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<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What is interferon and how does it work?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Interferons are drugs that are used when a person has a viral infection. They take advantage of existing complicated human body responses and make the body more vigilant to cells that maybe infected. > Side note, there are two main types. Alpha and beta: Interferon beta is made via modified e.coli and interferon alpha is mammalian based<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How does youtube meet the incredibly high demand for storage required for all the uploaded videos? I read that if you tried to watch every video on youtube, for every minute of video you watched, you would fall one week behind due to all the uploads that would take place in that one minute. So this raised the question - how does youtube (or Google) meet such an incredible demand for storage? Are there algorithms that make video storage size smaller? And even if such algorithms existed, wouldn't there still be an absolutely atrocious amount of data that would need to be stored?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant By having entire buildings filled with servers and hard drives. How many terabyte drives can you fit in a million sq ft datacenter? Google has over 20 datacenter worldwide. And you continuously add more drives. By the rackful.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:Why are basketball officials so much more touchy than football officials? Is there an answer beyond "That's just the way it is?" Football coaches yell and curse at football officials routinely without flags being thrown. Yet when a basketball coach or player vehemently questions a call, even without cursing, an official will often call a technical foul.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Part of it is the courtside experience is a core part of basketball both for the image but also for a very important set of clientele. Also, since Allen Iverson, the NBA has worked very hard to sanitize their image and shy away from "street ball." The refs can take it, but it's very much against the rules. That's commenting more on the attitude and cursing than questioning calls. The latter is probably due to delay of game being a very real threat in Basketball where in football most of the game time the ball is not in play.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How are the digits of constants (eg pi) calculated to so many places?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant ELY12: They calculate quantities that are near pi, and refine their calculations as many times as they want. The Greek mathematician Archimedes drew a circle with a radius of one unit and then drew two hexagons, one inside the circle and one outside. You can find the area of a hexagon using basic geometry and algebra. Since the circle is bigger than the inner hexagon and smaller than the outer one, he knew that the area of the circle was between the two. The area of the circle is just pi (since the radius is one), so pi is also between the two. By itself, this isn't a very good approximation, since the hexagons aren't a very close fit to the circle. But if you do it again with 12-sided polygons, you'll get a much closer fit, and you can keep on doubling sides as long as you want. Modern mathematicians use the same idea, but with calculus instead of geometry. For example, using something called a Taylor series, you can figure out that pi = 4*(1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11 + ...). Adding more and more terms to the series gets you closer and closer.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [Dune] Why didn't anyone ship water to Arrakis? When Arrakis was a desert planet the population had to take extreme measures to conserve water. But for a society that has enormous spaceships, it seems like it would be fairly simple to move a few million liters of water around every now and then. So why didn't some water-rich money-poor house bring in plenty of water to sell at Arrakis prices?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Introducing more water to Arrakis would've introduced water to the atmosphere, and eventually lead to increased rainfall (over centuries). Water is problematic for the health of the great sand-worms, who are in turn a necessary part of the production of the spice melange. Thus, for Arrakis to have any value, it needed to remain a desert.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What is the "holy grail" of your field, what is needed to obtain it, and how will this impact the world? I am interested to see what kind of research people do here, and for what reasons. I find that most researchers I've had the opportunity to speak with usually work on something really cool. You can also talk about your specific research as well, it does not have to be particularly broad. For example, I am a graduate student studying in the field of Tissue Engineering/Regenerative medicine. The holy grail of our field is to be able to either grow or repair an organ to restore complete functionality (for example, to grow a liver in the lab for transplantation, or to add the right growth factors, cells, and/or scaffolds to a damaged liver to repair it.) There are many steps required to obtain this, and there are many approaches, but one important step required is to grow a vascular system with the organ so that we can deliver oxygen and nutrients to the tissue. As a result of this challenge, most cells are currently grown in sheets on petri dishes, and we cannot grow "organs" that are thicker than 2mm. (other students, researchers, and/or professors are welcome to correct me) The impact of being able to grow an organ will help save lives who are on the organ transplant list, but will also be able to improve the lives of those who get permanent damage from injuries (for example, replacing the knee after a major tear, or replacing a long bone that has been shattered, or even replacing an entire arm...)<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant An unambiguous and universally-applicable site index for tree quality. In Urban Forestry, the national standard for trees (ANSI) specifically does not ensure quality, and only serves to standardize tree nursery practices. The vast difference between planting sites and tree quality results in huge monetary losses in maintenance, tree death, and growth stunting. Currently, no objective and broad-spectrum criterion exists in order to optimize possible tree growth and obtain the most ecosystem services per tree for the money spent on it. If we do come up with such a site index for trees, we can ensure that urban forests develop as predicted with minimal losses, maintenance, and a more stable ecosystem for a longer time period.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [Elf] Does Buddy the Elf have (magic) Powers or is he an ordinary human? He starts life as fully human, but when he was taken to the north pole, did his mortal self 'die' at the hands of elf incompetents only for them to bring him back to life with aid of their magic so that he could become this elf/man immortal? He reveals some special powers of song, dance, merriment (charm spell?) and snowball stamina and ability to stay up all night and decorate (sneak? Dazzle?). Is this all explained by his diet of sugar alone? Is this a sustainable diet once you break through certain barriers?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant In order to master something, you need to do it for 10,000 hours or consistently for about 10 years as a common rule of thumb. That's about an average of three hours of practice a day, every day of the year. Now imagine doing something for nearly 16 hours a day for 30 years. People are gonna think you're downright magical in speed with your skill. There are some people that only need about 4 hours of sleep to be fully functional. It's rare, but Buddy could be one such person. And in order to stay healthy, as long as you get all your nutrients you should be fine. There's been several cases where people live off of junk food or fast food while only taking the missing vitamins who turned out healthy. As for the sugar, he either developed a tolerance or they lowered the amount in his food.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why do we avoid raw meat when japan consumes it so often? I used to think it was just sushi/sashimi, but now I realize they eat raw egg, chicken, and possibly more.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant They take care to ensure that the chickens are raised and processed in a hygienic fashion to minimize contamination with harmful pathogens. They're not going to the local ~~Giant~~ grocery store and grabbing a pack of saran-wrapped Perdue chicken tenders and just slapping them on a plate.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How does a hard drive compensate for the expansion of itself when in use? It is my understanding that there are very precise points of magnetised sectors within a hard drive, an expansion of just fractions of millimetres could disrupt the whole hard drive, or so I would presume. Why does it not?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The head positioning amplifier is driven from processed feedback out of the heads that are reading in a dynamic fashion. Fine positioning is determined by the picked up signal, not absolute, predetermined locations.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: The Media Only Cares when White, Pretty, or Rich Woman are Missing. People go missing everyday and nearly 600,000 people go missing each year in the United States alone. Yet I have seen it time and time again for the last few decades. Whenever the media picks up on a missing persons story they are generally as the title states (White, Pretty, or Rich). And they receive an absorbent amount of coverage and nationwide police assistance (which is good in any case). However you rarely if ever see that type of coverage regarding POC. [Missing white woman syndrome - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome?fbclid=IwAR22fmA_gBo_G3drytbt4d-We3qR3c-iXclv8HoMwzkFnVRH3mxBN4SntcE#United_States) And I am not trying to take away from the fact that a young life was recently lost. It is a terrible and tragic story and that family will never recover.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant It's more like this: when a missing person case is highly unusual, that's when people pay attention. This may align with race. For example, you may have heard about the problem of missing Native American women. This is a common problem, so individual cases won't draw much attention - it's seen as part of a broader problem. But missing white women from affluent communities is extremely unusual. At the end of the day, the novelty of the case is all that matters. For a comparison, this is why the media never talks about black people being shot by other black people. It's seen as part of a much larger problem.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: The act of forcing police to wear cameras is merely treating a symptom of a problem rather than the cause I am not arguing that if police were to wear cameras that it would not have a positive effect, it might, it might not, I am not sure. However it is merely trying to treat one small part of a larger issue that needs to be addressed. From an external perspective, albeit from a country with very similar problems - the UK, the problem with the police and ethnic minorities, a large percentage being black, stems from deeper issues. Cameras may help bring down excessive force and other such activities from the police, but the actual issue stems from deeper issues such as inequality, the relationship with the state and individual that borders on egotism, to name just a few. _____ > Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our *[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)* first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!*<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant I would argue that greater transparency in the police force through the mandatory use of patrol cameras and public access to these recordings in the court of law actually treats one of the main issues that minorities have with the "system". As an inscrutable monolith, the police garner little trust in communities that have been oppressed over decades or centuries. With the cameras, the police force is now easily accountable for any indiscretions, balancing the scales of legal power. It also helps to defend officers that perform their duties appropriately, preventing rumours and incitations to violence among communities where opportunists may use the lack of information to their advantage.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [Doctor Who] Are the Doctor's future regenerations built into his genome? If we fully sequenced the Doctor's DNA (if he even has it), could we predict the appearance/personality of his next regeneration? Do we even have a biological explanation for regeneration?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The change is dependant on subconscious and situation. You can control regeneration with practice and meditation (as mentioned with Romana, and as Master statedly turns into a younger version to reflect Tennant's Doctor). Doctor could have some control over regeneration, but the way he handles these crisises (acute immediate death seconds away) doesn't leave much time for thought. It might also be that Doctor isn't particularly focused (as Romana implies) and rather relies on subconscious. Which is why #10 spoke like Rose and #9, #10, #11 were all younger than the previous incarnation. Bad Wolf indicates this to be a wish to escape the guilt and life-experiences of the War Doctor. As #11 succeeds in getting rid of the guilt, #12 is again older (closer to the "long term average") and not looking like a doctorate-student (like Matt Smith).<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why do some people get so many cavities? I'm not really familiar with the makeup of the teeth, and this is largely anecdotal, but why do some people get tons of cavities? In my case, I was never taught any real dental health by my parents. I probably brushed my teeth once or twice a month (I know, looking back it's absolutely disgusting), max all the way into my late teens when health classes taught me to be more vigilant with dental health. Even then I brushed maybe 3 times a week. I drank sodas and had tons of carbs and sugars as a kid, and went to a dentist for the first time at 26. He said I had no cavities at all. This stands in stark contrast with a number of my friends who would get a cavity filled once or twice a year during their teens even though they brushed 2-3 times per day. Is there a difference in makeup of some people's teeth that causes them to be more susceptible? Are teeth like other bones where your diet as a child can influence how strong they are?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There's a strong genetic component to oral health. Some people just have different saliva pH levels and different amounts of carbohydrates and proteins in their saliva, and it all just fosters bacteria growth. You happen to be lucky in that your mouth mostly takes care of itself.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: when you apply for a patent how do they check there isn't already a conflicting one?