Recent comments in /f/askscience

CardiOMG t1_j4j4gmz wrote

Reply to How accurately can medicine pinpoint causes of cancer? by GuptRX

It very much depends on the type of cancer! For an easy example: if you develop mesothelioma and have a solid exposure history to asbestos, they will attribute it to that. For cervical cancer, we are pretty good at telling if it’s HPV-related or not. If you get an odd cancer and have no other risk factors other than your exposure history, it will be listed as a possible or probable contributor in the notes provably.

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celo753 t1_j4j1p0b wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in How does my pumpkin plant not get sick when a pumpkin rots on the vine? by cream_of_slop

Lots of fruits are intended to attract animals to eat them, not just avocados or large fruits.

Seeds do not need to be large to survive the gut, for example if you eat corn kernels they will easily survive your gut.

And the spreader animal does not need to eat the fruit whole to ingest seeds, it can just take bites out of the fruit and then ingest some seeds whole incidentally.

A pig or a cow, for example, will eat a pumpkin. Not whole, of course. But in the process they will end up ingesting whole seeds, that will survive their digestive tract and be spread around.

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DukeSuperior_Truth t1_j4izbf2 wrote

Reply to comment by catiecat25 in How do the new generation of weight loss drugs (Semaglutide, tirzepatide) work and why are they seemingly so effective? by harpoonhambone

Fellow physician here. Why does it have to be paired with exercise/certain diet? It doesn’t work on your metabolism without exercise?

That sounds to me like the old stigma is still going strong. Unless you mean the wink-wink kind of lifestyle mod we do for cholesterol or hypertension…it is certainly nice if folks exercise and eat plants, but the drug either works and is safe and we use it to treat a medical condition…or its doesn’t. Patients shouldn’t have to adhere to a certain program to be given necessary medication.

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DomesticApe23 t1_j4iykmv wrote

Reply to comment by katsiebee in Since almost all European vineyards graft on to American rootstock which is resistant to phylloxera, if one didn't do this, would there still by phylloxera around to constitute a threat anymore? by JimmyCrackCrack

Also worth noting that Australia has the oldest Syrah and Grenache vines in the world, as our crops weren't affected by phylloxera. Another reason we're strict on border entries.

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Kp1234321 t1_j4ivwoh wrote

Reply to comment by VoilaVoilaWashington in Since almost all European vineyards graft on to American rootstock which is resistant to phylloxera, if one didn't do this, would there still by phylloxera around to constitute a threat anymore? by JimmyCrackCrack

As everything in the wine world, yes and no.

There are some grape varieties that get significantly better with vine age: Mourvèdre, Zinfandel, Carignan, Grenache.

There are also some grape varieties that don’t do well with vine age: chardonnay, Pinot noir, riesling.

Sure, you’ll see Vielle Vigne on some stuff from Burgundy, but that is for 30-50 year old vines at best. That’s barely adolescent passes for Grenache or Zin.

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JimmyJazz1971 t1_j4ity7t wrote

Reply to My 4y/o told me her dream about losing teeth without ever knowing it's a common dream. Are there any other examples of cross-cultural phenomena that centers on a specific narrative? by [deleted]

I always have these bizarre dreams where I desperately have to use the washroom and have to settle for a lone toilet sitting out in the open -- in the front window of 7-11, in St. Peter's Square, in an office lobby just as a car crashes through the plate glass -- all kinds of weirdness. When we talked about such things in previous posts, it seems that this wasn't terribly uncommon.

The other one that seemed really common was getting into a fight in your dream and not being able to hit your opponent. Either you'd always pull the punch, or it would feel like your arm was swinging through molasses in slow motion.

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