[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is it really possible to "steal" electricity from high voltage lines via induction?

I've heard anecdotes about people doing this. I know it's possible. But  I wonder if it could be done in any practicable way.

[Assistant] depends on what you mean by practicable, if you want a reliable and safe source of power you'll need a lot of expensive equipment, if you just wrap a coil around the line you'll receive low power high voltage wich is very hard to work with and electrocuting yourself in the process of assembling your construction is likely at 380kV (european high voltage line)


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How can your body's feet be ice-cold when the rest feels warm?

I sometimes find myself in my house and it's too warm to wear a sweatshirt but my feet will be ice cold. I heard that warming the torso area helps to warm extremities but I have been on the verge of sweating with ice-cold extremities. Please explain how this is possible?

[Assistant]
They aren't getting as much blood flow as the rest of your body due to being so far away from the heart. Plus when it's cold your blood vessels tighten up to keep core temperature and minimalize heat loss.

Its why you shouldn't drink alcohol when it's cold because it dialates the blood vessels. You'll feel warm while you freeze to death.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why does sexual intercourse consist of a stimulation through going in and going out (friction?)? Also why do we need to be stimulated in order to reproduce?

[Assistant]
Sexual intercourse isnt exactly friction. In a normal intact male and a normal intact female there is very low friction. The penile sheath rolls over the glans and stimulates both partners in the in and out motion.

As to why do we need to be stimulated to reproduce, someone else will have to answer that.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[General] If humanity had to live in one giant city, where would you put it?

Assume some sort of science-fiction shenanigans are going to make most of the uninhabitable, but humanity knows this is about to happen and has time to prepare. They can choose a spot and keep it habitable, anywhere on the planet. They'll essentially need to build a mega-city to house as much of the world's population as they can.

Where would you put such a city and why?

[Assistant]
Africa, we have the technology to make it work, but it has the largest deposits of all the stuff we make technology out of.

We can grow food anywhere, we can get water anywhere, and it would be best in all but the worst ice ages.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Black Panther] How is wakanda so wealthy and advanced despite exporting only tiny amounts of vibranium?

[Assistant]
Is this Comics or MCU?

In the MCU it's alluded that the world thinks of Wakanda as goat-herders and not wealthy (but they've hidden the fact they're sitting on a mountain of vibranium).

In the comics though they dont like selling vibranium, they are extremely technologically advanced - using vibranium tools and manipulations they surely can build superior end-products that themselves have no vibranium within them.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Lord of the rings] is Gandalf the White now supposed to wear only white robes for the rest of his life, What if he wants to wear a black robe and dye his hair brown?

[Assistant] We've seen it in the films in particular, where Gandalf maintains the pretense that he is still "the Gray" when he enters Rohan. Gandalf the White is both rank and title, and it's a fine tool to maintain a consistent appearance to ensure he is recognized (since he doesn't have a driver's license or other ID),  but when he wants, he can go incognito. As far as rules, the wizards are left to their own discretion in pretty much all things, given just a goal instead of strict rules, so there's nothing binding him to a particular presentation, or even the mission as a whole; as of the end of the books, he was the only wizard who stayed the course, not falling to darkness, fucking off to pursue their own agenda, or just plain vanishing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How is the sound of a blinker made?

A tiny speaker? A sound chip? Something mechanical?

[Assistant]
It used to be a relay that was purposefully noisy to remind you it's on.
I would say in the last 5 years it has been mainstream that all lights are controled by a computer so now the sound is from a speaker and a computer decide if the blinker sound should ring or the safety belt warning or the door open or other warnings.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Can the gravitational effect of the moon on the displacement (weight) of a 100,000t ship be calculated at it's strongest and weakest all other factors remaining equal?

[Assistant]
Let's find out -

For gravitational force, we have

F = GMm/r^2

The radius of the Earth is 6.37010^6 m, the distance from the center of the earth to the moon is 3.84410^8 m, the mass of the moon is 7.34810^22 kg, and 100,000 (metric) tons is 10^8 kg.  The minimum distance then, is 3.844*10^8 m, and the maximum is 3.90810^8 m.  So the maximum force, F_max, and and minimum force, F_min, are:

F_max = ~~1.7409410^-12 N~~ 3430 N

F_min = ~~1.7294410^-12 N~~ 3210 N

This is a difference of 220 N, which is about 50 lbs.

Edit: Fixed typo when calculating forces.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why wasn't the magic used in making the Maruader's map expanded upon? Make a mass grid of map that can keep tab on the whole wizarding world?

So it kinda bugs me that the Maruader's map reveals everyone in their true form (such as Pettigrew) yet it wasn't a widespread form of magic. Why don't we see basically EVERYONE have their own map? Can't be that hard to make right? It seems like something one should keep to know everything about where someone is. I could see Death Eaters having them, or maybe utilize it in fighting Voldemort, knowing their next step. Basically it's like Google earth but you can see person, who WOULDN'T find that useful?

So my question is why wasn't the map expanded to form sort of like a network that lets you spy on EVERYONE? Kinda like that cell surveillance thing from Dark Knight that Lucius fox makes.

[Assistant] It is possible that it was tied directly to the magical flows of energy that go through Hogwarts. Like... imagine that it was using Hogwarts' own internal security spells and charms to get the information it needed. The map is useful, but unless many other witches and wizards hadn't been building the detection charms and spells over centuries, it wouldn't be possible to use.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is a human being morally more valuable than other animals? If yes, why?

As a naturalist, I see no reason to believe a human life is intrinsically worth more than the life of a dog or an elephant. Im writing about this subject and Id be very interested to see why someone would disagree (without appealing to supernatural beliefs).

[Assistant]
Just look for anything distinctive of humans that someone might reasonably think is morally significant. It doesnt have to be totally absent from non-human animals, just more developed in humans.

So, intelligence, imagination, artistic capacity, language, and so on.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Avatar, Wall-E] Which is a better investment: RDA or Buy n Large?

[Assistant] RDA got kicked off Pandora by big blue space indians. Buy n Large successfully managed multiple enormous colony ships, and seemed to control the government and economy of the entire Earth before they were forced to leave. I'd stick with Buy'n Large.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] What do Iron Man/War Machine do during transoceanic flights in their suits?

In Iron Man one of the first things he does in the suit is fly from LA to Afghanistan, which would be a 10 hour flight if he went MACH 1 the whole time. Then he spends like 20 minutes there and flies home. what is he doing while flying in the suit for 20+ hours?

[Assistant]
As career Air Force Rhodey probably enjoys directly piloting the armor in flight. Plus his suit isn't as advanced so it's likely that he has to be a more active pilot.

As for Tony, he might use it to catch up on sleep or business. He might even take the time to remote pilot another armor to do other tasks if the flight is long enough, similar to what he did in Homecoming.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why are ratings always skewed towards the high side?

The mean of all ratings on IMDb is 6.9. not 5. The mean rating of freelancers on Upwork is not 2.5 but near 5. The mean rating on Amazon is not 2.5, the mean rating on glassdoor is not 2.5 and the list goes on.

Does this have some statistical explanation or people just are biased towards positivity? Does this mean we should consider 3/5 as a negative review instead of neutral?

[Assistant]
There is no purely statistical explanation, social science is rough. But most of the time you can concoct stories as to why ratings tend to be right-skewed. If we consider IMDB some examples could be:

\- Most individuals decide to watch a movie and series, consequently, you would expect each individual to generally have a positive bias towards that specific genre/style of movie and series (something their mean rating likely doesn't account for).

\- As time progresses movies generally improve and cater better to viewers and thus deserve higher ratings. Naturally, raters are expected to adapt their rating, but as ratings are a function of 'all' past movies, raters' beliefs will trail movies producing a right skew.

\- Similar to the above, those who produce movies with high ratings are increasingly able to gather funding and exposure for future movies reinforcing the loop, leading again to a right-skew.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why do electrons fill up orbitals when atoms bond? Why are atoms more unstable without full orbitals?

I would like to know what actually causes electrons to act in this manner. I know all about how an atom 'prefers' to have a balanced amount of electrons orbiting it. But why do the electrons 'oblige' and become shared? It seems strange and I can't come up with an answer, nor can my chemistry teacher. I'm not really sure if this is worded correctly, but I am extremely curious, and would rephrase as best I can if the question isn't understandable.

[Assistant]
Short answer:
Quantum Mechanics

Long answer:
Electrons don't have a an exact position as it were, as you might well probably know. Instead they have a wavefunction. These wavefunctions, due to electrons being fermions, must be anti-symmetric and when the wavefunction of two electrons overlap (like they do in atoms) the total wavefunction must describe the positions of both (they must be indistinguishable). This is harder than one might think, considering you suddenly have an n-body problem on your hand with the introduction of 2 electrons and 1 nucleus or 1 electron and 2 nuclei (stable He and and H2+). When considering H2+, we often keep the two nuclei at a given distance and then derive the waveform from there with the two potential wells. With the stable He, we consider one potential well, the individual electron wavefunctions must be anti-symmetric and the total waveform should be symmetric (two fermions can effectively become one boson) and different terms from that arise (using perturbative theory). One such term is what is called the "exchange integral". This generates an attractive force by (more or less) exchanging the positions of the electrons.

