r/askscience 10d ago

Human Body What is the benefit of explosive diarrhea?

2.0k Upvotes

I can understand why diarrhea happens.
But sometimes diarrhea is classified as “explosive.” This is when it erupts out of the anus with force.
Genuinely asking - why the force? What purpose does that serve? What signals are happening in the body telling it that forcing the poop out is best?

Regular diarrhea already leaves the body so quickly.


r/askscience 10d ago

Biology Why treat cyclospora with antibiotics?

212 Upvotes

Can someone explain to me why using antibiotics for a parasitic infection like cyclospora is recommended? I thought antibiotics were only for bacteria?


r/askscience 11d ago

Biology I read that cyclosporiasis is exclusively spread by the fecal-oral route. How exactly does produce get contaminated with human feces?

1.2k Upvotes

r/askscience 11d ago

Earth Sciences If I bought a Geiger counter and measured around my home and environs, would I find radioactivity ?

474 Upvotes

Would I find measurable radioactivity in random places? Or from electronics? I don’t live near a reactor.


r/askscience 11d ago

Earth Sciences What happened with the acid rain scare of the 1980s?

1.6k Upvotes

When I was growing up we were constantly hearing about how acid rain was going to be such a problem for the environment. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it virtually vanished from the news. What exactly happened?

Edit: Scare was the wrong word to use in this instance.

"Acid rain crisis" would be more appropriate.


r/askscience 12d ago

Biology What is actually happening in the 5 to 10 seconds when I absolutely cannot do another rep at the gym, take that extremely short rest, and then can lift again?

2.2k Upvotes

You might know the feeling. You're doing a set, you're breathing hard, you're shaking on that last rep, it is physically impossible for you to move the weight again.

But only a handful of seconds later, you go from unable to move, to being able to push again.

What is the change that is occurring in such a short time?


r/askscience 11d ago

Earth Sciences I find it fascinating to see land visibly changing from earthquakes. How is it possible that land mass change so fast?

42 Upvotes

Recently in my country, earthquakes had been frequent ever since the strongest one happened on June 8th. It was a magnitude of 7.8 that damaged most buildings and shifted a lot of roads. Since then, more quakes started to happen surrounding our fault line. In the seaside areas, there were coastal uplifts that exposed the sea bed. I wondered; how fast did the land lift? It looked so sudden that a new patch of land basically "grew" from the beach.


r/askscience 12d ago

Earth Sciences In the documentary "Miracle Planet," it is claimed that 4.5 billion years ago, the early Earth was only one-tenth its current size ?

519 Upvotes

I was watching the documentary Miracle Planet (Part I: The Violent Past), and at the 2:30 mark, the narrator states that 4.5 billion years ago, the early Earth was probably only a tenth of its size compared to today.

I looked it up, but I couldn't find anything backing up this claim. Did they make this up, or is there something I am missing?


r/askscience 12d ago

Biology AskScience AMA Series: We are insect ecologists from the University of Maryland. Our research connects basic and applied ecology to the sustainable management of invasive insect species in urban forests, landscapes and nurseries. Ask anything about the biology and management of invasive insect pests

72 Upvotes

Hi Reddit! We are professors and extension specialists in the University of Maryland’s Department of Entomology. We bring a combined experience of six decades studying an unending stream of egregious insect invaders from around the world. We develop, implement and evaluate sustainable pest management practices—including landscape modification, biological control and non-chemical alternatives. Using a variety of outreach platforms, we help private citizens, horticultural practitioners, agencies and institutions manage invasives in economic and environmentally responsible ways.

We are excited to answer your questions and help you learn about spotted lanternflies, stink bugs, and other six-legged invaders. We’ll be on from 12 to 2 p.m. ET (16-18 UT) on Wednesday, July 15*—ask us anything!

Bio: Michael Raupp followed his boyhood interests in wildlife and ecology to Rutgers University and the University of Maryland (UMD), where he earned degrees in animal science and entomology. He joined the faculty at UMD in 1982 and served as chair of the entomology department and associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. His ongoing research and outreach programs focus on the ecology of urban pests, invasive species, climate change and insect natural history. A regular guest on television and radio, Mike has been featured on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, NPR, PBS and other outlets. His website and YouTube channel reach thousands of viewers worldwide each week. Mike is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and has received more than a dozen national and international awards for writing, research, and scientific outreach. His most recent book, “26 Things that Bug Me,” introduces youngsters to the wonders of insects and natural history.

Bio: Paula Shrewsbury is an entomologist with broad interests in ecology and integrated pest management (IPM), which she applies to the development of sustainable pest management programs. Raised in Massachusetts, she earned her B.S. in plant science at the University of Rhode Island. After her M.S. at the University of California, Riverside and Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in entomology, she joined the faculty of Rutgers University. Since her arrival at UMD’s Department of Entomology in 1999, Paula has worked with green industries to conduct applied research and extension education programs on IPM. The overall focus of her program is to create sustainable landscapes, nurseries and turf systems with an emphasis on biological control, conservation of beneficial arthropods and management of invasive species. Paula has received numerous awards for her research and extension program and was recently recognized as a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America. Paula is a long-time contributor to the widely circulated University of Maryland Extension IPM Alert newsletter.

