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Monday, June 24, 2019

AskScience AMA Series: We are Drs. Roger Hanlon, Mike Vecchione, and Louise Allcock, and we research octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods. Ask us anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We are Drs. Roger Hanlon, Mike Vecchione, and Louise Allcock, and we research octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods. Ask us anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We are Drs. Roger Hanlon, Mike Vecchione, and Louise Allcock, and we research octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods. Ask us anything!

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Hello reddit!

We study octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods (we even wrote a book together called Octopus, Squid, and Cuttlefish: A Visual, Scientific Guide to the Oceans' Most Advanced Invertebrates). Why are cephalopods amazing? Let us count the ways:

  • They have huge brains, and are capable of learning and retaining information
  • They can morph texture, body shape, and color in the blink of an eye
  • They carry 2/3 of their neurons in their arms, proving that intelligence can develop in different ways

My name is Roger Hanlon, and I'm a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I am a diving biologist who studies cephalopod behavior, especially camouflage & signaling. I recently gave a TED Talk on the amazing brains and "smart skin" of octopuses and other cephalopods. My favorite cephalopod is Octopus cyanea, the "day octopus" of coral reefs throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This critter is really clever and adaptable, and its coloration for camouflage and signaling is amazing even by cephalopod standards.

I'm Mike Vecchione, a NOAA scientist at the National Museum of Natural History. My current research focuses on the natural history of cephalopods, and marine biodiversity, especially in the deep sea. I have helped to make cephalopod information available on the web here. My favorite cephalopod is any strange species from the deep sea because we are still discovering new stuff regularly.

Hello all, I'm Louise Allcock! I'm head of zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and I'm particularly interested in the evolution and ecology of cephalopods. My favourite cephalopod is Thaumeledone guntheri. It's a deep-sea species from around the island South Georgia. I like the pattern on its skin! Lots of deep-sea species appear to have their origins in Antarctica and I'm fascinated by this.

We're doing this as part of #CephalopodWeek, the public radio show Science Friday's annual celebration of our favorite creatures.

We'll be answering questions from 1pm ET (17 UT). Ask us anything!

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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Nitroglycerine is an explosive. Nitroglycerine is also a medicine. How does the medicinal nitroglycerine not explode when swallowing or chewing?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 05:07 AM PDT

How do we measure the height of mountains on planets with no sea level?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 08:21 AM PDT

Olympus Mons was recently compared to Mount Everest and I was wondering how comparable the survey methods were.

submitted by /u/Thufirrk
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If the solar panels on the ISS were replaced with the most up-to-date panels we have now, how much smaller would they be - if they were to produce the same amount of power?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 02:06 AM PDT

Is there any organism that doesn't use ATP as the main "energetic molecule"? Is this a fact with no exceptions in biology?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 01:33 AM PDT

[Physics] Is there a known way of converting room temperature into energy?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 03:32 AM PDT

Curious to see what the answer may be, I assume it'll be yes but it's extremely inefficient but any expert insight would be greatly welcomed.

submitted by /u/BocciaChoc
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How long does muscle memory stay built up?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 08:58 PM PDT

How long is muscle memory retained if something is given up for a period of time? Also how much practice do you need to put into an activity each day to maintain muscle memory?

submitted by /u/TMW04
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Is there any type of material (artificial or natural) that does not have the ability to become a solid, liquid, or gas?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 02:45 AM PDT

Are there storms with lightning over Antarctica? If yes what happens when a bolt of lightning strucks the ice?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 03:04 PM PDT

Does squeezing a plastic milk bottle after pouring some milk, to reduce the amount of air in the bottle, before putting the cap back on, keep it fresh longer?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 03:53 PM PDT

This is something I've done sometimes and I wondered if the amount of air in the bottle has a meaningful effect on the life of the milk.

Type of bottle in case there is any confusion: https://i.imgur.com/iV9XRhdl.jpg

I suppose what I'm asking is, whether a reduction in interaction with air slows down the process of lactose being converted into lactic acid? Or any other part of the process?

submitted by /u/EmoBran
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Why do some sperms swim faster than others? Is it caused by differences in the DNA they carry, or some nutrient variance between them?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 09:52 PM PDT

How obvious and dense would dinosaur populations be during the Mesozoic period?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 10:27 AM PDT

Let's say that the house or location you are in at this very moment was transported with you inside it to three different points in time The Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. Given that you are not underwater, what is the likelihood that you would open your front door to see Dinosaurs? Now let's say you went for a 6 mile hike in one direction or another. Would you be likely to encounter anything bigger than racoon or squirrel? Were they comparable in rarity to large mammals in modern times?

