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Thursday, January 7, 2021

Why aren't there an excessive amount of fossils right at the KT Boundary?

Why aren't there an excessive amount of fossils right at the KT Boundary?


Why aren't there an excessive amount of fossils right at the KT Boundary?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:41 PM PST

I would assume (based on the fact that the layer represents the environmental devastation) that a large number of animals died right at that point but fossils seem to appear much earlier, why?

submitted by /u/wrenchtosser
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Why using placebo in vaccine testing?

Posted: 07 Jan 2021 02:11 AM PST

I´ve read some articles of vaccine testing. When they test the vaccine they give some patients the actual vaccine and some a placebo. I know about the placebo effect but how does this work? What is the placebo exactly? Does the patient know that they are given a placebo? What information will you get from using placebo on some patients?

submitted by /u/Fair-Masterpiece-637
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Why are fish livers fattier than mammal livers?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 03:10 PM PST

So many fish have these fatty oily livers, while beef liver etc. is incredibly lean.

submitted by /u/Michael_Dukakis
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If the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are essentially the same, why do they have different waits between 1st & 2nd doses? And why is the age limit different for the two?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 08:09 PM PST

Why are obese people less likely to develop lung cancer and highly likely to survive it?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 01:42 PM PST

I was reading up on a few things as this sort of this interests me and fascinates me. I'm curious as to any of your ideas or explanations as I have some of my own that I'm unsure of.

Is this something that could be important in cancer research too?

submitted by /u/soupytwistt
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Is it true the fastest exit direction from our galaxy is toward Polaris?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 01:09 PM PST

My dad told me this the other day and, if it is true, it seems like a remarkable fact. I haven't been able to support it with anything other than that the galactic plane is roughly 63 degrees and earth's axial tilt is roughly 28.5 degrees, which is nearly orthogonal if both tilts were in the same direction.

submitted by /u/bye_bye_illinois
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How can someone who is still being affected by a virus not be contagious?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 10:29 PM PST

I know someone who caught COVID by going to a friend's house for Thanksgiving. Now, over a month later they're "over it" but still have lingering problems like exhaustion, occasional coughing, and loss of taste and smell.

How is it that they are still suffering from the virus, but are no longer contagious? Same question would go for other viruses too. So, in other words, why are you only contagious for the first week or two no matter how long symptoms linger on?

submitted by /u/BlueShift42
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How do humans change their gait on slippery surfaces?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 04:33 PM PST

I notice that when I walk on a slippery surface, like snow or ice, I walk in a slightly different manner to avoid slipping. It's a bigger change than just walking more slowly, because I notice that I use some muscles that I rarely use to that extent. What exactly is it that I am changing when I adapt my gait to a slippery surface?

submitted by /u/Qwernakus
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What happens if you are given a covid 19 vaccine that wasn't refrigerated?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:22 PM PST

would you die?

submitted by /u/twinningpuppet86
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has, at any point in the earths history, the seasons been different?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 04:38 PM PST

I keep trying to find a way to google this question but it wont bring anything up so I wondered to just ask.

has at any point during the earths existence, not just humans existence, seasons been different.

like for example, we have the seasons Spring, Summer, Autumn and winter. but at any point in the earths history, was this ever in any different order? or was summer time cold not hot? and winter hot not cold?

submitted by /u/Normacont
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When a person has two mother languages, how does the brain work to understand both? Does the brain have one "default" language of the two?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:59 AM PST

For example, i'm portuguese and when i'm speaking English my brain understands everything in portuguese. How does the brain work when someone have two languages?

submitted by /u/MisterWinglas
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In Molecular Bond Theory, do ALL atomic orbitals merge to form molecular orbitals when two atoms bond?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 08:59 AM PST

I've recently been getting back into studying Chemistry and I'm a tad confused when it comes to Molecular Orbitals Theory.

I think I understand the basic concept: atomic Orbitals are wave functions which merge constructively/destructively to form molecular orbitals.

And I can pictures this easily when they discuss H and He since they only deal with the 1S orbital.

But I'm getting a tad confused when it involves atoms with more occupied atomic Orbitals.

When two separate atoms bond do ALL the atomic orbitals form molecular orbitals? Unlike VBT were it just the valence orbitals overlapping.

For example when F. It has the electron configuration 1s2, 2s2 2p5.

