Recent comments in /f/askscience

angradillo t1_ja7pyt6 wrote

Reply to What is the origin of Ebola? by suckmymastercylinder

Likely transfer from fruit bats in or around the Kitum Cave region in then-Zaire (which gives its name to the most dangerous case-death strain) and modern Congo/Gabon. High monkey populations around this area function as a reservoir for Ebola Zaire.

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trapperjohn3400 t1_ja7n8o7 wrote

Reply to comment by KingSpork in If the fuel that goes in car engines is extracted from hydrocarbons, which consist of only Hydrogen and Carbon, and those hydrocarbons react with Oxygen in the air (combustion reaction), to produce CO2 and H2O, why do we get a bad smell from car exhaust fumes if both gases are odorless? by Protoflare

Yes it could vary from a light, sweet smell, to a horrible acrid smell. But they were all quite smelly. It made driving in stop and go traffic in a city very, very unpleasant.

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murderhalfchub t1_ja7mqjt wrote

Reply to comment by MisterSquidInc in If the fuel that goes in car engines is extracted from hydrocarbons, which consist of only Hydrogen and Carbon, and those hydrocarbons react with Oxygen in the air (combustion reaction), to produce CO2 and H2O, why do we get a bad smell from car exhaust fumes if both gases are odorless? by Protoflare

My guess would be incomplete oxidation of the ethanol to aldehydes. Aldehydes are responsible for fruity smells like grape, banana, apple, etc. But this is a guess.

Source: studied chemical engineering in college and took organic chem

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Shrimpits t1_ja7fv8e wrote

Reply to comment by Veestoria in Is there any possible relation between the recent earthquakes in Turkey/Syria, Japan and Papua New Guinea? by Corvid-21

Please do! I have had the actual phenomenon happen to me a lot (first time I ever remember was when I learned what “serendipitous” was and then the next day I heard it used in the movie Let’s Go To Prison lol), but I never knew what it was called until I googled it recently, and now the name popped up in the wild

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TurqoiseDays t1_ja7e4r8 wrote

Reply to comment by Mdork_universe in How is radioactive dating used to determine historical greenhouse gas levels and temperatures? by pog_irl

There are other ways of estimating* atmospheric co2 for dates prior to we can access using ice cores. Off the top of my head some include alkenones, boron isotope ratios in microfossils, stomatal counts in fossil leaves. They do have significantly greater uncertainty than direct ice core measurements of course.

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theRose90 t1_ja7cwiw wrote

Reply to comment by ECatPlay in If the fuel that goes in car engines is extracted from hydrocarbons, which consist of only Hydrogen and Carbon, and those hydrocarbons react with Oxygen in the air (combustion reaction), to produce CO2 and H2O, why do we get a bad smell from car exhaust fumes if both gases are odorless? by Protoflare

Cars also burn a tiny bit of lubricant oil every cycle, which can have other additives that may cause a smell.

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