I apologize it this seems to hypothetical. Obviously this is a complicated question but I am curious to see the types of answers which I get. If I've accidentally broken any rules please inform me so that I can edit or delete this. Thank you for participating.

submitted by /u/CharCustom57
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You hear often that is space you lose muscle mass because of atrophy from the 0 gravity. Is it actually possible to GAIN mass with enough exercise or is it always a losing battle?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 12:50 AM PDT

To which degree of accuracy do we know the age of the universe?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 11:48 AM PDT

For example, we've all heard 14, 13.9, 13.8 billion years old numbers. But how deep into that number can we go? Is the universe ~13,860,000,000 years old? ~13,867,000,000? ~13,867,556,181.89887 perhaps?

I can understand there may be certain physical limitations with the 'resolution' of the age of the universe. That the data from which we interpret the age of the universe may be so noisy, so spread out, or so weak that we cannot determine the Universe's age to any degree beyond a very, very vague estimate (from the perspective of a human timescale, that is.)

Given that, how accurately can we comfortably determine the age of the universe?

submitted by /u/walterblockland
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How does the brain structure lead to specialized areas? How does the structure lead to function?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 07:56 PM PDT

What anatomical differences are there that allow parts of the brain to be specialized? How does a reward circuit differ anatomically from emotional processing, personality, memory, etc.

​

Basically, I am not understanding how brain structure equates to functions the same way I can understand that the structures of a cell's membrane equates to certain functions like cell signaling or allowing nutrients into the cell.

​

Abstract vs conventionally physical

submitted by /u/Asking_Questions2019
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How do neural networks replicate evolution?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 02:18 PM PDT

This is probably due to my incredibly limited knowledge of biology and CS, but I still cannot wrap my head around this comparison, mostly because I'm unsure of how genetic mutations can be generated, which IIRC was the basis for evolution.

Like AFAIK unless theres an RNG, software instances all perform identically.

And assuming there is, there's some other things that confuse me.

  1. How are the changes persistent? When you have a genetic mutation, it stays through the rest of your life. (I guess maybe if you pass it to a database it'll stick)

  2. On that note, how does offspring inherit those mutated traits? Is there some sort of branching logic that keeps the variables of the successful instances?

  3. Nothing is truly random, so how do computers emulate the random-esque logic in this case?

  4. Where would you even put an RNG (assuming that's what you even need) to make it work?

I definitely made a false assumption along the way and it'd help if someone could explain it.

submitted by /u/D-D-Dakota
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How can a paint be water-soluble but not alcohol-soluble?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 10:53 AM PDT

Thoroughly mystified by this. We bought some paints for our artist daughter and she had dribbled some on a metal table and a stone patio paver. A warning label cautioned that this paint might stain some surfaces and, not realizing that it also mentioned "washable", I assumed I needed to wipe it with something like mineral spirits. This did nothing. So then I tried isopropyl alcohol. Nothing. So then I tried brush cleaner—which I assumed would dissolve just about anything. Still nothing.

Then someone pointed out the "washable" aspect so I got a wet rag and it instantly cleaned it. What on earth..?

Evidently I'm wrong in assuming that alcohol will dissolve anything that water can. Can some kindly chemist explain what's going on here? A paint that only dissolves in water?

submitted by /u/resetplz
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Can DNA Polymerase 1 create Phosphodiester Bonds between nucleotides?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 12:17 AM PDT

Does DNA Polymerase 1 have the capability to build phosphodiester bonds between the DNA nucleotides or pits down? I assume that Polymerase 3 does, as the replication on the leading strand is continuous.

submitted by /u/pigeon-mom
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If the universe is infinite, doesn't that mean it was ALWAYS infinite?

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 12:10 AM PDT

1) When I read that universe is most likely "flat" (no higher-dimensional curvature), does that mean it has no measurable size and you could keep keep traveling in a straight line forever? Would that also mean that balloon analogy is no longer applicable, since that analogy assumes that the universe curves onto itself?

For the purposes of my following questions, lets assume the universe is flat. This raises a few questions that I'm yet to see tackled:

2) A question of size - if the universe is infinite, that means it was always infinite. Adding or subtracting anything from infinity is still infinity. However the Big Bang theory states that the universe was somehow much "smaller" in the past (implying a size) and over time it got "bigger" and cooled....but the concept of bigger/smaller is not compatible with an infinite and flat universe. How does one reconcile the Big Bang with an infinite & flat universe?