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Patents are indexed by subject matter and words they contain, but basically the patent office still does it the hard way, by looking at all the related patents they can find. Computer searching speeds things up a lot, but someone still has to read the patents and understand what they are about, in order to decide whether a new idea is new and different enough to deserve a patent.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: In html, what is the difference between a div id and a class And how and when would you use one over the other? I cannot wrap my head around this concept. Thanks!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant An id is a unique thing - an identifier for a specific object. A class is a name for multiple similar/identical objects. Imagine you create a long list of <person id="x" class="y"> tags. Values for id are social security numbers - values for class are "student", "assistant", "professor". Obviously you can have multiple persons that are students, but only one person should have a specific social security number.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why are whole tunas bought for so much when canned tuna is one of the cheapest foods you can get?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Different species and parts of the tuna. Similar to how wagyu beef is more expensive than regular beef. And Beef tenderloin is a lot more expensive than hamburger. Different parts of an animal can cost different amounts, and that goes into the price of the overall animal. The tuna in a can is most likely the scraps and/or cheaper cuts of a tuna after all the "good parts" have been removed and processed. Just like how a lot of hamburger is just the leftover meat after the good steaks and roasts have been removed<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Economists, what do you think most other economists get wrong? Further, what are your biggest pet peeves with your peers. What do you see other economists saying or doing that makes you think, “we’re all full of crap” Spill the tea<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The hierarchy of the profession, for sure. Economists at low- and mid-tier departments can do great work, and economists at top departments can do shit work. Likewise, a paper published in a good field journal is often just as solid as something published in a top general interest journal. We like to act like we’re a pure meritocracy, but the work is rarely judged on its merits alone.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why does the can of compressed-air dust remover gets so cold if used continually at once?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant So, when you're dealing with gases, you have to understand that, in order to expand, a gas must heat up. When you use compressed air duster, there's more room in the can that the gas then has to occupy. In order to do that, it has to absorb heat from its surroundings; in this case, the can, which we sense as the can cooling down.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Which philosopher invented the idea that today's me is under tyranny of yesterday's me actions? I found it year ago on existentialcomics, I think there was here a case in court where accused one said "it wasn't me, it was yesterday's me, I'm not guilty"<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Kant discusses it in the Critique of Practical Reason, albeit in a more abstract way. According to him, freedom is impossible for a being determined in time (as our phaenomenal selves are) because the form of time implies the transcendental law of causality, whereby each phaenomenon suceeds another necessarily according to a rule. Hence, your actions (which are phaenomena) are merely a consequence of those that came before. However, your phaenomenal self is the mere sum of every action happening in a certain time. Therefore, none of your actions are caused by you -- they are result of who you were instants ago, which is something you're not. But freedom is being the sole cause of your actions. Thus, there is no such thing as freedom for a temporal being. The one way to allow for freedom is to postulate a non-empirical, a noumenal self. This one, metaphysically connected with your phaenomenal self, is outside time, and hence can be transcendentally free. Although we never experience our noumenal selves, and thus never experience a free will as the cause of our actions, we can still think of it as such. Therefore, it may be that natural necessity is the sensible cause of action, but free will is its intelligible cause.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How were mines ventilated before electric pumps and fans were invented?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There were a few different techniques. Clever designs of ventilation shafts could get the air to move from a slight wind and the heat of the ground. Sometimes they would have a fire burning in the mine with a proper chimney that would draw fresh air into the mine. They did also have bellows and fans to blow air into the mine. These bellows could be powered by humans, donkeys, wind or water.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: If it's unacceptable to judge people based on their career achievements or status (job title, income, etc), it should be equally unacceptable to judge people based on their academic achievements (GPA, how prestigious their degree/university is) People make mistakes and learn from them in both phases of life. I think the best way to evaluate someone is on their personality/kindness. I realize that it's possible for everyone to get a degree if they put in the effort and that certain aspects of getting a job or promotion are out of a person's control. Someone may be promoted for superficial reasons or because they know someone. And the person without those connections wouldn't have that opportunity. But there is a natural talent aspect in the academic world as well. People learn faster in certain subjects and require more practice in others. Some people are math/technical data types and others are more communication/writing types. A person may have tried their best, asked for help, not slacked off, and just didn't get an A. I feel both work and school have unpredictabilities, ups and downs, and a person's worth shouldn't be determined by statistically measurable rankings in either. _____ > This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Who's doing the evaluation? If someone's looking at your transcript, it's probably to hire you for a relevant job or graduate program. In that case, it makes total sense to judge you by your academic performance. > Some people are math/technical data types and others are more communication/writing types. That might be true, but if you're a communication/writing person applying for an financial analyst position with a statistics degree it doesn't matter. Maybe you would have done better as an English major, but you chose* a math/technical field. > A person may have tried their best, asked for help, not slacked off, and just didn't get an A. If you can't make an A in a class, that's fine. If you tried hard, you'll get a B or at least a C. In the 100+ credits you need for a degree, it won't matter. If you're consistently getting Cs or worse, you clearly weren't cut out for your major. Maybe you had a good reason one semester, like your dad died in the middle of semester. If that's true, you could take some incompletes or petition for a late drop. But overall, if you're applying for an entry level position college was your last long term position and your GPA is your performance history.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What mathematical concepts are involved in voting and voting systems? Above<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There is a subsection of decision theory called social decision theory which aims to find a way of ranking a set of outcomes that best fits a large group of people who all have individual rankings of those outcomes. You may be interested in the work of Kenneth Arrow, particularly Arrow’s impossibility theorem, which states that there is no way of doing this fairly (for a specific definition of ‘fair’), for which amongst other work he won the Nobel prize in Economics. Like a lot of decision theory, it’s not really strongly related to any other area of maths, it’s probably most closely related to operations research. It’s also worth noting that in real life voting/political systems, politicians rarely listen to mathematicians (hence why most systems use FPTP which is objectively terrible).<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: Critical thinking is the most important and/or useful thing anyone could learn. Be it Maths, foreign languages, natural sciences or whatnot, critical thinking is the most important asset anyone should have. It wouldn't matter how much you have read or know about any given area of expertise if you don't possess the ability to 'tinker' with it inside your head. Even when trying to apply that knowledge to practice, if you haven't learned beforehand how to analyse it and critique it by yourself, you wouldn't do that much good. Neither will you be able to defend your motivations for using said method in the situation. P.S. Sorry for my possibly bad wording - this being my first post in CMV as well as English not being my native language hamper me somewhat. EDIT: as /u/EttPsykFall pointed out - basic communication comes first and I failed to communicate to you all, that basic human behaviour should be taken for granted. The ability to function as a human being, as far as I know, includes the ability to communicate with your peers, so please - set "one is capable of interaction with at least a fraction of his peers" as a presupposition in your arguments. (you're welcome to give counter-arguments about this as well, of course) _____ > Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our *[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)* first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!*<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Learning to communicate, by speech, writing, sign language or what have you, is way more important. It's the foundation of society, in every society all over the world. How is critical thinking going to benefit you as a person if you can't even discuss, let alone communicate at all, an idea with your peers? How are you supposed to know what critical thinking is if you can't even read or understand what another person says to you?<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How did Newton know there was a distinction between weight and mass?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Early physicists already realized that mass plays two roles: as the source of inertia, or the resistance to acceleration, and as the property that the gravitational force acts on. These properties are clearly different because even when gravity is balanced, as on a flat horizontal surface, a more massive object requires more force to accelerate. Inertia appears as an intrinsic property of a massive object, whereas as gravity has to do with the interaction with other distant masses. The surprising fact is that inertial mass is equal to gravitational mass, which is known as the equivalence principle. A consequence of the equivalence principle is that, in the absence of air resistance and other factors, all falling bodies accelerate at the same rate because the mass factor from the gravitational force cancels the mass from inertia. EDIT: The implication is then that on different planets, objects will have different weights (and thus fall at different speeds), but the weight will still be directly proportional to mass.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What "classic/basic" Philosophy books (such as Republic) should I read before moving to less known stuff that I am attracted to? I know that a lot of philosophy might mention things that I will not fully understand if I have not read an important book, such as Republic. I might want to read a Lithuanian book (I am Lithuanian) about nihilism, but I might not fully understand it if I haven't read Nietzche. So which books would be considered "a must", and if possible in what order? Edit: Do know that the nihilism book was just an example. I actually have around 25 Lithuanian philosophy books that interest me. Thank you for the suggestions 😁<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant I'd recommend reading what interests you without feeling the need to study the whole history of philosophy first. Usually, the texts will reference enough back to earlier writers they're going off of. There is no set order for reading philosophy; its a flow.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How does evolution for non-breeding individuals in colony insects (bees, ants) work? How can evolution select for drone bees or honeypot ants if they don’t breed and pass on genes?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The genetics of the non-breeding members of the colony are determined by the genetics of their parents, who (of course) do breed. And they only get to keep breeding and passing on those traits if the colony is successful. So, traits that are favorable in the non-breeding members are still selected for.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user From the point of view of evolution, is there a particular advantage or disadvantage to having one eye color over the other? We have evolved to have skin colors based on the environment that our ancestors lived in, for example, greater sun exposure in the tropical latitudes meant it was advantageous to have a darker skin. Is there a similar story with eye colors?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Allmost all genetic traits like eyecolor or skin color are influenced by many genes. In this specific example, most genes that code for skin color also code for eyecolor. Fair skinned people have brightest eyes way more often, and dark skinned people with bright eyes really stand out because of its rarity. Bright skin was adaptive to sustain vitamin D production in the skin with less sun. Bright skin contains less melanin, which gives the skin and the eyes it's darker color. Bright eyes don't have an optical advantage, the iris always blocks light, no matter the color. Maybe after the first bright eyes appeared, there was some sexual selection because they were outstanding, or it made communication easier because the pupil increase due to arousal is much easier to see in bright eyes. Tldr: bright eyes are a side effect of less melanin in the skin to allow Vitamin D production. Also Sexual selection<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What are birth marks and why do we get them? Edit: Thanks for all the replies guys loved reading them all!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant What are birthmarks? There are different types. Some are a bunch of blood vessels and capillaries close to the surface of the skin. These are not permanent, but are common among newborn children. This kind is usually red. The other kind is an above average accumulation of pigment cells in the skin. These are typically brown, and are long lasting if not permanent. Why do we get them? In short, nobody really knows. There are theories about late mutations in embryo development, but the short (and real) answer is we aren't quite sure.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why does sleeping for a long time make you feel tired and groggy?