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Sunday, November 1, 2020

If I would go into my vegetable garden and scoop up a tablespoon of soil, inspected it millimeter by millimeter under a 40x-100x microscope: which and how many visible-sized organisms (insects, arthropods, etc.) would I be able to find?

If I would go into my vegetable garden and scoop up a tablespoon of soil, inspected it millimeter by millimeter under a 40x-100x microscope: which and how many visible-sized organisms (insects, arthropods, etc.) would I be able to find?


If I would go into my vegetable garden and scoop up a tablespoon of soil, inspected it millimeter by millimeter under a 40x-100x microscope: which and how many visible-sized organisms (insects, arthropods, etc.) would I be able to find?

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 03:33 AM PST

For context: my backyard is a vegetable garden in coastal Western Europe with dark brown dirt and grows mostly beans and gourds. I'm slightly interested in purchasing my own (cheap) microscope and just having a field day in my backyard, if that'd be viable.

I've been looking at some Wikipedia pages and there's tonnes of pages that list tiny (0.1/0.2mm) insects and other critters whilst stating that they're commonly found in regular top soil everywhere. Some sources that I've found online list incredible numbers of arthropods, insects, nematodes, etc., with numbers up to millions per square feet.

submitted by /u/Straight_Chip
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What makes a virus airborne? Some viruses like chickenpox, smallpox and measles don't need "droplets" like coronavirus does. Does it have something to do with the size or composition of the capsid?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 09:18 AM PDT

In this comment: https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/fjhplb/what_makes_viruses_only_survive_in_water_droplets/fkqxhlu/

he says:

Depending on the composition of the viral capsid, some viruses can be relatively more robust while others can never survive outside of blood.

I'm curious if size is the only factor that makes a virus delicate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsid this article talks about capsomere and protomere, but doesn't talk about how tough it can be.

Is there any short explanation about capsid thoughness, and how it related to virus survival?

submitted by /u/jokoon
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What are the numbers of Influenza infections yearly? All I can find on the internet is death tool. Doing infographic about comparing Covid to Influenza, and infection rate is really important factor imo.

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 03:54 AM PST

People in my country love to compare influenza to a Covid. Most of them not realizing that Covid death tool is only so low cause of rules, while if the Covid been as common as influenza, numbers would be a lot worse (New York, Italy and frankly my Country)

submitted by /u/LegendCZ
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What happens when I open the window in a warm room?

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 03:38 AM PST

When I open the window, cold air comes in and warm air leaves. But how does this happen? I vaguely imagine the the cold air comes in at the bottom of the opening and warm air leaves at the top. Are there vortices somewhere in the middle? If I could dye the air on the inside one colour and the air on the outside another colour would I see anything interesting when I open the window?

submitted by /u/l_lecrup
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When a person donates a kidney, what is filled in that void left by the kidney?

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 02:34 AM PST

I know that a human can live with one kidney but when it is donated or removed because it's damaged, what is filled in the void? If nothing is filled, will other organs just move and occupy the space of this kidney?

submitted by /u/jabhiram
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If countries followed NZ and Australia's "strong" lockdown policies, would COVID-19 get eradicated or would it survive and come back somehow?

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 01:23 AM PDT

According to Veritasium, there is no way to know if the speed of light is the same in all directions. But isn't the fact that we can see how the universe was billions of years ago (by looking at space objects millions of ly away) a proof that light travels at the same speed in all directions?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:02 PM PDT

Video: https://youtu.be/pTn6Ewhb27k

Sorry if it's confusing, english is not my native language

submitted by /u/_outbacksteak_
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Have scientists tried to make a coronavirus vaccine before COVID19? If so, was it successful? If not what went wrong?

Posted: 01 Nov 2020 01:48 AM PST

How does a hard disk create space for new files after deleting old ones but is still capable to recover those deleted files?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:34 PM PDT

As soon as I empty my recycle bin my windows PC tells me, I got now more space to put new files in to. I can even limit out this space. Still with apps like Windows File Recovery I can see files which has been deleted months ago and recover like they were never gone. How is this possible?

submitted by /u/bulwix
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Most people are familiar with the asteroid belt. Are there any other particularly interesting regions between planets in the solar system which aren't as well known?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 10:28 AM PDT

What determines if a substance boils in a perfect vacuum?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 03:12 PM PDT

When draining a double sink with unequal water volumes, why does the one with less water not drain until the other one has an equal volume?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 11:47 AM PDT

