AskScience: Got Questions? Get Answers.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/JellyFox on 2024-11-08 08:17:16.

Unsure what I should tag this as.

We know that animals can suffer from depression for example due to abuse or other reasons. Are there autistic dogs or schizophrenic cats out there, or are some disorders human specific?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/127-0-0-0 on 2024-11-08 07:59:40.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/kaboose1066 on 2024-11-08 06:29:13.

So Chernobyl was spreading nuclear radiation (like it was dust or smoke) before it was contained.

But what's stopping a filtering process to capture those toxic fumes? Can radiation be captured?

Could the elephants foot just be continually filtered air around it?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/CommercialSimple7026 on 2024-11-09 04:19:08.

This is probably a kind of dumb question, and i’ve kind of seen it answered before, but wanted more clarity. I have always wondered how we know radiometric dating and other methods like carbon dating to be accurate? I have already read answers such as it follows a “rate of decay” and it’s like a “clock that was fully wound up at the start, but has now run down half way. If you watch how much time it takes per turn and how many turns the spring can take, you can figure out how long ago it was fully wound.” But I don’t find this answer very sufficient (i could be dumb). How do we know the rate of decay follows a particular pattern? How do we know it decays linearly or exponentially or in any set way at all if we have not observed the entire decaying process of the elements we are tracing? (or even a fraction of it since isotopes like uranium-235 have a half-life of 700 million years). In other words, is it possible that our dating methods could be completely wrong since we evidently assume a set pattern for decay? Are we just giving a guess? I am probably missing something huge, and I am incredibly ignorant in this topic, but i’ve just had that question nagging me recently and am looking for an answer.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/-Metacelsus- on 2024-11-08 03:03:00.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Diamondsandwood on 2024-11-07 20:09:34.

If they are Chemically the same how can a machine tell the difference?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/MindOfErick on 2024-11-07 19:42:15.

I've tried searching around and others asking similar questions of aging whiskey in barrels, but all the answers only talk about the flavors added by the aging process. What is happening at the molecular level that changes clear liquor brown? Wine does not impart color from oak and neither does beer, but a fortified wine can change color. Does it have to do with the percentage of alcohol or viscosity, or something else?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/West-Director-4680 on 2024-11-07 03:35:33.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Guillaume_Taillefer on 2024-11-07 00:18:21.

Hello, I was genuinely curious about this because it seems a little confusing to me. One problem in militaries using radar, specifically Air-to-Air defenses and aircraft, is that things like the ground, trees, mountains, and clouds or adverse weather can interfere with the radar, so they have to try to filter it out.

Meanwhile Radio Telescopes used for astronomy seem to not have a problem working under bad weather and even rain.

Is it a difference between frequencies of how the two are used or is there some other at play here?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/AskScienceModerator on 2024-11-07 12:00:12.

Original Title: AskScience AMA Series: We are Climate Scientists Unraveling Water Challenges in the Western US. Ask us anything about atmospheric rivers, extreme weather, and the future of water storage amidst record droughts and floods. Ask us anything!

We are scientists with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. CW3E provides innovative water cycle science, technology and outreach to support effective policies and practices that address the impacts of extreme weather and water events on the environment, people and the economy of western North America.

Our work studying atmospheric rivers is instrumental in supporting water management decisions and flood forecasting. But what exactly is an atmospheric river? Great question. They're massive ribbons of water vapor in the sky that can deliver large amounts of precipitation (rain and snowfall). Accurate forecasts of these phenomena are essential to both water managers and public safety officials.

You can visit our website to dive deeper into our forecast tools, read our latest AR outlooks and storm summaries and learn more about how our tools can be used.

One of the atmospheric river forecasting products CW3E created with partners is the atmospheric river scale (AR Scale). You can sign up to receive AR scale alerts when ARs are forecast along the US West Coast.

The team will be starting around 9 AM PT. Ask us anything!

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The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Vikingwarzone on 2024-11-07 10:10:45.

I have been a weather fanatic for about as long as I can remember. For around 20 years I've been reading weather models and analyses. However, when trying to understand what caused the weather phenomenon in Spain recently, I can't really get my head around it.

