Recent comments in /f/science

murfmurf123 t1_j69ocik wrote

Reply to comment by unaccomplished420 in Researchers has found a link in sleep problems and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. A study found sleep disturbances were prevalent among those with lifetime suicidal ideation or a lifetime suicide attempt. by Wagamaga

You arent wrong. Ive winter camped for long periods when I was not doing so well financially, and just 1 one week without heat feels like a month. I was haggard and exhausted every morning, and when I finally made it into a heated residence, would sleep for a full 12-20 hrs

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gsupanther t1_j69oae5 wrote

Reply to comment by giuliomagnifico in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

The problem is that it’s anaerobic bacteria that need to breakdown subsurface plastic. While there are bacteria capable of doing this (did my PhD on this subject), the process takes a significant amount more time when there’s no oxygen to oxidise the stable pi bonds found in polycyclic aromatics that make up a lot of the plastic.

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palmej2 t1_j69nehs wrote

Reply to comment by danderingnipples in Neanderthals collected dozens of skulls of large mammals in a cave in central Spain, in what researchers say is a unique example of complex “symbolic” behaviour. Remnants of ancient bison and other large mammals might have been kept as hunting trophies. by the_phet

Are you saying songs get stuck in these animal's heads too? Even after they're dead?

I'm guessing "we will rock you" was a Stone age crowd pleaser... >You got mud on your face, you big disgrace Kicking your can all over the place, singin'

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-Ch4s3- t1_j69n5ch wrote

Reply to comment by giuliomagnifico in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

Plastics are irreplaceable in plumbing, medicine, weather proofing in construction, many durable consumer goods, automobile crumple zones, storage for dangerous industrial chemicals, and on and on. We need to dispose of plastics better, not try to blanket ban them.

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The_Humble_Frank t1_j69m8bq wrote

Reply to comment by Faithinreason in Neanderthals collected dozens of skulls of large mammals in a cave in central Spain, in what researchers say is a unique example of complex “symbolic” behaviour. Remnants of ancient bison and other large mammals might have been kept as hunting trophies. by the_phet

Pretty hard to get a clean kill (efficient, minimized duration of suffering, near instant death) targeting an eye.

edit: with a spear

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Adventurous-Quote180 t1_j69m25v wrote

Reply to comment by Fromnowhere2nowhere in Researchers has found a link in sleep problems and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. A study found sleep disturbances were prevalent among those with lifetime suicidal ideation or a lifetime suicide attempt. by Wagamaga

Also dont forget that one of the symptoms of depression is problems with falling asleep or waking up at night. When my depression (caused by cptsd, but that was unknown at that time) was beginning i werent able to sleep through the night for months. Only after getting on meds have my sleep normalized.

So im not sure if sleep problems cause suicide, or just both are caused by depression. Correlation isnt causality, you know.

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The_Humble_Frank t1_j69lyqy wrote

Reply to Neanderthals collected dozens of skulls of large mammals in a cave in central Spain, in what researchers say is a unique example of complex “symbolic” behaviour. Remnants of ancient bison and other large mammals might have been kept as hunting trophies. by the_phet

The multistage preparation they note doesn't necessitate any real special behavior. Rendering a kill is itself multi-stage process that leaves you with the remnants of the animal.

Keeping a skull around doesn't mean the skulls have any deeper meaning beyond a trophy of a successful hunt. though it could be used as a teaching tool.

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EvenBetterCool t1_j69lfs8 wrote

Reply to UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

I hope this is more inspiration to try plastic breakdown BEFORE it sits in the ocean long enough to break down. This is exactly the kind of half information that would inspire climate change deniers to say "See it'll take care of itself."

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Fromnowhere2nowhere t1_j69ke8z wrote

Reply to comment by tornpentacle in Researchers has found a link in sleep problems and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. A study found sleep disturbances were prevalent among those with lifetime suicidal ideation or a lifetime suicide attempt. by Wagamaga

I think you may be misreading the data. What they found, as far as I can tell, was 10% prevalence in suicide attempts by all participants, not just those with insomnia. (Among those with insomnia, the percent was much higher.)

My point is to question whether they started with a representative sample of students, if 10% of the general sample (before accounting for insomnia) had attempted suicide.

… I wish I had access to the full article and not just the abstract! Makes it hard to understand what exactly the data are saying.

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Stardust_Staubsauger t1_j69jo8a wrote

Reply to comment by giuliomagnifico in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

>UV irradiation enhanced the plastics' toxicity, even for samples initially evaluated as toxicologically inconspicuous. The plastic samples caused oxidative stress (85%), baseline toxicity (42%), antiestrogenicity (40%) and antiandrogenicity (27%)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34004441/

The remaining microplastics are an additional problem.

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