| AskScience AMA Series: Hello Reddit! We're a group of climate researchers and engineers working on new technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Ask us anything! Posted: 27 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT We're Nan Ransohoff and Ryan Orbuch from the Climate team at Stripe. Our work to mitigate the threat of climate change focuses on an underexplored part of the problem-removing carbon from the atmosphere directly, which is essential if the world is to meet its warming targets. Last week, after a rigorous search and review from independent scientific experts, we announced Stripe's first purchases from four negative emissions projects with great potential. We hope this will help create a large and competitive market for carbon removal. CarbonCure: I'm Rob Niven, Founder and CEO of CarbonCure Technologies. Our technology chemically repurposes waste CO_2 during the concrete manufacturing process by mineralizing it into calcium carbonate (CaCO_3)-reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lowering material costs, and improving concrete quality. The technology is already being used at 200+ concrete plants from Miami to Singapore to build hundreds of construction projects from highrises to airports. Charm Industrial: We're Kelly Hering and Shaun Meehan, founding engineers at Charm Industrial. We have created a novel process for converting waste biomass into bio-oil, which we then inject deep underground as negative emissions-creating a permanent geologic store for carbon. Climeworks: I'm Jan Wurzbacher, co-CEO of Climeworks. We use renewable geothermal energy and waste heat to capture CO_2 directly from the air, concentrate it, and permanently sequester it underground in rock formations. Project Vesta: We're Eric Matzner and Tom Green from Project Vesta. Project Vesta captures CO_2 by using an abundant, naturally occurring mineral called olivine. Ocean waves grind down the olivine, which captures atmospheric CO_2 from within the ocean and stabilizes it as limestone on the seafloor. Proof! We'll be answering questions from 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern (17 UT). Ask us all anything about our work! Username: StripeClimate submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments] |
| If a mother bird couldn't find enough food, would she let all her babies starve, or favor one/some and only feed them? Posted: 26 May 2020 03:23 PM PDT Sort of a morbid question, I know. A friend had a nest of robins in their yard, and just found all the babies dead under the nest, and hypothesized that a lack of food could be the cause of death. I didn't think that was likely, but didn't want to bring it up or force the issue when my friend is quite sad about the dead baby birds. I figure that if the mama bird knew that she wasn't finding enough food, she would choose one of her babies to favor and feed with what she could find, to give the best chance of her genes surviving in the next generation. Is this true? Or would she feed them equally and let them all die? If it informs the answer, the mother is still alive. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/PeanutCalamity [link] [comments] |
| Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Posted: 27 May 2020 08:08 AM PDT Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...". Asking Questions: Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions. The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists. Answering Questions: Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience. If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here. Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here. Ask away! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments] |
| Have ACE inhibitors been tested as a treatment for COVID-19? Posted: 27 May 2020 06:11 AM PDT I am most likely massively over simplifying this, but if the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters host cells using angiotensin-converting enzyme, why can't the virus be stopped/slowed down from entering cells using angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors? submitted by /u/qwakery [link] [comments] |
| Can you build a laser powerful enough to mess with satellites in orbit? Posted: 27 May 2020 06:32 AM PDT A conversation about Starlink got me started down a rabbit hole of imaging satellites currently in orbit and potential "vandalism" from the ground. I'm wondering if imaging satellites could be tracked and blinded by ground-based laser for significant portions of their orbit, and if so why this isn't a common occurrence. submitted by /u/Dux0r [link] [comments] |
| If the coronavirus is respiratory and you can't get it from eating infected food, why can you get it through your eyes? Posted: 26 May 2020 12:39 PM PDT I have read articles stating that there is no evidence of anyone getting COVID-19 via food. The reasoning I have seen medical experts give is that COVID-19 and its virus are respiratory, so you get it from breathing it in, and if you eat it, your digestive system is separate so you won't get infected. But why then would getting the virus on your hands and then touching your eyes infect you? With your nose and mouth, my assumption was that you could end up breathing it in somehow. But I don't understand why it getting in your eyes would give it to you. I haven't seen this specifically explained anywhere. Thank you! submitted by /u/llamastinkeye [link] [comments] |
