Recent comments in /f/askscience
HighlandHiker t1_j5uh9b8 wrote
I think you’ve hit on some key points with mutations, and but it also is useful to know the gritty mechanics. An antigen is something the body encounters that triggers an immune response, typically but not always a foreign substance or organism. Your body produces antibodies until it finds one that works against the antigen it has encountered, then “saved” that antibody in case it’s useful in the future. Thus, the tetanus vaccine protects against future tetanus infection.
The hard part is finding an antigen the immune system will see and that doesn’t change too quickly over time in our population. Flu changes but slow enough for new vaccines to come out each year (with varying efficacy). Some infections have very clever ways of hiding their antigens from detection, such as disguising as your own cells. Others have potential antigens that are accessible but change very quickly, while other parts of their structure are possible antigens that change slowly over time and make better vaccine targets. The better the infection is at hiding or changing quickly, the harder it is to nail down a good antigen to target.
BeetsMe666 t1_j5ug11a wrote
Reply to comment by AbnormalMapStudio in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
I am a refrigeration mechanic and have had to inform far too many restaurant operators about this fact.
They log the temps in the equipment taken by an ir gun, and they are all over the map. The most consistent recording is done with a probe thermometer in a bottle of water.
Too many employees don't question the reading and just log the number that is far out of range.
[deleted] t1_j5ug0e3 wrote
Reply to comment by RobusEtCeleritas in If neutrons have a half-life of 15 minutes, how isn't everything just falling apart all the time? by PanikLIji
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MrBuddles t1_j5uf6ik wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
With regards to the concept of prehistoric waves of migration into North America - I'm confused by what that actually means. Does that mean groups/tribes would pulse into North America and somehow displace the people from the previous waves? Did the people from those previous waves largely die out or did they generally mix with the new waves? Is there a generally agreed upon number of major migration waves?
[deleted] t1_j5ueqdm wrote
Reply to comment by LitLitten in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
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[deleted] t1_j5uefut wrote
Reply to comment by Dusty923 in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
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jermdizzle t1_j5ueeie wrote
Reply to comment by drthip4peace in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
Hot air doesn't cool. Thermal cameras and ir thermometers give invalid readings of reflective surfaces. These are two facts that answer the op's question and they are both relevant to the scenario. I don't really have anything else to say because there isn't any more to say about the scenario.
drthip4peace t1_j5ud622 wrote
Reply to comment by jermdizzle in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
ok well how is the camera accessing the part inside a container, inside a thermal chamber and why is a camera being used to measure temp and not a temp probe? If it is inside an oven and the question is why would one material in the oven not be the same temperature as other materials in the oven the conductivity of the materials is a logical answer especially since the material in question is a metal housing. Yes the reflection of light will influence measurements of light but there is no mention of light being reflected by the user I am assuming is familiar with the instrument they have chosen. Granted matter is limited but it surely within the realm of possibility that the metal housing is acting as heat sink. This is even more possible when the notion of moving air is added to the equation. Air moving over metal... what is the housing protecting the part from? The conditions should not be the same inside the housing as outside the housing because it would longer be a housing but just another part being heated returning me to my original point that the amount of energy required to raise the temp of the material will vary based upon the properties of the material. It just so happens that in this case known properties of the known materials suggest heat can and should be lost.
[deleted] t1_j5ucpad wrote
Spiffydude98 t1_j5uckq8 wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
With the new indications that several prehistoric cave paintings have written symbols - early written language basically - and the letter Y seems to stand out - are there some legacy language (written or spoken, cultural) elements that are derived from prehistoric times?
[deleted] t1_j5ucefb wrote
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[deleted] t1_j5ucbpi wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in What determines whether we can create a vaccine for an illness or not? by ShelfordPrefect
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earthwormjim91 t1_j5ubuxp wrote
Reply to comment by amaurea in Where do bears go when they hibernate? Cartoons convinced me they all lived in caves, but I'm not so sure. by Forge_craft4000
The linked studies in that section don't directly support what the article states.
The study in captive black bears controlled for things like access to food and water. Researchers completely removed access to food and water to trigger hibernation and the end of hibernation in the bears to monitor them.
The study on wild brown bears found that they were very susceptible to disturbance and would move dens during the winter if disturbed, so not in a total hibernation. It also directly calls out the black bear study as having hibernation artificially started and ended and not representative of the wild.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4750243/
>In a previous study, the HR in captive black bears was reported to decline gradually over five weeks from the date that food and water were removed [45]. Our finding that changes in Tb began long before changes in HR suggests that studies on captive bears with an artificially defined end of the food/water season might not represent the actual sequence of events in the wild.
