Recent comments in /f/askscience

flamebirde t1_j7rbrcd wrote

Reply to comment by Outrageous_County_29 in Are people with autoimmune diseases less likely to get viral infections? How about cancers? by Selfeducated

Well… not exactly. Most viruses don’t cause cancer but there are a good number of viruses that do. HTLV-1 and 2 (human T lymphoyropic virus) is strongly associated with adult T cell lymphoma, for example. And probably the most classic example of autoimmune disease -> viral infection -> cancer is Kaposi sarcoma. Patients with AIDS will get infected with HHV-8 (a type of herpes virus) and will then develop Kaposi’s sarcoma as a direct result.

They’re actually called oncoviruses, and are pretty well studied. Fascinating subject to research.

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DanCongerAuthor t1_j7r5a2z wrote

Reply to Do Little Earthquakes Prevent Big Earthquakes? by cpassmore79

No, they don’t. Earthquakes are on a logarithmic scale. An 8.0 releases roughly 30X the energy of a 7.0. Anybody want to live through 30 7.0’s to avoid a single 8.0? Following that scale, where a 9.0 releases 30X the energy of an 8.0, 900 earthquakes with a 7.0 magnitude would be required to release the same energy as one 9.0.

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Aardbeienshake t1_j7r3vud wrote

Reply to comment by oviforconnsmythe in Does having autoimmune disorder (atopic disease in my mind, but also otherwise) lead to an increased risk of immune cell cancer? by MoBuckeye

Thanks for this thorough explanation. I had EBV and resulting mono when I was a teen, and had non-hodgkin lymphoma in my twenties. I knew back then that my mono (which was atypically severe) was a contributor, but did not know why. Interesting read!

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