**tl;dr** The exchange integral gives an attractive boost between pairs of electrons.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[NES/Arcade Games] I tend to die a whole lot in these games. Does this mean the villain wins in most timelines?

I mean, a lot of games do not show you reviving any way. You just die, and appear somewhere else like nothing happened. This is especially true with Game Overs. Does this mean that out of the millions of people that played Super Mario Bros., an overwhelming amount of those timelines just feature Mario getting a Game Over and Bowser winning?

[Assistant] Yes, of course. Mario is a single man, albeit a particularly high-jumping one, and Bowser is the supreme leader of one of the world's largest and most powerful industrial-military empires, not to mention a giant fire-breathing monster with a mastery of dark magic. It's amazing that Mario wins in *any* timeline.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: With one eye you have no depth perception, so why is it when I cover one eye I can still tell distance?

[Assistant]
Stereoscopic vision is only one component of how we perceive depth, and not even aparticularly good one! Because our eyes are closely spaced, it's only really good for close depth perception. Combined with convergence (How much our eyes have to look towards one another to focus on a close object) these "binocular" methods of depth perception are really only effective out to about 10 metres.

Monocular methods of depth perception that don't depend on having two eyes include:

* Parallax - things move relative to one another as out point of view changes

* Relative size - smaller things are further away, example in a field of cows

* Familiar size - Ships are big, dogs are middle sized, insects are small. We know this.

* Perspective: Line converge to a point which indicates the size of an object.

* Occlusion: If one object passes in front of another, blocking our vision of it, we have perception of their relative size and so distance.

* Defocus Blur: As our point of focus shifts, different "depths" are resolved in and out of focus by the eye. This gives important depth information.

* Distance to horizon. In a natural landscape, the closer something is to the horizontal horizon, the further it is away. This is a function of our elevation above ground level.

There are more...

So, as you can see, our depth perception is NOT limited to "stereoscopic vision". We use many subtle effects to judge depth. One of the reasons 3D cinema can be nauseating or confusing is because it uses simple binocular effects to "brute force" our perception of 3D, which is uncomfortable when other queues are  mis-placed in the footage we're viewing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Marcus Aurelius cites Socrates, Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Pythagoras as great philosophers of the past. How much more would Marcus have known about Heraclitus and Pythagoras and their teachings than we do today?

[Assistant] For one, the Pythagoreans cult might have still been active at the time. Conceivably, he could read the handwritten book Heraclitus wrote and left at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Heraclituss book, On Nature, burned down along with the temple and all we have today are fragments.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What is the scientific definition of temperature?

I have been googling this and having a great deal of trouble finding definitions that don't seem circular. In particular, the following is bothering me. Temperature seems to be defined by internal energy (u = 3/2RT) for an ideal gas. Internal energy can be theoretically defined (velocity + vibration + rotation, etc). But specific heat capacity increases with temperature for a real gas, meaning there is more energy per degree of temperature increase. How can there be more energy increase per degree if a degree is literally defined in terms of the amount of energy increase?

Does temperature actually only depend on particle velocity, and other effects just happen to be negligible at normal temperatures? What gives?

[Assistant]
Temperature is defined by:

1/T = (S/E)*_V,N_*.

That means that the inverse temperature is equal to the partial derivative of the entropy with respect to the energy, with the volume and number of particles left constant.

In other words, it's how much the entropy changes when you change the energy a little bit, leaving the volume and number of particles constant.

This is a totally general definition of temperature, which applies to any system in equilibrium thermodynamics (although technically if you have other extensive quantities in addition to V and N, they should be held constant as well).

This definition becomes equal to 2E/3k for a classical, monatomic ideal gas. This may have been how you defined the temperature in introductory courses, but it's not really a suitable definition for when you're dealing with systems that aren't classical, monatomic ideal gases.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
(Star Wars) So... Time Travel. Is it a thing?

By this I mean are there any recorded instances of time travel. Be it accidental or intentional?

[Assistant]
Yes, there are multiple instances of time travel in the Star Wars universe, mostly by freak accident.

Some absurdly powerful Force users can appear to travel back to the past, but they're just viewing events and cannot interfere.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If we suppose that one were to be completely devoid of their five senses (yet still alive), would they still be capable of self-consciousness?

In addition, have any philosophers in the past dealt with this question?

[Assistant] This is basically the point of Avicenna's 'Flying Man' thought experiment, which was also discussed by a large number of subsequent thinkers. His answer was yes. You might want to start by looking into that.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5 - Why don't we tax the same rate across the board?

I don't make that much money and am probably in that 48% that doesn't actually pay income taxes in the end (because my tax return gives me everything back that I paid - I have 2 dependents and own a house). Anyways, I always wondered why everyone wasn't just taxed at the same rate. I would assume even 3-4% of every ones income would be more than what is paid now. Seems more fair to me. I have no problem paying taxes for the roads I use, the police and fire I depend on and the schools my kids go to.

So if someone makes 250k a year - they would have to pay 10k (at 4%). If someone makes 10k - they would have to pay $400.

So, why isn't every single worker taxed at the same rate? Wouldn't it be fairer and bring in more taxes?

**Edit**: I would like to add that I meant "in total". Instead of money going to social security, income, and capital gains - I mean we ONLY pay a small percent and then it's divy'd up on the IRS's end.
~and~
Companies as well - why don't they just pay a flat percentage of their profits?

[Assistant] Our tax rates are designed to reflect disposable income. Disposable income is the income we have left over after purchasing food, rent, education, and other necessities. After spending money on those items, poor people have a much smaller share of their money left over than the rich. That's why we tax them less.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] does Vader think the rebels don't have radar?

In Empire, Vader kills an admiral because he "alerted the rebels to their presence by coming out of lightspeed too close to the system."

But wouldn't that not matter? Surely the rebels have every kind of radar so even if the Empire came in way far out they'd eventually see them. Would that admiral have been killed for coming in too far since the rebels would've put their shield up as soon as they saw them?

[Assistant] Ships give off Cronau radiation when they exit hyperspace.  It's possible Vader wanted them to exit hyperspace far enough away that the Rebels couldn't detect the Cronau and would have to hit them with a more traditional radar that would be harder to detect them as early.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Can water be compressed to a solid?

The 'normal' solid form of water is crystal, leading to a lot of 'negative' space and the common trivia about ice being more voluminous than liquid water.

It seems like though, the crystallization is almost just getting in the way of what could be a more normal (to other molecules) solidification process.

So is it possible to either compress water until it's solid, or cool it in such a way that its viscosity increases to solid?

[Assistant] Keeping it at room temperature, you'd have to compress it to a pressure of about 10,000 atmospheres before it solidified. It wouldn't form regular ice, it would form something called Ice-VI with a different structure.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How does anti-venom work?

Does it attack the venom somehow or neutralize it via protection of the affected area? Both?

What is actually taking place on a cellular level?

[Assistant]
Anti-venoms are just antibodies against a particular venom. So you are getting injected with antibodies that your body would have produced normally. Antibodies do their thing against the venom, binding to it and neutralizing it, but they don't reverse whats already been done.

This is a form of artificially acquired passive immunity, similar to when the mother passes her antibodies to her fetus, but that is an example of naturally acquired passive immunity. Passive immunity doesn't last as long as a active immunity, because you aren't producing your own antibodies. An example of active immunity would be getting a weakened flu virus as a vaccine, where your body would produce antibodies against that weakened flu.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How come when my stomach hurts, it feels like a wave of "I gotta s**t right now" and few moments later it's as if nothing happened?

[Assistant]
Imagine your bowels as a ship.

Normally, a bit of water will get into the ship and it's pumped out without any effort (the large intestines/colon reclaims the water from the food we eat). However, if a huge amount of water gets into the ship (from disease or the body's response to flush your digestive tract), it can create a bit of panic for everyone on the ship.

Yet, if the water pumps are fully capable of pumping out that water, then the feeling of panic will subside and things will go back to normal.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why are fluorescent colors special and why did they not seem to exist before the 80's?

[Assistant]
Other people have addressed your comment about the timeframe.

Here's why they are special:
Normal colors reflect the color you see and absorb anything else (a blue shirt absorbs red, yellow, green, etc. but reflects blue). This means that if there light hitting the shirt has 100 brightness units, the shirt can reflect up to 100 brightness units back.

Fluorescent colors are able to absorb energy from beyond the range we can see (UV) and then re-emit it in a color we can see. So a fluorescent blue shirt could reflect up to 100 brightness units back of blue, and absorb another 100 brightness units of UV and emit them back as blue light, giving off 200 brightness units of blue in a room where everything else is only giving off 100.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: The fact that you go to hell for all eternity means that God doesn't believe in rehabilitation.