They concluded that hibernation is driven by environmental factors rather than the physiological factors that the black bear study concluded, and that periods of warming can drive them out of their dens or delay hibernation.
They also highlighted the need for differentiating between small mammal hibernation and bear hibernation because of these.
[deleted] t1_j5ubqds wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
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Coffeelocktificer t1_j5ubfx1 wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
Anthro question with spin of PoliSci: given the lack of Ethnographic evidence behind Neurodivergent peoples positive contributions to the clan/tribe/village/community/society, except in indigenous cultures, can the collective self advocacy of neurodivergent people benefit from specific programs that help target hiring and providing mentoring/support to improve the whole socioeconomic health of this group without resorting to stigmatizing and medicalizing their conditions as disabilities? By all means support those who cannot work in the systems built by neurotypicals, as they need to fully resort to disability to survive. But for those who can find meaningful purpose and potential prosperity, support those also?
[deleted] t1_j5ualvc wrote
TimeSpaceGeek t1_j5uabrd wrote
Reply to comment by RatticusFlinch in How do materials like asbestos cause cancer? by Qazpaz_G
Very kind of you to say, and glad I did a good job!
I don't, I'm just a well read and... I guess you could call me an 'enthusiastic amateur'? I do a lot of reading on a lot of scientific subjects, try to keep up on the latest knowledge, and am pretty good at comprehending what I've read and translating it, but despite considering it for a while when I was young, I've not actually gone into scientific work.
[deleted] t1_j5u9e54 wrote
Reply to comment by KnoWanUKnow2 in Where do bears go when they hibernate? Cartoons convinced me they all lived in caves, but I'm not so sure. by Forge_craft4000
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masterpjj t1_j5u8rp0 wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
Science: is it currently possible to slow the aging process of humans? If not how close do you think we are to making a breakthrough that we could actually achieve longer lasting life?
Zolden t1_j5u8map wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
What caused Renessaince?
amaurea t1_j5u8lyg wrote
Reply to comment by earthwormjim91 in Where do bears go when they hibernate? Cartoons convinced me they all lived in caves, but I'm not so sure. by Forge_craft4000
>Another key fact is that bears don't actually truly hibernate. They go into what is called "torpor".
Your reference doesn't seem to support this? Also, Wikipedia says:
>Historically it was unclear whether or not bears truly hibernate, since they experience only a modest decline in body temperature (3–5 °C) compared with the much larger decreases (often 32 °C or more) seen in other hibernators. Many researchers thought that their deep sleep was not comparable with true, deep hibernation, but this theory was refuted by research in 2011 on captive black bears and again in 2016 in a study on brown bears.
PurrNaK t1_j5u7x6n wrote
Reply to comment by Oodalay in Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
A motor when physically turned produces power in the same way as an alternator, so adding an alternater just adds %loss through heat and added weight. Also in a gas car, the engine always runs like a generator to turn the shaft in an alternater. EVs already recapture generated electricity through rolling and braking. But there is still %loss through heat, light, computing power, friction. So you drive up a mountain and then coast down, you won't regain all the power, but you do get some.
As time goes on, better wiring, battery and even an addition of a single cylinder engine can be used to create and store power for the batteries to drive the motor. Innovation takes time, but tomorrow will be better than today. Even in recycling of batteries :)
KnoWanUKnow2 t1_j5u7tht wrote
Reply to Where do bears go when they hibernate? Cartoons convinced me they all lived in caves, but I'm not so sure. by Forge_craft4000
Largely, they hibernate in dens that they dig themselves. They'll use a ready-made cave and save themselves the digging, but typically they dig one themselves. They may return to the same den year after year.
Polar bears can't dig into the ground because of permafrost, so they dig into a snow mound and den in there.
Just do an image search of "bear den" and you'll see loads of pictures.
ZeusCockatiel t1_j5u7kvy wrote
Reply to Ask Anything Wednesday - Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Anthropology by AutoModerator
There’s a mouse that lives inside my car and has started to eat wires how can i remove the sucker fast
drthip4peace t1_j5uhfkp wrote
Reply to comment by jermdizzle in Why does hot air cool? by AspGuy25
Hot air does cool according to the laws of thermodynamics, but sure ok the laws of the universe are suspended in this thermal chamber because of this mystical housing, that must be what it is protecting the part from, and it is a reflection that the OP fails to mention, why would it give a consistent reading of 85? SO this reflection is also amazingly consistent? The entire part on all sides has the same reflection? Wouldn't it or shouldn't it vary significantly based on anything that would impact the reflection? You are assuming that not only that this reflection exists, but that all of the variables that influence this reflection remain constant and unchanging because the result is unchanging. How improbable is that? You are welcome to make as many assumptions as you like but there is not reason that I must make the same assumptions or agree that your assumptions are correct.