I can’t believe how they’re using their bare hands when moving the stack of gold foil in that jackhammer press. Does Japan not have an equivalent to OSHA? Or does that not apply to small businesses like the one in the video?

For comparison, my workplace has a similar machine, but you need to press two buttons with both hands to start it and there’s a screen of lasers between the user and the press that shuts the machine down if the lasers are blocked.

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Say you have an heirloom poem that each member of your family has to transcribe. It's in Latin, so you have no idea what it says.

Even with all the checking, we know that every new generation makes minor mistakes transcribing it, which build up over time. The same poem has somehow spread all over the world because your family is all over.

How do you find out when it was written?

Well, you compare the last few generations' worth of poems and realize it's on average 1.75 mistakes each time it's transcribed. Now you compare your family's to another one elsewhere on earth, and there are 500 differences - how many generations ago did they branch off?

Yeah...that'd be a lot of help because a couple of Google searches and reading through research papers hasn't been finding anything about being able to add adjust gelatin's isoelectric point! Thanks 😅

This is why when you whack your shin, rubbing the skin dulls the pain. It is also why mentholated muscle rubs, and TENS units work.

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You're correct, I should have been sure before commenting.

The intention of my comment was that, although seafood contains a non-insignificant amount of mercury (and other toxins), one should not be afraid of eating fish regularly.

The most recent study I could find found no evidence of developmental harm among children with high seafood diet mothers.

Brain damage would be an issue for any animal. Predators not being able to hunt and track their prey, which would represent most of their brain power, or prey not being able to evade strikes.

Yes, but it also means we need to eat more.

Take two animals with identical metabolisms, one's 10kg and one's 100kg.

If both eat 0.1mg per day of a toxin, then yeah, the bigger creature will do better.

But if the food contains 0.1 mg/kg of food, and the big creature needs to eat 10x more food to survive, then it balances out.

Thanks so much for your response!

I’ve seen your comments on other questions, you do such a great job. Really appreciate your time and effort.

Very true as well, that’s a big reason why our natural lenses degrade over time.

The problem is not fish dying from mercury poisoning (I mean, that would be a problem, a really big one). Much before the levels required for that, the fish may have for example brain damage, which is not such a big deal for fish, but an equivalent in humans render you invalid to carry out a normal life.

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I imagine many UV absorbing compounds also degrade from the absorption.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02172758

Based on this link, UV absorbing intraocular lenses have been around since the ‘80s, but not all of them are very effective, and they’re not universally used. Based on a little reading, it’s unclear what makes it difficult, but my guess is that it’s hard to exclusively block UV light without affecting the tint and clarity of the lens.

Why not be sure before commenting? Bioaccumulation in large predators like tuna is a big problem, as the commenter stated. The benefits (general wellbeing) does not outweigh risks (paralysis and death) of a high-tuna diet. A mercury-consious fish diet can be healthy tho.

Scientific theory or conspiracy theory?

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Yes, but when that happens you can just drill deeper. But of course, there lies the crux of geothermal power and why it isn't really taking off. In most parts of the world, that drilling part is just too expensive to pay off. Would be really neat if we could drill cheaper though, it's a stable and near limitless energy source that is available everywhere. When the economics improve I'm sure it'll take off as an energy source, but when that might happen is anyone's guess.

Differences in DNA that are neutral with respect to their effect on function accumulate at a roughly constant rate. This is genetic drift. So, by looking at the number of changes between two sets of DNA you can calculate roughly how long they've been drifting apart.

Some people believe Phobos is that shape and density because it was mined by aliens. Also others who believe that the Moon is an alien megastructure.

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