Recent comments in /f/askscience

CrustalTrudger t1_j7nrv48 wrote

Reply to Do Little Earthquakes Prevent Big Earthquakes? by cpassmore79

It's important to remember that the scales we use for earthquakes (which in the US, is typically the moment magnitude scale, i.e. Mw) are logarithmic. Thus, let's say we define a big earthquake as an Mw 8.0 and a little earthquake as an Mw 2.0, the Mw 8.0 is 1,000,000 times larger than the Mw 2.0 (or alternatively if we say a Mw 3.0 is small, the Mw 8.0 is 100,000 larger, and so on).

Now, this is just thinking about the magnitude as represented on a seismogram, if we want to say how many earthquakes of a given small magnitude equal a given single large magnitude earthquake, we need to consider this through the lens of radiated energy. For this purpose we can use the equation on the linked wiki page that relates Mw and radiated energy Es, specifically,

Mw = 2/3 log(Es) - 3.2

So, we can use this to calculate the amount of energy released by a single Mw 2.0 or Mw 3.0 and a Mw 8.0 earthquake and thus just how many Mw 2.0 or 3.0 events we'd need to equal the energy of a single Mw 8.0. If you go through the math, you'll find that to equal the released energy of a single Mw 8, you would need ~31 million Mw 3.0 or ~1 billion Mw 2.0 events. Let's be more generous and consider something of a more moderate event, like a Mw 5.0, but even then you'd need around 32,000 Mw 5.0 events to release the same energy as a single Mw 8.0.

With this, you could play other games, like lets say the fault system in question has stored enough energy to generate a Mw 8.0, but you have 25 Mw 5.0 earthquakes over a given period, how much energy is left? Again, doing the math, enough to generate a Mw 7.9997 earthquake.

Suffice to say, no, a few small quakes every year are a literal drop in the bucket toward the total strain budget of a system capable of generating a large magnitude earthquake so these do not really do much in terms of preventing an eventual large magnitude event.

EDIT: Writing this answer as I was falling asleep led to me not addressing the "overdue" aspect of the original question. If you would like a deeper dive on why the concept of earthquakes being "overdue" is incredibly problematic, I'll refer to you this FAQ.

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Epicteetis t1_j7nppio wrote

Reply to When does the body store fat? by fappie6

It’s dependent on the amount of calories consumed vs calories used, and not so much on the time of day. Metabolism is a continuous process that’s practically always in motion so weight gain/loss is only noticeable with cumulative effects. If someone eats more calories than their body needs for the day, those excess calories are stored in fat cells, eventually causing noticeable fat accumulation. On the flip side, if the person needs more calories than they’ve eaten, the fat cells are burned as the “reserve” fuel, causing weight loss.

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Jessalopod t1_j7nbilj wrote

Reply to Are people with autoimmune diseases less likely to get viral infections? How about cancers? by Selfeducated

I have Crohn's, which means I have a higher chance of getting certain kinds of cancer in my digestive system.

I also have Ankylosing Spondylitis, for which I need to take immune suppressive medications to slow my spine's deformation and my body growing bone where it's not supposed to be, and these make me more likely to catch viral infections. My medication is a TNF blocker, which also increases my chances of other cancers like skin cancer and hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL).

Basically, no, a busted immune system doesn't give superpowers. It just tosses more wrenches in the works.

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NohPhD t1_j7n9wmw wrote

Reply to comment by atred in (Virology) Has SARS-CoV-2 outcompeted all the other coronaviruses which have been called the ‘common cold’? by jsgui

One interesting factor that might be exacerbating the situation is there exists an anti-COVID medicine that works by promoting mutations in the virus RNA during replication. While this tactic may help the intended recipient it now appears that the medication may be contributing to the unexpectedly high overall mutation rate of the COVID virus.

Who thought this was a good idea in the long run?

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Arylius t1_j7n7sfn wrote

Reply to comment by Selfeducated in Are people with autoimmune diseases less likely to get viral infections? How about cancers? by Selfeducated

So to my understanding as someone with MS. There are B cells and T cells. Different B cells are trained to recognise certain " patterns" of certain virus proteins like the spike protein of covid. (Like soldiers trained in specific areas) It then recognises that protein and sticks to it alerting surrounding cells to release the flood gates for killer T cells the so called assassins of the immune system.

Now in auto immune disease the immune system mistaken healthy cells/ proteins for bad ones and attacks them. For something like MS that means attacking mylin coating of nerves in the brain or spine. For something like Hashimoto's its the thyroid causing the thyroid to stop producing or produce to much of the thyroid hormones.

So depending on what you have you might have you might be able to just have hormone treatment like thyroxine for Hashimoto's or for ones like MS you may need to suppress certain b cells used to target the wrong parts. Even if the treatment for example Ocrelizumab for MS only targets CD-19 and CD-20 B cells, those B cells are ultimately used to recognise a whole host of virus's there for leaving you at higher risk of infection. Most immuno-suppressants come with a whole host of scary side effects that could happen if your unlucky but like with all medication everything has side effects.

I hope this can help a little. This is also just my understanding so please take with a grain of salt. My family have a while medical textbook worth of auto immune diseases so i try to learn I'm just not always best at conveying what i mean.

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AllHailGoomy t1_j7n73rb wrote

Reply to comment by atomfullerene in Why are specific monkey/ape species suitable for biomedical research while others are not ? by Sleevvin

Currently working with rhesus and pigtail macaques, nothing could get me to work with chimps. Macaques are already hard enough to take care of and are at about the top level of acceptable danger in animals I'm willing to work with. Also I love these guys but they can be huge bastards lol, can't imagine what a chimp could get up to

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SovereignAxe t1_j7mzy0t wrote

Reply to What's the mechanism behind smog causing stroke or heart disease? by Raul_Endy

Just to add to what others have said: smog is made up of particles called PM10 and PM2.5. These are classes of particles that fall into size categories of 10 and 2.5 microns in size.

PM10s are small enough to cause irritation in the eyes, throat, and nose. PM2.5s however are so small that they can pass the blood/brain barrier. And those are what are in smog.

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Selfeducated OP t1_j7mzpu8 wrote

Reply to Are people with autoimmune diseases less likely to get viral infections? How about cancers? by Selfeducated

It is my understanding that autoimmune diseases do not mean one is immunosuppressed; on the contrary one’s immune system is in overdrive. Of course if one then takes medication to suppress that overreaction, that can then open the door to invaders. But my question was if that ‘army’ currently attacking one’s own body by mistake sometimes defeats invading viruses. There are many different autoimmune diseases- does it follow then that many different types of ‘soldiers’ are produced that then attack specific body parts? And are they always different than what is normally produced in response to infection? I think I need a book on immunology! And I think there are many things yet to be known about the immune system!

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