This is a phenomenon that can be observed in your average kitchen sink at home or the office, provided the one with less water is directly over the t-pipe and both drains are unplugged simultaneously. It has never ceased to puzzle me since I first observed it.

submitted by /u/SupersuMC
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When we drink, why does our urine turn clear? I thought alcohol was supposed to DEhydrate us?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:41 PM PDT

So my intuition tells me that urine color is not the best indicator of how hydrated we are. So, what is it that makes our urine dark/clear and why are we always told it is an indicator of how hydrated we are?

submitted by /u/Wzup
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Theoretically, if all currently living aquatic creatures were to suddenly disappear from the ocean, would it cause a significant change in the global sea level? If so, is it possible to estimate how drastic the change would be?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:02 PM PDT

This is, of course, assuming no other dire consequences such a extreme change in equilibrium in the planet's ecosystem.

submitted by /u/HailToTheThief225
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How does relativity allow for this to be true?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:52 PM PDT

If you are in a lab that is moving near the speed of light in the x direction and you shine two beams of light in the negative x direction and the positive x direction how would they travel at the same speed from the rest frame of the lab? From my intuition it seems that the beam traveling in the negative x direction should reach the other wall in about L/2c while the one in the positive x direction would take super long. How does time dilation change both of these to L/c when one is faster and one is slower?

submitted by /u/walkerspider
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Clean Coal? Are there different types of coal that give off different emissions?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 11:13 AM PDT

Listened to Joe Roegans interview with Tim Dillon and Alex Jones today.... One of many questions I have is the "clean coal" discussed, is it real?

Namely is there a large deposit in America that burns much cleaner than other types of coal irrespective of coal fired plant technology used to "scrubb"

Thanks

submitted by /u/weshtlad
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How comman are comorbities with ADHD and what tend to be the most frequently paired?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:03 AM PDT

If ice is less dense than water then why did the water levels go down during the ice ages?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 04:20 PM PDT

What exactly is pseudodementia and how does it affect the brain? What causes it? Is it reversible?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:13 PM PDT

How is it different from dementia? What makes it "pseudo"?

submitted by /u/farewellcorvo
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What is actually happening when you get “BrainFreeze” after eating something cold?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 12:39 AM PDT

Is it really your Brain you can feel and why is it so unpleasant?

submitted by /u/CrapTaxidermy
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How did early humans survive during winter?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 04:21 AM PDT

Obviously fire, but I feel as if that would not be enough to keep them alive?

submitted by /u/pastabandit69
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Saturday, October 31, 2020

Does global contraction play any role in modern geology?

Does global contraction play any role in modern geology?


Does global contraction play any role in modern geology?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:46 PM PDT

From what I understand global contraction, or the slow shrinking and deformation of the Earth's crust, was one of the dominant ideas in geology prior to the development of plate tectonics. I know it has been ruled out in favor of plate tectonics, but I recently read that it does seem to have played a role in shaping features on other bodies in the solar system like Mercury and the moon. I'm curious if global contraction is still thought in modern geology to have had any kind of effect on Earth's crust in the present or past?

submitted by /u/elchinguito
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Teplizumab is an antibody that targets the CD3 receptor on T-cells to prevent the T-cells from attacking the Insulin-producing Beta cells in the pancreas. How is the teplizumab able to specifically inhibit only the T-cells targeting the B-cells without compromising the immune system?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 08:06 AM PDT

Why do volcanic hotspots create a chain of volcanoes instead of a continuous ridge?

Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:41 AM PDT

Why do volcanic hotspots create a chain of volcanoes like for example the hawaiian island chain instead of creating a single continuous ridge?

submitted by /u/Rekttrex
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How do infectious microbes stay endemic in human (and other animal) populations through long periods of time?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 08:11 AM PDT

Like many others this year, I have become much more interested in infectious diseases than I have been before. Hopefully I've learned some things and steered clear of misunderstandings.

One thing that confuses is the problem posed in the title. Some people have suggested that there is a strong possibility that Sars-Cov-2 ends up being endemic in human populations, much like chicken pox, cold and flu viruses currently are. This would mean that it would carry on circulating in populations permanently.

My question is how is it possible for a virus to keep circulating indefinitely when, at some point, the reproduction number (R number) will necessarily be less than one and the number of new infections starts to decrease. When the number is above one, the number increases exponentially. But because limitless increase is not possible (due to a limited number of people), at some point the number of new infections will start decreasing and, thus eventually, become zero, at which point the virus will stop circulating.

I can see how cold viruses can continue circulating: immunity to them is temporary, and so with enough time passing, a previously infected segment of the population becomes susceptible to the virus again and thus the R number can go above 1 again.