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Your body has a natural cycle referred to as circadian rhythm. If you do anything to throw it off, you can feel out of it. This includes sleeping longer than normal, and stuff like traveling time zones. When your body isn't a synched up to the activities you want to be doing, you won't feel at peak performance.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5...If aliens put a satellite into earth orbit to observe us, would we even notice with all the other satellites up there? Topic.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Yes. Astronomers carefully track all sattelites - as do some world governments. Even space junk is tracked. Astronomers need to know where sattelites and debris are so it does not interfere with looking at stars. Governments want to know where spy sattelites are and who is looking at what. NASA and other space agency's track space junk and sattelites so stuff they launch into space does not collide with it. So, things orbiting our planet are carefully examined.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: Charity in its truest form does not bare your name. I feel that if you are helping anyone out with 100% sincerity, it will not matter to you if people know that you are behind the charity, no matter how big or small the contribution. I see large charities bearing the name of the person behind it followed by words such as "foundation" and I often see people on social media looking for a pat on the back for something good they've done. This is still giving but the giver is still looking for something in return. For instance, we have the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Trump Foundation, then we have Mathew McConaughey's charity 'Just Keep Livin" and Morgan Freeman's 'Rock River Foundation'. Until I looked it up, I had no idea about the people behind the last two... and maybe they prefer it that way. The stories in the news of anonymous givers have always intrigued me and make me have hope for mankind... like the recent one about the man at Walmart who paid off everyone's layaway items. This man insisted on remaining anonymous. He gave for the pure sake of giving.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant If you are a person who is already famous (such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, or Bill and Melinda Gates) then having your name on a charitable foundation can help it seem more legitimate, which increases donations and make the charity more effective.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why do some plants have defense mechanisms like poison ivy and gympie gympie (called the suicide plant because it's so painful) and others don't?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Plants develop all manner of elaborate defensive mechanisms to thwart their predators. Some grow tall and encase themselves in armored bark. Some are covered with nasty thorns. Some pack horrible irritating oil. Some fill their leaves with noxious alkaloids. All these cost the plant time and energy though, which gives plants that pour all their effort into growth an advantage sometimes. Yes they're defenseless against a wandering cow, but if you and 10,000 of your seedlings can overwhelm the slower-growing competition it's still a good strategy. Basically, nasty thorny poisony plants are optimized to fight animals, fast growing leafy plants are optimized to fight other plants.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Would universal basic income basically drive up the price of everything? For instance, where I live rent is expensive and housing supply is limited. If EVERYONE here had an extra $1000 a month, they could afford to pay more. So wouldn’t the market price of rent pretty quickly adjust to the new normal? And wouldn’t the same principle apply to many things in the economy?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant It depends on how you finance it. If you finance it via money creation, you get higher inflation. If you finance it via redistribution, e.g. taxes, you don't necessarily end up with inflation. You will get higher demand for some goods and it's perfectly possible that goods bought by poor(er) people will go up in price. That doesn't mean you get a (significant) increase in the general price level.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: We need a world-wide moratorium on viral Gain of Function research and to place strict restrictions on DNA synthesis. This CMV is NOT about covid. I will not speculate as to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 except to say that the possibility of it having been leaked from the lab has [not been dismissed](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202000240) and there are [more](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj0016) and [more](https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/13/1024866/investigation-covid-origin-wuhan-china-lab-biologists-letter/) articles from reputible sources to that effect. This CMV is as clear as the title: We need a world-wide moratorium on viral Gain of Function research and to place strict restrictions on DNA synthesis. Here is my reasoning: * This outbreak was NOTHING comapred to what it could have been. SARS-CoV-2, for all the harm it has caused, is a wimpy virus. H5N1 is 70 times more lethal and the measles is 20 times more infectious. * Without going into details (but I could if desired), it would be fairly trivial to combine the features that make those viruses so deadly/transmissible with the SARS-CoV-2 trick of disabling your innate immune system so that you're spreading disease weeks before you're symtomatic... It would be a virus that spreads without you knowing your sick, spreads basically at will, and eventually kills the vast majority of those it infects. The hospitals would be instantly overwhelmed. I'm not even sure where we'd put all the bodies. * There are at least 4 ways this supervirus could emerge: 1. Naturally in the wild (least likely) 2. From the resevoir of SARS-CoV-2 currently mutating in the human population 3. Gain-of-fucntion research 4. It could emerge on purpose from a terrorist or religious organization that, for whatever reason, wants to bring about the end of the world. Hell, it could emerge from a disgruntled grad student. * We have the technology to engineer such a virus and have had it for years. I estimate it would take a single average mol bio grad student half a year to accomplish this. Regardless of timelines, this can be accomplished with today's technology and this will only become easier as our mol bio tools improve. * Gain of Function (GOF) research has a spotty track record in terms of safety and utility. There were calls to ban it [as early as 2013](https://www.nature.com/articles/495411a) when some researchers became alarmed because [the cost/benefit ratios of the research were unacceptable](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4099557/). We now know that viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 were being worked on under totally inadequate safety conditions (BSL2) in Wuhan. We also know that GOF has been previously performed on H5N1 to make it more transmissible. * Virsues escape the lab all the time, [both in China and the West.](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/20/18260669/deadly-pathogens-escape-lab-smallpox-bird-flu) * DNA synthesis is poorly regulated today. The most challenging part to making a novel virus is obtaining the synthetic DNA. This is becuase many comapnies that offer this service will routinely compare the sequence ordered to a database of known pathogens. So that should make us pretty safe, right? Wrong. There are literally 1000s of unregulated labs around the world that either have or could easily obtain the capacity to make their own synthetic DNA without any sort of regulation. You could also order the building blocks of synthetic DNA from the established commerical suppliers and assemble your plasmid DNA yourself (you'd have to be clever about this but it's doable). * There are groups today and certainly more in the future who welcome the end of humanity. These range from death cults, fatalist religious groups (ex. Aum Shinrikyo), and terrorist organizations who'd love to [hold the world hostage](https://i.pinimg.com/600x315/2a/d6/3f/2ad63f0f2333d5bc0e423689f90ef38d.jpg). We need to treat this problem with the same or greater seriousness as we treat nuclear proliferation. We need to prevent anyone from obtaining DNA that corresponds to existing or novel pathogens. If we fail to do this, covid is going to look like a blip and it's just a matter of time. Why I want my mind changed: Becuase if it cannot be, then we are in a scary as hell position with our pants already down and our chin already bloodied. To change my view: Make a convincing argument that one or more key point in the body of the argument is not true.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant So how would scientists understand virus and figure out ways to get a head of the curve to prevent another pandemic events and create vaccines for them? &#x200B; If they don't fully understand the nature of the virus how can they make vaccines and how can they create any predictive models to try and stay a head of any mutations to keep the vaccines effective? One of the many aspects of GoF is learning about the virus and how it might mutate and to be able to develop vaccines to resist these mutations before they get out of control.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What is the difference between computer programming languages and what makes one "more powerful" than another?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Different languages exist either to attack different sorts of problems, or to implement different computer science paradigms. It is not very wise to say a language is more powerful than another, because this lacks context. Powerful at doing what? For instance, Java has a couple of major claims to faith: it was one of the first popular Object-Oriented languages, and in this sense it was created to implement that particular paradigm. More importantly, though, Java is made to be portable. You can write something once, and it works equally on all operating systems with a Java implementation. It is very powerful in this sense, because it has huge penetration. Take C and C++, on the other hand. They are harder to learn, code needs to be recompiled and sometimes rewritten and repackaged quite extensively to be able to run on different systems; but, it is extremely fast and allows you to manipulate the hardware in a very direct way, which Java doesn't. In this sense, it is more powerful than Java for applications that require extreme hardware integration and speed. Most Operating Systems themselves are written in C.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Where Can A Math-Minded Person Learn Economics I am a math kinda guy (I work with computers) and I would like to have a deep understanding of the economic machine around me (both the theoretical and the practical). Where can I start learning if I don't have any economics background (I mean I know some super basic stuff, but let's pretend I don't even know that). Any books or online resources you know of?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant What is your math background? What is the hardest math class you've taken? How much of formal proof have you done? Saying that you are a math kind of a guy just cause you work with a computer doesnt really mean anything unfortunately.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Why don't birds fall of trees when they sleep?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Birds in the order Passeriformes have a specialized method for this. They have flexor tendons in their legs which, when perched, automatically closes their toes which allows them to grasps branches, wires, etc. with no extra effort. Passerines account for about half all birds so there are many that are not able to perch effectively.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user The Mars Perseverance Rover's Parachute has an asymmetrical pattern to it. Why is that? Why was this pattern chosen? Image of Parachute: https://imgur.com/a/QTCfWYe<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The asymmetry in the coloring makes it easier to study the video and assess the parachute's performance. In multi-chute systems, you'll see that each parachute has a different pattern so they can tell them apart. Edit: more explanation: the parachute is able to twist with respect to the vehicle (and therefore the camera). If there's any strange behavior in the parachute, they can track it visually and then go back and look at photos of the folded and packed chute, the fabrication process, etc, and the markings help them to make a direct comparison.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user My dream job would be to teach, but I'm starting to wonder if it's the path for me.. I really want to be a teacher/professor of some sort, the idea of keen students coming to my class, me trying out new methods of studying by keeping up with technology, making sure everyone passes etc makes me happy. However, I've been poor all my life and hearing about the pay and job security of professors is straying me away. I live in Sweden and my dream would be to be a professor in any scientific subject and teach all over the world. Japan, Korea, USA, UK, Canada, Saudi etc. Are these dreams of mine realistic? Would it be worth pursuing this or orthodontestry? I may seem shallow thinking about money but I'm not all about bling.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There's quite a range from adjunct pay to professor pay. At the same time, to become a professor, it's not just about wanting to teach, but it's also about becoming an expert in something so specific and tiny and producing research about that one thing. You need to have the research side to enter the teaching side. What about high school?<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why do I hear about technological advances (such as shown in r/Futurology for example) But I never see them implemented in society? Much of the new technology is beneficial to the world and the current problems we are facing, and despite the mass potential it proposes, I never see them implemented. Why is that?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The road from discovery to implementation is long and costly. Creating something a few times in a lab is very different than creating tons of them in a mass production facility. It can take years to implement things, and in some cases it can be incredibly difficult to scale production up.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How trees get their rings. I'm sure we all know the saying that for every ring you see in a stump of a tree, each ring is supposed to represent one year of the trees life. I'm sure that statement is debatable... but my question is how are those rings formed? I hope that question makes sense. I'm just confused as to how a tree, which grows continually overtime, has noticeable rings that can represent the lifespan of the tree.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Trees grow at different rates at different times in the year, producing slightly different appearances in cross-section. After roughly a full year, the tree should cycle through a similar pattern of growth.