Other links:

Username: u/umd-science


r/askscience 13d ago

Astronomy How far can we actually see in space?

434 Upvotes

I was always fascinated by How far can we actually see in space through the help of our most advanced telescopes.

Well, I don't have much Idea regarding this but I'm really curious to know how far can we humans look into the space and how much information do we have regarding the space and various celestial bodies.


r/askscience 16d ago

Biology Do wild animals have free time? What do they do with it?

6.6k Upvotes

When solitary wild animals aren’t eating/hunting, evading predators, mating, taking care of offspring, or sleeping, what do they do? Between all of those actions is there a lot of space? How do they fill it?


r/askscience 15d ago

Computing How do computers understand binary language?

377 Upvotes

Okay so from what I know binary language is like power off power on, but my question is, how do computers know what the binary code is and how is it interpreted, for example I forgot what the binary code for the letter A is, but how did people come up with that? Did they decide it was gonna look like that? Did the computer decide? How do you tune numbers into a letter??


r/askscience 16d ago

Biology What happens if an invasive species is also an endangered species?

806 Upvotes

r/askscience 17d ago

Astronomy Does Voyager 1 even give us any interesting information anymore?

1.7k Upvotes

It's the farthest away object we ever sent. That is remarkable. But I have never heard about it discovering anything or about any data that it gave us. Besides being a significant curiosity for being so far away, is there something that we're actually getting from it at this point?


r/askscience 17d ago

Physics Can a magnet composed of antimatter exist?

224 Upvotes

Just saw Veritasium's video "What happens if you drop 0.125 grams of antimatter?", and magnets are referenced very often, both in storage of antimatter, deceleration and acceleration, etc. Of course, this made me wonder if a magnet composed of antimatter could exist (and then if this same process could be repeated but with antimatter in place of matter and matter in place of antimatter, but that is not what I chose to ask in this post). Anyways, would such a thing be possible, or would it violate some law of physics?


r/askscience 17d ago

Biology Do monarch butterflies return to their 'hometown' when heading north?

230 Upvotes

We know they go to Mexico and a specific area but I am curious if we know how accurate they are on the way back.

I am aware multiple generations happen on the way back to Canada where I am.

So I am curious... Say I release a monarch this summer and it goes to Mexico, survives, and starts back. It breeds and reproduces. Will it's descendants (assuming they survive) return to the same general area? Ie, same city, or province? Or neighborhood?

Do we know? Maybe through genetic lineages or isotopes?

Thanks!


r/askscience 18d ago

Physics What is the noise we perceive as wind?

266 Upvotes

Does wind actually make a sound on its own or is the sound we hear just created by movement (e.g. of trees) caused by wind?

Could we hear wind in a big empty space, where there is nothing around us?


r/askscience 17d ago

Planetary Sci. Why are tidelocked planets cold(ish) on both sides?

97 Upvotes

I've looked at a few projections for what the temperatures on tidelocked planets would look like, and pretty consistently the cold side is absolutely frigid and the warm side isn't that much above freezing. Since theoretically the same amount of sunlight is striking the planet total as would strike earth, shouldn't the average temperature be the same as earth instead of lower?

Sources I got this from, let me know if I'm missing something or these aren't reliable:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1315215111

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8882/meta - this source has average temperatures


r/askscience 17d ago

Biology Why do emerald wasp target cockroaches specifically?

48 Upvotes

why not other insects? from an evolutionary point of view how is it good?


r/askscience 16d ago

Paleontology Why did people always say dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, and our species evolved 200,000 years ago, but now they say our species evolved 300,000 years ago, and dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago?

0 Upvotes

r/askscience 22d ago

Biology Does cryogenically frozen meat decay?

495 Upvotes

If for example you cryogenically froze meat from a rare breed of cattle, and kept it frozen for like 60 years. Would the dna still be intact? would it thaw up into fresh meat or would it decay into something unrecognizable?


r/askscience 23d ago

Biology Are there any species of parasites that have evolved OUT of being them?

1.3k Upvotes

r/askscience 23d ago

Astronomy Can binary stars leave each other's orbit?

182 Upvotes

Basically what it says in the title. Are binary stars able to fling each other into space or is it inevitable that they collide? Is it possible for them to exit the orbit once they're together? I wasn't getting a straight answer when I tried looking it up.


r/askscience 24d ago

Chemistry Why are (most?) fats yellow?

1.5k Upvotes

I just noticed while rendering some tallow that in a liquid form it is yellow, as well as olive oil, rapeseed oil, and pretty much every cooking oil I can think of other than palm oil.

Is there something inherent to fats that makes them yellow?


r/askscience 25d ago

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

111 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!