Let's say you are a horrible person. You tortured many people, you killed some of them and you never kept the door open for someone. This doesn't mean you can't change after death. I agree that you have to be punished, but eternity is a couple of years too much. During our lifetime we can forgive someone if we see genuine remorse for quite a lot. From my point of view the fact that you go to hell for all eternity means that you will not change after death and that you can't evolve in the afterlife. Which is a scary thought by itself. I think this idea makes God appear as a deity which is not moral. And also makes the whole argument that religion is moral a whole lot weaker.

[Assistant]
If we accept the premise of the Christian God and afterlife, we accept the premise of an all-knowing God.

An all-knowing God would know whether you were capable of retribution and worthy of the good place or whether you weren't and deserved the bad place.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[General Sci Fi] Why isn't gravity weaponized?

In many sci fi series, the ships have artificial gravity. If they could replicate gravity itself, then wouldn't someone be able to easily manipulate the gravity generators into becoming a super weapon that could implode planets? (This may have happened in some show, but I'm not sure).

[Assistant]
That's what they did to Malachor V in Knights of the Old Republic, basically. gravity-cracked the planet with the entire Mandalorian army on it, plus a decent number of Republic troops.

The obvious excuse to why it doesn't happen is that it'd be absurdly energy intensive to do such a thing and would likely require an entire flotilla of extremely specialized and likely quite fragile ships. Planets aren't small and gravity generators (depending on the setting) don't seem to cover more than the ship itself, if that.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why does orgasm immediately end sexual desire in men but not women?

[Assistant] Evolutionarily, it's to increase chances of having a baby.  If a man continues to engage in intercourse after ejaculating, he risks inadvertently pushing the semen out of the way, making pregnancy more difficult.  For a woman, if she orgasms first, she needs to stay interested until the man is done in order for there to be a chance of pregnancy.  Because of these evolutionary needs, men have long "refractory periods" (lack of sexual desire after orgasm), whereas women either don't have them or have really short ones.  The exact cause of the refractory periods in terms of body chemistry is still up for debate.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do they fit 6.9 billion transistors on a 7 nanometer chip? Additionally, how do they connect them up correctly?

Edit: I think Apple means 7 nanometers apart? Either way, can someone please ELI5?

[Assistant]
7 nanometer technology refers to the smallest feature they can make.

As for how they can be made they are produced through a process called lithography. Individual layers are made and projected onto the material with light, interacting with chemicals to either stay put or wash away to mask areas so other material can be deposited.

Think about making art on a wall by masking things off with tape or paper, then rolling or spraying paint on the wall to stick wherever isn't covered. Then you take it off and repeat again many times to make complex pictures. With chips they can actually be 3D structures as each pass lays down a tiny layer of metal or other material.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What about the atomic structure makes gold or copper their trademark colors but leaves most others a shade of gray?

Just what is it about those numbers of protons that makes such a drastic difference?

[Assistant]
Well, gold, silver and copper make for a good comparison here, since they have the same electronic structure (same group in the periodic table). So you might expect them to have the same properties with each other at least, if not with the other metals. But they look quite different.

Most metals don't absorb strongly across the visual spectrum (but do reflect) so they have a shiny grey appearance. The energy difference between the lowest unoccupied energy level of its electrons, and the highest occupied ones, is in the ultraviolet range in silver. In gold, that difference is shifted down into the blue range of the spectrum, so gold absorbs blue light, reflects the rest, and appears yellow.

The reason for that shift in gold is actually Special Relativity. As things go faster, they acquire relativistic mass. The faster an electron 'orbits' the nucleus, the heavier it becomes (from the viewpoint of the nucleus or some outside 'stationary' observer like us). The more charge the nucleus has, the more attracted the electrons are to it, and the electrons are located more closely to it. In quantum mechanics, the more confined an electron is to a region of space, the higher its kinetic energy is. So heavier nuclei have faster-moving core electrons, and when you get down to heavy elements like gold, they move so fast that their speed gets to the order of the speed of light, and the effects of Special Relativity start to make themselves noticed. So they gain relativistic mass, and this in turn affects their motion as well. Which in turn also effects all the other electrons as well.

It's special relativity here that causes this shift in the levels; we know this because you can do the calculations on that energy gap without taking special relativity into account, and then you get the result that gold would indeed be silver-colored. So the yellow color of gold 'proves Einstein right' - which is pretty remarkable considering how far removed it is from the original phenomena Einstein was looking to explain.

Copper is a bit of a different story, and can't be given a simple explanation as easily. The reason there is that it has a bit of a 'special' status by virtue of being in the first row of its 'block' in the periodic table (the d-block). The thing about that, is that the _outermost_ (valence) electrons in that case are closer to the nucleus, compared to the ones in the rows below it, for quantum-mechanical reasons (technically: the 3d orbitals lack a radial node). This, too, shifts the levels and causes it to absorb visual light. It also gives copper a 'second' oxidation state (Cu+ and Cu++) compared to Au and Ag, which only have Au+ and Ag+.

The reason these colored metals occur in that group (and not others) is because of the specifics of their electronic structure. Most metals are in the d-block of the periodic table, meaning they have 1-10 electrons in the 'd' sub-shell. Scandium's group has 1 and Zinc's group has 10. But Copper's group _also_ has 10 d-electrons, and instead one less s-electron (which is the sub-shell that's usually lower in energy than d). It's energetically 'better' for it to have a filled d-subshell than a filled s-subshell.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [General Fantasy] Vampires cannot enter private human homes unless they are invited in by the owner of the house. What happens if a burglar drags an unconscious vampire in?

[Assistant] Depends on the universe. In some, the vampire will die/burn up upon entering the house. In others it's like there's a physical forcefield and the vampire cannot physically enter the house no matter what. In a few it would cause the vampire great pain/discomfort but will be able to do things inside the house/leave. And in yet others, the rule is just them following tradition/being polite so it wouldn't do anything to them.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why do humans like pillows to support their heads when they sleep?

Other animals don't need any sort of head support, and if museums are correct, humans have sought out sleep-time head-supporting objects for millennia.

[Assistant]
The spine of primates is curved to support standing upright, so it does not do as well lying flat on our back or stomach.  We can do so, but it is not as comfortable as lying on our sides.

Primate shoulders stick out past our head, so when we lay on our sides our heads are not lying flat on the ground (unlike dogs or cats for instance).  The larger the primate the bigger the gap (monkeys have tiny shoulders and are very flexible so they can usually just shift their shoulder out of the way).  Therefore to support our heads we need something to  fill the gap between our shoulder and head.

Google "ape sleeping" and look at the pictures.  You will see that apes also sleep on their sides with their arm under their head.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Do spiders get stuck in the webs on other spiders?

For example, would spider species A get stuck in the web of spider species B? I know bigger spiders eat smaller ones, but how does the stickiness vary between types of spiders?

[Assistant]
Spiders thread non-sticky threads into their webs that they use to traverse the web safely.  Other species and even members of the same species can get stuck in the web.  They can get stuck in their *own* webs if they fall or get startled, but will chew their way free.  Spiders eat their damaged webs to recycle the proteins.

Spiders are generally cannibals and will happily take care of any brothers and sisters that stray into their web.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[general] Villain here, seeking to do a redemption arc without dying.

So, i'm a pretty average villain.

 I've been the rival of the hero while serving under an evil overlord, and have done many terrible things in order to bring the hero down.

Thing is, im starting to have second thoughts.

At this point, a redemption arc seems to be inevitable, eventually. But i'm not stupid. I know that redemption equals death more often than not. And i don't exactly wish to die just yet.

So i ask you. How can i pull it off while being guarenteed to survive this? Heck, im fine with becoming the hero's lancer or even a third party if need be.

[Assistant]
Be snarky, brooding and wear a leather jacket. Have lots of sexual tension with the hero (Bonus points if your both dudes). Have a pretty awful childhood and/or have your old love interest be killed by angry civilians and/or be enslaved by the evil overlord. Something sympathetic.

Do all these things and you might die in your redemption quest but the sheer power of this concept called fangirl rage from beyond a thing called the fourth wall will give you a very high probability of coming back to life.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Dragonball Z] Why didn't the Gohan from future Trunk's time line ever get angry and transform into Super Saiyan 2 like he did against Cell?

[Assistant] He never had the extra training from his father to help him refine his powers. It's likely that what should have triggered his SSJ2 form was only the trigger for his SSJ form, since his father was not around to train him to be a SSJ and refine his control over the form.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How is a mosquito proboscis physically capable of puncturing human skin?

Human skin should be way too dense and strong for something so small and fragile like a mosquito. How is this possible?

[Assistant]
It uses two maxillas to cut its way into the skin so the fascicle can enter while the labium remains on the surface of the skin.

Think two little rotary saws that cut their way into you while a syphon gets slowly lowered down.

Its not even a puncture at the scale the mosquito is working at.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Terminator] How did John Connor start the human resistance in the first timelines?

So, John was born 1984/85, and the first judgement day occursed in august 4 1997. So, when judgement day happend, John would be 12 years old. So, how did a little kid start a resistance? Or, did Sarah survive as well and raised him in the postapocalypic hellscape, and he started it much later? (which would mean less people still surviving) Or did Sarah start anything?