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What is the environmental benefit to purchasing a Nissan Leaf if the grid is charged on is powered by fossil fuels? Suppose my house gets power from an oil powerplant? Any way we could compare this to the Toyota Corolla? What would be the net difference on pollutants to the environment? While the Nissan Leaf itself doesn't pollute very much for driving 30 miles, I assume recharging it for 30 miles creates some pollutants from the power plant. What if it's hooked up to a coal power plant? Same questions. I was told by someone that powerplants are, at best, 50% efficient. Are cars any better?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There are 3 benefits: * First of all, power plants as extremely efficient (compared to your car engine). The reason being that they are built to run at a specific RPM and a specific temperature and constant (almost) output etc. Car engines, on the other hand, are very inefficient - below 30% of power plants - because they have to give bursts of power, are still running when you don't need power, vary in operation temperatures and, well, are just smaller and cheaper. So creating the same amount of energy produces much less pollution in power plants. Much much less. * A power plant is easier to upgrade - immediately upgrading the environmental benefits of all electric cars. Upgrading all the cars in the world is much more difficult. So, even if right now the electric car pollute because of the coal plant, once more solar panels are installed (for example) all the electric cars become "less polluting" all of a sudden * The pollution of power plants is "out of the way" - usually the plants are built outside of residential areas, and they have these huge "chimneys" that move the pollution up and out of reach. Pollution from cars are, on the other hand, right in the cities, right in the residential areas. Kids (and adults...) breath this pollution when going to school, opening a window at home, playing around in parks. So even if both methods polluted the same - just having electric cars makes the streets and parks and homes less polluted.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Eli5: How do we know that dinosaurs were likely reptilian/avian but not likely mammalian?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Species that are closely related to each other will share certain anatomical features in common, which they both inherited from a common ancestor. Other species that are not descendants of that common ancestor — and therefore are more distantly related — won’t have those same anatomical features. For example, on the one hand, all mammals have three tiny bones in their middle-ears (called the malleus, incus, and stapes), and no mammals have hallow bones that connect to their respiratory systems. On the other hand, neither birds nor dinosaurs have those tell-tale three little bones in their middle-ears, but they both do have hallow bones that connect to their respiratory systems. From these and other similar anatomical comparisons, we conclude that birds and dinosaurs must be more closely related to each other than either of them are related to mammals.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How does the "I am not a robot" checkbox know I'm not a robot?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The verification is based on many different factors such as- Mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes: Many of the bots work by directly generating a click on a certain position of the screen or requesting a browser to send a click to a certain element of the website (button, link etc); they don't bring the mouse cursor to that location. We on the other hand bring the cursor to the buttons, links etc before clicking them and our response time to do so varies as well. The pattern in which we hover the cursor is random and hard to imitate for bots. An ai system is trained to look for these cues. Our browser caches, cookies and other information sent through browser request: Google has its trackers on countless websites in the form of google analytics, google ads etc so, it can create a basic idea about the sites you visit. Bots on the otherhand are made to do certain tasks on certain websites. This can be used to detect them as well. The model checks for many other factors and create a score of how likely are you to be a bot. If the chances are low, it predicts you to be human. If the chances are high, it proceed to show an image based captcha.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Eli5: Why is cancer so harmful to the body? I understand that cancer is uncontrolled reproduction of cells but why is that so harmful? How do extra cells make is so sick?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Tumors not just replicate, they actively siphon off the body’s resources by causing blood vessels to grow into them and provide them with nutrients. These blood vessels are what makes tumors look vaguely like crabs with veins protruding all around as if a lot of limbs, giving cancer its Latin name. With tumors spreading and growing everywhere the body eventually runs out of resources and dies.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:How is information attached to radio waves? How is information attached to radio waves? Such as sound/music or text such as commands for computers?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Information is attached to radio waves by altering (modulating) their physical properties (amplitude and frequency). That's why there is FM (frequency modulated) and AM (amplitude modulated) radio. For example if you want to transmit the message 1101 you could define a "1" as a radio wave with a high amplitude and a "0" as one with a low amplitude. Now you create a radio wave whose amplitude goes high, high, low, high. Obviously you have to tell the receiver of the radio wave that a low amplitude means "0" and a high one means "1".<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: why do I have to wait 30 seconds after I unplug my modem to plug it back in? Once it's off, isn't it just...off? When resetting a modem, why does the 30 second time limit matter?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Electronics contain capacitors and will maintain a capacitive charge for some length of time. The 30 second window is intended to be enough to let that capacitive charge drain. Not starting discharged can lead to some sequencing problems as the modem powers back up. In a perfect world they'd be designed such that it wouldn't matter, and it usually probably really doesn't. You can see it one some electronics when you unplug them and the LED slowly fades out rather than going blank entirely.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: My choice for not believing in God is equivalent to my SO's commitment to do so. I'm agnostic, secular, whatever you could call it. I have no evidence nor reason to believe a God exists, therefore I act as if there is none until proven otherwise. I believe decisions should be made upon rationality and logical arguments. A religion can support your view and give you a start, but your arguments should hold up on their own without religion. My SO wanted to take me to church for the fifth time, yet she refused to discuss the fallacies in religion or watch some videos of Bill Nye or Richard Dawkins. I could understand she doesn't like to be swept away by me pointing out what is wrong in her view. I was surprised however, that my SO saw her view as superior. Even worse: she thinks my view is inferior. Why I think they are both equal: (pro statement) - All of us are equal. (Quite general so here are some more arguments) - We both actively chose to believe or not believe, she upon emotionally experiencing God and I upon rationality. - We both live in a world where most people think a God exists although the group of church-goers is shrinking. Both a devout Christian and an open atheïst attract some weird looks. - Even when SO sees her believing as superior, I see my view as superior. Seeing both as superior makes our views equal to eachother even though in another direction. Arguments from the SO: (contra statement) - 'You have not experienced God. I live in a world where most people are atheïst and therefore I had to actively make the choice to become Christian. I doubt everyday and have my own questions, but I believe He is good and I trust him. I have therefore experience in not-believing releasing me from having to watch your videos. You don't feel good about religion because you don't have experience with God, which is why you need to come to church with me.' - 'I believe in a loving God. What I believe is good and positive. Your not-believing contradicts my positive belief and is therefore negative. Positivity is better than negativity.' - 'I don't need to prove anything, I am who I am' - 'Then you shouldn't be allowed to take holidays off throughout the year' I'm not looking for relationship advise, this is CMV. My SO is otherwise usually rational although she hates debating and logical arguments. I'm looking for a way to understand my SO and I think I won't get it out of her this time. CMV. _____ > Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our *[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)* first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Let us start by assuming that you are both equal partners in the relationship, that you owe it to one another to understand where you both are coming from, and that you should see and try to value the things that are important to one another. A Dawkins lecture on atheism is not* equivalent to church. For a Christian, church is an important part of life. Going and participating is a way of sharing time with a community you care about, a way of reminding yourself to live the good life you are capable of, and a way of guided meditation that helps you learn what is good in life. For an atheist, the equivalents would be going to the gym, science, voting, doing community service, Westernized Yoga mindfulness, etc. If you want to take her to your book club, your research symposium, or your Westernized Yoga class, she should be open to going if these are important to you. If she isn't, she's not participating in your life. But taking her to a lecture on "religion is dumb and stupid" would be like if she asked you to her church's Harry Potter bookburning or its "The following people are all going to hell" lecture. It's a negative event that doesn't add anything of value to your life other than the chance to feel superior to others. It's something a decent atheist stays away from, just like a decent Christian doesn't actually hold any book burnings or comment on which people are damned. Your view isn't inferior to hers. The events you are taking her to in support of your view are inferior to hers. She is showing you earnestness; show her earnestness back.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How do we know that unsolved math problems have an answer? I was watching Good Will Hunting the other night, and this popped into my head. How do people know that unsolved problems have an answer? Furthermore, the professors in the movie seemed to know pretty instantly that the problem had been solved. Is that realistic? Or does it take additional years to prove that the answer was right? Finally, are most of these problems a result of a lack of effort, like how we could technically count all the sand on a beach, or does it take a genius to solve?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant For a math problem, there may be both constructive and non-constructive proofs. A constructive proof proves that there is an answer, and the answer is given by the proof. A non-constructive proof is not as good, perhaps, but it simply proves that there is no answer, or it proves that there is an answer but not what that answer actually is. For example, Euclid's Theorem has a non-constructive proof that there is no "largest prime number". The problem "What's the largest prime number?" is now proven to have no possible solution.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Will my paper be rejected if I don’t test and meet ALL of the assumptions of the regression that I did? I applied multiple regression for economic data and I carried out tests and also met some of the assumptions of the regression method that I used. However, I left out some tests because I didn’t meet these tests. Do you think that this would cause problems at the point of submission?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant So, you’re saying that the methodology you applied should not be applied, because there are multiple violations of the underlying statistical assumptions? The results of which you are omitting because they invalidate the methodology? I wouldn’t submit knowingly shit science…<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:How does the witness protection program work? Specifically, how severe does one's experience have to be to be submitted into the program. Is it voluntary? Do you get totally shut out from all friends and family?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant They take the person and their family and find another area in the country to work, change their name, and find them a job under that identity. All contact to their former life is cut. No person in the program who does this has ever been found. People are only found if they decide to retain some contact with people they knew.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:Why is the human body not sensitive to radio waves? Why are humans not able to see,feel or hear radio waves? We are sensitive to the rest of the waves in the EM spectrum. If EM waves are composed of oscillating magnetic and electric fields, why am I not electrocuted by the electric constituent of the Radio waves?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Radio waves have wavelengths of several feet, so humans are virtually transparent to radio waves, like glass is transparent to visible light. If you have a piece of conductive metal the right length (an antenna), the waves WILL interact and make electricity move in it. Because the signal is so weak and humans are not as conductive as metal, we don’t notice any effect. But if you stand really close to a powerful transmitting antenna, it can heat up your body (microwaves were discovered this way when a technician noticed the chocolate being melted in his pocket).<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why only somethings work on touch screens, and others don't, fingers but not fabric? This might have been answered in a ELI5 about touchscreens but I didn't really see an explanation about what works and what doesn't.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Most touchscreens work using something called capacitive sensing. Basically, the touchscreen uses a conductor to detect when something is nearby. The human body is also a conductor, and therefore it can interfere with the electrical field of the touchscreen. The screen uses this to detect how a human is interacting with it. Fabric does not conduct electricity, so it doesn't interfere with the electric field.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What happens between muscles getting bigger, and muscles that don't bulk but get very strong and dense? What's the difference?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant That's not exactly how it works. But strength is affected by several factors; one of which is muscle mass. So a bigger muscle sill be a stronger muscle. However, you also get stronger through neurological adaptation, which basically means your nervous system learns how to utilize more muscle fibers, and exactly how to move in order to apply the most force. That dense, hard look isn't so much a result of training methods as much as body composition. When you get really lean, your muscles will look more solid, whereas if uou have more bodyfat, you'll look softer.