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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

AskScience AMA Series: We run a large conservation and research center in Montana focused on restoration and ecology - ask us anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We run a large conservation and research center in Montana focused on restoration and ecology - ask us anything!

AskScience AMA Series: We run a large conservation and research center in Montana focused on restoration and ecology - ask us anything!

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT

MPG Ranch is 15,000 acres of conservation property in Western Montana, focused on restoration and ecology. We seek new ways to understand and restore lands affected by invasive weeds, herbicide use, and other management practices that create disturbances. MPG works closely with local conservation groups and researchers to offer educational opportunities to students of all ages. The health of wildlife and plant populations are some of the central responses we use to gauge our restoration's success.

Through various research projects we've been able to capture and record some incredible data on the area's species, such as the elusive mountain lion population, activity of local bears and the migration of raptors, to name just a few. You can learn more about the work the ranch is doing in a new PBS Nature short film, "Inside Montana's Living Laboratory."

Today's participants:

We'll see you all at 2 pm ET (18 UT), ask us anything!

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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In explosive shockwaves, like the Beirut explosion, how thick is the propagating shockwave itself?

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 03:27 AM PDT

Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 08:09 AM PDT

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

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
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How do you survive a Blastwave/Shockwave?

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 03:04 AM PDT

After watching footage of the incident in Beirut today there's quite a few videos where you see the blast wave/shockwave coming and have a few seconds to react. The same was true in Tianjin in China a few years ago and we know from that incident (and likely from Beirut) that many people lost their lives not to the blast itself but the proceeding shockwave.

So, if your ever unfortunate enough to see that pressure wall coming at you, what do you?

Find a wall? Lay down? Go rigid? Go slack if you can?

submitted by /u/SirPolyBear
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If you bombard an iron-56 with neutrons, is there a limit to how many neutrons it can gobble?

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 05:12 AM PDT

Why don‘t we manipulate the DNA of trees and plants to make them grow faster?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT

Why are there random mountains in the middle of flat plains?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 01:54 PM PDT

So I was driving from Utah to California recently, and a lot of the journey is just very flat land for 10's of miles, but then I would see this lone, very sharp and jagged mountain and then more flat land for 10's of miles. Why are there these huge, rugged features in the middle of very flat land with seemingly no other geographical features anywhere near it? Is this weird or is this just totally normal (that mountains can just be anywhere)?

submitted by /u/DrGregoryHouse2
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What is behind the destructive force of explosive chemical compounds?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 07:47 PM PDT

There are nuclear explosions, and non-nuclear explosions.

Of the non-nuclear explosions of note, we've seen West, Texas; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Port Arthur, California; Tianjin, China; and now Beirut.

Tianjin had a much more impressive fireball, but didn't break windows from several miles away like what we saw in Beirut.

Explosive, as a layman, is something I thought of as binary, but it doesn't seem that's the case.

So I had a few questions:

  • When something is measured in "X tons of TNT," what are we actually measuring?

  • If you compared A amounts of explosive material vs B amounts of explosive material, what are we looking at? Gasoline is explosive, but probably not as explosive as C4 for the same mass.

  • Why would something explode and make an enormous fireball like in Tianjin vs exploding into a ruinous shockwave like in Beirut with less fire, all other factors being equal?

  • I think this is a word but there are theremoacoustic properties that I was listening for in comparing these explosions--wondering which one was loudest for equivalent distance and how atmospheric conditions and the conflaguration itself affected the sound in the blast radius.

  • Are there scales to any of the above?

submitted by /u/combuchan
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Question regarding the Special Theory of Relativity. Shouldn’t both observers see the other as having slower time?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 10:39 AM PDT

If I were to observe someone moving at say half the speed of light, I would see the flow of his time to be going slower than mine, yes?

However, from his perspective.. shouldn't it be me who is moving at half the speed of light and thus, he would observe my flow of time to be the slower one?

