AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Ellen Currano and I am the (sometimes bearded) face of women in paleontology. AMA!

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• AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Ellen Currano and I am the (sometimes bearded) face of women in paleontology. AMA!
• What causes moles to appear on our skin?
• Is groundwater (i.e. the depth to the water table) affected by the gravitational pull of the moon like tides?
• Do we have greater precipitation due to the ice caps melting?
• Can ubiquitin be degraded via the proteasome?
• When leeches and bats suck blood does that blood goes directly on their bloodstream or on their digestive system?
• Why are left-handed people often excluded from psychological and neurological research studies?
• Is it possible (theoretically) to cause nuclear fusion through a purely kinetic method, or in layman's terms smash two objects together really hard to fuse them?
• Where there any deserts on Pangaea?
• Given the violent reaction with normal matter, what do scientists do with antimatter when they are through with it (plus another antimatter question in the comments)?
• What chemical processes give bread its crunchy crust?
• Why do sharks have eyes on the sides of their head?
• Can you deduce thermal properties of metals from their mechanical properties, or does their internal structure not allow for this?
• What determines which way graphite layers will face during crystallization?
• How were atoms/molecules observed before the quantum microscope and spectroscopy?

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Ellen Currano and I am the (sometimes bearded) face of women in paleontology. AMA! Posted: 23 Mar 2018 04:00 AM PDT I am a paleontologist and professor at the University of Wyoming who studies fossil plants and ancient climate change. I have dug up fossils on six continents, with most of my work in Wyoming and Ethiopia. I co-produced and starred in The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science, a documentary film and traveling portrait exhibition that celebrates the work of female paleontologists and highlights the challenges and obstacles they face. You can read more about my work, research, and the fight for gender equality in the science community in Quartz's How We'll Win series. I'll be on at 2pm eastern (18 UT), ask me anything! submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments]

What causes moles to appear on our skin? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 09:07 AM PDT submitted by /u/DarthWeenus [link] [comments]

Is groundwater (i.e. the depth to the water table) affected by the gravitational pull of the moon like tides? Posted: 23 Mar 2018 12:50 AM PDT submitted by /u/BananaFrittata [link] [comments]

Do we have greater precipitation due to the ice caps melting? Posted: 23 Mar 2018 04:38 AM PDT According to the front page, hydrological events are on the rise. Is this due to a lesser amount of the planet's water being locked up as ice at the Poles? submitted by /u/RedEddy [link] [comments]

Can ubiquitin be degraded via the proteasome? Posted: 23 Mar 2018 04:04 AM PDT I'm learning about the ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation pathway, and I was wondering if ubiquitin can be degraded by this pathway? Can it be degraded at all (by the lysosomal pathway or others)? submitted by /u/chocolatem00se [link] [comments]

When leeches and bats suck blood does that blood goes directly on their bloodstream or on their digestive system? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 08:16 PM PDT And if the digestive system is the answer(most likely), how hard is to digest blood? submitted by /u/Olirum94 [link] [comments]

Why are left-handed people often excluded from psychological and neurological research studies? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 01:44 PM PDT Also, has there been any research on the impact this has had on left-handed people (i.e. is this cohort at a disadvantage, particularly when it comes to treatment efficacy, because they are so often excluded from research populations?) submitted by /u/sionnachglic [link] [comments]

Is it possible (theoretically) to cause nuclear fusion through a purely kinetic method, or in layman's terms smash two objects together really hard to fuse them? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 03:35 PM PDT submitted by /u/Ellsworthless [link] [comments]

Where there any deserts on Pangaea? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 05:34 PM PDT These desertified lands does not seem normal for our planet, are they? Edit: "were", not "where" of course submitted by /u/efojs [link] [comments]