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user If white blood cells are constantly dying and being replenished, how do new ones “know” what antibodies to produce? How does that “memory” work? This comes from a friend asking whether the protection from a COVID-19 vaccine would be diluted somehow by a blood transfusion from an unvaccinated person.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant When a T- or B-cell is activated by it's associated antigen, it proliferates, and those daughter cells differentiate into effector cells (helper, cytotoxic, regulatory for T's, plasma cells for B's) and memory cells. When the immune response is complete, the memory cells go dormant in your lymph nodes. If they are presented with a previous antigen and reactivated, they proliferate, and differentiate back into those same effector cells.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why does applying more heat help with inflammation? (Eg heat packs, hot water bottles)<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Inflammation is characterised by 5 signs - redness, swelling, pain, high local temperature and dysfunction. Big part responsible for these is the "pooling" of blood at the inflamatory site. Because of the high pressure of the blood inside capillaries it is forced outside their walls and into the surrounding tissue. Now, for the first 24 hours it is wrong apllying heat, you should instead apply cold compresses, because heat expands the capillaries and makes it easier for thinga to get out. If 24 hours have passed, and enough outside liquid is pooled, it exercises pressure on the blood vessels and shrinks them, that's when heat can help get them expanded, so they can start collecting that external liquid.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user do we know how chameleons "see" Things with two independent eyes? Is it integrated? Side by side?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant To understand the way they "see" things, you can re-frame what you think eyes "do." Eyes take what is in the world and translate it into something the brain can understand. Chameleons probably perceive the world just as the world is--their brain makes a map of what is 'out there' based on the light that falls on their eyes. By the way, you own eyes do the same thing. You don't see the "input" to your eyes. You see the map of the world that your brain makes from the input. For example, you don't "see" your nose, even though it takes up a bunch of visual space in each of your eyes' visual input. (Close one eye and look for your nose to check!) You also don't see details in the world except for a tiny fraction of your vision (the "fovea" in the center of your visual field). Want to check: hold your hand out at arms length and look at your fingernail and without moving your eyes, try and describe any detail on one of your other fingernails. You will likely discover that you can't. You cant even see details a few inches from what you are looking at. Whenever you look at something, you are looking with your fovea. Everything else outside of the fovea is "blurry" and much less colored. You mind fills in the blanks and you end up perceiving the world as clear an detailed.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why has my town installed dual traffic lights at a busy roundabout, I thought the point of a roundabout was to keep traffic flowing and replace traffic lights.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Roundabouts work very well when the traffic on both roads is approximately equal. Vehicles turning off one street create gaps in the traffic to let vehicles from the side street on, allowing an even use of the intersection. But if one road dominates with only through traffic, then side street traffic has no opportunity to get onto the roundabout. So occasionally they need to put stoplights on the through street, to allow cross-street traffic onto the roundabout and clear.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How much time has to pass before discovering and studying an old civilization/settlement/etc is considered Archaeology? For example, studying Egyptian pyramids and ruins is Archaeology, but studying a mid 20th century warzone is not. At what point can we consider the study of an event, Archaeology?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Archaeology is the study of history through artifacts. If people don't actually remember what happened there, requiring other ways of studying it, then I'd say we have archaeology. Paleo-archaeology would be the study of ancient (whatever that means) history.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Pauli Exclusion Principle (My head has exploded.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9wcSLs8ZQ Skip to 34:20 and watch for a little bit. Could someone explain this a little bit better? Also, at 35:50 where he picks up the diamond and begins to rub it. How is every electron in the universe communicating with those in the diamond? In layman terms or use analogies please, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant So in order to understand the part about communicating with every electron in the universe you need to understand that electrons aren't actually points, they are described by a wave function. One thing that this wave function tells us about the electron is the probability that the electron is located at any given point in all space. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle makes this a bit easier to understand. Consider we have an electron sitting on a table with some momentum p. If we try to measure the position of the electron on the table we find that it will look kind of like it has been squished into a disk on the table. If we cool down the electron this disk will get bigger. If you give the electron 0 momentum, then the disk will be infinitely large. Basically any given particle has a probability that it can be found anywhere in space, although that probability gets really really really small as you move away. In most cases this interaction is very week, but in some cases, such as nano-particles the distance is small enough that electrons in nearby atoms will be forced to occupy different energy levels giving rise to very distinct energy levels within the material.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Does corresponding author matter? Trying to settle a debate in the lab. A PhD student recently submitted a paper (lead author), and a postdoc in the lab was surprised that our PI got corresponding author. They felt it undermined the PhD student. Does this really matter? The PhD might not stay in academia so I guess it's safer but it is her work<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The PI is almost always the corresponding author in many fields. If it is that PhD's work, they should be first author and that is their credit. Corresponding author with student affiliations is a bit difficult at they change in a few years, so PI as corresponding author is common.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What does Russia have to gain from taking over Crimea? I understand Russia's only warm water port is located there, and about half the population are essentially Russian, but what do Russia and Putin have to truly gain from taking over Crimea? It seems like there's a lot more to lose than gain.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Crimea was a 19th century strategic necessity for Russia. It provided Russia with an effective navy in the Black and Mediterranean seas when those waterways were critical to Russia's economy and Russia faced European powers that might have tried to strangle its economy during wartime. Crimea today is a feint designed to allow Russia to test the resistance of Europe and America to its imperial intentions in Ukraine. Most Russians consider Ukraine a part of Russia. The very seat of the ancient Rus people, for whom the whole country is named, is in Kiyev. Russian Maximum Leader Putin famously told President Bush that "Ukraine isn't even a nation". Ukraine has some of the most fruitful farmlands in Europe. The Ukrainian capacity for agriculture was a major point of Hitler's desires to destroy the Soviet Union - with Ukraine under German control, the Third Reich would have had food security and not be reliant on other countries for sustenance. Russia clearly sees Ukraine in the same light. Russia + Ukraine is a much more powerful force than Russia - Ukraine. In fact, Russia - Ukraine may not even be able to sustain itself as a significant power, becoming more akin to a France or a UK - requiring alliances and collective action to really make a difference in world affairs. Russia has played a long game in Ukraine since the breakup of the USSR. It has worked assiduously behind the scenes to keep Ukraine from doing the two things it thinks would irretrievably sever the Ukrainians from the Russians: Joining NATO, and joining the European Union. So far, Russia's interest in keeping Ukraine out of those entities has outweighed the desire of the Europeans and the Americans to get Ukraine into them. Everyone knows that either step would force a serious confrontation with Russia, and nobody is sure if Russia would blink and back down, or suicidally drag everyone down into the abyss rather than relinquish dreams of being a global superpower. So buckle up, kiddies. This is one of the Big Ones. History is being made right now.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user If viruses aren't alive, what do scientists mean when they say the coronavirus can live on surfaces for hours?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Scientific papers will typically say “viable” rather than alive. What they mean is that the virus is still capable of infecting cells. Think of a virus as a key, but a key made out of ice that is melting, at some point it will not be able to open the lock, then it is no longer viable.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Manual settings on a DSLR camera I have no idea what any of it does.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There are 4 basic settings, if you put everything (camera and lens) into manual mode, assuming no flash: * ISO: How sensitive the sensor will be to light. Low ISO (like 100 or even lower) is not very sensitive (you need a lot of light to take the picture), but is the best quality. High ISO (like 1600 or even higher) is very sensitive (you can take pictures even if it is kind of dark) but is usually pretty noisy. * Aperture: How much light is the lens going to let in all at once? Lower numbers (like 4.0 or lower) let in more light, but things that are not exactly in focus will be blurry. Higher numbers (like 16 or higher) let in ~~more~~ less light, but more things will be in focus. * Shutter speed: How long is the shutter going to be open for? If the shutter is only open for 1/100th of a second or less, then less light will be let into the camera, but you will be able to "stop motion" more easily. If the shutter is open for a long time (1/30th of a second or more), then more light will be let into the camera, but moving objects will be blurry, and you may even need a tripod to keep the camera steady enough to take a good picture. * Focus: If your lens is set to manual focus, then you will have to turn the focus ring to determine what depth the camera is focusing on. On some higher quality lenses there will be a depth chart on the lens itself giving you a rough idea of the focus distance. If you want to take pictures in manual mode, you will have to balance the first three items depending on what kind of picture you want to take. EDIT: Silly typo. Thanks thebluehawk.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: If a rule or law is being broken, and no one is negatively affected by it, there should be no attempt to stop it. If I am not negatively affecting someone else, why should I be stopped from doing something? The thing that happened to me that triggered this CMV is as follows: I've been giving my friend a ride to work, dropping him off then picking him up. I arrived a few minutes early, and pulled into one of 5 available handicap spots, which I am legally aloud to park in due to muscular dystrophy. I thought that since there are multiple spots available, I wouldn't be depriving someone else that would need it. Before my friend came outside, the factory's security guard approached my car and told me I can't park there. I had my blue placard perfectly visible, yet because I never had to stand up in front of him, he went so far as to tell me that I'm not handicapped (to be fair, you wouldn't think I was unless you saw me stand or walk). I wasn't depriving anyone of that spot, and I wasn't parked illegally either, yet I was still forced to move under threats of being arrested/detained while my car was towed. _____ > Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our *[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)* first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!*<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant 1: Everyone's perception of "no one being affected" is different. A law is in place for a reason. If you don't think it should be a law, work to get it removed. 2: that example isn't right for your CMV because that security guard is a moron.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: White collar dress codes have no practical purpose other than to separate them from blue collar workers. Blue collar workers wearing protective gear makes sense. You don't need any special suit to make a spreadsheet. Some of the common arguments I've seen to contradict this go along the lines of: studies show that wearing a suit makes people more productive. But it seems that these studies were only done in western nations, as I doubt putting a Saudi Arabian white collar worker in a suit would make them work better. The other most common argument I see is that, in client facing jobs, wearing a suit and tie gives off a sense of professionalism. But if you went back just a few years, having a woman work with clients would be "unprofessional." It can be true, but that doesn't make it any less classist, or sexist. It seems that these codes are only there for classism, to separate the blue collar from the white. &#x200B; &#x200B; EDIT: 3 days later, so many responses, thnks everyone<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The dress codes also serve to separate white collar workers from people who aren't workers: e.g. customers, delivery personnel, and other people who may be in the building but not involved with work. If white collar workers had no dress code, it could be hard to tell them apart from customers, which would be problematic in cases where somebody is trying to find a worker among a large mixed group of people.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What is the responsibility of a psychologist when someone shares suicidal thoughts with him? Is it defined by the law, or by the psychologist ethiquette? Mostly in EU, but of course, any answers are welcomed.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Psychologists follow the Code of Ethics (2007). Failing to do so can have you banned from practicing. A client expressing suicidal thoughts is actually quite common, and is something that can be worked through. The only time a psychologist is required to break confidentiality and potentially get the police involved is if there seems to be an obvious or immediate threat toward the client's safety. For example, if they expressed they had been stockpiling medication to overdose or had a direct plan on how to complete suicide.