What exactly am I missing/misunderstanding?

submitted by /u/Tortugato
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Historically how important have viruses been to our evolution?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 07:38 AM PDT

I've seen that something like 8% of human DNA is derived from viruses. And riding out this covid pandemic has made me wonder the role and the importance viruses have played in our evolutionary development.

submitted by /u/john22544
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Why can methylation donors (like folate) increase cancer risk?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 10:31 PM PDT

When I touch something, do I feel the absolute temperature, or the temperature difference?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 06:29 AM PDT

So a same cup of water will sense different temperatures to two different persons coming from a hot desert, and a cold desert. They experience different temperatures. They're experiencing the delta.

If my body temperature is X, and I touch a vessel of (X+10)°F, I will experience a 10° high temperature, but when my temperature is (X+10), and I touch (X+20) I will still feel 10° high temperature. So am I going to experience relative temperature, or absolute?

This question could be outright dumb lol, my brain cells aren't active today ig

submitted by /u/mysterydreamerhyd
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Why are mesh elements in Finite Element Analysis tools like COMSOL or Synopsis triangular?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 07:32 PM PDT

Is there a reason why they can't be squares for example?

submitted by /u/dredged_chicken
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Do vaccines ever have side effects that don't show up until after an extended period of time?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 09:26 AM PDT

It's probably obvious that I'm interested in if the months long SARS-CoV-2 stage 3 trials will be sufficient to identify serious side effects that might not show up, or may not be obvious, until after a few months.

Is that even a realistic concern? i.e. is it expected that any and all possible side effects would manifest within a few months?

submitted by /u/Pointede8Pouces
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Where did the rest of the antimatter go in the universe?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 05:22 AM PDT

During the Big Bang, there should've been an equal amount of matter and antimatter but as of the present day, antimatter is much rarer than regular matter. So where did all the antimatter go?

submitted by /u/BakedSweatHam
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Does your DNA still have memory of things that happened million years ago?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 12:30 AM PDT

How are we able to make rotation curves of galaxies if orbits are usually elliptical?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 06:41 AM PDT

The problem of galactic rotation curves is about the discrepancy between classical physics predictions of how orbital speed should fall off with 1/sqrt(r) and observations showing orbital speed remains approximately constant. The reason for this is often attributed to dark matter.

Yet, creating such a curve implies that for reach value of 'r' I can assign one unique value for 'v'. But does this not clash with the elliptical nature of orbits? They do not just have one value for 'r' but many throughout their orbit. Which orbit do we 'choose' to determine an orbital speech from for the curve?

Do we just look at an average 'r' and 'v' or something? I would be very interested in how these rotation curves are set up in practice given elliptical orbits. Thanks!

submitted by /u/Pax_Pacis
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Tuesday, August 4, 2020

AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIII

AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIII

AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIII

Posted: 23 Jul 2020 01:31 PM PDT

Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.

This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.

The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.

Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!

You are eligible to join the panel if you:

  • Are studying for at least an MSc. or equivalent degree in the sciences, AND,

  • Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.

Instructions for formatting your panelist application:

  • Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).

  • State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)

  • Succinctly describe your particular area of research in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)

  • Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?

  • Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in /r/AskScience itself.

Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that contain citations so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.

Here's an example application:

 Username: /u/foretopsail General field: Anthropology Specific field: Maritime Archaeology Particular areas of research include historical archaeology, archaeometry, and ship construction. Education: MA in archaeology, researcher for several years. Comments: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.

You can submit your application by replying to this post.

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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How old could the average rock be, how young? Are most very old? How old? How long does it take to make an average round rock? How does it happen?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 03:37 AM PDT

Why do we use CO2 for sparkling drinks rather than any other gas?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 08:33 AM PDT

Just curious.

submitted by /u/buswank3r
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When donating blood do they test it for anything, what and why?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 03:58 AM PDT

Could you be killed by a single photon?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 07:28 AM PDT

If a single photon has high enough energy, could it kill you? Is there a maximum limit to the energy of one photon?

submitted by /u/crazunggoy47
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If a man on the moon was able to urinate without a spacesuit, would the stream escape the moon’s gravity?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 05:17 AM PDT

Can fish spread deadly diseases, or are they common?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 05:01 PM PDT

I always hear about birds and mammals spreading disease but what about fish? Is there any common disease or even rare ones?

submitted by /u/NoobleVitamins
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How do plants with purple leaves photosynthesize?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 10:08 PM PDT

How do plants/trees with purple leaves, or leaves that aren't green do photosynthesis? I thought they needed chlorophyll for that process.

submitted by /u/ModernNomad97
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How are we able to provide detailed maps of space?