So when F forms F2 does each atoms 1S, 2S, 2px, 2py form molecular orbitals as well as their half filled 2pz orbitals?

submitted by /u/BetweenTwoLungs12345
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What happens to dermal fibroblasts as we age?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 09:24 AM PST

I don't really understand what it is that happens to our fibroblasts over time, do we actually lose them and stop producing fibroblasts (if we do replicate new fibroblasts or not)? Or do we still have fibroblasts well into our 70s and 80s, but they lose their function?

submitted by /u/magdalena31
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How was the Phase 1b 75 years and older age determined?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:22 PM PST

I understand the complexity behind determining the phased rollouts (in the US) for the COVID-19 vaccine. I'm wondering, though, given that the mortality rate varies between race, socioeconomic background, etc. why/how/what the science or statistics were behind the "75 years or older" metric used for the 1b phase of the vaccine rollout?

submitted by /u/pobon-aa
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Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Does a Corona virus actually look like a ball with spikes?

Does a Corona virus actually look like a ball with spikes?


Does a Corona virus actually look like a ball with spikes?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 05:09 PM PST

Whenever the media needs to explain something about the corona virus, it is portrayed as a sphere with spikes on it. Does it actually resemble that look in reality or is that just a model and it looks completely different in reality?

submitted by /u/Realm-Protector
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As photons are their own antiparticle, can they annihilate in much the same way as an electron-positron collision? Perhaps to produce an electron and a positron?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 03:24 PM PST

Does the orbit of the earth itself rotate? In other words, does the perihelion or aphelion rotate around the sun?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 05:32 PM PST

Yet another way to word is if January 1st occurs in the same position relative to a hypothetical fixed point on the sun.

submitted by /u/Chameleonpolice
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Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:00 AM PST

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
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Did prokaryotes evolve from virusses and if so is there a virus that is evolutionairy on its way to become a prokaryotic species?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 03:12 AM PST

So what my question comes down to is there a species that can kinda inbetween a virus and a prokaryotic cell?

submitted by /u/randybobandy-burger
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Why solubility of a gas in a liquid is exothermic?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:57 AM PST

The solubility of a gas in a liquid decreases with the increase in temperature.Why? Also, why is it an exothermic process? Thanks in advance!

submitted by /u/fadilll
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Are there any elements that aren't common on earth, but are more common throughout the universe?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 07:51 PM PST

Does a nuclear weapon detonating in a vacuum create the characteristic double flash?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 09:45 PM PST

From what I've read, the shockwave of the nuclear detonation briefly obscures the light from the nuke, which creates the double flash used by satellites to verify an atmospheric nuclear test.

But would a nuclear detonation in space cause the same effect? I did not see any mention of it for nuclear weapons tested in space.

submitted by /u/KillerLag
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Why won’t the rocket equation give the same answer for simple conservation of momentum?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 04:57 PM PST

you know how the ideal rocket equation says Delta V = Vexh ln(m0/mf)? If I use it for a very simple example, like a bowling ball with an ice skater, I get two different result, and I don't know why. Here's what I mean:

Say that a 50kg ice skater with a 10kg bowling ball launched the ball at 10 m/s in one direction. From the conservation of momentum, the ice skater should go 2 m/s in the other direction right? But if I plug that into the rocket equation (Vexh = 10 m/s, M0 = 60 kg, Mf = 50kg), I get like 1.82 m/s. Why is there a discrepancy? Isn't the derivation for the rocket equation just based off of conservation of momentum?

submitted by /u/SatisfactionIll7285
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Is the big bang the only instance where energy is converted into matter?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 03:48 AM PST

Is there a difference in efficacy between the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 10:30 PM PST

Is there a potential avenue to suppress existing influenza to the point where it isn't endemic anymore during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 05:30 PM PST

Given the relative widespread practices of mask-wearing and social distancing compared to previous years, is it possible to supress the spread of influenza to the point where it is no longer endemic?

Here in the US, influenza cases are low across the country, even with massive amounts of people not following disease-preventing practices. I'm not a pathologist/virologist/epidemiologist but I had the thought that there may be an opportunity to capitalize on given the communicability of the flu is almost a magnitude lower than COVID, if not here in the states, possibly in other countries.

submitted by /u/TaquitoPrime
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Would dinosaurs have gotten the flu?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 07:21 PM PST

How long did it take for life to function normally after the Chicxulub impact?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 01:57 PM PST

How do black holes interact with expanding space and dark energy?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 11:23 AM PST

I have two questions about the interactions of black holes with dark energy.

