| AskScience AMA Series: We are statistics professors with the American Statistical Association, and we're here to answer your questions about data literacy in an age of disinformation. Ask us anything! Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT We're Dr. Karen Kafadar, Dr. Richard De Veaux and Dr. Regina Nuzzo, all statistics professors with the world's largest community of statisticians, the American Statistical Association. We are excited to discuss how statistical education is crucial for minimizing the public's susceptibility to disinformation. That includes journalists, who play a pivotal role in improving data literacy. I'm Karen, and I'm a statistics professor, Chair of the University of Virginia's Department of Statistics, and 2019 President of the ASA. Ask me anything about how the statistical community and the media can help the public understand and be less influenced by fake news. Last year, I helped champion ASA's "Disinformation Initiative" for statisticians and computer scientists to collaborate and address the challenges associated with this deception. I've served on several National Academy of Sciences' Committees, including those that led to the reports Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (2009), Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the Anthrax Letters (2011), and Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification (2014). I'm Dick, and I'm a statistics professor at Williams College and the current Vice President of ASA. Ask me anything about how to communicate important statistical ideas in ways that everyone can use, especially during this time of disinformation and confusion. I've written six high school and college statistics textbooks that have been read by literally millions of students. They've even appeared on Reddit a few times. I give keynote addresses and workshops around the world and have appeared on radio (WAMC and Marketplace) and TV (NOVA and PBS). In my spare time I sing with the Choeur Regional de l'Ile de France in Paris (when I'm there) and have appeared with them on both CDs and French radio and TV. I'm also known as the "Official Statistician for the Grateful Dead." Yes, you can ask about that. I'm Regina, and I'm ASA's Senior Advisor for Statistics Communication and Media Innovation. Ask me anything about non-traditional ways to showcase statistics and how to communicate statistics to the public in an age of disinformation. I'm also a professor at Gallaudet University and an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech. My work has been published in The New York Times, Scientific American and ESPN Magazine, among other outlets. My feature article on p-values for Nature, which won ASA's 2014 Excellence in Statistical Reporting Award, remains in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. I was also featured in PBS's "NOVA: Prediction by the Numbers," I'm particularly interested in how easy it is for us to fool ourselves and others with statistics during data analysis and the scientific process, and how we should be communicating quantitative information in a way that our brains can "get it" more easily. We will be on at noon ET (16 UT), ask us anything! Username: Am_Stat submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments] |
| Do you accelerate when moving north/south? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:04 AM PDT I might come off as a bit stupid for asking this question, but intuitively I can't help but tell myself that it makes sense. For instance: I live in the northern hemisphere. When moving southward, shouldn't I technically be accelerating eastward? As I move closer towards earths axis of rotation (equator), my perpendicular velocity would increase, right? I'm aware that this correlates to the coriolis force, but I'm simply unsure of how an object moving towards the equator would be affected? I'm sure the force would be incredibly insignificant (when it comes to actually 'feeling' it), although I wonder whether it would be relevant at much higher velocities? submitted by /u/SinnyJ [link] [comments] |
| Neowise has just recently been discovered. What are the chances of discovering an asteroid that will come dangerously close to earth shortly after discovery? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:33 AM PDT After the large comets in the 90s, astronomers said it will take a while before we see the next one. Yet here we are, 4 months after neowise was initially discovered.