3) A question of time - how can an event that happened a finite amount of time ago in the past (the Big Bang) result in an infinite and flat universe?

4) A question of mass - galaxies seem to be uniformly distributed everywhere we look (on average). However all current theories state the universe has a finite amount of matter. How can a finite amount of matter be distributed uniformly over an infinite amount of space? Wouldn't there eventually be a point where matter simply "ran out"?

submitted by /u/Xuvial
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Why does the food kept in a microwave need to be rotated on a turntable?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 11:30 PM PDT

I know it has something to do with Standing waves produced by the microwaves, but I'm not exactly sure how it works.

submitted by /u/szplugz
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How comparable is the macro-scale growth of iron oxide to the micro-scale thermal oxidation of silicon?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 11:20 PM PDT

Specifically, I'm wondering if I could use the Deal-Grove model or something similar to draw conclusions like "rust grows slower as it gets thicker", "temperature changes reaction rate linearly/quadratically/etc.", and "rust growth occurs 55% below the surface of the iron and 45% above the surface". If there is literature or figures or charts as supporting information I'd love to see it as well!

submitted by /u/scared_of_posting
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What makes water different?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 07:19 AM PDT

I've been asking myself that question long time back and i am not going anywhere why does water expand once it freezes and decrease in size once it's heated unlike all other elements? '

submitted by /u/majdyBrown
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In hot summer days, why is it that the air in the distance looks blurry or kind of on fire?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 06:54 AM PDT
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Sunday, June 23, 2019

Why does the flame of a cigarette lighter aid visibility in a dark room, but the flame of a blowtorch has no effect?

Why does the flame of a cigarette lighter aid visibility in a dark room, but the flame of a blowtorch has no effect?

Why does the flame of a cigarette lighter aid visibility in a dark room, but the flame of a blowtorch has no effect?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 04:27 PM PDT

Is is possible to tell a perfect spherical mirror which is spinning from a stationary one?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 11:38 PM PDT

Also will it depend on how fast the sphere spins?

submitted by /u/jhakash
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How can you get a laser that emits a single frequency?

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 04:28 AM PDT

I read about how scientists used an inferometer in conjunction with a laser that only emits a single, known frequency (or a very slim spectrum of frequencies) in order to calculate the speed of light. By using the inferometer they could find out the wavelength of the light and then use that to calculate the speed of light. But how can you actually get a laser that emits a single frequency and how can you measure that frequency?

submitted by /u/TheGamingHashtag
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Why has no theory on baryogenesis considered that particles in the early universe could've collided in more than pairs, explaining why there is more matter than antimatter in the Universe?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 03:26 PM PDT

In the early Universe there should've been an equal amount of matter and antimatter particles, as matter and antimatter particles always form in pairs as we've learned from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and elsewhere; yet there appears to be more matter than antimatter in the universe.

​

No one, it seems, has been able to figure out why this imbalance, dubbed the baryon asymmetry problem (or the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem) occurred, and many proposed theories, from hypothetical X and Y bosons that can violate the symmetry and lead to baryogenesis (the creation of matter independent of antimatter), to entire areas of the universe dominated by antimatter that are too far away to see, explaining away the missing antimatter; all of which so far have fallen flat in the search for experimental evidence.

​

Yet all those theories, to my understanding, seem to take a strange assumption: that particles can only collide in pairs.

​

What if in the early universe some of the matter and antimatter particles collided in groups of three? In my amateur research into the topic, I've read up that particle and antiparticle collisions are 100% efficient, and produce their entire mass worth of energy when equal amounts of particle are collided. Under a collision of three particles, however, there seems to be little research I could find, most likely because such collisions are so rare in nature and experimentation (which as a side note could explain why so few matter particles, about one in a billion, survived).

​

Extrapolating what I know of how matter collisions work (please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't do this for a living), if a collision of 3 particles, let's say a certain particle P and two identical antiparticles Q such that the two Q particles' properties "add" up to be equivalent to the properties of the antimatter counterpart of P, then shouldn't all three particles get converted into energy just as if the particle-antiparticle pair of P would've collided instead? The example may be a ways off from how it works, I'm no physicist, but I hope the gist of it comes through.