1) How does expanding space work inside black holes? Most are rather small so I would imagine that the effect is negligible but if we consider a black hole with a radius of 5 billion light years where the expansion of space would be significant. Would an object falling through such a black hole take a longer time to reach the singularity due to said expansion? Any noteworthy effects?

2) Additionally, can black holes grow in mass and size from dark energy? I've read that the density of dark energy is 7 *10-30 g/cm3, could there be a point where a black hole of sufficient size gains more energy from this than it loses due to hawking radiation and thus keeps growing forever?

submitted by /u/4169726f6e
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How Push Broom Imagery Photography in satellites works?

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 12:05 AM PST

I recently saw Scott Manley video where he used term "Push broom Imagery" in Lunar Reconaissance.

submitted by /u/DJparada
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Why are BAME nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as white people? (Adjusted for age and sociodemographic factors)

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 02:52 AM PST

Will the Lateral Flow Antigen tests be able to detect the new strain of the coronavirus in the UK?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 10:35 PM PST

As a science student at a university I'm currently working in an asymptomatic testing centre for COVID for experience. We started 2 days ago and having tested hundreds of people we have only had 1 test come back positive.

Is there a chance that the tests cannot detect the new strain? What is the exact mechanism of the test?

submitted by /u/GodBurntMyBush
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Does any other animal need a "balanced" diet, as in can a bird survive by eating only a single insect?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 09:15 AM PST

Like is there any fish or mammal that wouldn't be able to survive if they just had a single source of food?

submitted by /u/taracus
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Is Lake Superior a failed rift, a product glaciation, or both?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 06:55 AM PST

I'm not sure which one it is, as I've read in some places that all the Great Lakes were formed by glaciers in the Ice Age, and in other places I've read that Lake Superior fills a rift that almost tore apart Laurentia. I hope somebody can clarify this for me.

submitted by /u/The_Saurian
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Tuesday, January 5, 2021

How do scientists distinguish between states of matter other than the classical four?

How do scientists distinguish between states of matter other than the classical four?


How do scientists distinguish between states of matter other than the classical four?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 01:55 AM PST

Is there a standard that defines what is or what is not a new state of matter. I was always fascinated by the subject and i was curious about how much matter you need to define a new state.

Wikipedia does have a giant list of modern states but the properties that distinguish the states seem so random. In contrast solids, liquids gases and plasma seem to be very different.

submitted by /u/Pixel_Detective
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Why exactly does Superconductivity occur?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 07:00 PM PST

So I've recently been interested in superconductors and how they're made. I understand the kind of phenomenon that are ocurring such as flux pinning but why does superconductivity occur in materials in the first place? Are there specific requirements for the materials used on a molecular level? Or have we not figured that out yet?

submitted by /u/BlueJay5161
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What’s the difference between the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic and COVID-19, and why weren’t masks/lockdowns encouraged in 2009?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 08:20 PM PST

How come masks weren't involved in the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic?

It lasted from June 2009 to August 2010, but lockdowns and masks weren't enforced or encouraged, even though it currently lasted longer than COVID-19, was a global pandemic, and infected ~60 million individuals in the United States.

I understand this is a bit of a dumb question to ask this far into the pandemic, but what makes COVID-19 different from other pandemics?

Btw I'm not an "anti-masker" or anything, just curious

submitted by /u/Arsyn786
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What is the effect of bird flu on wild populations of birds?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 06:35 AM PST

A cursory glance on google/google scholar didn't really answer this question, so I decided to ask it here. Basically I was wondering what the effects of highly pathogenic types of bird flu is on wild bird populations. Does it have significant ecological effects? I am mainly interested in this as it seems that the HPAI variants seem to have originated from domestic bird populations (or so I have been told).

submitted by /u/Justanothergarder13
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Are kids ‘spreaders’ too when it concerns the new (UK) strain?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 10:54 PM PST

Hi, does anyone know if there's any data yet from the UK on how the new variant of the corona virus spread amongst children under 12? Under 6? Ty.

submitted by /u/lisalot
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If we develop antibodies for viruses, why are some life long? HSV-1 for example. Our bodies develop HSV-1 antibodies but outbreaks still occur. Why don’t the antibodies eradicate the virus completely instead of solely fighting off the outbreaks?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 10:17 PM PST

How does a spinning object “know” it’s spinning?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 02:28 PM PST

I'm confused about rotating frames of reference.

