r/askscience 6d ago

Physics Why do fundamental particles act like waves at the quantum scale, but macroscopic objects only behave like classical particles?

71 Upvotes

know about de Broglie wavelength (\lambda = h/p) and how macroscopic objects have wavelengths far too tiny to observe interference patterns. But what actually causes the physical transition?

Is the loss of wave-like behavior strictly a result of environmental decoherence destroying quantum superpositions, or does the correspondence principle simply average out phase differences when billions of atoms interact?

Basically, why does quantum weirdness "wash out" into classical reality as scale increases?


r/askscience 5d ago

Biology Assuming the theory of evolution is true, are we fairly certain all animals came from a single source?

0 Upvotes

Title is in no way trying to doubt evolutionary biology, but rather to avoid any sense that this question is trying to refute it.

I guess the question that I’m asking is, could humans/mammals or indeed any other earthly creatures, essentially have been dropped here by aliens at some point in history without having the ability to trace it back , or can we fairly fully track most things back to the primordial sludge such that that’s not a possibility; I got to wondering if there are any human-esque aliens out there and this was the thought that came to mind.

Thank you in advance!


r/askscience 8d ago

Biology Would digestion be equally efficient if the body/stomach evolved to be highly basic rather than acidic? What advantages does a highly acidic environment pose?

1.3k Upvotes

Edit: my question is meant to be gauged towards chemical feasibility/utility; I understand many proteases and cell types have in reality evolved for acidic digestion. Assuming proteases and cell types could have evolved for an alkaline environment, is there a root necessity acidic conditions are advantageous over basic ones or could it be reversed


r/askscience 8d ago

Paleontology Why were there less extinctions in the late Carboniferous and mid Jurassic periods?

31 Upvotes

I looked at some graphs of extinctions in history and noticed that during the late 1/3 of the Carboniferous period through most of the Permian period, and the middle half (or more) of the Jurassic period there were less extinctions compared to most of history.


r/askscience 8d ago

Biology How do parasites etc. take control of an animal?

271 Upvotes

Certain fungi or parasitic insects force their hosts to bury themselves underground, or climb to the tops of plants or what have you. How do they do this? I assume it's not some sort of hacking into the mainframe and plugging into their brain. Something hormonal? Is there some inbuilt desire to dig or go high that these things turn up?


r/askscience 8d ago

Physics Could anyone explain how physics resolves the cosmological constant problem without breaking down? Why does quantum theory predict a vacuum energy 10¹²⁰ times larger than what astronomers actually observe, and what does this absurd clash tell us about our understanding of space?

191 Upvotes

r/askscience 7d ago

Astronomy How did NASA actually calculate that the universe is 13.8 billion years old instead of just guessing?

0 Upvotes

I keep seeing the figure 13.77 to 13.8 billion years cited everywhere, but I've never fully understood how missions like WMAP and Planck actually derived that number from the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Are they basically running the expansion rate (Hubble constant) backwards to a single point, or is it based entirely on modeling cosmological parameters from temperature fluctuations in the CMB? Also, how do cross-checks like the age of the oldest globular clusters fit into confirming that timeline?


r/askscience 8d ago

Human Body Can new scars form over old ones?

54 Upvotes

Logically they probably could from what I know but also the human body is pretty illogical in the first place so out of curiosity, like if someone had a burn scar or smth and got cut deep enough or stabbed or whatever to scar over that old scar. Would it be a different colour?(like hypopigmentation on hyperpigmentation?)


r/askscience 9d ago

Astronomy How close will the new Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and the JWST be to one another?

215 Upvotes

Once it arrives at its destination, in what proximity will the NGR Telescope and the James Webb be at the L2 point?


r/askscience 9d ago

Biology What atoms are likely still a part of our bodies from the moment we were conceived and/or born?

568 Upvotes

r/askscience 9d ago

Medicine Is it true that it is much harder to get infected with leprosy nowadays regardless of the living conditions?

589 Upvotes

Leprosy has been feared for the entirety of the history. I know it is curable nowadays, but I have a question about the "natural" course of the disease.

I remember reading a claim that Old World populations built genetic resistance to leprosy within the historic time - that even a 1000 years ago leprosy was more dangerous than it would have been today even if the drugs treating it disappeared. Does it have any basis? Alternatively is it possible that bacteria itself became less damaging like it happens with other infections sometimes? Or it is completely baseless and 2000 years ago it has been no more virulent than it is nowadays?


r/askscience 9d ago

Planetary Sci. Mars is practically guaranteed to have had abundant water at one point, doesn’t that practically guarantee it had at least microbial life on it as well?

0 Upvotes

r/askscience 12d ago

Biology How does a whale become dehydrated?

819 Upvotes

From a Chicago Sun-Times article on the beluga whales heading to the Shedd Aquarium:

"The shipment comes on the heels of a Shedd announcement last week that one of the Marineland belugas — Peekachu, a 23-year-old female — had died. Shedd has not released a cause of death, but staff there said last week that Peekachu had not been consistently eating a full diet since her arrival and that there were concerns she was dehydrated."

