Recent comments in /f/askscience

NorwegianGlaswegian t1_j8b4sfi wrote

Reply to comment by synaptome in Do audiovisual illusions like McGurk Effect only apply to speech? by knowledgeisnone

It seems like a fascinating illusion; kind of wish that I were capable of experiencing it. I have autism spectrum disorder and have wondered why it's common for people with ASD to be immune to the McGurk effect, and if it has been possible to explore the reasons for this.

I have wondered if our tendency to be hyposensitive and/or hypersensitive to different kinds of sensory stimuli (not to mention difficulty parsing sensory information) might prevent certain forms of perceptual phenomena from occuring, or if a deficit or difference in some other area is a more salient factor.

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rootofallworlds t1_j8avowq wrote

Reply to Is there any wind on the moon?, even a negligible amount by fixingshitiswhatido

The “atmosphere” of the moon is a surface boundary exosphere. This means molecules are ejected from the surface (by various processes), fly on a ballistic arc, then hit the surface again with almost no chance of encountering another molecule on the way.

Without interaction between molecules, the atmosphere does not behave as a fluid and cannot form winds.

Any object with enough gravity that ejected molecules have a decent chance of falling back, but no denser atmosphere, will form a surface boundary exosphere.

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Semyaz t1_j8apide wrote

Reply to What makes a strong immune system? by hodlboo

The most outward symptoms of being sick are induced by your own immune system. Fevers, chills, congestion, body aches, etc, are triggered when your immune system reacts to an infection. People who “don’t get sick often” usually just have a weaker response to infection. People who do get sick often (myself included) have immune systems that tend to overreact. A “good”, or preferable, immune system is one that doesn’t overreact to minor illness. That is, if your body is infected with a common cold virus, a healthy immune system can eliminate the virus without causing congestion and fevers.

A good case study for this is the original H1N1 flu that killed young adults more than people who are generally more susceptible to illness. Their healthy immune systems reacted too strongly (something called a “cytokine storm”), that the response was far more lethal than the virus itself.

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