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [Economics] Is 'New Keynesian' economics actually Keynesian? I ask because Post-Keynesian economists claim New Keynesians aren't Keynesian at all.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Modern New Keynesian models derive from multiple sources, some harkening back to Keynes in the 1930s, but most emerging out of the work of the 1970s. To fix ideas, let's use Woodford's and Gali's books as prototypes. The basic building blocks of a standard three-equation New Keynesian model are: 1. Milton Friedman's permanent income hypothesis, as interpreted in Robert Hall's intertemporal optimizing consumer. This part is Monetarist, almost chapter and verse. (Friedman 1957, Hall 1978 JPE, 1988 JPE) 2. A model of firms' pricing decisions that combines elements of imperfect competition, forward-looking behavior, and price stickiness. This part is largely "Keynesian," though most writers accept some form of sluggish nominal adjustment. It is the key piece that differentiates New Keynesian models from their New Classical and RBC cousins. (Dixit-Stiglitz 1977, Taylor 1977, Calvo 1983, Rotemberg 1982). [Later edit: imperfect competition is the fundamental thing that separates NK macro from New Classical macro. Sluggish price adjustment is the fundamental thing that separates NK macro from RBC macro. More comments on request.] 3. A monetary rule that focuses exclusively on interest-rate adjustment and focuses on feedback rules. This part is truly "Keynesian" in multiple senses. (Taylor 1993) 4. A focus on rules over discretion, which is largely a holdover from New Classical thought. (Friedman 1968, Kydland-Prescott 1977, Barro-Gordon 1983) 5. Rational expectations, largely taken from the New Classicals. (Lucas 1972, Lucas 1975) 6. The key macroeconomic mismatch being deviations of the interest rate from its natural rate. This part harkens all the way back to Wicksell. 7. Macroeconomic fluctuations as emanating from both "real" and "nominal" sources. Half of this part emerges from the real business cycle literature; the other half from the nascent New Keynesian literature of the late 1970s and early 1980s. (Kydland-Prescott 1982 (real), Taylor 1980 (nominal)) One could certainly call New Keynesian macroeconomics "New Wicksellean macroeconomics" without much loss of substance. Similarly, about two-thirds of New Keynesian economics is monetarist (the consumption block is all Friedman, the Phillips Curve is half Friedman, and the Taylor Rule is half Friedman). However, New Keynesian economics is "Keynesian" in the sense that it recognizes the importance of coordination failure, price stickiness, real rigidities, and other imperfections that can lead output to deviate from full-employment equilibrium. It is not Keynesian in that NK economics does not have a role for permanent deviations of output from full-employment equilibrium (though the adjustment process can take time). It is not Keynesian in that NK economics requires inflexible wages and/or prices to generate welfare-relevant business cycles, while Keynes believed that there could be welfare-relevant business cycles even in a situation of fully flexible wages and prices. Nontechnical readings: 1. DeLong, "The Triumph of Monetarism," JEP 2000. 2. Woodford, "Revolution and Evolution in Twentieth-Century Macroeconomics," 1999. 3. Woodford, Interest and Prices, 2003, chapter 1. He spends a bit too much time distancing himself from New Classical and Real Business Cycle theories, but the history of thought in his introduction is useful.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:How can I avoid sounding like a total prick when I tell people they've been fooled by hoaxes etc.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Empathy is the way to go, as/u/cleftscout mentionned, don't be that guy who likes to prove people wrong. Don't be antagonistic, don't preach. Empathise, get on the same level with them. "Oh yeah, the onion is awesome, they have a lot more satire at URL.com" Moving a bit further from your exact question, into general sceptical territory. Sociological studies have shown that if someone holds a strong belief (whether it's "homeopathy is medicine", "There is only one God and Muhammed is his prophet", or "Dave Mathews band rocks"), they're likely to get entrenched in their views and reject any arguments or evidence to the contrary. We humans are very good at motivated reasoning, that is finding evidence to support our pre-established views. And it takes a lot of work to be a good sceptic, that is finding the evidence and basing your opinion on that evidence. Our brains are still wired in caveman mode. So the best way to change someone's mind is not to blurt out facts, it's not to prove someone wrong, it's certainly not making fun of them or their beliefs. The best way is to very slowly gnaw away at the edges. Find some common ground with the person and over months and years, show them neat things that may slightly contradict one of their beliefs, but not too much. Send them a link to a cool article, a neat science podcast, etc.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What role does homosexuality have in human evolution Why didn't the genes that lead to homosexual development die off very quickly in the evolutionary development of our species? The fact that people are still born homosexual, despite what I'm guessing to be years of evolutionary push back, leads me to believe that homosexuality plays a necessary (or at least interesting) role in our societal structures or ???? Also, please refrain from making this an LGBTQ debate<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant It's important to remember that the idea of a 'homosexual person' is a relatively recent, extremely social construct - even though homosexual behaviour is very natural (and as has been said, has been seen a lot in the animal kingdom) the idea of exclusive homosexual pair bonding or similar is not at all common - most likely, if our ancestors (say, great great great etc uncle fred) engaged in homosexual behaviour, he would likely also engage in heterosexual behaviour opportunistically - you can see what this might have been like by studying our closest living relatives, bonobos , who engage in a lot of homosexual activity (but still mate in a heterosexual manner). Culturally the idea that a person can be 'a homosexual' rather than just participating in homosexual acts is very new - except for the last 200 years or so 'homosexual' as a concept didn't really exist, particularly not as applied to women - it's important not to look at evolutionary history with sociology goggles on.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How do PIs choose PhD students? Just curious as to how PIs pick their students? Assuming that all applicants have good academic background and the lab's has more than sufficient funds, what is it that determines one student gets selected over the other? What qualities or red flags do PIs look out for when deciding to accept or reject students? How do PIs tell if one student has potential or not (assuming both cases of having worked together before and having never worked together before)? Also, would a PI rather keep a bright student that is not neccesarily the most hardworking, or a hardworking student that isn't as bright? Just out of curiosity!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Were they first in line to make it clear that they want to join the lab? Are they interested in a project that needs more hands? Or one that already has enough people on it? Do they ask the right kinds of questions? Do they come across as being coachable? Are they enthusiastic about the prospect of the work? Are they likable? Does it seem like they'll be a good lab citizen and contribute favorably to the lab culture? If they did rotations in other labs, what did the other PIs think of them? If they rotated through the lab, or even just hung out with the current lab members, what do the current lab members think of them? &#x200B; >Also, would a PI rather keep a bright student that is not neccesarily the most hardworking, or a hardworking student that isn't as bright? They'd rather keep the one that produces significant publishable results in a timely manner with as little hand-holding as possible.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How do colourblindness correction sunglasses work? I saw a video on Facebook today of sunglasses that allow colourblind people to see the full colour spectrum. I'm assuming that this is obviously doesn't work with black-white colourblindness, but how would it effect the most popular colourblindness disorders? I thought that this had to do with the inability to see certain colours, like red and green looking the same for example. I don't understand how looking through a specific substance could fix this?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant If you take the most common case, which is red to green colour blindness, The persons red and green photopigments have more overlap than normal, making them unable to see certain colors. Colour blind glasses work in a way to alleviate this by creating a specialized lens that filters out specific colors. You can use these filters to target specific photopigments so you can affect what wavelengths (or colours) the person can see depending on what colours they are struggling with. Just because a person is colour blind doesn't mean that the colour they can't see is completely invisible to them, they just need some fine tuning which means blocking out the overlapping wavelegnths to enhance the less common ones.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5 why are people so against automation in factories if it makes things safer and produces more goods? is it just that people are losing jobs? but there are different jobs that open up.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Often there are different jobs, but not the same amount. Picture a factory with 10 workers. They replaces those 10 people with a machine. The new jobs that will open up will be machine maintenance, which is 1, maybe 2 roles? Potentially the machine does so well that it's started to increase the workload. So now the company might need an extra person when the goods come in and one when the goods go out. So you created 4 roles, which still leaves 6 people out of work.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Non-economist social scientists - What part of your discipline is not understood well among economists? How might an economist benefit from further study in your discipline?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant sociology could perhaps inform economists relating to the workings of capitalism in general, and it's conception of "free"-market, specifically: - the relations of political power influenced by/influencing the economic sphere, and it's consequences towards effective and real citizenship; - the role varied social inequalities play in a so-called meritocracy; - the understanding of globalization as an arena where different global versions compete, rather than an inevitable process or state that has been achieved; - the role of the State (as economic regulator) in different geographical areas of the world-system - central, semi-peripheral or peripheral - and it's consequences over time; - the social conditioning of taste, and it's implications in the definition and reproduction of class; - or the irrational aspects of individual decision in the supposed all-rational marketplace.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: Horoscopes are useless. I have always been confused as to how people can believe that your future can be predicted and your personality can be dictated by the date of your birth and the constellations in outer space corresponding to it. Horoscopes are like fortune cookies. They choose a handful of general statements, reword them, then they're handed out to everyone, and I don't think believing in that makes sense. I understand that there are people who know it isn't true, but like it because it's fun in some way. I am referring to people who actually read their daily horoscopes and make it a conscious part of their day. How?? Why?? I am of course open to changing my view on the subject, I just need some justification. _____ > Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to *[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules). If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* *[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)*! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our *[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)* first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to *[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview). Happy CMVing!<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Well... Due to the vague nature of the horoscope, the reader can interpret whatever they want into it. "Times are good to make a change" "Be thoughtful of those around you" "Look out for troubles, but you can overcome them". For people who are uncertain and indecisive, a horoscope can be used to justify taking the action that they wanted to, but didn't dare to do without input. Or conversely, it can be used as justification to not* do what they were afraid to do. Incidentally, the Barnum effect (also known as the Forer effect or the personal validation fallacy) is the tendency in humans to believe that a personality analysis purporting to be about them specifically is correct. Psychologist Bertram Forer (1914–2000) showed the same profile, culled from horoscopes, to a number of students, telling them it had been based on a personality test they had taken. It included statements such as: >You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. The students rated how well it applied to them personally on a scale of 1 to 5; the average score was 4.26.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Degree but no opportunity for a PhD position Hi everyone, I graduated earlier this year. At the beginning I wasn't really worrying about my career. i've always known I'd like to stay in academia and continue into a PhD program. Fast forward 6 months: I still haven't found a PhD position (I applied for one, but ultimately I didn't fit the lab and position), am struggling to find a job (I have some freelance gigs, but they are not enough to really cover my expenses) and generally feel really lost. So many of my friends immediately got a PhD position after graduating from their master's (at the same uni) and I'm here looking at job ads, but so far nothing has come up. What makes it even harder is that my degree is in the humanities. During my master's I've focused on my grades and my job at uni, because my goal was to secure a PhD position. The result of this is that I don't have experience with anything not directly related to my degree. My degree, however, isn't particularly what you would call 'useful in real life'. Add Covid to this and there you are. No job and basically no way of getting out of this situation atm. I have applied for tons of jobs (you dont need a degree for) but I'm basically overqualified for most of them and have received more rejections than I can count. I know I can't go on like this forever, but I also know that my situation won't change in the near future. I'm not sure why I'm typing this up really. Did anyone have similar experiences after graduating? Is there anything I can do aside from waiting? It's just really exhausting and I'm pretty desperate since I would like to get started with my career but it seems everything's just working against that.