[Assistant] In the original timeline, Sarah Connor survived Judgement Day. She was killed by terminators in Buenos Aires in 2012, leaving John Connor to fend for himself. John himself was transferred to a work camp in San Francisco and there met Kyle Reese. He rallied his fellow prisoners, taught them how to fight their camp guards and with them form TechCom, the core of the Resistance against Skynet.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why do some people like the taste of something but someone else detests it? For example, Coffee. I hate the taste of it but my girlfriend loves it.

[Assistant]
A few major elements play into things we like the taste of.

* There have been studies that what a woman eats while pregnant can affect the flavors that the baby prefers once they start eating solid food.

* From the time we start eating solid food until we're able to reliably walk on our own, we're built to largely trust whatever our parents feed us as being good and whatever that tastes like gets coded in our brains as "good". This is also the phase of life when we'll put pretty much anything within reach into our mouths.

* As a toddler, a general resistance to trying new foods kicks in. Some think this is to keep kids who can now wander off, but don't yet have any good judgment, from eating things that aren't safe.

* There's a general, built-in bias in our taste that treats sweet as inherently good, bitter as unsafe until proven otherwise,  sour as a toss-up, but safer than bitter.

* After that point, anything that doesn't make us sick and has caloric value CAN taste good. If you eat something and your body detects good calories afterward, it will associate that flavor as good. This is what we mean when we use the phrase "acquired taste". You can literally make yourself like something by loading it up with calories and choking it down often enough.

So, for something like coffee, if your mom drank a lot when you were in the womb, you might be pre-disposed to like it a bit. Then, if you put enough cream and sugar in it (load it with calories), you might fairly quickly train your taste to disregard the bitter and view it as tasty. This is also the idea behind covering veggies in cheese sauce. Though, the greater our initial dislike of something, the more of this kind of training would be required to start liking it.

In fact, this whole system can be up-ended as well. When calories are supplied to the body without any flavor present (tube feeding for example), the body's appetite shuts down and drops to a really low level.

Because we all have a complicated combination of all of those things, we all tend to like a different blend of things.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Sunless Sea] Since hell exists and is a tangible place you could go to for vacation, does that imply heaven is a tangible place as well? Are any religions in universe "right?"

[Assistant]
"Hell" is a colony of bees in human suits that fashions itself after the christian hell for reasons inscrutable to Londoners, not the theological christian hell.  They collect souls because >!The judgements think human souls are delicious!<, not to punish sinners.

People don't really die in the Neath, so there's nothing "after death" down there.  On the surface, the sun ( a judgement / god) has total control over what happens when humans die.  We don't have a canonical answer for what earth's sun in specific does, but an eternal reward is unlikely >!because human souls are delicious.  The only functioning afterlife we ever see in game is the Blue Kingdom in Sunless skies, and it's all an elaborate procession towards NOM NOM NOM!<.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why will my phone disconnect from my own personal 4bar wifi and connect to an open 2 bar wifi without being prompted?

[Assistant]
One thing to keep in mind...and this annoys the hell out of me...

The number of bars you have is indicative of how strong the SIGNAL strength to the router is - not necessarily how strong or fast the connection to the internet is.  You could be connected to a router that has one bar and will load faster than the router with 5 bars depending on internet speeds the respective router is connected to.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: The conservative movement in America is becoming detached from reality.

_____

Right-wingers in the U.S. seem to be drifting further and further into their own alternative version of reality.

They have rejected science for a long time now (evolution, young earth, global warming is a hoax, biodiversity is unimportant etc).

Academia in general is dismissed. Universities are said to have a liberal bias, especially all studies of the arts.

The media is the latest to be rejected. All mainstream media is "untrustworthy" and blogs and youtube are taken at face value, despite the fact that mainstream media actually has fact checking and accountability.

The thing is, if you reject science, academics and the media as sources of information, what are you left with? Your own version of reality, which bears no relationship to the real world.

[Assistant]
Well this is as a pretty liberal guy, both the left and the right are becoming more and more detached from reality. The social conservatives of America are really detached from the realities at play, but the economic conservatives tend to be pretty understanding of business motivations and free market economics. There is a reason most economists tend to lean more right in policy proposals.

But at the same time academia does have a ton of problems going on right now, especially in the humanities and many of the soft sciences. Many of them no longer really aim for objectivity, but pursue political aims. This problem is less prevalent in hard sciences since the scientific method is more valued; but in soft sciences critical theory is more commonly found than critical thought.

The media currently does have problems as well, mainly brought by the 24 hour news cycle and the constant need for views, but it has degraded journalism to talking heads.

So yeah have social conservatism become fairly detached from reality, yeah. But so have some socially progressive movements.  So have some parts of academia, so have some parts of the media. Its a problem across society at the moment, and sadly the people most deluded tend to be the loudest. But currently there are movements in the left, and the right, in academia, and in the media trying to bring everyone back to a more realistic basis.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Batman] Does Two-Face use the coin to decide whether or not to wash his hands after going to the bathroom?

[Assistant] He only uses the coin for what he'd deem to be an important decision, and more specifically, an important decision that he'd have two minds about. Like, drinking water is technically important but he doesn't flip a coin on the matter, he has no conflict about the action. Whether or not to have a snack mid-afternoon isn't very important at all, even if he's conflicted about the matter, so he probably won't flip a coin but will just choose one way or the other like a regular person.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Ghostbusters] What would've happened if Vigo successfully transferred himself into Oscar's body?

Let's just say the 'Busters are not let out of the asylum,or NY is particularly pissed that day no matter what.What happens?

[Assistant] First, he kills Dana Barrett as she would always be a threat to him.  He orders Dr. Poha to arrange for him to be adopted by a powerful political family.  Using his powers, he creates an army of servants who work to pave the way for his eventual takeover of the world.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: how come food gets utterly obliterated by stomach acid, yet stuff such as bacteria and parasites that cause food poisoning doesnt?

[Assistant]
Most do, but only a very small number of bacteria need to make it to the intestines to start multiplying again and produce ill effects.

Actually the impressive part is probably how many bacteria your stomach acid *does* blitz every day and how rarely pathogenic bacteria do make it through!

Also some food poisoning (such as from rice) isnt caused by bacteria, but by toxins which the bacteria have already produced, and which dont get destroyed in the stomach.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Star Trek & others] Are there any scientifically plausible situations where 'reversing the polarity' could actually save the day?

[Assistant] Simple DC electric motors will spin in the opposite direction when you reverse the direction in which current is flowing through them. If your control system uses such motors and the disaster is due to them having spun too far in one direction, just reverse the polarity to set things right.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How does shining a specific light on your teeth for a half an hour at a time actually whiten your teeth?

[Assistant] The LED teeth whitening light will not make your teeth whiter however it will accelerate the teeth whitening gel typically applied before the light is applied.  The after effect is the light causes the gel to react quicker when breaking down tough to fight stains.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:why did older cars and trucks have the high beam switch on the floorboard.

Was there ever an advantage/reason for this?

[Assistant]
The high beam and starter switches use large physical relays that used to be operated directly because they control lots of current and are too heavy to conveniently flip with your fingers.

The invention of solenoid switches made it possible to control high-current devices with much lighter stalk-mounted switches -- the large relays are still present but elsewhere.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Wolverine] If wolverine can heal so fast can he get drunk?

I have always wondered that with such a high metabolic rate, can wolverine get drunk? Wouldn't it wear off super quick? Also where is all the extra tissue coming from when he grows shit back?

[Assistant]
He can get drunk. (or high, or tranquilized, or whatever) It just takes a massive dose and wears off almost immediately. His healing factor makes most toxins just bounce off his metabolism.

He drinks (and smokes) because he likes it, not out of any drug high or addiction, and because it can't hurt him. Downside: coffee doesn't work either, which is probably why he's always so cranky.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Marvel] Can Bruce Banner claim new clothing as a business expense?

He rips up any clothing he's wearing when he becomes the Hulk and being a superhero is an occupation of sorts.

[Assistant] Sure it's an occupation of sorts, but not in the ways that matter when it comes to claiming things as business expenses. That is, no one actually pays him to be a superhero. He just randomly goes into rages and coincidentally does good things.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Those tree-dwelling cicadas that make such a racket all the time - aren't they basically advertising their location to all nearby predators? How do they survive?

Are there just too many of them? Or they aren't prey for many other creatures? I would have expected that birds, bats, possums, etc. would eat them...

[Assistant]
They get eaten in droves. That's why many species reproduce in intervals based on prime numbers. That way each species explodes at once without interfering with one another. There are simply so many that predators cannot eat them all.

In the tropics (I saw this in Costa Rica) cicadas don't use the prime number burst strategy because there are already so many insects and frogs chirping all the time that there is no need for the prime number years used by temperate species.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why has the price of higher education skyrocketed in the US, and who is profiting from it?

[Assistant]
To add onto jeezfrk's comment:

Price is controlled by what the market is willing to pay.   If someone is paying cash, then they usually can't afford to pay that much.