I cannot see so well how chicken pox remains endemic. After contracting it, people become immune for life. Evidently the population get replenished with susceptible people through new births, but I'm still confused about why the virus doesn't die out between bouts of epidemics. The virus is famously very contagious, so shouldn't it essentially run through every susceptible person in the population and then just run out of steam?

I hope my question makes sense. Please do let me know if I have misunderstood anything.

submitted by /u/thegrapesofraph
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How do neurosurgeons open a skull without damaging the brain?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 10:42 AM PDT

With different parts of the skull having different thicknesses, differences in thickness between age and gender, and given how delicate the brain and the meninges are, how does a surgeon not accidentally cut right into the brain when removing a section of skull for surgery?

submitted by /u/IodinUraniumNobelium
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Do climate models consider positive feedback loops ?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:00 PM PDT

Atmospheric Physicists/Scientists, do the climate models forecasting the warming of the planet take into account any positive feedback loops? We experienced some nasty wildfires this year, record temperatures, and record number of hurricanes due to warming temperatures. All this leads to even more carbon into the atmosphere, thus warming the planet even more, and the cycle continues. Have the models considered this?

submitted by /u/uoftsuxalot
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Friday, October 30, 2020

Are there any autoimmune diseases that have been "cured?"

Are there any autoimmune diseases that have been "cured?"


Are there any autoimmune diseases that have been "cured?"

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 03:16 PM PDT

All the autoimmune disorders I am familiar with have the same general treatment idea - manage the symptoms. Some types may go into remission here and there but this is unpredictable. Is this correct? Are there any that can be considered "cured" after medical treatment?

submitted by /u/susanavocado
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AskScience AMA Series: My name is Veselin Kostov, and I am a research scientist focused on the detection, vetting and characterization of transiting exoplanets from Kepler, K2, and TESS. AMA!

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT

I am a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and SETI Institute. My research focus is on detection, vetting and characterization of transiting exoplanets from Kepler, K2, and TESS, with the goal of understanding how these exoplanets form, evolve, and compare to the Solar System.

Now citizen scientists can be part of the hunt for exoplanets, too, by joining Planet Patrol.

The goal of Planet Patrol is twofold:

  1. Help scientists vet thousands of TESS planet candidates by visually inspecting stars seen by TESS.
  2. Use the results to help train automated vetting algorithms and improve their efficiency.

Automated methods of processing TESS data sometimes fail to catch imposters that look like exoplanets. The human eye is extremely good at spotting such imposters, and we need citizen scientists to help us distinguish between the look-alikes and genuine planets.

Some of the most exciting planet candidates are difficult to analyze. For example, Earth is a small planet with a long orbit, which means it would generate a weak signal in the data and be difficult to detect, vet and ultimately confirm. Planet Patrol volunteers will help me and my team sift through TESS images of potential exoplanets by answering a set of questions for each - like whether an image contains multiple bright sources or resembles stray light, rather than light from a star, or is simply too noisy for detailed analysis. These questions help us narrow down the list of possible planets for further follow-up study.

Links:

I will be available to answer your questions at 11am PDT (2 PM ET, 18 UT), AMA!

Username: /u/setiinstitute

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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why does noise get quieter when we yawn?

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:06 AM PDT

How can pointing tuned lasers at atoms/molecules cool them down?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:40 PM PDT

Recently I was watching a video, and it mentioned that there is a process used to supercool things by shining lasers at it. Is this because of a "vibration-damping" effect that outweighs the energy put in by the laser?

submitted by /u/Command_Master
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Why aren’t alcoholics all overweight?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:05 PM PDT

Asking because I am wondering if alcohol metabolizes faster and thus .... doesn't stick on to turn to fat?

If alcohol is generally high in calories (90 for a shot of vodka!!) why aren't people who are addicted to alcohol heavier? Is it because of alcohol itself, or am I making a bad generalization.

submitted by /u/jennyworld
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Why does colour have a 3D (RGB) representation but sound doesn't, despite both being spectra?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 11:55 PM PDT

Sound is a spectrum of frequencies and so is light but colour has a representation with RGB as components, but sound doesn't? Aren't they both one dimensional frequencies? What is different about light?