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Maybe have a chat with a job coaching agency, get a professional second pair of eyes? There'll surely be some specialized in jobs for graduates (it's a well-known general issue that people coming out of academia don't realize how many generalizable skills they have and what industry could be looking for, and not). (Also, silver lining that may be helpful to you - a lot of people are absolutely miserable in academia, and if you had the kind of privilege that would predict having a good time you wouldn't be in this situation. Maybe you end if finding a good PhD position, and if so great, but I'd still seriously look at what's out there in all-of-not-academia, even if - maybe especially if - you always assumed you'd go the academic route.)<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Why does Water evaporate at all when not boiling?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The temperature of a substance as we describe it is more or less an average of the energy in all the molecules polled within a region. Particles at the surface of water are actually at equilibrium with the air, with water from the air adding to the surface and some water on the surface being bumped free into the air. Through collisions an individual molecule can get enough energy to break away no problem even if the average temperature it too low. Because air is typically very unsaturated with water and dry, the equilibrium involves much more water escaping than returning. As temperature rises so does the "forward" rate of the equilibrium (where forward is evaporation and backwards is condensation). The Arrhenius equation can be used to model the rate of evaporation using an activation energy to represent how energetic a molecule must be to escape, the temperature, and a constant to refer to the substance in question (water). Edit: Surprised nobody called me out on "temperature of a temperature".<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How do video games save the position of many objects? In a game like Fallout 4 or Skyrim, you can rearrange furniture, create stacks of objects, or set off a bomb that scatters debris everywhere. When you save and reload, everything is in the exact spot you left it. How does the game manage to save and keep track of everything's location in such a large landscape?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The game saves the coordinates and orientation of each item in a relatively small area (like a city in skyrim) and does this for all areas. Interiors like houses are separate areas. The state of the items are only loaded when you are in that area, it doesn't load the whole world at once. If you haven't visited an area before, the state won't be saved as nothing has changed. It's worth noting the game saves the areas as you leave them in temporary saves that get written out to your game save when you actually perform a save.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: How come we can see a source of light extremely far away when the source only illuminates the area much closer to it? For example, I'm sitting on my front porch which overlooks the town. Miles away I can see streetlights, signs, etc. How does the source project light to my location, yet doesn't illuminate my location? Holy moly friends, thanks for the awards and stuff. I didn't think this question would spark so much interest, lol. I am thoroughly grateful for all your replies.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Absorption and scattering. Unless your location is a perfect white, some of the light hitting it will be absorbed, reducing its intensity. Then, unless your location is a perfect mirror perfectly angled to redirect the light to your eye, the light is scattered in every direction, further reducing its intensity. The light is still illuminating your location, and if you could somehow turn off all the other lights illuminating your location, turn around to look away from the last distant street light, wait a while for your eyes to adjust, and then start flipping that streetlight on and off you should be able to see a difference (depending on just how far away the streetlight is). But in the real world, turning off all other sources of light isn't really possible, most of the time.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why are lakes rich in nitrates? If it’s due to hills, how are the nitrates moved from the hill to the lakes?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Lakes are a natural collection point for water, and anything that the water happens to wash over during its journey. Rain gets into the ground and dissolves nitrates into itself, then washes into streams which wind up in lakes.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [Skyrim] Why do shopkeepers hate quality enchantments? Why do shopkeepers give you less money for your enchanted goods, the higher your enchantment level is?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Risk and demand versus reward. Sure the adventurer might want to sell the vendor a +9 Ogre Slaying Knife (+9 versus Trolls) but that's such a single purpose item, very few shoppers are going to want that. It's the sort of thing that could be advertised across the realms... 'Jack the Smith in Wheretown has the perfect ogre weapon !' And cause all kinds of ruckus for the town (maybe the troll king has a problem with ogres and mutinies) and draw one or two heroes from far and wide... but how long will he really want to keep it in stock due to the former reason? Not to mention laying out a large investment on a weapon that's going to sit in a display case as a curiosity until then...<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How are multiple signals passed over wires (phone lines, fiber optics, etc...) without interference? I was thinking about the old days especially when most communication was over the phone lines which I know to be multiple individual strands of wire spanning thousands of miles with various interconnections. But, if my neighbor and I are making a phone call at the same time, how do the lines keep those 2 signals entirely separate when its on the same line for at least a part of the transmission?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There are three basic ways. Either you send the signals at different times and then reassemble at the receiver (time division multiplexing), or you send different frequencies or colors (frequency division multiplexing) and separate at the receiver, or you encode the different signals digitally such that they all appear like noise to each other but you can descramble them at the receiver (code division multiplexing). The latter is very common in cell phones.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user What does the pineal gland do? I have been reading some pretty amazing stuff about this small gland in the center of the brain. I have read that it can release serotonin, DMT and some other pretty serious chemicals. I have also read that it can process light, almost like an eye in the center of the brain. I am trying to sort out fact from fiction.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The main role that we know of for the pineal gland is to regulate circadian rhythms. . The pineal gland mainly releases melatonin, which is derived from serotonin but also releases other chemicals involved in your sleep-wake cycle. Evolutionarily, the pineal gland is a quite ancient structure and in many animals, the pineal gland is connected to a third eye and has photoreceptive cells. As you can imagine, a gland that regulates sleep and waking would find it very useful to know when it's light or dark outside. While human pineal glands also have photoreceptive cells, their position in the middle of our skulls renders them more a vestigial artifact than functional. In human beings, the pineal gland is believed to be involved in regulation of sleep-wake cycles, but we also have several other parts of the brain that are involved in that so the pineal gland has somewhat fallen to the wayside in terms of functionality here.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5 Why is it bad for young kids to weightlift? Why do medical professionals advise against intense strength training for little kids?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Muscle development that outpaces normal activities for a child can have detrimental effects on bone growth. It can cause stress in areas while the bones are still calcifying, resulting in a multitude of different issues including: bone deformities, contractures, etc.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:What makes certain wine unbelievably expensive? So like, why do some wines, made in recent years, sell for over $10,000 but wines made from vineyards just down the road, which experienced near identical weather conditions, sell for less than $50. Is it entirely down to the manufacturing process, and if it is, how can the price gap be so wide? Or is it more down to the name a vineyard has. If anyone actually has any experience working in a vineyard and can explain the process better than wikipedia, that'd be swell.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The price gap is supply and demand, for certain prestigious brands. So first of all, wine comes from grapes; and grape quality is dependent on many factors. Weather of course, but also soil, water, light, heat, and grower skill/decisions. AND of course, the actual grape vine. Old vines produce less fruit - thus, smaller production, BUT generally more concentrated and intense. Younger vines produce more fruit, but you have to prune them - the amount of pruning affects the concentration and quality of the juice you get. If your options are 'n' cases of wine at $60/case (wholesale) or 'n/3' cases at $120, you're probably going to prune sparingly to get as much juice and wine as possible, without creating garbage. On the other hand, if you can make truly great wine and have a name for yourself, then the options are 'n/3' cases at $1000, or 'n' cases at $1000 - for a year or two, and then the price per case drops down to $100 because nobody trusts you anymore. Then you factor in the slope of your land and composition of the soil (acidity, water retention or runoff), the light, the use of pesticides, mulch, etc.. So now you have some amount of good-quality grapes. How do you make wine? Do you make wine that's going to mature over 10-50 years, or wine that's going to be drinkable about the time it hits the market, late next year (like about 90% of the wine sold)? The former leads to more expensive wine, and is harder to sell - BUT if done well, can establish you over time as a top-notch winemaker. Or drive you into bankruptcy even sooner. So this pretty much determines the pricing for most wines between $8 and $80. Above that, things get...complicated. If you're in Bordeaux for instance, your vinyard is likely ranked by the government. Your wine has to meet certain standards of quality and composition, and much of it is historical. There are, for instance, only five first-growth houses, and only one of them was not defined as such in 1855. (Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, which got promoted in 1973). If you're one off those, or one of a limited few others who have a similar cachet, you can pretty much name your price. The thing is, most of their wine is sold on futures at auction, so basically it's "as much as someone is willing to pay."<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: In the world of video games, how do "engines" (Unreal, Unity, etc.) actually work? I have a friend who works in video game design, and I am very into video games myself, but I have 0 idea how the coding of games actually works. I understand that publishers work with studios who use engines, but how do engines themselves actually work? is it through coding language, something more complicated, or something simpler?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Engines like those typically have the foundation in their code to already do what you need them to do such as terrain formation, models for bodies, water, objects, movement, etc. instead of having to start from scratch and code all those different parts yourself, you just use the engines’ framework to build your game from those assets instead<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Allowed electron orbits seem odd and purely a mathematical construction. Are they just theory but reality gives more laxitude to where an electron might be? In A Brief History of Time, Hawkins explains the allowed orbits by saying only integer multiples of an electron's wavelength are allowed, otherwise after a certain number of orbits the electron's wave will destructivley interfere and the e- will disappear and you restrict your solution-space to discrete allowed orbits. Does this mean we limit ourselves further to electron energies that have wavelengths longer than or equal to their orbital circumference so they can intefere? If the wavelength is shorter than the circumference would we not have a band of orbits which will never destructivley interfere and hence not limit ourselves to the simpler situation of discrete energy levels for the e-? Also, as a mathematician, if space around the e- is compact these allowed orbits (to me) represent the limit points of allowed orbits and that in the real world you would have a band of 'effectively' allowed orbits which would be stable for long periods of time without ever collapsing into the nucleus or flying out into space. The band might be small, but a band of any size at all would give an uncountabley infinite number of possible orbits in the physical world, hence when you come to describe the e- in the world of quantum mechanics you can't use the simplification of discrete energy levels which will messes up their representation when expressed as vectors.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant If you're a mathematician, I'd recommend reading more rigorous sources than A Brief History of Time. Electron orbitals are the stationary solutions of the time-independent Schrodinger equation. The electron having negative total energy (where "zero" energy is defined by a particle at r = infinity, with zero kinetic energy) imposes boundary conditions which lead to a discrete spectrum of bound states. The modulus-squared of the stationary solutions gives the probability density for where you'd find the electron in space if you measured its position.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user With sunglasses on, one of my computer monitors is almost unaffected, only slightly darker, and the other one turns entirely black. What about monitors or sunglasses makes them react differently?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Most monitors have a polarization layer on the screen that helps to greatly reduce any glare on the monitor. The effect is that light emitted by the screen itself is also polarized in a certain direction. If you then pass this light through another polarizer, such as polarized sunglasses, then depending on the orientation it may cause the light to be blocked (almost) completely. The reason the other monitor doesn't have this effect is either because it has no polarization layer or because the direction of its polarization lines up with that of the sunglasses. You can play with this by rotating your sunglasses (or the monitor, but that's less practical). If both the sunglasses and monitor have a polarization filter, then depending on their respective orientation the light from the monitor will be blocked or let through or anything in between.