1. In steps the Government, with the best of intentions offering guaranteed student loans and "free money".

2. Suddenly a lot of people can afford the product, demand goes up for a limited amount of product (seats in class)

3. Colleges raise prices to lower demand and increase ~~profits~~ spending ability (stadiums, coaches, etc)

4. G'ment sees that the loans are no longer adequate and increases the amounts they'll loan.

5. Go to Step 2

Of course, we're reaching a point where people are questioning if the product (college education) is worth the cost, and quite a few people are saying "nope!"    Depending on the field, ROI is pretty shitty, really.

Same basic thing happened with health costs, Insurance made "free money", so people didn't have to think about what it would cost them and the prices lost their downward pressure.

Edit:  Fuuuuuck.   So this is what it's like being a top comment...


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Doctor Strange MCU] Thank you all for stopping me from pledging my allegiance to Dormammu. I still have another question. The Ancient One basically leads a cult where she is unquestionable. Why should I follow her teachings when she herself draws from the Dark Dimension?

[Assistant]
The Ancient One is not unquestionable. It's just that she's usually right about things  centuries (probably) of experience will tend to do that  so people inherently trust her. But if you have a problem with some aspect of her teachings or whatnot, you are allowed to question them.

As for her drawing power from the Dark Dimension, there was little more than a few minute gap between when that issue was revealed and when she was killed  and the only students of hers who knew about it (and weren't already allied with Dormammu) were Mordo, Wong, and Strange. Where are you getting this information?


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5 why people call cities in different countries by different names e.g. London -> Londres

Surely it's just London? Or Roma? Or Lisboa?
Why the different names?

[Assistant]
Firstly, the names go back so far that they have evolved in both languages since first usage. London used to be Londinium or Lundinium, and was commonly called Lundin or Londin prior to becoming London.

The first usage of place names was often by mariners, who would convey the name verbally. Londres in French sounds similar to how the English said Lundin. That's the main theory.

Other places you get different spellings to accommodate the common phonetic spelling in various languages. Consider Den Haag / The Hague / La Haya.

Also, sometimes we alter a place name to make it conform more with our respective languages. Lisbon / Lisboa or Milan / Milano.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How does exercise boost energy levels?

[Assistant]
Regular exercise makes your muscles and your heart stronger. When you're stronger, it takes less effort to finish your regular day-to-day tasks. This makes it seem like you have more energy leftover after doing your regular tasks. This goes for intentional physical activities as well as just being alive (I.e. having a beating heart).

It may help to think of this in reverse. If you're in great shape, you get used to doing a lot during the day. If you were suddenly out of shape, you'd have difficulty keeping up with your former, fit self.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does the Empire even bother using walkers, when they clearly have hover technology?

So as weve seen, walkers (AT-AT, AT-ST) are kind of top-heavy and vulnerable to being tripped. Never mind the fact that the very high profile makes them really hard to conceal. Generally, in contemporary warfare, you want armored vehicles to have as low of a profile as possible.

So why bother even having walkers, when you can just use hover tanks or other vehicles using repulsorlift technology?

The only practical reason I can see for having walkers would be the psychological impact it has on your enemies.

But I cannot imagine that that outweighs all of the serious drawbacks.

[Assistant] The Empire ruled on fear alone. They had the power to beat a system or two into submission fairly easily, but the Galaxy is made of millions, if not billions, of systems. The idea behind the AT-AT was it was huge and shook the ground as it walked by. Taking out a tank thats closer to the size of a large speeder doesnt seem that scary or impossible but having a building size tank bearing down on you would terrify most people.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[HP] why did the dead eaters retreat after they saw the dark mark in goblet of fire

In goblet of fire the dead eaters attacked the World Cup. But when they saw the dark mark they retreated.
Like isnt that their logo? Why would they retreat after seeing it if anything I must have encouraged them.

[Assistant] Arthur explains (in that same chapter, IIRC) that most of the Death Eaters running around that night were drunk idiots re-living their "glory days." None of them were loyalists, they'd be more terrified than most to come face-to-face with Voldemort. Which is why the individual who conjured the Mark did so: To remind people (and those Death Eaters specifically) that there *were* still loyalists.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [ATLA] How were soldiers chosen for Zuko's ship after he was exiled? Were they volunteers who were loyal to him over the Fire Lord? Could they return to the Fire Nation or were they banished too?

[Assistant]
In the hundred years that the Fire Nation had been trying, and failing, to find the Avatar, the search itself became largely ceremonial.  Ozai didn't invent this wild goose chase just for Zuko, it was already ongoing and he just made completing it the requirement for Zuko's return.  A token force was already assigned to the task, Zuko was just put in charge of it and when his uncle went along his name brought some volunteers who could probably have found a more glamorous posting if they'd tried.

They eventually came to respect Zuko, when he risked his own life to save a member of the crew, but this was after coming to resent him for putting their lives in danger to find the Avatar in the first place.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Torque?

Whats the difference between torque & kilowatts? For instance when looking at the power in a car.

[Assistant]
Torque is angular force. It's how hard you can twist something.

Kilowatts is the total power output, which is how hard you can twist something and how many times you can twist it.

For instance, if you were shoveling mud, torque would be how much mud you can lift in your shovel, rpm would be how many times per minute you can lift the shovel, and kilowatts (or horsepower, which is just 1 hp =0.76 kw) is how much mud you can move overall, which is the product of the two. So if your shovel holds 5kg of mud, and shovel it 45 times per minute, your mud output is 225 kg per minute. Or, if your shovel holds 25kg of mud, and you shovel it 9 times per minute, you'd also have a 225kg per minute output.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[DC] Can Beast Boy turn into hybrid beings?

Can he transform into, e.g. a liger? What about alien hybrids, like a Kryptonian-Martian?

[Assistant] Yes. If it exists, and if it's an animal, he can transform into it. That said, it probably needs to be a creature that he knows exists (or once existed). He can't just make up theoretical hybrids and transform into them. So if a Kryptonian-Martian hybrid does exist out there, and Garfield is aware of them, he'll be able to take their form.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
About Schopenhauers Opinion of Suicide

  A few days ago, I read Parerga and Paralipomena. (In Japan, there is a book which focuses on several part of Parerga and Paralipomena, and I read the book titled On Suicide)

 His narrative was very beautiful and I was very impressed. However, one question remained, In the end, did he allow people to suicide?

I wonder whether he thought that suicide should be allowed or not and I cannot sleep well without night. Could you tell me the answer?

[Assistant]
I think he believed that people have the freedom to end their own lives. He even acknowledged that the "terrors of life could reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death." He respected that humans could make this choice. But at the same time, he did not see it as anything noble:

"Suicide may also be regarded as an experimenta question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to an answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer."


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why are dogs so nice? Why do they have an innate tendency to love and play with people/animals?

[Assistant]
Two reasons:
1. We've bred them that way. Dogs are the result of between 15,000 and 100,000 years of breeding by humans.
2. They started out as pack animals, and in breeding we've only increased this instinct. Knowing their position is really important to a dog. Rising up in 'rank' and being the leader is certainly important to them, but inhabiting a safe position is even more important, even if it is the bottom one. So in a normal human - dog relationship, the dog will perceive the human(s) as socially higher up the ladder and therefore to be obeyed and appeased.  When dogs bite other people, they will perceive that victim as a threat to 'their' pack. When dogs bite their owners, it is often in defense because their owners are abusive, or because they perceive their handler as weak and challenge their position. Leg-humping or leash-pulling are less severe symptoms of a dog who thinks he socially outranks somebody.  Striking a balance between the two extremes - being an authority to the dog but not abusive - is not so hard but you'd be surprised how many people get it wrong.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Harry Potter] What would have happened if Harry hadn't taken part in the Triwizard Tournament?

I know that it is a binding magical contract, but I can't find anywhere what would've happened to Harry if he decided not to participate?

[Assistant] We don't know. It's never explained. But given that the entire faculty and Ministry of Magic nevertheless let/forced Harry to participate, we can infer that violation was either impossible or that the consequences for doing so were more severe than anything that could have (reasonably) happened in the course of the Tournament.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
1 year post-doc with very little to show: How do I recover?

Long story short, after doing my phd in quantitative genetics in EU, I was offered a 3 year contract at a prestigious research institute in the UK. Chance of my life, I took it, uprooted my family to move to a new country, and blew my chance.

After 13 months of research, I have produced exactly 0 results. Various intermediate results and what not, but nothing publishable. My PI put me on a Performance Improvement Programme, which I am not entirely sure what covers, but there is a fair chance I will be made redundant. I have nobody to blame but myself.

All my current research projects were scrapped, and I am temporarily been relocated to another group to do a bit of trivial research. At least this is something I can manage, but current results seem mundane...

If I get fired, I will naturally need to apply for something else. But how do I sell myself? My current PI will not be able to make any recommendations, other than confirming my employment, my faith in myself as a researcher is in absolute shambles, I am not able to conduct research independently.

What should I prioritize for the next couple of months? What can I possible tell a future employer to convince them why they should hire a failure?