If we can see light with only 3 types of sensors could we do the same for sound?

submitted by /u/UnhappyMix3415
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What causes Nitroglycerin to detonate?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:02 PM PDT

From what I've read, decomposition or physical shock are what cause the detonation. What I'm not understanding is the chemical portion of this. Is is a rearrangement of molecules, or breaking a bond? What is it about the shock or decomp that actually initiates the explosion?

submitted by /u/itsknob
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Is it nothingness between galaxies or is there constantly objects?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 02:40 PM PDT

I know this sounds stupid. But aren't galaxies spread far apart from one another. And if so is it like nothingness in between excluding asteroids and such, or do they all just kind of merge together?

submitted by /u/Breadsticks305
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Do you produce antibodies faster on reinfection?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:50 AM PDT

Looking at this post, u/Alwayssunnyinarizona says it takes ~5 days to produce antibodies. If you've already been previously infected and your B cells have the "blueprint" for antibodies, do you produce antibodies faster on reinfection?

submitted by /u/Hanzburger
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Why are the most common DC voltages for ICs and other electrical components 3.3v and 5v? Why not 4.4, or 6, or 7v?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 02:32 PM PDT

Why do gravitational slingshots work?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:16 PM PDT

I understand what a gravitational slingshot is, but I don't understand why it works in the first place. I understand that approaching the high gravity body would cause you to speed up, but wouldn't you lose an equal amount of speed while being shot away from the body?

submitted by /u/TheDesertSnowman
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What are the odds that we will eventually build a telescope large enough to see signs of life on other planets?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:31 AM PDT

While we're on the subject, as telescopes get more powerful, do they see more recent events? If a star 100 light years away goes supernova, we won't see it happen with our own eyes for 100 years. Will a telescope decrease this time lag? I feel like I'm oversimplifying this, though.

submitted by /u/robbmann297
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does benzalkonium chloride kill norovirus?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:25 PM PDT

How does sex determination in amphibians work?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:43 AM PDT

So Mammals and Birds use a form of Genotypic Sex Determination XY and ZW systems respectively but what do amphibians use? Reptiles and Fish have various modes of sex determination but I'm more curious as to what amphibians use.

I read that amphibians even have two homomorphic sex chromosomes so their XY or ZW chromosomes are almost identical in gene content and size. How do they even differentiate and also how do they recombine and not degenerate like the Y and W chromosomes in Mammals and Birds? The XY/ZW chromosomes are heteromorphic in Birds and Mammals.

Also, don't get the terminology confused XY/ZW in Birds and Mammals are not the same as the ones on Amphibians it's just a new way of labeling.

submitted by /u/TheLegitBigK
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How did eyes evolve?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:12 AM PDT

I'm struggling to understand how the process of natural selection is capable of developing something capable of perceiving objects and not just using light as photosynthesis.

submitted by /u/JoeTheRapper
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Thursday, October 29, 2020

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Wallace Arthur, enthusiast about extraterrestrial life, author of The Biological Universe: Life in the Milky Way and Beyond (Cambridge University Press), and Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. AMA about our search for alien life!

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Wallace Arthur, enthusiast about extraterrestrial life, author of The Biological Universe: Life in the Milky Way and Beyond (Cambridge University Press), and Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. AMA about our search for alien life!


AskScience AMA Series: I'm Wallace Arthur, enthusiast about extraterrestrial life, author of The Biological Universe: Life in the Milky Way and Beyond (Cambridge University Press), and Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. AMA about our search for alien life!

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT

I'm a biologist who has spent over 40 years studying the diversity of life on planet Earth. I've written many books dealing with questions about this amazing biodiversity, but recently I've become fascinated by questions about life on other planets. The number of known planets is now well over 4000 - a very large number compared with the mere eight we knew of until recently, and yet only the tip of the suspected iceberg of about a trillion planets spread across our local galaxy. Some of these planets almost certainly host life. But how many, and what is it like? These are the central questions of my new book The Biological Universe, published by Cambridge University Press.

I began my scientific career with a PhD from Nottingham University in England, went on to teach and carry out research at several other British universities, and am now Emeritus Professor at the National University of Ireland in Galway. I have held visiting positions at Harvard and Cambridge universities. I was one of the founding editors of the scientific journal Evolution & Development. My previous books include Life through Time and Space (Harvard 2017). This was described as 'brilliant and thought-provoking in every way' by Sir Arnold Wolfendale, Britain's Astronomer Royal (only the 14th person to hold this position since its origin in the year 1675).

Ask me anything about:

  • What alien life is likely to be like
  • How widespread it is likely to be
  • How soon we are likely to discover it
  • How close is the nearest alien life to Earth
  • What are the implications of discovering it

I'll be on at 12 noon Eastern (16 UT), AMA!