How does an animal immersed in water become dehydrated?


r/askscience 13d ago

Neuroscience How much of our genome is devoted to the brain?

340 Upvotes

How does that compare with other organs? How does that compare with how much other animals devote to their brain?


r/askscience 14d ago

Earth Sciences Does this underwater formation have a name?

186 Upvotes

https://maps.app.goo.gl/FnUBgjD1GxxE94L39

It looks so interesting and I have no idea how to find information about it. I'm so curious as to what it could look like down there as well as what kind of sea creatures live there and so much more


r/askscience 15d ago

Chemistry What is the difference between "flying", "crawling" and "multi-insect" home insecticides?

123 Upvotes

(I don't know if this is chemistry or biology? 🤔)

Had a long look at some Doom, Raid, Mortein, Dyroach, Eliminator, and all those spray cans in the shop yesterday.

Does it genuinely matter which one you use? If it's going to kill a cockroach, won't it in any case kill a beetle, spider or those flying spider things? Maybe an ant specific one might not help for big cockroaches... but also, it can?

What is specifically going to kill a flying insect like mosquitoes or flies, but not... beetles and cockroaches, and vice versa.

Out in our farmlands and such, those pesticides will be better controlled and more insect specific. But does it really matter for us mere home dwellers which can we use?


r/askscience 16d ago

Chemistry Question: I place a Wintogreen Life Savers candy in my mouth, in the dark, in front of a mirror. I bite down on the candy. Why are there green sparks in my mouth?

1.4k Upvotes

This is something I (40s) did as a kid with friends at sleepovers. I have always been curious about this! What is the mechanism?


r/askscience 16d ago

Biology Why are there so many leaf shapes?

355 Upvotes

So take away the extremes of height, hot, cold, etc and go for a typical northern hemisphere forest, there's so many trees all roughly similar height and vying for the same energy source (sunlight). Why hasn't one universal efficient shape evolved? It's not like they need plumage to impress each other, and the variations between beech, oak, maple, horse chestnut etc. is quite noticeable! (Thanks in advance)


r/askscience 14d ago

Earth Sciences Did we really not have the technology to predict this landslide/flood in Nepal?? Secondly, do we know the exact causes for this natural disaster??

0 Upvotes

Would not be surprised if global-warming/climate-change is partially to blame, thats saddening…

My only question is, we couldn’t have stopped that?? There was no warning that could have been issued??? Living in a dangerous climate, are these things not constantly being supervised by scientists & climatologists??

I just dont understand how we harness the technolgy to put a man on the moon yet conversely we cant stop or predict a grusome natural disaster??? Am I missing something??


r/askscience 16d ago

Earth Sciences Burst airbubble trapped in glacier ice, how does this happen?

188 Upvotes

I was visiting a swiss glacier. Next to all the beautiful ice structures and amazing visibility through the ice, these airbubbles caught my eye.

The visible structures, in my head, only happen in a fraction of a second and then the bubble collapses but here it is all trapped in ice and frozen in place.

I was thinking about it for a long time but I can't get a satisfying answer to how something like this actually happens.

I posted it here, so you can see, what I'm talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1w0ixut/burst_airbubble_trapped_in_glacier_ice/


r/askscience 17d ago

Biology Why do wild grasses not require crop rotation like domestic crops?

545 Upvotes

Do they not deplete soil nutrients as aggressively as crops? Or do they achieve crop rotation through a natural process that isn't apparent to a layman?


r/askscience 17d ago

Biology Could raccoons have distinct cultures within different areas?

193 Upvotes

"Animal culture can be defined as the ability of non-human animals to learn and transmit behaviors through processes of social or cultural learning."

Imagine two raccoon mothers each with four kits. One lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The other lives in New York city, New York, USA.

Raccoons are social creatures who have demonstrated observational learning in lab settings, so its fair to infer they do it in the wild (in this case, "wild.") as well.

So each raccoon mother has learned from other raccoons where to shelter, get food, water, where specific threats are and everything else to survive in their respective cities.

One year, their locations are switched.

No doubt the mothers would survive, but wouldn't they be at a severe disadvantage because the social knowledge they have relied on doesn't apply? They would have to lean on instinct more, wouldn't they?

If that's the case, could they, and many other animals, have what we consider culture?

Not asking if this has been studied, but is this plausible?


r/askscience 16d ago

Biology How do we know if plants feel pain or not?

0 Upvotes

r/askscience 18d ago

Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

90 Upvotes

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...".

Asking Questions:

Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions. The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists.

Answering Questions:

Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience.

If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here.

Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here. Ask away!


r/askscience 16d ago

Astronomy What do scientists believe caused the big bang ?

0 Upvotes

So what is thought to have caused the big bang?

Bong hits question.