A bit of background: If I get fired without any jobs in sight, I will move back to Denmark. Part of the reason I failed my current research was that I did not have the necessary abilities to solve the problem, and due to my family, could not engage long working hours.

[Assistant]
If you are looking for a new position with less than 2 years of postdoc experience, the people hiring you will start off thinking that  you and your PI didn't work well together.  Could be personality, funding, or research difficulties.  You will have to explain it on your next interview.

Failing happens in science.  Figure out why:

* Was the project done correctly?

* Was the overall hypothesis wrong?

* Are you able to interpret the data?

* Did your PI sign off on your project?  If she did, you both failed together.

If this is a work life balance problem, then you should find another position where you don't have to kill yourself 14 hours a day in the lab as *you don't want to have that lifestyle.*

To sell yourself you should rock the current project you have and see if there is a PI there that can give you a recommendation.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What is machine learning and how does it work?

[Assistant]
Machine learning is a discipline that develops algorithms to get computers (aka thinking machines) to learn without having to be explicitly taught.

It works very similar to the way our brains work.

When you are born, your brain is a blank slate, and is hard wired to detect common patterns and associations.

You guess at what something is, and that guess is either validated or invalidated.

For example, imagine a 1 or 2 year old learning about animals. She says "What's that" and you say "cat".

Now, anything with fur and 2 ears is a cat, so when she sees a dog, she says "cat!". You say "No, that is a dog". And another piece to the pattern emerge, and the child eventually understands the concept of "animal" versus "cat"

In the same way, machine learning systems are programmed to discern patterns and associations, and essentially learn through trial and error by being given tons of data, images, words, etc, and it "learns" through that process.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why do viruses often kill or weaken their host (humans, animals, etc.)? Wouldn't they want their host to live as long as possible so they could survive as long as possible?

[Assistant] They're not self aware. They're essentially different codes of RNA that lock into receptors on host cells and produce a negative outcome when that cells processes are messed with by the new code. The bad ones we know about are just "lucky" enough to have won the genetic lottery to where they happened to end up with genetic code that's makes them easily passed on, causing bad symptoms or death, etc. In fact the even luckier ones like herpes do exactly what you said, they last in the host indefinitely without killing it. But there is no malice, thought, or animal drive behind it. They're just tiny complex keys fitting into tiny complex locks and producing horrible effects when they match up with the right lock.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [WH40K] My fellow loyal subjects of The Emperor I ask you, who is our greatest enemy? The Xeno, the Mutant, or the Heretic?

[Assistant] The Heretic has an always be the greatest enemy. You may ally with the Xeno in dire straights, you may use the mutant who is loyal to the Emperor but the Heretic must be destroyed whenever and wherever they are found before their infection festers and spreads.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If a father has cancer (specifically testicular) at the time of conception, does this have any ramifications for the child?

Would they have a higher chance of birth defects or having cancer themselves?

[Assistant]
I came across a research paper investigating this exact question regarding fathers with testicular cancer. According to a study by Barbosa et. al of children fathered before the illness, during treatment for the condition, or after treatment, "no difference was detectable in the somatic and psychiatric status of the three groups, and development was well balanced, corresponding to age... the incidence of anomalies, abnormalities, malignancies, and other diseases was recorded. Incidence was similar in all three groups." (1)

In this sample group, the timing of conception relative to the progression of testicular cancer produced no significant difference in the child's health. This could suggest that aside from any heritable genetic predispositions to cancer that the father may have always had, which could potentially be inherited by the child, the somatic mutations which accumulate in the testicles have no readily identifiable effect on the child's well-being.

1. Babosa M, Baki M, Bodrogi I, Gundy S. A study of children, fathered by men treated for testicular cancer, conceived before, during, and after chemotherapy. Med Pediatr Oncol. 1994;22(1):33-8.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Contact], The Alien Species told Ellie that her trip was only a first step. What do you think the next step was?

When Ellie asks the Alien species if humans can come back for another trip, they say her trip was only a first step, and that's how it's been done for millions of years.

So, putting aside the idea that it was the billionaire all along, what do you think the next step humanity was supposed to take?

[Assistant]
Step two is meant to be the return of humans to the wormhole network. Knowing humans, it is likely to be with either a fleet of ships or a redesigned pod capable of carrying a larger delegation.

The first visit was designed in such a way that it tests not only a society's ability to cooperate and build such a machine, but it tests faith and belief as well. The core concept is that only one person makes the trip and reports back home, with very little evidence.

In the book, the aliens told Ellie about a test *they* had passed when they discovered a pattern in the digits of pi. Apparently, if you calculate pi to some ridiculous number of digits (orders of magnitude more digits than we are currently capable of) a pattern of ones and zeroes appears. This implies that there was an intelligence involved in the creation of the universe, or at least the laws of physics we seem to be trapped within. It was likely the same intelligence that left the wormhole network.

The book also coins the term "numinous" as describing the feeling you get when you behold something greater than yourself. This is supposed to be the same feeling a religious person gets when they feel divine inspiration and when a scientist recognizes that their body is made of star stuff.

The implications are that human society is still in its infancy. We are an "interesting mix" of good and evil. There are also a lot of steps between us and whoever managed to put a binary code in pi. But just knowing that those steps exist could be the motivation we need to start climbing, however long it takes.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Do Iodine tablets prevent radiation sickness?

Saw Iodine being administered in two separate TV shows. Does it really help? How does it work?

[Assistant] Not exactly, a large amount of the radiation dose from a nuclear explosion comes in the form of a radioactive isotope of iodine.  You take large doses of safe iodine and that means your thyroid won't absorb the radioactive one, and you'll just piss it out instead of ending up with a radioactive thyroid.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Does soap really clean us or does it just make us smell nice?

Is there such a thing as being truly clean?

[Assistant] To an extent, yes soap does clean us! Soap, which is called an emulsifying agent, works at a chemical level by breaking up the oil and grime into a more manageable size. They form what are called micelles, imagine a bubble with dirt and oil in it but miscroscopic, that suspend the oils and dirt on the surface of the skin in a way that they can be removed!


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do sniper rifle scopes work?

What are they made of? How can they magnify so far?

[Assistant] They contain little pieces of glass called lenses.  These lenses take the light that enters the front of the scope and stretch it out.  In the process of making the image bigger, the lenses flip the image upside down, so more lenses that flip the light right side up again are also inside the scope.  Either a piece of thin filament or a laser etching on one of the lenses creates an image of a cross hair that overlays the magnified image.  Some of the lenses are attached to swivels that you can adjust to make the crosshair match up with where the bullet will impact.  The more precisely  the lenses are manufactured (fewer surface errors, better concave and convex shaping) the more magnification will be possible without making the image fuzzy/dark.  That's why some scopes are so expensive, the higher quality materials and manufacturing produce a higher quality image.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5 : How and why dies it rain diamonds on Neptune?

Where do the diamonds come from? What happens when they hit the ground? Do they get sucked back up in a perpetual cycle of raining and sucking?

[Assistant]
> What happens when they hit the ground?

Just to answer this bit specifically, theres no ground on Neptune. Its a gas giant, so its mostly gas and then deeper towards the core the high pressure turns that gas into liquid.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What would take longer: copying 1024 1MB files, or 1 1GB file?

If one of those takes longer than the other, why?

[Assistant] I'd imagine 1024 1MB files would take longer because you have to fetch file metadata as well as the actual file data. Plus, depending on how much data your buffer can transfer in a single block, you might have unused space in the buffer.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[The Walking Dead] How bad is the zombie outbreak during the winter in the northern states?

Well I was outside shovel snow (again) in the great state of Minnesota and the thought popped into my head "how bad are the zombies here during the winter"? Especially in a year like this one where until recently the average high would be below zero. I know that a harsh winter would be hard on humans as well but because we can think I want to believe many well equipped Minnesotans would survive the winter during a zombie outbreak.

[Assistant] Zombies aren't easy to kill. If one gets buried, yeah, it'll be gone until it thaws... and then it will be back unless it was crushed. Unless people go around finishing off snow-covered zombies, they'll return later.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why does my iPhone struggle to load a 2 min youtube video, but streams Netflix seamlessly?

[Assistant]
There are differences between Netflix and Google/YouTube.  One is a paid subscription one is a free ad sponsored site.  The subscription based Netflix has all the episodes spooled up and ready to go on each server - they know exactly what to anticipate prior to release.  That being said, even their House of Cards and Orange is the new Black etc. on release day are subject to massive peak usage and that's hard to scale.  YouTube appears to propagate videos differently.  Every time you watch a relatively obscure video, or something that hits the 301+ mark can bring traffic congestion/slow speed serving up an unexpected video.

To cut some people off at the pass, the reason ads are so flawlessly delivered is because 1) Money.  Ads aren't free, someone pays directly for them, Google has a vested interest in serving them up quick.  2)  there's thousands pre-uploaded ads vs. tens of millions of random user generated videos.  Ad servers can be curated much more easily than a user generated dumping ground.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How do you program a programming language?

I.e. How do you get a computer to understand a language?  How does it actually make the transition from that language into assembly language?