I know that neowise is a comet and not an asteroid, but I suspect methods of discovering are the same? I'm just wondering what the chances are that we discover an object in space that will come dangerously close to earth within a short period of time. submitted by /u/destiny84 [link] [comments] |
| Does color blindness affect a person's ability to see in darkness/dim light? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 03:35 AM PDT I've heard people who only rod can see well in dim light than a normal person, but I've also heard the opposite. I've also heard night vision is based on the different wavelengths of colors. So does a person who have some kind of color blindness would have better/worse night time vision than a normal person? submitted by /u/TommyDi7 [link] [comments] |
| Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:09 AM PDT Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology 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] |
| When it says stress causes obesity, does it mean it directly causes it, or stress leads to it? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:09 AM PDT To clarify; does this mean if I am stressed and otherwise normal would one become overweight, or does it cause worse decisions, like overeating? submitted by /u/Some-MCFC-Fan [link] [comments] |
| Can already having a fever make you less susceptible to other viruses? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 06:06 AM PDT For example if you have the flu with a high fever and then you're exposed to coronavirus does that high body temperature in any way hinder the replication of the coronavirus inside you? submitted by /u/Satlih [link] [comments] |
| Would Moderna’s mRNA new coronavirus vaccine incite a T-cell response in the body? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 03:09 PM PDT |
| If someone is asymptomatic to the novel corona virus, if they get infected again, will they show symptoms? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 12:52 PM PDT |
| There have been suggestions that there might be a resurgence of Covid-19 in the winter, how likely is this? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 01:52 AM PDT And if it is likely, then are countries in the Southern hemisphere already experiencing this? submitted by /u/Jezzazza [link] [comments] |
| What is long lasting immunity contingent on, and why are some antibodies “better quality” than others if they all undergo affinity maturation? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 09:17 AM PDT Current Biological sciences student here. From my immunology module, I understand the processes of affinity maturation and memory B and T cell production. However, I wanted to gain more insight into what determines the quality of the high affinity antibodies, if they all undergo hyper mutation in the dark regions, is quality of antibody just down to chance? additionally why is it some viruses like measles confer life long immunity but some common coronaviruses produce short lived immunity? If antibodies are gradually replenished then why is it for some diseases this replenishment continues for longer? If you have any sources which explain this please do leave links! submitted by /u/mt101__ [link] [comments] |
| Would it be possible to handpick from a lab, or even cause, a mutation in the corona virus making it much less lethal and severe? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 01:02 PM PDT |
| Moderna is starting phase 3 of the covid-19 vaccine trial July 27, how long until we see the results? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 04:47 PM PDT |
| Is it possible to develop vaccines for future pandemics? Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:16 AM PDT Obviously we have no idea when and where the next pandemic will come from. However, in the case of COVID-19, we've been able to identify its relationship with the broader coronavirus family and its shared characteristics with other zoonotic strains that have appeared multiple times in the recent past. As such, I would assume the likelihood of another variation of the coronavirus appearing in the not so distant future is high. So, since we can identify the shared characteristics of the like strains and (probably more importantly) how they differ, can we "predict" how future strains of the virus are likely to manifest? If we were to identify a set of say the 10k most likely strain variations (or however much will be a representative sample size), could we then simulate how different vaccine candidates would work against these potential future strains in order to preemptively find vaccines (or at least the components for vaccines)? submitted by /u/BASSLJ [link] [comments] |
| What would happen if all the micro-organisms on and in your body suddenly disappeared? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:40 AM PDT Things like gut flora, helpful (and harmful) bacteria, mites, basically everything that isn't an actual part of your body like cells. What would happen if they all disappeared at once? Would you die? submitted by /u/Greyrust [link] [comments] |
| How would a charged black hole work? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 03:37 PM PDT So (stationary) black holes have 3 parameters that describe everything about it. These are mass, angular momentum, and electric charge. Obviously this would never happen in real life, but what would happen if a black hole was made purely of protons, and thus became extremely positive? Since no information can escape from a black hole, would electrons not be attracted to the black hole beyond the normal attraction through gravity? Would a proton placed inside the event horizon be launched out, since magnetism is unfathomably more powerful than gravity? If electrons aren't attracted to the black hole, wouldn't conservation of charge be broken? For reference, I've learned all about the normal college level stuff, but not the level where there's 13 symbols, and only 1 is actually in the normal alphabet. submitted by /u/BobACanOfKoosh [link] [comments] |
| How jet engines adjust their speed? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 11:26 AM PDT I think we can seperate a jet engine into four sections: Intake, Compression, Combustion and Exhaust. I've read that in order to start the engine, an electric motors spins the main turbine shaft and then igniter sparks the fuel. Bu how these engines adjust their speed? Is it only dependent on the amount of fuel burned in combustion chamber? submitted by /u/Fallacyfall [link] [comments] |
| Why do people make definitive statements about the R0 of a virus? Is it not a relative term? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 12:11 PM PDT I see people say that covid's R0 is 'x', or the flu has an R0 of 'y', but is the R0 not a variable that can change depending on how people, governments, etc treat the spread of a virus? submitted by /u/Ploka812 [link] [comments] |
| Could you create a 'dent' in the event horizon of a black hole by placing a large mass next to it? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:52 AM PDT The event horizon of a black hole, to my understanding, is the boundary where you would need to be going away from the black hole above the speed of light in order to escape, an impossible task. This event horizon is caused by the gravitational pull of the singularity inside the black hole pulling 'in'. Now let's say I put another mass near the event horizon. This mass would have its own gravity, and since it's next to the black hole, from our perspective it's pulling 'out'. If you were to somehow measure the net pull at the original event horizon under the second mass, would it be possible that the second mass may have counteracted some of the pull 'inwards'? Could this push the event horizon inwards, putting a dent-like depression into the previously almost spherical event horizon? This is all putting aside the nuances of accretion discs, rotation, and how you actually get this second dense mass in the first place - it might even be a second black hole. submitted by /u/Alephbetae [link] [comments] |
