- AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. My lab studies what makes the human mind special by examining how monkeys, dogs, and other animals think about the world. AMA!
- Would a tsunami have a “pull” like a normal wave?
- Why do house cats have slit pupils but big cats (lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc) have round pupils?
- How did the study linking MMR vaccine and autism come to be published in The Lancet if it was obviously flawed?
- How does a "blood pressure" manometer measure the preasure of your blood?
- When organs are surgically removed, what happens to the space they were previously in?
- Does knowing that you have Bi-Polar disorder lessen the affects of having the disorder?
- Does the ozone layer rotate with the earth?
- why do bug bites itch?
- What causes the neck pain that we associate with sleeping the wrong way?
- How/where are neurotransmitters destroyed? Do reuptake-inhibitors increase destruction rate?
- I am a firefighter with a fluid dynamics question. When splitting a single 4" diameter supply line to two separate supply lines, why would I get more water from splitting to one section of 4" and one section of 3", as opposed to two sections of 4"?
- Why is it that small cats hiss while big cats, such as lions, roar? Do big cats have the ability to hiss?
- Is it possible to break the speed of light in water or some other medium?
- Does pregnancy prolong the time before a woman gets menopause?
- If you get an arm amputated (or another part of your body), you'll probably feel a phantom pain "in" this amputated arm. Can painkillers reduce/eliminate the pain, even though it's only in your head, or won't they have any effect?
- Is there anyway we can accurately guess or know dinosaurs life span?
- In the lifespan of one female in a pride of lions, how many males on average would she have cubs by?
- When you drive around in your car, does the air inside slosh around like water would in a moving container?
- Why does the descent from the Botai's horses prove that Przwalski Horses are not wild but feral?
- If a radio transmission was detected from an intelligent civilization from across the galaxy would it be possible for the government to jam or block the signal so that it would go undetected to agencies such as SETI or whomever is listening for such things?
- Does a fetus's newly started heartbeat effectively pump blood?
- Are our internal organs sexed so the differences between men and women are noticeable?
- I can see the moon at daytime but not stars? Why is that
| Posted: 10 Jul 2018 04:00 AM PDT Hi reddit! I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, the Director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale and the Canine Cognition Center at Yale. My research explores the evolutionary origins of the human mind by comparing the cognitive abilities of human and non-human animals, in particular primates and dogs. I focus on whether non-human animals share some of the cognitive biases that plague humans. My TED talk explored whether monkeys make the same financial mistakes as humans and has been viewed over 1.3 million times. I was voted one of Popular Science Magazine's "Brilliant 10" young minds, and was named in Time Magazine as a "Leading Campus Celebrity". My new course, Psychology and the Good Life, teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that's happier and more fulfilling. The course recently became Yale's most popular course in over 300 years, with almost one of our four students at Yale enrolled. The course has been featured in numerous news outlets including the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and Oprah.com. I've also developed a shorter version of this course which is available for free on Coursera. I'm psyched to talk about animal minds, cognitive biases or how you can use psychological sciences to live better. I'll be on around 4 or 5pm EST (16/17 UT), AMA! [link] [comments]  |
| Would a tsunami have a “pull” like a normal wave? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 05:51 PM PDT Would it have a stronger pull or the same, and would it get stronger the bigger the wave was? [link] [comments]  |
| Why do house cats have slit pupils but big cats (lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc) have round pupils? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 01:44 AM PDT |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2018 01:07 AM PDT I would have thought that a reputable journal of the calibre of The Lancet would vet any article submitted for publication very rigorously. [link] [comments]  |
| How does a "blood pressure" manometer measure the preasure of your blood? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 03:09 PM PDT The manometer cuff pressure plus atmospheric pressure is measured, and the cuff pressure is a response from squeezing your arm. By that logic, aren't we measuring the pressure of your arm as a whole (including other fluids/water, muscles, etc.)? [link] [comments]  |
| When organs are surgically removed, what happens to the space they were previously in? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 04:23 AM PDT Can people end up with a 'dent' in their body? What prevents other organs moving around causing problems? [link] [comments]  |
| Does knowing that you have Bi-Polar disorder lessen the affects of having the disorder? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 07:20 AM PDT It seems to me that knowing that I had the dis-order would at least help to lessen (not eliminate) the affects. Or is it so debilitating that it doesn't matter? [link] [comments]  |
| Does the ozone layer rotate with the earth? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 03:45 AM PDT |
| Posted: 09 Jul 2018 03:54 PM PDT Ok so I did a bunch of yardwork without applying some bug spray first and I have a ton of bites. My question is why do bug bites itch? Wouldn't it be more advantageous for the host to never even know you were there? I am curious why they itch both as a literal means such as what chemicals etc... and what is the advantage to that species to do that. [link] [comments]  |
| What causes the neck pain that we associate with sleeping the wrong way? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 07:35 AM PDT |