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: What is the actual difference between different blood groups?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Proteins on the surface of the blood cells. There are loads, but for the "normal" blood groups you think of, there are three different ones that are important: A, B, and one called "rhesus D". If your blood has A proteins on the cell surface, your blood is type A. If B, type B. If it has both, type AB, and if it has neither, type O. Separate to this, if your blood has the Rhesus D protein on its surface, you're a positive (+) blood group, and if it doesn't then you're a negative (-) blood group.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user [StarGate] Why does the 7th chevron need to be explicitly entered? As far as I understand, the 7th chevron-the origin-never changes. And even if it does, it's not up to traveler to change it. The variables are only the target coordinations, but the origin is constant. It basically has zero entropy. Why doesn't the gate calculate it internally? What's the purpose of entering it manually? Has there ever been a case, where a gate was activated with different glyph than its origin?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Once they discovered 8 and 9 chevron addresses, this becomes clearer. The origin chevron is used to initiate the dialing. If the origin chevron is the 7th chevron, the gate knows you're dialing a gate in the Milky Way. Otherwise, you would be dialing a gate much farther away, and would require much more power.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user How to read difficult philosophy books? I'd like to delve deeper into philosophy, but as I read recommended text, I begin to get frustrated by how mentally taxing it is to comprehend. Often times I will get discouraged and stop reading. Given this, what kind of approach should lower level readers take when trying to understand philosophy?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant I began by reading books that cover many philosophies by way of overviews and then you get a feeling for where your inclination lies. Your ability to focus on what you naturally relate to will make it more accessible. Plus you obtain a synthesis of different teachings.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Is there a reason for Spinoza to define God as an infinite substance? I've read through the first part of Spinoza's Ethics, where he presents his ontological argument and his ideas about the nature of God, and understood the gust of it. However, I noticed that Spinoza takes that definition of God kind of for granted and doesn't provide much arguments for it. So, does he give any arguments for that definition of God elsewhere or does he just takes it for granted and goes on from there?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant The identification of God as substance, absolutely infinite, etc., so as to satisfy the demands of the ontological and cosmological arguments, is the typical way of identifying God in the tradition of natural theology. So in that regard, Spinoza presumably doesn't see that there's anything noteworthy on this point that needs defense.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:Why is the 4.0 GPA scale used? It seems like the 4.0 GPA scale isn't exactly reflective of a students academic ability. For example, let's say 90-100 = A+ = 4.0 and 85-89 = A = 3.9. Student A gets 100 in 4 courses and 89 in 1 course, resulting in a GPA of 3.98. Student B gets 90 in 5 courses, and ends up with a GPA of 4.0. I don't know about you, but to me Student A has a better academic achievement than Student B, but their GPAs say otherwise. So why is this scale used?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant >For example, let's say 90-100 = A+ = 4.0 and 85-89 = A = 3.9. I've never seen that scale before. I've always seen something more like: 97-100 = A+ = 4.33 94-96 = A = 4.0 90-93 = A- = 3.67 87-89 = B+ = 3.33 etc. Thus Student A has a GPA of 4.08, and Student B has a GPA of 3.67.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Could there combinations of elements we have not yet discovered that are harder than diamonds?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant There are materials harder than diamonds, but most of those are quite specific combinations of elements which are difficult to create or maintain outside a lab. Industrial grade diamonds are cheap and easy to make, so diamonds will remain the go-to material for industrial needs.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user I am a firefighter with a fluid dynamics question. When splitting a single 4" diameter supply line to two separate supply lines, why would I get more water from splitting to one section of 4" and one section of 3", as opposed to two sections of 4"? So were were practicing filling tankers (trucks that carry 3,000 gallons of water each), and noticed something interesting. I will explain our setup. So we had a 10' length of 4" supply line coming off of a hydrant w/ ~60 psi of pressure. There was a manifold on the end of that section of 4" that splits it into two supply lines. Our initial setup was to run 50' of 4" off of one side and 50' of 3" off of the other. When filling two tankers simultaneously we noticed that both tankers were filling rather predictably. The one with the 4" was filling faster and the one with the 3" was filling at about half that rate. When we had the materials necessary, I "upgraded" the 50' of 3" to another 50' section of 4". Now we have two 50' sections of 4" coming off of the manifold. This is where the confusing bit happened. When I would hook up and fill two tankers simultaneously, one of the tankers would get almost all of the water, and the other would get nearly nothing, until the first line was shut down. No one has been able to explain this to me. There are two essentially identical supply lines coming off of the manifold, why would one be favored so heavily. And why would the 3" line allow more water flow when partnered with the 4"? [Sketch of setup](https://i.imgur.com/c9BCvUs.png)<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant I design multiple path processes every day. We've got a rule of thumb that anything less than five psi of pressure drop in the entire system can only be single path because below that point minor differences can cause massive maldistribution of the flow to the point that one of the passes can run dry... Sounds to me like this is happening in your system. You've reduced the total system pressure drop to the point that the water just flows easily down a single path without enough back pressure to force it down the other path that's available. Flow control valves on each pass solve the problem as do individual pass booster pumps if they're adjustable so you can balance them out... But basically you've just reached the practical maximum flow for your hoses without additional equipment.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV:The relative progressiveness and acceptance that most diasporic Judaism supports is the result of historical marginalization, not fundamental differences from other Abrahamic religions. I write this as a Jew, a fairly observant one. I love that Judaism, particularly diaspora Judaism, supports acceptance and tolerance. However, I believe that these good qualities are the result of historic marginalization, not fundamental differences in doctrine compared to other Abrahamic religions. While it is absolutely true that Jewish religious texts support charity and kindness, so do the texts of Christianity and Islam. It can also be seen that in the instances where a Jewish kingdom or majority society has been established, these principals of kindness are often ignored. This can be seen as far back as the Hasmonean Dynasty(founded by the Maccabees). The Maccabees did not rebel to create religious freedom. They rebeled to impose Judaism on those in the kingdom. You see similar trends in many states that are dominated by Christians and Muslims. That is to say, in nations with a heavy majority of any Abrahamic religion, features of religious doctrines that call for charity and acceptance are often ignored. Rather, I propose that the acceptance that much of mainstream diasporic Judaism promotes is the result of historic marginalization and discrimination suffered until the mid twentieth century.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Can you elaborate on what you mean by “acceptance and tolerance?” Do you have any evidence that Jews are actually more accepting than Christians? It sounds like you might be comparing progressive Jews with average or conservative Christians.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user CMV: Police misconduct settlements should be garnished from the offending officer’s salary and pension I argued this once before, I’ll argue it again. In addition to supporting stripping police of liability protections and enabling them to be directly sued for misconduct, I believe any settlement should be garnished from the offending officer’s salary and pension. I also support taking the settlement out of the police department’s budget. Even if that is financially catastrophic for the cops and their families, and forces the department to lay people off. If I fuck up on the job, I lose my job and have to face potential financial consequences. I was rear ended by a commercial vehicle. The guy who hit me probably lost his job and the settlement to come will see a spike in the company’s liability insurance premiums. I believe the best way to enact change is to hit cops here it hurts: their pay, healthcare, and family security. So if a lawsuit finds cops guilty of police misconduct, their pension should be frozen and paid out of that. Anything left over should be garnished from the offending officer(s) paycheck. Even if it is financially devastating to them and their families. Everyone else in society has to face the music for their mistakes. Police are not special, and should not only be more vulnerable to getting sued into oblivion, there should be legal standards for how much a garnishment should be, meaning department cannot settle for something low. The police have long made this an “us versus the public” issue, so be it. They can pay up, even if it means their family loses their home, goes hungry, or loses medical care. If you fuck up as a cop, I want to not sting, but burn and take a good while to heal.<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant We need to recognize that there are difference situations that can occur, that need to be treated differently. The current situation is broken, but removing all protections for the officers involved is a knee-jerk overreaction. What we need to do is ensure those whose rights are violated, or otherwise get injured by law enforcement are properly compensated. We also need to ensure bad cops are held to account, while protecting good cops from vexatious litigation, or being bankrupted for reasonable decisions made in the heat of the moment. To outline the possible situations: * Police Officer violates clearly established law and training - In this case, the officer should be personally liable, and the law enforcement agency should be on the hook for liability after the assets of the officer are depleted. This way the officer pays a big financial penalty, but the recovery of the victim isn't limited to what the officer has. * The next case is where the police agency trained its officers improperly, leading to a violation of clearly established law. In this case, its the agency that should be held accountable. * Then there is a case where the law wasn't clear, but a court rules that a right was violated, despite an officer acting in good faith. This is currently subject to qualified immunity, which should continue to be the case for officers, but the agency should still be required to compensate the person whose rights were violated. Also, to the extent qualified immunity is retained, it needs to pass a sanity test. There may be no case on point saying an officer can't steal your money during an arrest, there should be no need for one. Not only should there be no immunity, its acting in bad faith, and the officer should be on the hook personally. * Finally, if someone is injured, or their property is collateral damage as a result of police activity, the agency should be on the hook for compensation. If a criminal set it all in motion, the agency can try to get their money back from the criminal, but should pay up front for the collateral damage. We need to accept that law enforcement is challenging, and that good officers, acting in good faith, can make mistakes. They shouldn't be crucified for this, but the victims should still be compensated, and the best way to do that is to have the agency cover it.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5: Why are freckles or 'beauty marks' next to eye and on upper lip so common compared to others?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant If you were to sample all people you would probably find that moles occur in equal amounts all over the body. Ones around the eyes and mouth are considered pretty, so people with them are overrepresented in art and media<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user ELI5:Why are major keys in music associated with a "happy" sound and minor keys associated with a "sad" sound in our brains?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant A large part of it is cultural reinforcement, major and minor are very rough generalisations of what sounds happy or sad. It's not fully understood but is thought the different intervals between notes react to the way the brain understands speech. Over our history our brains developed to recognise certain inflections in a voice's pitch as meaning the phrase is happy or sad. A way of speaking where the pitch of your voice varies less is considered sad, your voice seems less energetic. In a minor chord the 2nd note is closer to the first than in a major cord. So your brain just sort of conflates the closer together frequencies to mean sadness. It's not very accurate, since it's a clash of 2 fairly arbitrary things, there are many sad songs in major keys and happy songs in minor keys, but confirmation bias seems to override those.<\|im_end\|>
<\|im_start\|>user Why is chickenpox more dangerous for adults than for children?<\|im_end\|> <\|im_start\|>assistant Simply put, the ability of cell-mediated immunity to resist intracellular pathogens decreases with age, so become more susceptible to new viral infection and reactivation of latent infections (like Varicella-Zoster virus AKA Chicken Pox/Shingles). With age, thymic tissue is replaced with adipose tissue so ability to produce new, mature T cells in the thymus is eventually lost. Therefore, a decreased ability of helper T cells to proliferate in response to antigens. So, antigen exposure produces fewer helper T cells, therefore less stimulation of B cells and effector T cells (so both antibody-mediated immunity and cell-mediated immunity response to antigens decrease) Also, primary and secondary antibody responses decrease (decline is most evident after age 60).<\|im_end\|>

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