Username: /u/WallaceArthur

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I have heard that a disease like measles can wipe out a persons immune “history” and knowledge. How does this affect autoimmune conditions like allergies, Crohns etc?

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 08:29 PM PDT

Does it reset the response for these too, giving the immune system and chance to "correct" and learn the appropriate response to these factors? Thanks!

submitted by /u/Peacefulber
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If someone has COVID-19 but is asymptomatic then doesn’t that mean that their immune system isn’t fighting to get rid of the virus? And if that’s the case how do they ever get rid of it?

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 07:08 AM PDT

If we were to harvest asteroids, could we simply slow them down enough to just drop them into our oceans without causing significant damage?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 04:05 AM PDT

Given advancements in propulsion technology, I can't imagine dropping a huge asteroid near terminal velocity would be that devastating to the ocean or cause massive tidal waves. We used to test nukes in the ocean and they didn't destroy the land around them right?

submitted by /u/Krypson
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If shorter waves have more energy than longer waves and 5g is actually the same as „light“ but with *longer* wavelengths: How can 5g be harmfull?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 03:39 AM PDT

Light, 5g are both actually electromagnetic radiation. 5G should contain less energy (it's mmwave instead of nmwave). So why could it be harmfull?

submitted by /u/sh3rlock97
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Why are COVID 19 infection rates so low in Africa?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 12:02 AM PDT

Initially it was suggested that it was due to lack of testing. However the data and on ground events show that the rate of transmission really is that low.

How do nations with some of the worst emergency health services out perform the EU and USA?

Even South Africa's cases have dramatically dropped and life has almost gone back to normal.

submitted by /u/GodlordHerus
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Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 08:08 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!

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If asymptomatic COVID carriers aren’t coughing, can they still be transmitting the virus on their breath? I understand the whole ‘social distancing’ is based on the distance of a cough / sneeze vs normal breathing. I’m wondering how asymtomatic carriers can really spread the virus. Thanks!

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 08:46 PM PDT

Why does one's arm become sore after a flu vaccination hours (vs. more quickly) after? What's happening on a cellular level at the time?

Posted: 29 Oct 2020 03:58 AM PDT

How is radioactive decay used to determine the age of things that are millions or billions of years old?

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 10:44 PM PDT

I know the basics of how radioactive decay works. Certain isotopes of elements are unstable and decay into more stable elements over time. These reactions happen at a predictable rate, so we could determine the age of a sample of we can compare how much of the isotope is left compared to how much there was to start.

Carbon-14 decay is the most widely explained example. C14 is constantly being created by high energy radiation from the Sun and living organisms incorporate C14 from the environment as they take in carbon to build their biological structures. The ratio of C14 to C12 is fairly constant, so we can know what proportion of C14 we can expect to find in an organism right after it dies. After an organism dies the C14 stays locked in its remains and C14 has a half-life of about 5,730 years I believe. So, if we measure the amount of remaining C14 in a sample and compared it to the amount of C14 it should have had while alive, we can determine how old an organism is. This seems simple enough but because C14's half-life is relatively short, it can't be used to determine the age of something which is millions or billions of years old, as there would be no C14 left to measure.

So how is radioactive decay used to determine the age of really old things? The C14 dating system seems to work because new C14 is constantly being created, so we can expect living organisms to have a predictable amount of C14 despite the fact that C14 is decaying all of the time.

But what about other elements? I know that some uranium isotopes have a half-life of several billion years. This is adequate for dating something really old, but wouldn't the uranium decay constantly since the moment it was created in the collision of neutrons stars? Wouldn't all samples containing uranium on Earth have the same ratio of the unstable isotopes because the uranium has been decaying since the formation of the solar system?

How could we determine that a sediment layer or fossil is 100 million years old instead of 4.6 billion years old (the approximate age of the Earth)? What isotopes are measured and how can we know that is the age that they were when they were incorporated into a sample (sediment layer or fossil) as opposed to their absolute age (the amount of time since the elements were created in a star)?

I know I've asked a lot of questions (some rhetorical) but underlying question is how can we accurately determine the age of a sample without using C14 dating?

submitted by /u/Ponkotsu_Ramen
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How do scientists detect molecular data on other planets and moons in the solar system without sending probes?

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 10:11 AM PDT

How did people figure out what the atmosphere was like on other planets without being able to go there?

Posted: 28 Oct 2020 07:24 AM PDT

When the sun burns out, will it be gradual or immediate? And if gradual, will the planets slowly move further from the sun?

Posted: 27 Oct 2020 09:34 PM PDT