Recent comments in /f/askscience

Kailaylia t1_j2faxjw wrote

Reply to comment by OlyScott in Why is Mitochondrial Eve dated to 150-170,000 years go? by jayhovian

You're correct. If mitochondrial Eve only had one daughter, she would not be mitochondrial Eve, her daughter wold be.

However science is not talking about an individual whom they have identified. Science is talking about a time in history when the woman from whom we inherited our mitochondria must have lived.

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Kailaylia t1_j2fahw0 wrote

Reply to comment by tossedmoose in Why is Mitochondrial Eve dated to 150-170,000 years go? by jayhovian

Mitochondria don't combine. They are inherited directly from, and only from, the mother.

Perhaps there was a disaster that wiped out other women, or perhaps other human groups failed to survive to pass their mitochondria on to the present day. For whatever reason, mitochondrial Eve is the original source of the mitochondria all of us share.

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Kraz_I t1_j2f8byk wrote

Reply to comment by enderjaca in How did Rutherford arrive at gold foil as the best choice for his particle experiments? by Poltibolsa

Gold is the most ductile and malleable of all pure metals (and probably alloys too, since they tend to be harder and more brittle). This is why it's used in computers and advanced electronics, even though silver and copper are more conductive. A very small amount goes a long way, it can still hold together at under 1 micron thickness.

If you tried to hammer lead into a foil that thin at ambient temperature, (which is the traditional way gold foil is made), it would crumble to bits.

Even in antiquity, artisans knew how to make very thin gold foil by hammering it thin, then folding it with paper between the layers to prevent cold welding, and continuing the process, with the number of layers doubling each time.

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