Given the violent reaction with normal matter, what do scientists do with antimatter when they are through with it (plus another antimatter question in the comments)? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 04:21 PM PDT I have a couple of antimatter questions. A few years ago, scientists created some antihydrogen atoms and kept them suspended for around 20 mins (IIRC). Since antimatter violently reacts with normal matter, what did the scientists do with the antihydrogen after the experiment? How did they "dispose" of it? Spectral analysis reveals which element(s) are present in an atmosphere. Does antihydrogen give off the same spectral lines as hydrogen? submitted by /u/BloodSoakedDoilies [link] [comments]

What chemical processes give bread its crunchy crust? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 09:04 PM PDT submitted by /u/thenotoriousFIG [link] [comments]

Why do sharks have eyes on the sides of their head? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 04:56 PM PDT I grew up being told that herbavores have eyes on the sides of their heads to see predators, and predators have eyes on the front of their heads for depth perception, to catch prey. I just realized that sharks have eyes on the sides of their heads in spite of being predatory. Anyone up to explain? submitted by /u/redditless [link] [comments]

Can you deduce thermal properties of metals from their mechanical properties, or does their internal structure not allow for this? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 02:06 PM PDT Aluminium, for example, has a low fracture point and elastic limit whereas steel's is very high. Does this mean you can know their relative thermal properties, or are the thermal properties of metals totally independent of this? submitted by /u/mechtherm [link] [comments]

What determines which way graphite layers will face during crystallization? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 12:10 PM PDT submitted by /u/Deostructor [link] [comments]

How were atoms/molecules observed before the quantum microscope and spectroscopy? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 04:57 PM PDT The period table began being built long before such technology but different elements were recognized. How? How do we know that in chemical reactions the molecules break up and recombine into those specific products? How were the elements/atoms in products observed? Thanks! submitted by /u/ra4king [link] [comments]

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What makes some materials like cat fur or velvet feel soft?

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• What makes some materials like cat fur or velvet feel soft?
• If the universe is expanding, what is it taking the place of?
• Why do "cold" and "wet" textures feel so similar?
• Why do most medicinal pills have "-HCl" added to the end?
• How does Uranium Lead dating of crystals work?
• Why do electron holes move 2x slower than electrons?
• How do we know what the full milky way looks like?
• Plants know which way to grow because of gravity , so what happens if we plant one in space ?
• Do blind people see visuals on psychedelics?
• So if Lightbulbs are based on heating metal so that it gets excited and emits photons. Is the type of metal the difference between the type of photons? ex. xray vs regular light, or is it something like tungeston can emit any photon depending on weird stuff like heat and vaccum levels?
• What effectively renders a volcano inactive?
• Is there such thing as a double Gamma function similar to the Double Factorial?
• Do animals forget about their offspring over time?
• Is there a scientific explanation for why children and even adults are so preoccupied with ‘fair’?
• I run a current through a solenoid and get a magnetic force. I stick an iron core in the solenoid and get a bigger magnetic force. How is conservation of energy preserved?
• Are drought prone regions more vulnerable to wars and conflicts?
• How and When does fetus/infant/toddler get its guts colonized by "good" bacteria?
• how do you prove that 1+1=2?
• What makes something smell “bad”?
• How much more do we know about the 'ocean waves' on Titan?
• Why do some Con trails(the clouds planes leave behind) last much longer than others?

What makes some materials like cat fur or velvet feel soft? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 10:12 AM PDT submitted by /u/TheBobolo [link] [comments]

If the universe is expanding, what is it taking the place of? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:16 PM PDT I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of an ever-expanding universe. If the volume of the universe is increasing, then what is outside of it? Where can the edges of the universe go if there is nothing on the other side? Also isn't space just nothing? How can nothing expand? And if there's nothing on the other side of space then how do we differentiate that nothing from the nothing that is our space? submitted by /u/chinchillada [link] [comments]

Why do "cold" and "wet" textures feel so similar? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:28 AM PDT Edit: thanks to the numerous commentors giving input on this question! submitted by /u/octopusgreenhouse [link] [comments]

Why do most medicinal pills have "-HCl" added to the end? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:34 AM PDT submitted by /u/RugbyandMorty [link] [comments]