The general explanation that I'm reading is "The rains came from a high-altitude low-pressure weather system that became isolated from the jet stream, according to AEMET. These storm systems are known locally by the Spanish acronym DANA or more generally as cut-off lows.".

Ok, clear. But why does this had such a dramatic effect? What makes cut-off lows so intense? " A closed upper-level low which has become completely displaced (cut off) from basic westerly current, and moves independently of that current. Cutoff lows may remain nearly stationary for days, or on occasion may move westward opposite to the prevailing flow aloft (i.e., retrogression).".

As far as I am aware, this is not a uncommon occurrence in Europe. Can someone maybe dumb this down for me? Or maybe have a synopsis about the situation?

I have no official meteorological education or background. However my theory is that this low was stationary, unreasonably cold and drew in tons of moisture because the balearic sea was still so warm(?). This caused all this moisture to condense in a short amount of time in the same place(?).

Can someone dumb this down for me?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/FrenzzyLeggs on 2024-11-06 12:35:45.

i've already spent a few hours looking up probably the wrong things and i'm already tired. are there any special effects that make the trajectory of light deviate from the normal conic sections in classical physics, specifically in extreme gravity such as near black holes?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/ijustwantedvgacables on 2024-11-06 04:18:46.

I was reading that the Jovian moon of Europa has potentially 40-100kms of liquid water under its 10-15km ice crust, and I was wondering; assuming you could magically get through the ice, how would the pressure work? Europa's smaller than Earth, so the water would weigh less, but also you could go a lot deeper - as the deepest part of Earth's oceans is only 11km. Could we use a 21st century submarine on Europa, if it somehow got teleported there?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/AutoModerator on 2024-11-06 15:00:46.

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

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The original post: /r/askscience by /u/zsero1138 on 2024-11-04 23:29:10.

why do similar injuries heal at different speeds on different parts of the body?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/pog_irl on 2024-11-05 05:45:20.

As in, traits we had a significant number amount of people having that are now gone? Are there any population bottlenecks where they might have been eradicated just due to bad luck? Not necessarily positive, just things like hair, eye color etc. If every person with green eyes died today I would consider it an example of this.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Substantial-Maybe253 on 2024-11-05 02:06:04.

Like - when a pumpkin is tiny, it obviously had little air inside of it, and then when it gets bigger, there is lots of air inside of it. I have looked all over and haven't really been able to get a clear answer...? Some people say it diffuses through the walls of the pumpkins, but I can't really envision air diffusing through a wall inches thick and full of water.

I guess the same question applies to other hollow fruits, such as some melons or peppers?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/propero on 2024-11-05 01:36:43.

Is there some level of temperature increase that would kill off large swaths of oxygen producing plankton, for example? Thanks!

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Andrelse on 2024-11-04 15:54:48.

So my thinking is that most things are a trade-off, so bacteria that gains the ability to resist an antibiotic might require more energy or have other disadvantages. It also makes room for a slightly optimistic perspective that multi-resistant bacteria might have some upsides.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/laceyaa on 2024-11-04 03:56:10.

When you look up sometimes the clouds move so slow that they appear to be stationary, and sometimea they're very fast. What causes this, and what does it mean? Does speed predict weather? Are certain speeds more common at certain times of the day? Does this change throughout the year? Any insight would be much appreciated.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/NoAnt3371 on 2024-11-04 01:20:45.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Rolando_Vega on 2024-11-03 18:42:49.

With all these poultry recalls happening recently and people being unfortunately infected with listeria and salmonella, I was wondering, can those illnesses spread through person-to-person transmission like direct contact?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/ChannelSuperb6011 on 2024-11-03 04:09:58.

If so, what factors contribute to this uneven gender ratio? I’m curious if there are natural reasons, like environmental pressures, reproductive strategies, or genetic factors, that lead certain species to favor one gender over the other. How common is this phenomenon, and what are some examples of species where an imbalanced gender ratio plays an important role in their behavior or survival?

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/NateNandos21 on 2024-11-02 11:06:34.

The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Still-Ask8450 on 2024-11-02 03:24:18.

When the sun gets to it’s end of life and starts to expand how fast will that happen? Will it be like an explosion or will it slowly expand like a balloon being blown up till it absorbs all the planets?