​

If such a scenario that I've described above is impossible, then is there another scenario such that an odd number of particles and its associated antiparticles can collide and completely be converted into energy with 100% efficiency? If so, then could such three-particle collision be common enough to result in the slight difference in the ratio of matter to antimatter from baryogenesis?

submitted by /u/JakoNintenCraft
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Why does Uranium-238 decay into Lead-208?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 12:54 PM PDT

Uranium-238 has too many neutrons, which causes it to be really unstable, so it decays via alpha radiation and beta radiation. One of my questions is 1) Why does it decay via alpha radiation and not just Beta radiation? It seems more effective to turn a neutron into a proton than just emit 2 neutrons and 2 protons.

Also: Why does it decay to Lead-206? This isotope still has a neutron to proton ratio of 2-1, so why is it stable? Why cant Uranium-238 decay into Bismuth-207 which has the same number of neutrons as Lead-206 but one more proton making it a little more stable?

submitted by /u/Soytuwuweere
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How can scientists make determinations on a planets composition that is lightyears away?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 09:10 PM PDT

In other words how can they also determine if a planet has water or how the atmospheres can produce extreme climates that can produce odd weather, i.e. diamond rain?

submitted by /u/colebrv
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What exactly is the goal of electron beam litography ?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 12:13 PM PDT

From Wiki

" Electron-beam lithography (often abbreviated as e-beam lithography) is the practice of scanning a focused beam of electrons to draw custom shapes on a surface covered with an electron-sensitive film called a resist (exposing"

" The primary advantage of electron-beam lithography is that it can draw custom patterns (direct-write) with sub-10 nm resolution. This form of maskless lithography has high resolution and low throughput, limiting its usage to photomask fabrication, low-volume production of semiconductor devices, and research and development. "

​

So from what I understand the goal is to create masks, which will later be used in photo-litography to create micro-chips. Is that correct? Because as far as I can tell this kind of maskless writing takes from 10-50 hrs PER MASK and that's waaay to slow to manufacture micro-chips themselves. But to create masks it might be just enough.

​

So can someone explain to me the basics steps? The way I see this now is:

​

  1. Get a silicon wafer
  2. Put a resist on it
  3. Write (without a mask) using an electron beam, anything you want on it.
  4. Use something to dissolve the the rest of the resist such that only the part we illuminated with the e-beam remains on the silicon wafer.
  5. Now we have created a mask.
  6. Ship this mask to a micro-chip manufacturer.
  7. The manufacturer will use photo-litography (regular light beam, short wavelenght) to illuminate the mask we shipped to him to create micro chips.

Is that more or less correct? Ps: I've noticed that some papers mention reverse e-beam litography. At what step of my list is that technology used?

submitted by /u/sta6
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What kind of instruments directly measure space debris?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 01:20 PM PDT

I saw a statistic stating 29,000 objects over 10cm are tracked and was interested on how those object are tracked and how we use instruments to determine their location. Thanks!

submitted by /u/zoofunk
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My question is: how do fingerprints form?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 11:37 AM PDT

I've heard they form because of random motions in the womb, although that makes little sense to me..

submitted by /u/LordTin
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Is there anything, apart from the cost of it, preventing us from accelerating Moore's Law?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 12:37 PM PDT

How much carbon dioxide is stored in leaves, then released back into the atmosphere through decay each year?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 08:08 PM PDT

Why does the US coastline have so many beaches, such as Atlantic Beach or Cape Hatteras National Seashore, detached from the coast?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 05:34 PM PDT

Hey r/askscience!

​

I was planning a trip to the US and while I was perusing the map of the country I kept seeing these almost "blade-like" coastlines that seem to almost always be off the coast of the mainland. I especially noticed a lot on the East coast scanning from New York and South from there, a place called Kitty Hawk is probably the most obvious example I can think of. So my main question would be, why is it that there are so many of these long, thin coastlines around the country? Are they man-made to protect the natural coastline that is usually home to major cities? Or are they naturally occurring?

Many Thanks!

submitted by /u/ImaTryMyBest
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Would an environment with a redox gradient (e.g. the mixing zone near a hydrothermal vent), itself, be an example of a "dissipative system," as defined in non-equilibrium thermodynamics?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 01:08 PM PDT

Can anyone please answer some questions re nuclear physics in general, and Little Man in particular?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 07:31 AM PDT

Non-scientist here (though that will become readily apparent I'm sure). In a spherical critical mass of say, U235, with no neutron reflectors, etc, roughly what percent of neutrons would hit another nucleus? And is there a way to estimate roughly how many fission generations would have taken place in Little Boy, and I guess ancillary to that (or perhaps required to know), how many nuclei would have split from the supplementary neutron source? Thanks!