How does Uranium Lead dating of crystals work? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 04:28 AM PDT Just watching Cosmos. It's the episode about finding the age of the earth. They explain that uranium decays to lead. We know the half life of lead. So if we measure the amount of lead and the amount of uranium, we can do some maths to find the age of a sample. So far so good. But then they say that the original readings for lead were too high. But how could they know that? Wouldn't the high readings for lead just mean that the age calculated would appear to be much higher? How do we know the acceptable range for the values for lead? Any help would be gratefully received. submitted by /u/fizdup [link] [comments]

Why do electron holes move 2x slower than electrons? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:08 PM PDT Electron holes are just places in the lattice where electrons aren't present, so why is the carrier mobility around 2-3x less for electron holes compared to electrons? I never quite understood why. It obviously has massive effects in electronic design like VLSI gates and power electronics. submitted by /u/mech_eng_lewis [link] [comments]

How do we know what the full milky way looks like? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:19 PM PDT submitted by /u/Tech2025_ [link] [comments]

Plants know which way to grow because of gravity , so what happens if we plant one in space ? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 03:42 PM PDT Do roots grow in all directions , or do they grow in a random direction which could make the plant grow in the ground , and the root going upward ( I consider upward is out of earth) submitted by /u/appophiss [link] [comments]

Do blind people see visuals on psychedelics? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:19 AM PDT submitted by /u/aaronth07 [link] [comments]

So if Lightbulbs are based on heating metal so that it gets excited and emits photons. Is the type of metal the difference between the type of photons? ex. xray vs regular light, or is it something like tungeston can emit any photon depending on weird stuff like heat and vaccum levels? Posted: 22 Mar 2018 03:16 AM PDT submitted by /u/_Dilligent [link] [comments]

What effectively renders a volcano inactive? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:23 PM PDT submitted by /u/Lavy92 [link] [comments]

Is there such thing as a double Gamma function similar to the Double Factorial? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 01:25 PM PDT After watching blackpenredpen's latest video I was motivated to try to derive an analytic function for double gamma that would extend the double factorial to non-integer numbers. I came up with the following: (i don't see this in the wikipedia article Define the Double Gamma Function Γ² (x)=( 2^((x-1)/2) *Γ((x+1)/2)*sin²(π/2* x) + 2^(1-x/2)*Γ(x)/Γ(x/2)*cos²(π/2* x) ) / √( 1+k*sin²(πx) ) where k~0.0127996745295915 This has all the properties we want of the double factorial including: - Γ²(n+1)=n‼; (Double Gamma equals Double Factorial for integer values of n) - Γ²(x+1)Γ²(x)=Γ(x+1); (same relationship as double factorial, n‼(n-1)!!=n!) - expand double factorial to all real numbers except on the poles that are located at the negative even integers - Γ²(0+1)=1; so 0!! = 1 Here are values of x, Γ²(x+1) and Γ²(x+1)*Γ²(x)=Γ(x+1) for 0 to 7 incrementing by 0.5 x Γ²(x+1) Γ²(x+1)*Γ²(x)=Γ(x+1) 0 1 1 0.5 0.9628 0.8862 1 1 1 1.5 1.3806 1.3293 2 2 2 2.5 2.4070 3.3233 3 3 6 3.5 4.8323 11.631 4 8 24 4.5 10.831 52.342 5 15 120 5.5 26.577 287.88 6 48 720 6.5 70.406 1871.2 7 105 5040 submitted by /u/Earthbjorn [link] [comments]

Do animals forget about their offspring over time? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 02:10 PM PDT submitted by /u/Vesinar [link] [comments]

Is there a scientific explanation for why children and even adults are so preoccupied with ‘fair’? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:14 AM PDT I'm a teacher, and children seem to spend such a huge chunk of their time concerning themselves with other kids' affairs and whether the distribution of reward/punishment/attention is fair. Is this just in the way we raise kids or is there something more complex at work? submitted by /u/Lettuce-b-lovely [link] [comments]