| How/where are neurotransmitters destroyed? Do reuptake-inhibitors increase destruction rate? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 11:32 PM PDT My basic understanding is that neurotransmitters are stored in vesicles inside the pre-synaptic neuron. Upon activation they are released into the synaptic cleft, where they may or may not bind to receptors in the post-synaptic neuron, and afterwards they are reuptaken back into the pre-synaptic neuron. Does degeneration naturally occur in the vesicle/pre-synaptic neuron? Do neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft sometimes get lost or ejected somewhere else? If so - do re-uptake inhibitors increase the rate of loss of neurotransmitters? (as each neurotransmitter presumably stays in the "danger zone" of the synaptic cleft longer, giving it more chance to be eliminated). (In case this varies depending on the specific neurotransmitter - I am mostly interested in dopamine, and to a lesser extent in serotonin) Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jul 2018 07:01 PM PDT So were were practicing filling tankers (trucks that carry 3,000 gallons of water each), and noticed something interesting. I will explain our setup. So we had a 10' length of 4" supply line coming off of a hydrant w/ ~60 psi of pressure. There was a manifold on the end of that section of 4" that splits it into two supply lines. Our initial setup was to run 50' of 4" off of one side and 50' of 3" off of the other. When filling two tankers simultaneously we noticed that both tankers were filling rather predictably. The one with the 4" was filling faster and the one with the 3" was filling at about half that rate. When we had the materials necessary, I "upgraded" the 50' of 3" to another 50' section of 4". Now we have two 50' sections of 4" coming off of the manifold. This is where the confusing bit happened. When I would hook up and fill two tankers simultaneously, one of the tankers would get almost all of the water, and the other would get nearly nothing, until the first line was shut down. No one has been able to explain this to me. There are two essentially identical supply lines coming off of the manifold, why would one be favored so heavily. And why would the 3" line allow more water flow when partnered with the 4"? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2018 04:52 AM PDT |
| Is it possible to break the speed of light in water or some other medium? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 11:39 PM PDT The speed of light in a vacuum is just shy of 300,000,000 m/s, and physics tells us this is something of a cosmic speed limit. Nothing is able to travel faster than the speed of light. But what about the speed of light in something other than a vacuum? What is the speed of light in water? And if you could eliminate problems of resistance, is there anything in the laws of physics that says you couldn't surpass the speed of light in water as long as you stay under the 300,000,000 m/s speed limit? What would happen if you did? [link] [comments]  |
| Does pregnancy prolong the time before a woman gets menopause? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 05:52 AM PDT Females are born with all the eggs they'll ever have. But pregnancy is nine months long, nine months the body won't release an egg. If the woman nurses, it could sometimes be even longer. If fewer eggs get released, does it delay the onset of menopause? Or does it just that mean more eggs are "left behind" to go bad? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2018 05:47 AM PDT |
| Is there anyway we can accurately guess or know dinosaurs life span? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 06:41 AM PDT |
| In the lifespan of one female in a pride of lions, how many males on average would she have cubs by? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 02:14 AM PDT or how often do male lions have to face a challenge from a new male? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jul 2018 08:33 PM PDT |
| Why does the descent from the Botai's horses prove that Przwalski Horses are not wild but feral? Posted: 10 Jul 2018 06:56 AM PDT So earlier this year (early 2018, possibly already in late 2017) a study was published, were researchers analysed the DNA of Horse-remains found in settlements of the Botai (a culture in northern Kazakhstan, about 5000 years ago. So about 3000 BC?). They wanted to prove that the Botai-Horses are the ancestors of our modern domesticated Horses, yet found out they are rather the ancestors of the Przwalski Horses. Thus they came to conclusion that the Przwalski Horses are no true wild horses but rather feral horses, like Mustangs. At least that's how I understand it from reading on several News Pages for example here on National Geographic I'm more a historian than a biologist, so I'm no expert in this topic and I haven't read the actual study, but I can't really follow that conclusion and I've got some questions: So how I understand it, the idea is there once were wild horses. these were domesticated by the Botai, and then these domesticated horses ran away and became feral. These feral Botai Horses are the Przwalski Horses. So, when the horses were domesticated, were there no wild horses left? Cause if there were wild horses left, couldn't they have "assimilated" the feral horses?Does the DNA actually show descent or rather blood relation? Couldn't the similar DNA just mean, that Botai and Przwalski Horses have a common ancestor, but are different branches of the tree? Again with the possibilty that the branches converged after the Botai horses became feral?Or is it all just blown out of proportion by the journalists and the study says nothing about Przwalskis not beeing considered as wild horses any more? So, yeah that's it. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2018 05:13 AM PDT |
| Does a fetus's newly started heartbeat effectively pump blood? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 07:05 PM PDT At a certain point in a fetus's development, it's heart begins to beat. At that point, is the heart's chamber's and musculature formed sufficiently to pump blood, or is the heart just beating because it started beating? [link] [comments]  |
| Are our internal organs sexed so the differences between men and women are noticeable? Posted: 09 Jul 2018 06:50 PM PDT I don't mean our reproductives and plumbing, we know about those. I am referring to things the heart and lungs, digestive organs, lymphatic system, eyeballs, teeth, fingernails, veins, blood or boogers. We're familiar with the skeletal differences (brow, cheekbones, jaw, hands and feet) and the general differences in metabolic rate, lung capacity, muscular and fat distribution but I was wondering if there were differences in say the liver, or the uvula, vomer or gall bladder, the things that don't normally come up as examples. I was thinking of the push in recent decades to get more women in to Pharma testing as subjects and how cardiac pain can be missed in women if you're looking for the famous shooting pain in the left arm experienced by men. Let me give a for instance. Could someone look at a liver and say 'Yep, it belonged to a man' or liver tests. I'm using the liver because it's a fascinating organ. Please and thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| I can see the moon at daytime but not stars? Why is that Posted: 10 Jul 2018 03:58 AM PDT |
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