AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIV |
- AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIV
- Israel has now given approximately 42% of its population one or more doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Has the vaccination program had a noticeable impact on covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths so far in Israel?
- Moderna has announced that their vaccine is effective against the new variants but said "pseudovirus neutralizing antibody titers were approximately 6-fold lower relative to prior variants" in regards to the SA Variant. What are the implications of this?
- What part, or mechanism within the brain is responsible for monitoring the perception of time? This mechanism is clearly at work when someone is asked to keep a rythm, for example the maintaining of 100 beats per minute in CPR. What mechanism is responsible for that?
- How do messaging apps ensure that private keys are not stolen in end to end encryption?
- What is the most up to date assumption of number of unconfirmed cases of COVID in a given population?
- Other than making profits, what is stopping vaccine makers such as Pfizer and Oxford from simply sharing their vaccine patents?
- Is it possible to use MRI to diagnose mental illnesses?
- Explanation for USA's fairly dramatic and sustained drop in daily lab confirmed cases of Covid-19?
- Why does COVID-19 location-tracking apps (e.g. CA Notify) only track positive test results, and not both positive and negative test results?
- Is COVID’s loss of taste/smell symptom more sever depending on age?
- So I know that wet winters+dry summers= worse fire seasons. Anybody know what the impact of snow pack on that equation is? I would think that greater snowpack would mitigate fire risk by providing moisture for longer. Potential feedback I haven’t heard discussed.
- Do all vector quantities obey superposition?
- What is the biological reason some trees require a "chill period" below a certain temperature to set fruit?
- How do breastfed babies absorb mom’s antibodies through their digestive tract?
- Can cross pollination occur between different plant species?
- Why are all archeological finds buried so deep?
- How do ants “smell” the location of a food accurately and how far are they able to detect it?
- Can someone explain, on a mechanical level, how acetic acid kills bacteria?
- A very hot iron bar will lose its ferromagnetic properties. How is it that the earth's core can be hotter even than molten iron, and still exert such an enormous magnetic field?
- What is the purpose of the resistors in a Marx generator?
| AskScience Panel of Scientists XXIV Posted: 25 Jan 2021 01:49 PM PST 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:
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| Posted: 26 Jan 2021 07:12 AM PST |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 09:40 AM PST Here is the full quote from Moderna's article here... "For the B.1.351 variant, vaccination with the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine produces neutralizing antibody titers that remain above the neutralizing titers that were shown to protect NHPs against wildtype viral challenge. While the Company expects these levels of neutralizing antibodies to be protective, pseudovirus neutralizing antibody titers were approximately 6-fold lower relative to prior variants. These lower titers may suggest a potential risk of earlier waning of immunity to the new B.1.351 strains." Does "6 fold lower" mean 6 times less effective? If the vaccine was shown to be over 90% effective for the older variants, is this any cause for concern? I know Moderna is looking into the possibility of a third booster shot. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jan 2021 01:41 AM PST |
| How do messaging apps ensure that private keys are not stolen in end to end encryption? Posted: 26 Jan 2021 01:53 AM PST Surely they have to store private keys in a central datastore. Technically couldn't an engineer just grab the private key and use it to decrypt any message? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 08:52 AM PST I remember reading after early antibody testing, assumptions were that the number of unconfirmed COVID cases was significantly high. According to worldometers the US has had over 25 million confirmed covid cases, how many cases is it assumed we have missed? Are we looking at 50 million total cases? 75? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 10:54 AM PST Would there be a way for government to require them to share their patents with less successful biotech companies? [link] [comments]  |
| Is it possible to use MRI to diagnose mental illnesses? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 07:51 PM PST |
| Explanation for USA's fairly dramatic and sustained drop in daily lab confirmed cases of Covid-19? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 08:10 AM PST The US, the UK and Israel have all had very dramatic reductions in the number of lab confirmed cases recently. The US and the UK in particular have seen their numbers decline very steadily since about January 10, and that would suggest that the number of infections started to drop for both of them by about January 1 (given the typical lag between infections and when they turn up in lab confirmed results). Israel's drop in numbers has been shorter, only about a week, but it has been very dramatic. Such sharp drops are usually due to results being reported late, but in this case the sharp decline has been apparent for over a week now - it's real. Israel has reportedly given the first does of the Pfizer vaccine to at least 37% of their population and their high vaccination rate is probably what is causing this sharp reduction for them. The UK has been in a fairly strict lockdown for weeks now, and that is the most likely explanation for their rapid and steady drop in lab confirmed numbers. But the US has seen a drop in daily lab confirmed numbers very similar to the UK's. For when the drop started, it's steepness and for how long it's been going on. I can't find any reason for why the US's numbers are dropping so quickly. They're vaccination rate isn't that high. They haven't implemented any new strict lockdowns (a football game I listened to for a few minutes last night mentioned that there were only 17,000 fans there but that it was still nearly as loud as when it's at it's 70,000 capacity - that is not a lockdown). What happened around January 1 that could explain the USA's rapid and sustained decline in daily lab confirmed cases? TL;DR: The US, UK and Israel all have had very sharp drops in cases. Israel has very high vaccination rate. The UK has strict lockdown. What explains the USA's drop? Timeline suggests January 1 as when the number of infections peaked and started to come down. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 12:37 PM PST When I say "COVID-19 location-tracking apps," I am referring to any app that tracks the location history of your phone alongside other phones with that app installed (e.g. CA Notify). These apps then allow you to submit positive test results, so that everyone who you interacted with prior can be notified that they might have COVID-19 and should quarantine. This is my general understanding of what the purpose of these apps are. I just tested negative for COVID-19, but CA Notify will only allow me to submit data if the results are positive. This seems inefficient... Why not gather more data? Why gratuitously decide to not collect info? I understand why CA Notify might not want negative test results - they don't really mean anything to the people who previously interacted with, considering the people who you previously interacted with also interacted with dozens of other people during that time and could still test positive even though you tested negative... But then again, many people have these apps, and many people carry their phones. Knowing that 50% of the people you interacted with tested negative is much better than knowing that 24% of the people you interacted with tested negative. The more you know how much you are NOT interacting with the virus, the more you can understand about who is infection, right? I just feel like more data makes data easier to look at, but maybe I'm wrong. A negative result is more information than nothing. I don't understand why we are not tracking this and using some AI and machine learning or something. I'm sure we could find ways to give weight to who is MORE likely to have COVID-19 than others. This doesn't seem hard to add to an app (imo)... What do you all think? [link] [comments]  |
| Is COVID’s loss of taste/smell symptom more sever depending on age? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 09:10 AM PST Since it's known that senses of taste and smell diminish naturally with age, I've been curious to know if younger people are generally more likely to fully regain their sense of taste/smell faster than elderly. I read a bunch about people's sense of taste/smell being diminishing with COVID infections—some say that they recover it fully, partially, or barely at all even after months. Usually people don't post their age when they explain their recovery, but I feel it could be useful information in gauging if older people are less to regain their senses faster or at all. If you have or anyone you know has experienced loss of taste/smell due to COVID, how old were you/they and how long did you/they take to recover? Thanks so much for any insight! Edit: dangit, I misspelled "severe" :( [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 02:47 PM PST |
| Do all vector quantities obey superposition? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 11:55 AM PST In my recent physics courses, we've studied electrical and magnetic fields. Both of these quantities obey superposition (fields created by independent sources can be summed using vector addition). Are there any similar quantities that DON'T follow this simple pattern? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 04:43 PM PST Several fruit tree species require a certain period of "chill" in order to set fruit. What causes this biologically or what is the mechanism? Does the entire tree need to be exposed, or can only a certain portion of the tree be exposed to chill in order to simulate the chill period? Is the mechanism that occurs for the fruit tree the same for seeds that require chill periods? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| How do breastfed babies absorb mom’s antibodies through their digestive tract? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 07:24 AM PST Bonus question - does this work for all kinds of diseases? Or just some? [link] [comments]  |
| Can cross pollination occur between different plant species? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 10:18 AM PST In my Agricultural Science class today we were discussing how "superweeds", weeds that are resistant to total pesticides, can be formed when a GMO crop (pesticide resistant) cross pollinates with a weed. I was wondering whether or not it is actually possible for this to occur? Isn't it like trying to cross a dog and a cat? Same kingdom, two completely different organisms? If not, how do weeds actually develop resistance to pesticides? [link] [comments]  |
| Why are all archeological finds buried so deep? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 10:59 AM PST Why are all archeological finds buried so deep? Old villages and fossils are found many 10+ meters below our present surfaces. How is that? Does this mean our Earth was smaller in dimension for millions of years ago? [link] [comments]  |
| How do ants “smell” the location of a food accurately and how far are they able to detect it? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 05:37 AM PST |
| Can someone explain, on a mechanical level, how acetic acid kills bacteria? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 05:57 AM PST |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2021 07:57 PM PST |
| What is the purpose of the resistors in a Marx generator? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 01:26 PM PST Every Marx generator i've seen on the internet has high-value resistors between the capacitors. Diagram of Marx generator (Wikipedia) [link] [comments]  |
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