| Is COVID-19 receiving ADE from other coronaviruses? Posted: 27 May 2020 12:05 AM PDT |
| Do our bodies make antibodies with multiple paratope configurations for the same pathogen? Posted: 26 May 2020 12:37 PM PDT The SARS-COV-2 virus has many different unique epitopes. When a person gets infected, does their body actually make antibodies with multiple different paratopes? In other words, does a body's antibody response actually consist of various antibodies with various differing paratopes binding to various different unique epitopes on a single pathogen? A single SARS-CoV-2 virus could be surrounded by antibodies, but they're actually binding at different epitope areas based on their various different paratope configurations, with some having a higher binding affinity than others? submitted by /u/rabidsoggymoose [link] [comments] |
| Could previous exposure to other human coronaviruses prevent COVID-19 infection? Posted: 26 May 2020 09:01 AM PDT I was reading this article T cells found in COVID-19 patients 'bode well' for long-term immunity which says The teams also asked whether people who haven't been infected with SARS-CoV-2 also produce cells that combat it. Thiel and colleagues analyzed blood from 68 uninfected people and found that 34% hosted helper T cells that recognized SARS-CoV-2. The La Jolla team detected this crossreactivity in about half of stored blood samples collected between 2015 and 2018, well before the current pandemic began. The researchers think these cells were likely triggered by past infection with one of the four human coronaviruses that cause colds; proteins in these viruses resemble those of SARS-CoV-2. Regarding previous exposure to human coronaviruses, NL63 looks awfully similar to COVID-19 because they both attack via the ACE2 receptor. What kind of research would be needed to establish a link between NL63 exposure and COVID-19 immunity? If there is a link between NL63 (or another human coronaviruses) exposure and COVID-19 immunity, would intentionally exposing people to NL63 act like a natural vaccine to COVID-19? submitted by /u/fasteddie31003 [link] [comments] |
| Can ants smell their food, and if so, from how far away? Posted: 26 May 2020 06:24 PM PDT Do they find food through a sense of smell or some other sense, or is it just random luck? Just curious if the ants are actively "hunting" their food supply. submitted by /u/schelant15 [link] [comments] |
| Do volcanic eruptions affect Earth's magnetic field? Posted: 26 May 2020 01:39 PM PDT I'm doing a little research about volcanoes and I want to know the connection between volcanoes and magnetics. I learned that the Earth's magnetic field is basically generated by the flowing iron-rich magma and the rotation of the Earth (which creates a dynamo effect). If my understanding of the magnetic field is off pls correct me. Does this mean volcanic eruptions somehow affect the magnetic field because of the magnetic lava? Do volcanoes have anything to do with the polarity switches throughout Earth's history? What's the connection between volcanoes and the magnetic field? submitted by /u/floppycheeseandchoc [link] [comments] |
| Is all crude oil pumped from any given well the same? Posted: 26 May 2020 01:27 PM PDT What I mean by this is, do they have the same proportion of hydrocarbons for example? I understand that cracking separates the hydrocarbons from crude oil by different molecular weights through fractional distillation, so I was wondering if the average barrel of oil from one well might have a different proportion of some hydrocarbon than from another well. If so, does this mean that oil from some wells, given the difference in these proportions, might be more or less valuable than the oil from another well? Thanks. submitted by /u/Dark_T100 [link] [comments] |
| What was the first domesticated animal? Posted: 26 May 2020 08:24 AM PDT And does it differ area from area; did the humans in Mesopotamia domesticate one animal and those living in South America some other first? submitted by /u/dsdrft [link] [comments] |
| How is a decaf coffee made? What is the process of decafing a caffeine drink? Thanks. Posted: 26 May 2020 12:33 AM PDT |
| What makes the seeds in a chilli spicier than the flesh? Posted: 26 May 2020 01:14 AM PDT |
| Does the information passed through separated twisted pair photons, such as in quantum radar, travel faster than the speed of light? Posted: 26 May 2020 11:43 AM PDT |
| Why does somatotropin (HGH) released from the pituitary gland cause bodily growth but not artificial HGH? Posted: 26 May 2020 08:16 AM PDT In other words, why does an overactive pituitary gland, such as in gigantism/acromegaly, cause physical growth, but not when artificially introduced? I ask because I was reading about Robert Wadlow, and it's said he probably had a tumor on his pituitary that caused the excessive growth. Obviously his height wasn't the result of his genes, as his parents were normal height. So, if a malfunctioning pituitary can cause excessive growth, why doesn't artificial HGH? If a child had idiopathic short stature (ISS) due to genetics, why would HGH therapy not cause extra growth in the same way a tumor would? Sorry if my question is worded strangely. Thanks! submitted by /u/DrBeePhD [link] [comments] |