Posted: 04 Aug 2020 01:28 AM PDT

I know that we can detect radio waves and get an idea of where the origin of the wave is located and what sent it, but how are our maps so accurate? How is it possible to see past the millions of stars to go so far as to see hundreds of other galaxies? For example how to we know about the cosmic web?

submitted by /u/Ghorgingus
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How were unbilical cords cut tens of thousands of years ago?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 04:15 AM PDT

If umbilical cords need to be cut how were humans expected to cut them tens of thousands of years ago before the invention of tools (before the stone age)?

Similarly I'm assuming apes and other mammals have umbilical cords aswell, so how do they deal with it in the wild?

submitted by /u/omamin135
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How did humans get to Australia?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 01:23 PM PDT

They got to the Americas from todays Russia during an Ice Age. But how do you get to Australia? The most obvious possibility would be boats but afaik Aborigines aren't and never were big sailors. I'm confused... did they learn how to build boats and then they unlearned it? Or am I wrong about Aborigines not being good sailors?

submitted by /u/PfarrerO
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Is it possible to completely eradicate Coronaviruses? I don't mean just COVID-19, I mean the entire class.

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 07:46 PM PDT

We seemingly have done it/on the brink of doing it for polio and certain pestilences. Is it too big a job, or just not feasible?

submitted by /u/Duke_Newcombe
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What are odors? Is ‘smelling’ just a detection of the chemical composition of tiny particles by the sensory hairs in your nose?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 06:44 AM PDT

I assume that what we actually experience as smell is really just tiny particles interacting with your nose hairs, but is that correct? And why are smells so varied and unique? Does smelling work similarly to hearing where the tiny hairs send signals to the brain based on the pressure signal it receives? Do the sensory hairs in the nose receive chemical signals that they then convert to a nerve signal?

I've thought a lot about this and always found it interesting how little I was taught in high school science classes about how your nose works compared to the eye, ears, even your tongue.

submitted by /u/9herrick
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Does every single neuron on your body respond to adenosine or is it some special receptors ?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 06:05 AM PDT

So ive read about the current guinness world record for the most days stayed awake.

the guy said that he has insomnia after the 12 days and 15 seconds of being awake

so i was wondering is it like the situation of exposure to too much dopamine = less receptors?

does it mean that too much exposure to adenosine somehow decreased the receptors ?

submitted by /u/-SHKKVN-
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Why do our muscles contract when we get electrocuted ?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 05:09 AM PDT

What's the smallest a stable flame could get?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 06:55 AM PDT

Let's say you somehow got shrunk down to the size of an ant, could you still make a fireplace for yourself with an appropriate size? If yes, is there a point you'd no longer be able to do so?

submitted by /u/WellThatsFukedUp
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What’s at the center of a Cosmic Super Attractor?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 09:02 AM PDT

I recently learned about the cosmic web and our local knot-and-thread neighborhood, including the Virgo Super Cluster, the Great Attractor, etc. What I'm really interested in is the biggest attractor in our neck of the Universe, the Shapley Attractor. I realize the concentration of light at these points would be very bright from the high concentration of galaxies near the center, making it hard to observe anything, but do we have any best guesses about what the Shapley Attractor is or what lies at it's center?

submitted by /u/yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyup
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What are the “poisonous fumes” emitted by the NASA capsule that splashed down today?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 07:09 PM PDT

I have read several articles that covered the splashdown of the capsule in the Gulf of Mexico today. All of the articles mention the group of boats that encircled the capsule after landing in the ocean, and they stated that the boats were endangering themselves, because there are "poisonous fumes" emitted by the capsule, and it would be very dangerous to get too close. However, none of the articles explained where the fumes came from, or gave any other details.

