- AskScience AMA Series: I'm Alex Marson and I'm an immunologist at UCSF. My lab is building more efficient CRISPR-based gene editing tools to supercharge the human immune system to fight cancer, infectious disease, and autoimmunity. AMA!
- Why are people’s palms never dark?
- Is there any circumstance in which the coefficient of kinetic friction is greater than the coefficient of static friction?
- What was ocean weather like when Pangea was all together?
- Can you estimate the temperature at a certain depth as a function of the planet's radius?
- Is the Uncertainty Principle due to the fact scientists do not know enough, or is it genuine chaos?
- Why does regular soap make bubbles, but modern detergents don't?
- Does Alzheimer‘s affect peoples dreams? How?
- Since hydrogen and helium have sufficient bouyant force to float above the atmosphere, would a balloon filled with nothing, like all the air sucked out of it like a vacuum, also float or float higher than hydrogen and helium?
- To what degree are increases in cancer and terminal illness related to living longer?
- Did the Chicxulub asteroid have any impact on Earth's orbit?
- Is there a difference in the amount of hydration you get from carbonated and non-carbonated water?
- How accurate is it to say that Carboniferous coal beds formed because “the enzymes hadn’t evolved yet”?
- Why are curved displays so hard/expensive to make?
- Since plants have immune systems just like animals, is it possible for them to have allergies?
- What does killing the host gain parasites like Naegleria folweri?
- Can focusing more light on a photovoltaic cell increase it's energy output?
- How do you determine the number of bonding orbitals in a single atom?
- Why is it not possible for the human body to digest hair?
- Do other languages use the Oxford comma?
- Marine Biologists, what do we know the intelligence of dolphins (IQ?) and their capabilities? Also, how far away or close are we to understanding their brains?
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 04:00 AM PDT Genetic engineering is now cheap, relatively simple, and pretty reliable - at least when done in a lab setting. Using a tool called CRISPR, researchers can access DNA in live cells, target specific strings of the DNA code to slice out, turn gene expression up or down, or even swap in new DNA. This means we can, theoretically, reverse genetic conditions, modify cell behaviors, and perhaps program the cells to better fight against disease. If you want an overview on CRISPR and how it works, my university created this animated explainer: https://youtu.be/iXgU--ugLqY My lab is using CRISPR to better understand how the genome controls the functions of human immune cells, in health and disease. We hope to use this research to inform future cell-based therapies to fight cancer, infectious disease, and autoimmunity. If you're deeply interested in CRISPR, you may have heard of our recent work - we discovered a way to make CRISPR more efficient and flexible in re-writing long DNA sequences in human immune cells, without the use of viruses. There are currently FDA approved gene engineered T cell therapies for certain types of cancer. These cells have been generated by using modified viruses to deliver genes into haphazard sites in the T cell genomes. Improved non-viral CRISPR delivery allows us, effectively, to paste long new stretches of DNA sequences into specific sites in the genome, without having to rely viruses that are costly and laborious to employ. We are working to develop non-viral CRISPR-based genome targeting into broadly useful platforms to make better, faster, cheaper engineered T cells for the next generation of immunotherapies. You can read my university's story about it here: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/OccPKL I'm here to talk about all things CRISPR, genetic engineering, immunology, or any other part of my work. I'll start around 2:30pm PT (5:30 PM ET, 22:30 UT), AMA! [link] [comments]  |
| Why are people’s palms never dark? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 08:49 AM PDT |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 06:21 AM PDT |
| What was ocean weather like when Pangea was all together? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 01:46 PM PDT Hearing/reading about the effects of climate change on ocean climate got me thinking about the ocean climate in other geologic period. How would tides have been different? Would they have been bigger? Ocean currents, how would they have been affected with all that open ocean? What about storms like hurricanes? Would they have been super huge? I know that's a lot of separate questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Can you estimate the temperature at a certain depth as a function of the planet's radius? Posted: 24 Sep 2018 06:39 AM PDT On Earth, as you dig deeper and deeper into the ground, the temperature increases. Let's say we have another, reasonably Earth-like planet. Could we determine the rate of this increase purely based on the planet's radius? Would the temperature rise slower on a larger planet? I am specifically interested in the topmost layers of the planet (where one would reasonably dig a mine or drill or such). I'm not asking about the temperature deep in the core. Also, just a good order-of-magnitude estimate is enough, I understand that specific numbers would likely depend on many factors such as the planet's composition and so on. Thanks for replies! [link] [comments]  |
| Is the Uncertainty Principle due to the fact scientists do not know enough, or is it genuine chaos? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 02:28 PM PDT We learn in Chem 101 that the electron's location is unpredictable and they define this like a law. I'm wondering if theoretical physics, which dives deeper into subatomic particles, has a better understanding. Or, if new discoveries might be made to give a better understanding? [link] [comments]  |
| Why does regular soap make bubbles, but modern detergents don't? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 04:32 PM PDT I think I've got a good idea how soaps work, and the way they surround oily dirt in a layer of soap molecules to wash it away seems related to how they form double-layers in the wall of a soap bubble. So I'm not surprised that soap cleans and also makes bubbles. But specially-made detergents for washing machines and dishwashers clean *without* making bubbles. It makes sense that you'd design them that way, if the machine fills up with suds it won't work properly, but chemically, what's the difference between these detergents and regular sudsy soap? [link] [comments]  |
| Does Alzheimer‘s affect peoples dreams? How? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 02:24 PM PDT A loved one of mine would always say he thought he was dreaming even though he was awake. It led me to believe that in his dreams he was able to live normally while in the physical world it was more of a nightmare since he couldn't get a grasp of his surroundings. Could it be possible that people suffering from Alzheimer's are temporarily 'cured' in their sleep and that's why some believe they are asleep while they are awake? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2018 05:01 PM PDT If yes would it also be able to lift more? Or is the bouyancy of a balloon depending more on whats inside it instead of it having nothing inside? [link] [comments]  |
| To what degree are increases in cancer and terminal illness related to living longer? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 08:28 AM PDT |
| Did the Chicxulub asteroid have any impact on Earth's orbit? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 08:25 AM PDT |
| Is there a difference in the amount of hydration you get from carbonated and non-carbonated water? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 09:42 AM PDT |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2018 07:51 AM PDT |
| Why are curved displays so hard/expensive to make? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 02:50 PM PDT |
| Since plants have immune systems just like animals, is it possible for them to have allergies? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 07:39 AM PDT |
| What does killing the host gain parasites like Naegleria folweri? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 02:04 PM PDT Is this essential for the proliferation of the species, or is this just an unintentional effect of the amoeba on humans? [link] [comments]  |
| Can focusing more light on a photovoltaic cell increase it's energy output? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 11:45 AM PDT I have seen several systems that claim to collect 5x or 10x the electricity from photovoltaic cells by using lenses to project more light onto the cell. Is there data that shows this is possible? Also, the heat should eventually decrease the efficiency of the cell, so at what point does that happen and does it negate the gain (if any) achieved using the focused light? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you determine the number of bonding orbitals in a single atom? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 03:44 PM PDT I read that fluorine has a 2s orbital and a 2p orbital available; yet, bromine has only a 4p orbital. Both atoms have the same number of valence electrons. Could it have something to do with the 3d orbital in bromine? thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Why is it not possible for the human body to digest hair? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 05:39 AM PDT |
| Do other languages use the Oxford comma? Posted: 23 Sep 2018 07:59 AM PDT And for those that don't, do they face the same problem of occasional ambiguity? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2018 07:40 AM PDT |
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