Recent comments in /f/askscience

thomasxin t1_j81gnu6 wrote

Reply to comment by Player_KK in Why is the Oort cloud spherical? by Outliver

Gravity does interact over long distances over long periods of time though, is there a mechanism that acts against that compared to smaller accretion disks? What prevents an elliptical galaxy collapsing into a spiral, and how do we know that won't happen even if given a trillion years?

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omgu8mynewt t1_j81g4bj wrote

Reply to Estimating roughly, how much of a bacterial genome is thought to be of viral origin? by josephrainer

In bacteria, dormant viruses in the genome are called prophages. I found one paper, in eight E. coli strains, between 8-22 prophages were predicted to be found in each strain's genome. E coli genome is approximately 5.6 Mb. Prophage genomes were from 5.6 to 131.9 kb, say on average 70 Kb. So on average, (14 prophages x 70,000) / 5,600,00 * 100 = 17.5%. Very back of the envolope maths, and only for E coli, results will vary wildly. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.03093/full

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Player_KK t1_j81edoc wrote

Reply to comment by thomasxin in Why is the Oort cloud spherical? by Outliver

Originally, it was believed that elliptical galaxies would turn into spiral galaxies, but we have since found this to not be true. Elliptical galaxies..... in short, are not active. They are characterized by a distinct lack of star forming gases, and little to no new star formation. Existing stars seldom interact with one another, so much of the shape comes from those star forming gases, via angular momentum.

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At least this is how I understand it.

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DJOMaul t1_j81diqd wrote

Reply to comment by Pedroarak in Can the Radiation from a Sample of Depleted Uranium Sterilize? by Natolx

>The radioactivity is due to the local geology. Underground water dissolves radium in uraniferous igneous rock and carries it to the surface through at least nine known hot springs.[15] These are used as spas by locals and tourists.

Uh. That feels... unsafe.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar,_Iran] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar,_Iran)

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RebelWithoutAClue t1_j81awnc wrote

Reply to comment by Natolx in Can the Radiation from a Sample of Depleted Uranium Sterilize? by Natolx

It may be that a thorough irradiation sterilization will end up denaturing your protein anyways.

Maybe one could accept that a beautiful thing could be beautiful also because it is temporary.

At what temp will your protein denature? If the protein denatures at a high enough temp, you could hold it at a lower temp to make life really hard for bacteria and wait it out for a few days to kill it down while not denaturing your protein.

Basically pasteurize the thing at a temp that is below the temp that will damage the protein you care about.

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