I run a current through a solenoid and get a magnetic force. I stick an iron core in the solenoid and get a bigger magnetic force. How is conservation of energy preserved? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 02:11 PM PDT submitted by /u/Polygon_809 [link] [comments]

Are drought prone regions more vulnerable to wars and conflicts? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:18 AM PDT submitted by /u/clhb [link] [comments]

How and When does fetus/infant/toddler get its guts colonized by "good" bacteria? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 05:34 AM PDT Does it happen before the birth? Or the bacteria come with mother's milk or later (external food)? How the initial 'colonization' happens? How kid's organism assures that these will be the "good" bacteria? submitted by /u/dge278 [link] [comments]

how do you prove that 1+1=2? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 03:05 PM PDT in principia mathematica there are well over 100 pages explaining this, how exactly do you go on to explain 1+1=2 using hundreds of pages? submitted by /u/MLPorsche [link] [comments]

What makes something smell “bad”? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 09:14 AM PDT submitted by /u/adamchain [link] [comments]

How much more do we know about the 'ocean waves' on Titan? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 05:13 PM PDT submitted by /u/Ralph-Hinkley [link] [comments]

Why do some Con trails(the clouds planes leave behind) last much longer than others? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 04:57 PM PDT I live just a few miles from Tampa airport(TIA). Sometimes the trails last forever, but most times they go away quick. What causes it to to linger. Its like it's making it own cloud. submitted by /u/Tommy4uf [link] [comments]

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How do seeds know which way to grow?

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• How do seeds know which way to grow?
• Does epigenetics play a role in speciation?
• Why does South Africa have so many minerals?
• With all the advantages Solar Sails have over Fuel, why aren’t they being utilized more?
• Do any scientific methods exist to detect old river courses and water paths?
• How does the checkbox captcha work?
• Why do we use lasers instead of electron beams for data storage in things like cds/dvds?
• How are unknown chemicals identified?
• What is the smallest theoretical size a transistor could be?
• What would the discovery of magnetic mono-poles mean mean for Maxwell's equations?
• What determines a sapphire color?
• Is there any way to physically discover if a person has siblings by examining their anatomy, genetics, or any other experiment?
• Do animals suffer from motion sickness?
• How do compiling errors get their messages?
• Did the potato mutate into the sweet potato or the sweet potato mutated into the potato? Or do they come from different spices?
• What are some of the Eastern Gray Squirrel behavior and mannerisms?
• Why do so many human tribes practice such painful rituals? (E.g. tattooing, piercing, scarification, bullet ants)
• How are programming languages built?
• How could I determine where the darkest area on a planet, that is tidally locked to a gas giant would be?

How do seeds know which way to grow? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 05:00 PM PDT submitted by /u/itisjustemily [link] [comments]

Does epigenetics play a role in speciation? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 06:57 AM PDT I was thinking about how similar neanderthal and our DNA is, and wondered if there were more stark epigenetic differences between us that could explain some of the reduced viability of hybrid offspring. In any case, it got me wondering if, in general, epigenetic changes like DNA methylation were in part responsible for reproductive isolation and the beginnings of speciation, i.e. differential methylation that gives positive fitness for two different groups in the same species but negative fitness when hybridized could result in less successful crossing between the groups. I found a paper that I think supports this idea, but I'm not an expert in this field and also don't know how much of an outlier this paper is. Also, even if this happens, I don't know how common it is or how big a role it is thought to play in speciation. submitted by /u/alphaMHC [link] [comments]

Why does South Africa have so many minerals? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 10:10 AM PDT I'm taking an intro to geology course on minerals/gems and there seems to be like everything in South Africa: PGE's, diamonds etc. What is it about RSA's location(?) that makes it so mineral rich? submitted by /u/spacemonkey1990 [link] [comments]

With all the advantages Solar Sails have over Fuel, why aren’t they being utilized more? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 12:25 PM PDT submitted by /u/billybobjorkins [link] [comments]

