different statures?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 04:45 PM PDT

Taller strength athletes tend to carry a larger absolute amount of lean body mass than shorter athletes. It would seem intuitive to say that this is because of the relatively larger and heavier bone structure that they have. What, then, causes the disparity in size? Do taller people have more muscle fibers (and are their born with them, or do they proliferate during puberty)? Or is there a mechanism related to their enlarged bone structure that tells the body to allow for greater hypertrophy before the process is attenuated, when compared to a shorter person?

I've also heard it said that taller men perform more work per unit of exercise because of the greater range of motion over which they must move the weight. It again seems intuitive to say that something inherent to their physiology enables this, but is it possible that the relationship is the converse, and that the extra work performed causes higher strength and size development in the long run?

submitted by /u/socalledst4lker
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What causes the Dzhanibekov Effect?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 01:09 PM PDT

I saw this post and I was wondering how it works and why.

submitted by /u/The_Red_Spectre
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Is there a tiling of 3d space that has entropy proportional to surface area rather than volume?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 06:38 PM PDT

(Note: I'm using some unicode characters to show the tiles. I hope it works in your browser.)

Hello all,

I've been reading about the holographic principle and I'm intrigued by the unintuitive idea that the entropy a volume of space is proportional to its surface area rather than its volume.

In thinking about this, I've been thinking about a simple two dimensional tiling of the plane where the entropy is proportional to the perimiter rather than the area.

If I start with a simple square tile that is divided along a diagonal into a white triangle and a black triangle:

◢

And allow any rotation:

◢ ◣ ◤ ◥

I can start tiling the plane with one tile of arbitrary rotation, say:

◤

Since I could have chosen any of 4 rotations, my tiling currently has 2 bits of entropy (as I understand it - I might be using the terminology incorrectly).

If I constrain myself to matching the sides of tiles to be the same colour (black or white), I only have two choices when adding a tile adjacent to an existing tile. For example, to place a tile to the right of my 1st tile, I only have these two choices:

◤ ◥

or

◤ ◢

So now my tiling has 3 bits of entropy. If I continue on and add new tiles to the left, top and bottom, I have two choices for each and so have a tiling with 6 bits of entropy. For example:

 ◣ ◥ ◤ ◢ ◣

But now, if I want to fill in the corners to make a square of 9 tiles (3 tiles by 3 tiles, I am constrained by the existing tiles and so have no choice at all. The entropy remains 6 bits:

◢ ◣ ◥

◥ ◤ ◢

◢ ◣ ◥

Again, if I consider adding one tile to the right of the existing tiles, I have two choices and so 1 bit of entropy is added. Again if I do the same to the left, top and bottom, I add another 3 bits for a total of 10 bits. Interestingly, there are no more choices available when filling out the 25 tile square (for the same reason as with the 9 tile square).

It's clear that the entropy of such a tiling for a square a side n (i.e., an n x n square), (where n is odd) is:

entropy = 2n

I think I'm right in saying that the same formula applies when n is even.

Since the perimeter of the square is 4n. That makes the entropy proportional to the perimeter.

I'd like to know if such a tiling (or tessellation?) exists in 3 dimensions that makes the entropy proportional to the surface area. It seems possible to me.

Which leads to me to ask whether this sort of tiling can be related in any way to Bekenstein-Hawking entropy?

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Bekenstein-Hawking_entropy

Any thoughts or discussion appreciated!

-Jezparov

submitted by /u/Jezparov
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Why can't atoms in period 14 form quadruple bonds?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 09:19 AM PDT

A carbon atom has 4 valence electrons, so it should bond with another carbon atom with all four valence electrons. However, it doesn't occur in nature. I simply don't understand.

submitted by /u/Xavier_Rhino
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Why does pottery not break down when you store water in it/use it with water?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 07:43 AM PDT

So pottery can be used to gather and store water, but why does it not break down from the water like clay normally would?

submitted by /u/Jkpark22
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Does the intermediate axis theorem apply to Earth as well?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 01:05 PM PDT

Is earth going to flip north e south pole? What consequences can such a flip have on life on earth? Are oceans going to submerge everything?

submitted by /u/Drarak0702
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Does an electron interact with itself?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 07:37 AM PDT

Describing an electron as a cloud, does one part of the cloud feel a force from the other part of the cloud?

submitted by /u/MappeMappe
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Are there any areas in the Western U.S. are similar to the Appalachian/Blue Ridge Forest ecoregion?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 09:09 AM PDT

I would like to know if there are any places west of the Great Plains that share a similar climate and habitat as that of the temperate deciduous forest found in Central and Southern Appalachia.

*that are similar. Sorry.

submitted by /u/APPLEBEES_HAS_RATS
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Why is phloem alive and xylem dead? They both lack nuclei and organelles.