[Assistant]
First, you define your language. Define its syntax, its semantics, everything.

Then, it comes the hardest part: developing a compiler/interpreter for it.

A compiler is just a translator, it takes source code from the language you defined and pours the equivalent program in another programming language (generally, with a lower level).

For example, the C compilers, read C code and translate them to assembly, them an assembler converts this assembly code into an executable.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: What are Quantitative Easing and Quantitative Tightening?

I've been hearing these terms but don't really understand what they mean, when and why are they  used by the government and how exactly they affect prices and general standard of living.

[Assistant] Pretty simple. In QE the Fed buys bonds (and mortgage backed securities) from the market. This increased demand for bonds increases the price of bonds thereby decreasing their yields. This makes bonds less attractive to investors so they put money in stocks increasing stock prices. Increased stock prices cause people to be more likely to spend money. QT is just the exact opposite.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: If a heart needs itself to beat, how does it start?

[Assistant]
Heart muscle beats automatically.

Each cell will spontaneously trigger to contract on its own. The trick is that in the heart there are lots of cells next to each other. When one triggers it also triggers the ones next to it, which then trigger the ones next, and so on until the whole thing contracts in an even wave.

After a cell has triggered, it has a "dead time" when it can't be triggered. After the dead time, the each cell either waits for a trigger, or if one doesn't come, then it can spontaneously trigger.

During development, the embryo is small enough that oxygen and nutrients can get to the heart cells without the need for circulating blood - it just needs the placenta to be close enough. The heart cells start forming, and start beating at this time.

Eventually, as the embryo grows, the body gets big enough that it needs the blood to circulate, but by that time, the heart is already beating and starting to pump.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Marvel and AvP] What is the physical gap between Captain America and a Yautja?

* Strength

* Speed

* Durability

* Agility

* Endurence

* Not who would win in a fight, just "Is Cap the closest physical example to a Yautja that humans have?"

[Assistant]
Comics: Captain America is *peak human*. So he can swim with Phelps and run with Bolt.

The Yautja demonstrated no special feats of speed, so Captain America is probably faster. But the Predators have been able to send a man flying 20+ feet from a backhand. This is clearly beyond any human ability, so they are significantly stronger.

Endurance and durability seem to be higher considering the amount of damage a Yautja has taken and continued to fight. But we know humans can sometimes take a lot of punishment too - it depends largely on whether anything vital was damaged. Plus the Yautja medical technology is probably as advanced as their other tech.

MCU: Its not even close. Captain America in the movies is WAY stronger/faster/tougher than he is in the comics.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] How can the center of a black hole have an infinitesimally small area even though a Planck area is the smallest area matter can occupy?

[Assistant] The Planck area is a quantum mechanical description of space, which general relativistic frameworks, like the ones which allow for black holes, are notoriously incompatible with. This is the basis for why physicists are trying so hard to come up with a "unified theory" -- one that would reconcile the quirks between QM and GR.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How do bidets save on toilet paper? Don't you have to dry your bum after the wash?

[Assistant]
Imagine putting your hands in mud then consider the 2 possible scenarios.

In scenario 1,  you wipe all the mud off with toilet paper until the mud is completely removed.

In scenario 2, you rinse your hands off under a hose then dab your hands dry with toilet paper.

Which uses less toilet paper?


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[DC] Do boom tubes allow travel to another multiverse?

Say a character from Earth-1 has a Mother Box. Can they travel to Earth-2 with it?

[Assistant] Isn't this what Darkseid did? Use boomtube tech to go to different realities and kill off Earth's heroes after suffering a defeat from the New 52 heroes. That's why we have Earth 2 with Val Zod and Lois Lane as Res Tornado etc.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How do astronomers share coordinates with each other?

Let's say an astronomer notices something worth studying out there.... How do they tell other astronomers around the world, or just record exactly where they are looking at? For instance for coordinates on Earth they'd give a lat/long and that would always be the same place.

But in space, everything is in motion and therefore relative to the observer.  The earth is moving in space, and rotating as is whatever object is being studied.    So on any given day, or even time, the object being studying is not going to be in the same 'relative' space as it was yesterday, etc....

So how are coordinates marked for collaboration or future study?

[Assistant]
The sky has a similar set of coordinates as the Earth - in fact, the coordinates have the same names: latitude and longitudes. Youre correct in that the sky appears to move above us as the Earth rotates, but we astronomers have solved this by specifying a point on the sky that we define as always having coordinates (0,0). So, from the point of view of someone on Earth, the (0,0) point moves as the sky apparently moves above us.

The choice of where weve decided (0,0) to be is somewhat arbitrary, but if youre curious, its defined as the position of the Sun on the sky at the vernal equinox (around March 21st).


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do clothes get dry from being outside or on radiators?

I understand how water molecules become gaseous when heated to 100 degrees, but there is no point in drying when the clothes would get that hot, so how does the water leave the clothes?

[Assistant] Partial pressure difference. Theres more water in your clothes than in the air surrounding it; water molecules will leave the clothes until the pressure is equalized. Water evaporates from seas/lakes/rivers/oceans at all temperatures, not just at 100C. Adding heat just adds energy that makes it easier for the molecules to detach from each other. Have you noticed how it takes longer to dry your clothes when the day is humid, like after it rains, when theres more water in the air already.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Fallout 2] What's the Caf of Broken Dreams?

[Assistant] All those nuclear bombs going off released so much energy at once it ripped a hole in the fabric of spacetime that is at once fixed and also moving. In it several lost wanders from the wastelands have converged to find shelter and slowly gone insane to the point where they think they're nothing more than NPCs from an isometric RPG game.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How are dams/structures in contact with water maintained?

How are structures that are constantly in contact with water repaired or maintained? I imagine there has to be some sort of preparation or specific process for this?

[Assistant] Concrete 100% submerged is significantly less susceptible to deterioration than concrete that goes through wet/dry cycles which would be in shallower depths. For shallow depth repair work, you can install temporary cofferdams around the work area to dewater the immediate area to complete the required work. Also divers can do many repairs, albeit slower/costlier in general.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why when there is a medical 'breakthrough' that seems like it will treat or cure a huge disease or illness, does nothing change?

I see things that sound like alzheimer's or cancer has a huge breakthrough that SOUNDS like it is cured or treated but then nothing changes.

[Assistant]
Largely because news stories sensationalize science without fully understanding it.

There is a relevant XKCD comic that has a guy in a lab coat standing over a petri dish with a gun that says, "When you see a claim that a common drug or vitamin 'kills cancer cells in a petri dish', keep in mind: so does a handgun."

So, while there may be "breakthroughs" in curing cancer, that doesn't mean that it's a feasible, applicable solution.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Eli5: How is it possible that advancement in USB allows us to transfer larger data in faster speed, yet the diameter of the wire does not change.

[Assistant] The diameter of the wire was never the limiting factor. Larger wires are only necessary when youre trying to transmit larger electric currents, but large currents are not needed for faster data transmission. The data limit for USB is basically the speed with which the transmitting device can turn the signal current on and off again, and the ability of the receiving device to distinguish a signal changing at that speed.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] What are the limitations of the healing properties of bacta?

As we can see in Episode 5, Luke was treated in bacta for frostbite after his accident on Hoth, but it seems that bacta cannot regenerate lost limbs, since Luke had to resort to a robot hand after Vader's maiming of it.

Could bacta heal degenerative diseases like cancer, autism, autoimmune diseases or any other diseases that usually carries a death sentence?

[Assistant]
Bacta tanks promote cell growth. Think of it as a big container of stem-cells that target damaged cells and repairs them.

Exposed to a long enough period of time, more delicate cells like brain cells and bone marrow cells might be repaired but bacta isn't cheap. The amount it would take to regrow an arm would be so ridiculously high and that bacta might have been more useful in saving someone's life.

Getting a robotic replacement is a better alternative and is the affordable option for a vast majority of the Galaxy. Just don't get any back alley augmentations done and you'll be fine.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] How can electricity nearly move at the speed of light if electrons cant move at such speeds without an enormous amount of energy?

[Assistant]
Waves in the sea move, but the water mostly just goes up and down. Sound travels as pressure variations in air, but the air from a speaker's lungs does not reach your ears. Quickly moving a rope you are holding makes a wave travel along it, but the rope stays in your hands. Like that. The water, air and rope are the medium of transmission in each case, not the signal.

The signal moves through the electric field at the speed light, but the electrons themselves are really just part of the medium.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What are the utilitarian responses to Bernard Williams criticisms of their theory?

If you have specific papers or books in mind, I'd like to hear those as well.

[Assistant]
A lot of Bernard Williams' criticisms are rooted in very fundamental disputes over what constitutes a good theory of ethics and what we should expect out of our moral principles. So at the ground level you're either with him or you're not for some of these  issues.

On the other hand, Railton's paper "Alienation, Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality" is a commonly cited response to his accusations that utilitarianism is self-effacing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[WH40k] So... who actually runs the Imperium?