Do any scientific methods exist to detect old river courses and water paths? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 10:45 AM PDT Please elaborate on any methods(if they exist) to detect/predict river networks of olden civilizations (5000 years old). submitted by /u/lachaar [link] [comments]

How does the checkbox captcha work? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 08:47 AM PDT submitted by /u/Nickstopherz [link] [comments]

Why do we use lasers instead of electron beams for data storage in things like cds/dvds? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 05:57 AM PDT I know that the wavelength of electrons is considerably smaller than that of visible light, which is why it is used for electron microscopy. Wouldn't the smaller wavelength mean that it could be used for higher-density storage than visible light? Why have I not heard of a an electron beam based storage device? submitted by /u/itijara [link] [comments]

How are unknown chemicals identified? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 08:56 PM PDT As you may have heard, Russian president Vladimir Putin is once again projecting aggression to the world by murdering another ex spy in Britain with a chemical weapon. The OPCW has stated it will take 2-3 weeks to identifythe chemical used in the attack. However, the British government was able to identify the chemical and where it came from just hours after the attack happened. How are these chemicals identified? And why does the OPCW, the international body set up to do this exact task, not use the same advanced equipment that the British government to do their job in a fraction of the time? submitted by /u/P0iS0N0USFR0G [link] [comments]

What is the smallest theoretical size a transistor could be? Posted: 21 Mar 2018 05:39 AM PDT I'm an electronics technician, so I wonder: how many atoms wide could we make computer transistors? It has to be larger than one to allow for doping of the junctions. submitted by /u/crazywalt77 [link] [comments]

What would the discovery of magnetic mono-poles mean mean for Maxwell's equations? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 09:07 PM PDT My understanding is that Maxwell's equations don't support the existence of magnetic mono-poles as they are (magnetic flux through closed surface is always 0). Could the laws be rewritten to describe mono-poles or would the discovery of such magnets change our understanding of EM completely? submitted by /u/bfiffer [link] [comments]

What determines a sapphire color? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:21 PM PDT submitted by /u/aimnox [link] [comments]

Is there any way to physically discover if a person has siblings by examining their anatomy, genetics, or any other experiment? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:16 PM PDT Obviously doesn't include asking the person :P Any other experiment could include some test of electromagnetic waves or wave response from some part of their body etc.. submitted by /u/hypumji [link] [comments]

Do animals suffer from motion sickness? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:05 PM PDT submitted by /u/_Not-the-FBI_ [link] [comments]

How do compiling errors get their messages? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 03:24 PM PDT When compiling a program in an IDE, how does it know where the error is and what went wrong? Does it use regex to look for common errors or something along those lines? submitted by /u/SnicketBottom [link] [comments]

Did the potato mutate into the sweet potato or the sweet potato mutated into the potato? Or do they come from different spices? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 09:01 AM PDT submitted by /u/FedeFranzosi [link] [comments]

What are some of the Eastern Gray Squirrel behavior and mannerisms? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 03:26 PM PDT There is a male squirrel (and sometimes a female) that I often see outside my window and for some reasons I love watching their behaviour and personality. I was wondering if anyone could give me some more info on there behaviour. I have watched and researched about them a bit but I was wondering if anyone could provide me with more detailed information such as their mannerisms and suddler behaviours or even some good artical about them. submitted by /u/dre224 [link] [comments]

Why do so many human tribes practice such painful rituals? (E.g. tattooing, piercing, scarification, bullet ants) Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:32 AM PDT submitted by /u/MaryJenn [link] [comments]

How are programming languages built? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 10:49 AM PDT submitted by /u/DASAVAGEBOII [link] [comments]

How could I determine where the darkest area on a planet, that is tidally locked to a gas giant would be? Posted: 20 Mar 2018 06:01 AM PDT I am Trying to write a story that takes place on a planet that is tidally locked to a gas giant. My idea requires an area on the planet that is darker for longer then the other areas. Is there a way to determine where the darkest area of this planet would be, taking into account reflected light from the gas giant, as well as the sun? submitted by /u/nuclearstroodle [link] [comments]

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