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:59 AM PDT

The title, basically.

submitted by /u/Trump_University_PhD
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Is there authentic evidence behind some scientists claims that civilization will collapse within 10-30 years due to rapid climate change?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 09:23 AM PDT

And if so, why do opinions within climate research differ so greatly regarding the time scale of runaway warming and potential collapse?

submitted by /u/Levi_27
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Saturday, March 25, 2017

What makes the electron shells of the atoms between Scandium and Zinc seem to go haywire, while suddenly regaining a stable outer shell increase from Gallium to Krypton? Why does this pattern repeat throughout the periods?

What makes the electron shells of the atoms between Scandium and Zinc seem to go haywire, while suddenly regaining a stable outer shell increase from Gallium to Krypton? Why does this pattern repeat throughout the periods?

What makes the electron shells of the atoms between Scandium and Zinc seem to go haywire, while suddenly regaining a stable outer shell increase from Gallium to Krypton? Why does this pattern repeat throughout the periods?

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:02 AM PDT

How did the Canadian Arctic Archipelago form? It doesn't seem to resemble any other archipelago in the world, both in size and form. What caused it to have so many straits and such complicated coastlines?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 01:51 PM PDT

Why don't we use a cocktail of many types of antibiotics at the same time limit the chances of the bacteria developing a resistance?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 10:08 PM PDT

Why don't we use a cocktail of many types of antibiotics at the same time limit the chances of the bacteria developing a resistance?

So say you had a sample of bacteria that was treated with 20 similar targeting antibiotics at the same time and a mutation existed in some of the population that caused them to have a resistance to antibiotic #1, wouldn't that mutant segment of the population still be wiped out by antibiotics #2-#20 and for any resistant mutant strain to develop and survive the treatment it would require a mutation that was resistant to all 20?

Apologies if my understanding of the way resistances develop or any other misunderstanding of the subject.

submitted by /u/FatCatElite
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If marijuana causes an increase in heart rate why does it not cause cardiomyopathy like cocaine?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 12:37 PM PDT

There is a rather recent scientific consensus that dinosaurs' closest living relatives are birds and they probably had feathers. Even sauropods?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 01:31 PM PDT

Looking at raptors and birds I can see a resemblence and imagine the dinos in feathers. But are there any scientific findings which would suggest the same has been true for sauropods or stegosaurs? I am sorry if its the wrong subreddit, but its something in between science and history.

submitted by /u/moonshieId
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Why do some downloads take significantly more time for the first 3% of the file(s) than the other 97%?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 09:58 AM PDT

Of course the 3% may instead be 10%-20% or whatever, but I am curious why downloads take longer in certain sections of the package. Do some pieces of data really take longer or are the percentages inaccurate?

submitted by /u/dflook
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How does the emergence of intelligent life and organic matter fit with laws of entropy when they appear to be contradictory?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 12:58 PM PDT

Do all individual photons have a quantized wavelength, and why is the spectrum of light considered a continuum then?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 09:06 PM PDT

IHello there. I still try to get my head around the nature of quantization, specifically about light. Since Max Plack, the energy (and from what I learned, also the frequency/wavelength) of photons is known to be discrete, right?

Can someone explain to me, why physicist talk about the spectrum of light as a continuum?

Is this not the case when the observed space is limited to small regions?

Are superpositions of wavelengths possible for single photons, and do they possibly form a probablistic "pseudo-continuum" by interference between all the possible wavelengths?

Please clarify, if you are referring to specific continuous representations i.e. the EM-field or a single travelling lightwave as a continuous / analytic description of a wave, or if you talk about the single photon as a particle (at a specific event, i.e. during emmission / absorption) or about something even more fundamental, such as superpositions, interference, etc.

[Edit:] Another strange thought: Do relativistic effects / gravitational dilation (the doppler-shift) imply, that frequencies in-between must exist (with energies not divisible by Planck's constant), or is the net energy of a photon lorentz-invariant?

I guess, there is still a lot of ignorance on my part, so please be patient with me.

submitted by /u/WhyMeAlready
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If you were to shave your entire body, would the hair grow back evenly at the same rate or doe different body parts grow hair faster than others?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 11:36 AM PDT

ex.) if you were to shave your head and legs at the same time would the rate of growth be equal?

submitted by /u/Lordofwar38
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Why are triangles the strongest shape?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 09:32 AM PDT

How do you calculate the velocity of an electron relative to the nucleus?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 10:03 PM PDT

How is the evaporation rate of a specific substance determined?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 02:36 PM PDT

In other words, why do some substances evaporate at different rates than others?

submitted by /u/Vegetakarot
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Can an injection of Acetyl CoA stimulate the TCA cycle the same way that our body can via its own mechanisms?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 01:27 PM PDT

How does a CCD or CMOS form an image?

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 09:35 AM PDT

I can't quite find the answer I'm looking for on this. I understand the operation of both CCD and CMOS detectors. What I don't know is how they manage to discriminate between pixels, and how their readout circuitry forms an image out of the information collected.

submitted by /u/ChunkoDunko
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