I mean, obviously, the Emperor guides mankind through time and space, as he will for all eternity (the Emperor protects, the Emperor protects) But from what I've been told, he's in no state to directly lead the Imperium, being on life-support and all. Is there a person or group of people at the top who make decisions now, or did the Emperor just account for everything already?

[Assistant]
The Senatorum Imperialis, better known as the High Lords of Terra.
These include the leaders of the following organizations (Adepta):

-Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum (Ecclesiarchy)

-Master of the Adeptus Administratum (Bureaucracy)

-Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites (Law Enforcement)

-Paternoval Envoy of the Navis Nobilite (Navigator Houses)

-Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica (Concerned with Psykers)

-Master of Adeptus Astronomica (Maintain the Astronomicon)

-Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus (Technology/Machine Cult of Mars)

-Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum (Assassins)

-Representative of the Inquisition

These 9 posts are effectively sacrosanct, as they have almost always been a part of the Senatorum. Though, there are 12 total seats for the High Lords, leading to any of the below positions filling the remaining 3 seats:

-Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes (Emperor's Guards & Caregivers)

-Lord Commamder Militant of the Imperial Guard (Ground Forces)

-Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy (Space Forces)

-Speaker for the Chartist Captains (Representative of Imperial merchants)

-Abbess Sanctorum of the Adepta Sororitas (Imperial Nuns)

-Lord Commander of Segmentum Solar (Local military forces of Sol/Terra)

-Chancellor of the Estate Imperium (Record keepers of Senatorum matters)

-Cardinals of the Holy Synod of Terra (High-ranking religious leaders)

Notes: It's worth noting that the Inquisition's representative isn't a permanent position, it's simply whoever a large group of Inquisitors send (since the Inquisition doesn't have defined leaders or structure). Sometimes it's an esteemed Lord Inquisitor, other times it's the eldest Grand Master of the Grey Knights.
The Paternoval Envoy is called such because the actual Paternova never leaves the Palace of Navigators, and the Envoy is usually picked from one of the smaller/less powerful Navigator Houses so that the bigger families don't have a monopoly on power, as they already have the Paternova in a major position.
It's worth noting, that, there is no representative for the Adeptus Astartes on the Senatorum, even though they are perhaps the most important forces in the Imperium. This is because Astartes chapters are quite independent, and it would be absurd to claim that a single Marine could speak for all of them. There are chapters that have deep relations with the High Lords, though, such as the Minotaurs, a chapter that many believe to be the personal 'lapdogs' of the Senatorum Imperialis.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5:How did a 3.5mm jack get universal?

[Assistant]
Short Answer: The Sony Walkman.

Long Answer: The 3.5mm jack was created for use with transistor radios back in the 50s being a smaller version of the 1/4" plug that was common in telephone and audio equipment beforehand due to a simple design and ease of use along with good quality. Sony, in creating the Walkman needed a small, but decent quality jack for their small portable tape player, so they chose the 3.5mm jack. It was somewhat popular already and had already been used in things like their transistor radios so it made sense to use. The walkman of course became incredibly popular to the point a lot of people would just call ANY portable cassette player a Walkman. This led to a ton of clones and headphone manufacturers going out and creating better 3.5mm headphones for use with portable tape players. This continued on with stuff like the discman, MP3 players, home computers etc. Why create a new jack when everybody already had a pair of 3.5mm headphones and it was small enough?


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Batman] Did any of Bruce's female companions ever reveal anything about his playboy image? Surely, some have questioned his whereabouts at certain moments or the scars/injuries on his body? I'm curious if any have ever gabbed about their time with him?

[Assistant] For scars and injuries, the cover is that Bruce likes extreme sports, and the injuries and scars come from that. And since Bruce is the kind of person to be able to own a slope that he can ski on privately or whatever, nobody questions that they rarely see him skiing or whatever in public. Probably all done on private property.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why can't we smell our own breath?

I our sense of smell is linked to taste but why does it nullify it? or is that what happens?

[Assistant] Habituation that is why.  We are constantly bombarded by our own stimuli, so it is extremely familiar to us. That is why its tough to pick up on things like your breath. Now farts, thats a whole different ballgame ಠ\_ಠ


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How does event ticketing work, i.e., What economic principles allow Ticketmaster to charge such high fees for such an easy task?

Some questions I have are: Are venues obliged to use Ticketmaster, and if so, why?  Why aren't their fees considered an abuse of monopoly power?  What are the fees even for?  Why are bands and/or venues willing to allow a middleman to screw consumers so badly?  Are there any alternatives to the current system?  Are there competitors?  Who has the power to NOT use Ticketmaster (how could it be accomplished)?

[Assistant]
Basically, ticket master takes the fall.

Ticketmaster makes 4% of the total price of each ticket. The fees and all don't actually go to ticketmaster, instead, ticketmaster takes the blame and passes most of the earnings onto the venue.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Many natural things fluoresce under UV light. Is fluorescence performing a biological function?

[Assistant] Absolutely.  It's not the case that all creatures see the same region of the light spectrum.  The way things look to humans isn't the same as the way they look to dogs, birds, or bees.  What humans call near UV is just an ordinary color to bees, and they absolutely incorporate that information into their behavior (bee-hivior?).  There are plants that have specific invisible-to-humans bee attracting patterns, for example.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What causes the force that results from the Pauli exclusion principle?

I was reading about white dwarf stars in Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time", and he states that the only thing preventing a white dwarf from collapsing into a black hole is the repulsive force provided by the Pauli exclusion principle, but for stars with masses past the Chandrasekhar limit, this force is eventually overcome by gravity. My question is where does this force come from (does it have a force carrier) and can it be explained in terms of the four elementary forces? Also as an aside, how can the exclusion principle be "overcome" by gravity? Does the law simply break down with forces that large?

[Assistant]
>(does it have a force carrier) and can it be explained in terms of the four elementary forces?

No. Pauli exclusion doesn't fall under any of the fundamental forces. It would still exist for identical fermions that don't self-interact at all. It's just a lack of available states where any two identical fermions share all the same quantum numbers.

>Also as an aside, how can the exclusion principle be "overcome" by gravity? Does the law simply break down with forces that large?

Pauli exclusion affects the equation of state of the matter in the white dwarf. When you have degenerate matter, it strongly resists being compressed anymore, and ultimately this is due to Pauli exclusion. So the inward force that you need to apply to compress it further becomes too high for the stars own gravity to do so. It's a hydrostatic equilibrium between an outward pressure gradient and an inward gravitational force.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why is it that Africa is the only continent to have kept it's native megafauna preserved throughout the ages while most other continents (Australia, Europe, North America) have lost theirs?

Especially Australia, I read somewhere that nearly half of it (if not more) is virtually untouched wilderness. Has climate change and aboriginal hunting seriously done that much damage? I mean i always wonder why Australia is practically covered by modern kangaroos while *Procoptodon goliah* didn't make it despite the main difference is being just a metre and a half taller than the common red. If there has been settlement in Africa for so long why haven't rhino's, elephants, and hippos died out yet? I write this question with a hint of annoyance that such a unique arsenal of organisms had to disappear. The fact that Thylacoleonids (some of the most unique and powerful predators to have ever walked the earth), as a family are extinct frustrates me greatly because I wish i would've had the chance to witness such predatory prowess, especially when i realise that the Thylacine went extinct less than a century ago! Also, please forgive any present ignorance i have on natural history, I'm only 17 haha.

edit: I understand climate change has drastic effects on fauna, but my main question relates more to the preservation of Africa's megafauna while Australia has lost it's giants despite not experiencing a glacial period since permian times.

[Assistant] Because African megafauna evolved in parallel with humans.  They have had to cope with each other for millions of years, and so are in a kind of balance.  Once humans left Africa they found megafauna which was not adapted to humans and human hunting, and wiped them out.  This is particularly true of Australia which is a relatively energy-poor ecosystem and did not have large apex predators.  Once humans arrived it is theorised that they eliminated various large herbivores, allowing kangaroos to thrive.  As a side note  these large herbivores were responsible for eating a lot of leaf litter in forests, and when they were gone these areas became prone to bush fire. Aboriginal Australians developed "fire stick farming" (controlled burning) as a way of preventing catastrophic fires as well as promoting habitat for kangaroos, which were a significant food resource.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [LOTR] Why did the Nazgul/Sauron only first detect the ring when Frodo wore it the first time? What about all the times Bilbo and Gollum put it on?

[Assistant]
In the books, Frodo wore the Ring a bunch of times in the safety of the Shire while Gandalf did his research in Minas Tirith.  This is how Merry and Pippin found out about his adventure, they saw him sneaking off to disappear.

By the time Gandalf discovered the Ring was, indeed, the One, Sauron had recovered enough strength to set up shop again and send the Nine Riders out to seek it for him.  The Wraiths had some limited detection abilities, but still had to manually search and ask around for "Baggins from the Shire."  The Witch-King of Angmar was able to stab Frodo on Weathertop because he could *literally* see him.

Remember, Sam was able to wear the Ring *in Mordor* and kill a bunch of orcs without Sauron noticing.