I get that there is no universal frame of reference and thus no universal definition of what is moving and what is not. However, acceleration is universal but requires energy.

So I'm confused about a rotating frame of reference. If you have a wheel spinning in space how does it "know" it is spinning and not that the space around it is spinning instead and the wheel is still? It seems to work like acceleration but with no energy input, how does that work?

This might be very complicated but I've been wondering about it. Thanks!

submitted by /u/mikooster
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How was it determined that someone was sick of the spanish flu during the 1918-1920 spanish flu pandemic?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 03:35 PM PST

Learning about electricity. Does power increase or decrease in relation to resistance??

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 03:05 PM PST

So P=VI

Or P= (V2) /R

Or P= (I2)*R

Trying to wrap my mind around why the power would get larger as resistance gets smaller in the first equation, but the opposite in the second .

Thanks

Edit - not sure how reddits math formulation works haha

submitted by /u/Andreslargo1
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How much does solar wind affect planetary orbits?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 08:27 PM PST

The pressure from solar wind is pretty tiny, but it falls over a whole lot of surface area when it hits Earth. Back of the envelope calculations show the Earth currently gets about 150,000N/s of force from it. That's not a lot, either, but multiplied by a billion years it adds up. So how much of an influence would that have on our orbit over geologic time? Are we farther from the sun than you'd expect of calculating based on gravity alone?

submitted by /u/GummyKibble
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What determines how soon one will experience covid symptoms after exposure?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 12:15 PM PST

As we all know it can take 2-14 days after exposure to covid for symptoms to appear, with a median of 4-5 days.

I was wondering why it has such a high range, and what factors determine its length.

submitted by /u/motta_x_rated
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Can a HIV+ person who hasn’t treated the HIV for 9 months to a year could get ill from the Influenza Vaccine or any vaccine in general?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 08:57 PM PST

Does the vaccine help with the long-term effects experienced by those who already had covid?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 12:07 PM PST

I've been reading about all the lingering effects of organ damage and other after effects of having covid, and was wondering if its possible for the vaccine to alleviate this.

submitted by /u/B-Chaos
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South Africa Covid Variant?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 08:34 PM PST

My friend just told me about this variant. I was aware of the UK variant but just hear about this South Africa 501.V2 variant. What is it about this one that is particularly concerning?

submitted by /u/PhysiciansEmission
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How come Covid-19 quick tests are wrong so easily?

Posted: 05 Jan 2021 03:31 AM PST

So for Covid, at least where I live there are 2 types of tests. One "serious" and the other one that gives you a result almost instantly. These are prone to fail often.

First time I heard about this was when 10 players of a football Team in my country were tested positive before a match. After all of them had taken the real test none of them were infected.

One of our politicians produced a positive test when he poured Coke over the test-strip. I even heard of them failing simply because they were done outside in the cold.

How is this possible? Is it even a good Idea to use tests that are prone to failure that often? Are they supposed to be used under very specific circumstances?

I really hope some of you can enlighten me in that regard.

submitted by /u/Tango-288
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What is the status of investigation of Favipiravir for coronavirus?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 10:10 AM PST

I read there were supposedly good results in a phase 3 study about 5 months ago, but there is nobody talking about it anymore... meanwhile vaccines got approved and funded much quicker ... is there any hope this medication will be helpful?

submitted by /u/EasierThanIThought
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Is there a tablet/pill alternative in the works for the vaccine?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 07:24 PM PST

Asking this for someone with needle phobia. (I'd imagine there are other reasons why someone can't be injected.)

submitted by /u/Melonfudger
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Is there an official scientific definition of North that applies to other non-Earth objects?

Posted: 04 Jan 2021 07:23 AM PST

Obviously, any such definition would be mostly arbitrary... but I feel that such standardization would be necessary especially as we start exploring other astronomical bodies.

I'm sure that for our own solar system, we probably just designate the side of the ecliptic plane with Earth's North on it as the "North side"..

But what about something like Uranus whose rotation is basically perpedicular to the plane?

What about other star systems? How would we determine, for example, Proxima Centauri B's North Pole?

submitted by /u/Tortugato
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