What is the chemical makeup of the fumes? Were there similar fumes emitted by other space vehicles, like the space shuttle after re-entry? Are there poisonous chemicals getting released into the ocean from the capsule?

submitted by /u/metalhead82
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Why do areas directly on the equator tend to be so heavily forested?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 06:24 AM PDT

I was looking around on google maps when I noticed that almost everywhere along the equator there are really dense forests (amazon, congo, SEA, etc.) And then usually deserts on either side of these greener areas. What causes this?

submitted by /u/WiseGuyCS
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What makes sounds of the same frequency sound different to my ear?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 05:17 AM PDT

If our ears pick up different frequencies and convert them to sounds in our brain, why, for example, would a C note played on a piano sound different than a C played on a guitar? I'm assuming these two notes would contain the same frequencies.

submitted by /u/truce_m3
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Monday, August 3, 2020

Do humans gain and lose personality traits? If so, how often, and what kind of events would prompt this?

Do humans gain and lose personality traits? If so, how often, and what kind of events would prompt this?

Do humans gain and lose personality traits? If so, how often, and what kind of events would prompt this?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 10:43 AM PDT

If humans did not burn fossil fuels and return some CO2 into the atmosphere, would the Earth reach a point of collapse where plants would not have any carbon to build with?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 12:20 AM PDT

So I saw a video a while ago that went into details about how the Earth has been losing carbon in its atmosphere for some time now. As a result plants began to grow slower and smaller to sustain themselves. In recent years as a result of human activity it had been found that crops were growing quicker now due to the elevated levels of CO2 in the Atmosphere giving a greater abundance of building materials. Though, as a result to accelerated growth, vegetables were less nutritious.

My question I guess is around what would happen if humans never burned fossil fuels and returned some of that Carbon into the atmosphere. Would we reach the point where plants would no longer be able to sustain themselves as they do now? Would fossil fuels just renew and trap more and more carbon out of the ecosystem and cause it to collapse at some point?

submitted by /u/Dootduteeedo
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Why doesn’t a pot of boiling water evaporate instantly?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 10:56 PM PDT

When you have a pot of boiling water on the stove at 100c (the boiling point of water), the water appears to only slowly evaporate. If the boiling point is defined as the temperature that liquids turn to gases, why doesn't it happen instantly? How can I have 100c liquid water at sea level, doesn't that mean the boiling point is higher in some instances?

Thanks for any helpful replies. This has bugged me for awhile.

submitted by /u/OneRisk1
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Is there any prime number that is greater in value than double the previous prime?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 04:12 PM PDT

Or rephrased: Is there any pair of consecutive primes whose separation is greater than the smaller of the pair?

submitted by /u/LjSpike
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Do rivers always flow downwards (in the same direction of the gravity)?

Posted: 03 Aug 2020 04:22 AM PDT

How do short takeoff/landing planes work?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 07:16 AM PDT

I'm really curious about the science behind planes that can take off and land with literally 6 feet of runway? Why do other planes need hundreds of yards/meters to take off where these planes can do it in like 6 feet/ 2 meters?

submitted by /u/Tots795
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Why does the cell membrane of human cells do not get dissolved with ethanol?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 06:57 AM PDT

The other day I read a post were it was explained that ethanol is used to sterilize because it can dissolve viruses' and bacteria's lipidic membrane and denaturalize their proteins.

So why when we put alcohol in a wound don't our cells get killed by the same mechanism that works for bacteria and viruses?

submitted by /u/joalcuadrado
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Will my vaccine trial be used for other vaccines?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 07:56 AM PDT

I'm taking part in a Covid vaccine trial that used proteins instead of dead virus. Can this be used later for ther vaccines?

submitted by /u/We_Are_Chaos_555
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Can comets and asteroids have cave systems?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 03:15 AM PDT

What exactly makes a substance carcinogenic?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 07:18 AM PDT

Are there documented effect of mothers taking mental health medicine during pregnancy?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 03:08 AM PDT

In a Cu-Zn, H2SO4 battery, why do the electrons pushed off the Zn by SO4- not flow directly into the liquid phase to contact the H2+? Why do they flow through the wire to the Cu into the liquid phase instead?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 07:29 AM PDT

Follow up question: Why does Zinc prefer to exist as ZnSO4 instead of Zn. Aren't both neutrally charged? Are the two electrons making the Zn neutral covalent in nature?

submitted by /u/Gulrix
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Is seawater antiseptic? If not, at what salt/ mineral content is a liquid antiseptic,antiviral, etc?

Posted: 02 Aug 2020 12:23 AM PDT
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