submitted by /u/Kid_Charlema9ne
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Can there be a lower limit to how much energy a given computational task (like encoding a video) can consume?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 07:27 AM PDT

How do storms cause power outages?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 05:54 PM PDT

I'm not talking about long-term outages because a branch fell on a line, I mean the couple second long flickers.

submitted by /u/thegreatestsnowman1
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If I can apply a once a month tick repellent to my dog why isn't there one for humans?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 06:15 PM PDT

Why is Pripyat, the town where the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred, abandoned/uninhabitable but Hiroshima and Nagasaki are inhabited?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 03:20 PM PDT

Is it due to the concentration of radioactive material that was dispersed in the reactor accident, whereas the atomic bombs actually used up a substantial amount of radioactive material to fuel the explosions?

submitted by /u/ear2theshell
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Saturday, June 22, 2019

If you have food allergies, are there any that make you ineligible for organ donation?

If you have food allergies, are there any that make you ineligible for organ donation?

If you have food allergies, are there any that make you ineligible for organ donation?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 11:04 PM PDT

I was just talking about this and the question raised up, like, I have allergy to salmon and banana, does that make my organs "unusable" or is there no connection?

submitted by /u/inimigor
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Is a rock from space (Moon, asteroids, etc.) different from a rock formed on Earth?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 04:27 PM PDT

If aliens, or even ignorant humans, tried to make something similar to a periodic table, would it look the same as our standard one?

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 01:39 AM PDT

How good are modern Radiation Suits at shielding people from radiation? And how could they be better?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 09:14 PM PDT

I was watching Chernobyl and noticed that most of the scientists seemed to consider personal protection against radiation useless in the long term(and even short term exposure to high dosages).

Are radiations suits today better? Could they make someone immune to some levels of radiation? If not, why? Could they be better if the budget to make them was bigger?

I once read NASA had plans to use shields made with magnetic fields to protect space vehicles from radiation, could we, with sufficient tech make a "magnetic shield" suit(polarized?) that would shield the wearer from radiation?

submitted by /u/Kellar21
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How do halogens and sulfur confer lipid-solubility to a molecule?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 02:30 PM PDT

Hi, everyone. First post here, and one related to chemistry, too!

In my pharmacology course, a useful rule of thumb was that halogens and sulfur both confer lipid-solubility to a drug molecule. I am aware that lipophilic is synonymous with non-polar, but they form ions with a negative charge, so how does that work? And why is the rule exclusive to those elements?

Help is greatly appreciated!

Edit: Atoms don't have a charge.

submitted by /u/ColdWindBlowsss
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When an airplane is accelerating, is the air pressure at the back of the cabin greater than the air pressure at the front?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 05:42 AM PDT

During takeoff, or a nosedive, would the air "stack up" at the rear of the cabin? Enough to be noticeable? Would it take a massive acceleration like a slingshot?

submitted by /u/thinkofanamelater
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Does the Earth's Atmosphere Affect the Earth's Gravitational Pull in any Way?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 03:33 AM PDT

Let's say I'm an astronaut, and I was magically teleported just outside of Earth's atmosphere. I assume that according to Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, the Earth's gravity SHOULD act on me immediately as I teleport in outside of the Earth's atmosphere. However, movies always make it seem like as soon as you exit the Earth's atmosphere, gravity decreases. Is this a Hollywood inaccuracy or am I missing some kind of key piece of information about Earth's atmosphere?

​

Also, just to note, I DO understand that the only reason actual people (not actors) appear "weightless" in space is because they are in orbit, and are therefore being pulled toward the Earth but their motion in the direction tangent to the Earth's surface keeps them from falling to Earth. I'm just wondering if anything inside of the Earth's atmosphere affects the force of gravity in any sort of way.

submitted by /u/code_turtle
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Is it possible to mistake a distant galaxy as being closer to us because it is moving in our direction, hence affecting the redshift of it's light?

Posted: 20 Jun 2019 10:11 PM PDT

Let's assume galaxy A is 13 billion years distant, but was flung towards us (due to a collision with another galaxy).

How much would it's blueshift cancel out the redshift of the expanding universe, and lead us to believe it is closer?

submitted by /u/die_balsak
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What is the body's preferred order of fuel sources for energy?

Posted: 21 Jun 2019 06:55 AM PDT

I heard it is blood glucose > glycogen in muscles > stored fat > protein from muscles?

If so, how much of each energy source is available before a transition to the next or how long does each last with activity, or is each burned simultaneously?

submitted by /u/Shortbull
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