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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Are Atoms Perpetual Motion Machines ?

« on: 30/10/2024 09:10:25 »

Yep, repeal both the first and second laws of thermodynamics and the global energy problem is solved. On further deliberation repeal of either would do the job.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Are Atoms Perpetual Motion Machines ?

« on: 29/10/2024 19:44:03 »

By eliminating all losses such as friction it is, in principle, possible to make a contraption that would exhibit perpetual motion. It would, however,  be totally impossible to harvest any energy from this.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why does Quantum Stuff Still Move At Absolute Zero ?

« on: 19/10/2024 08:55:48 »

Surely it would still have mass at 0deg k and hence the energy of e=m(csq)  Does the uncertainty principle apply to low temperatures like this or is it strictly position and momentum?

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New Theories / Re: How do we measure the energy of a photon?

« on: 03/10/2024 12:08:03 »

What a load of irrelevant rubbish, completely devoid of any coherent meaning. Where do we get them from?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: what organic substance/biofilm could stay on the skin for 9 years

« on: 18/09/2024 15:25:08 »

I fully get where you are coming from with medics not offering any answer(I too have been down that road-multiple weird symptoms that went on for years following what seemed to be a simple upper respiratory viral infection). Even though the medics are no help I am still very much against using chatbots for medical information. I have to admit I have never used these chatbots and I have no intention of ever doing so- I have seen a lot of rubbish produced and I have also noticed they seem to be highly suggestible. If I want info on any subject I will seek out a recognised textbook or up to date peer reviewed articles. I am aware of biofilms but I don't know much, still I can't imagine such a film resisting a simple scrubbing off. In addition any organism capable of living on the surface of one's skin would surely be open to culture in a microbiology lab. There is not a lot of nutrients on the skin surface and if an organism can live there it's nutritional requirements cannot be that demanding. Most important question: in what way does the affected skin differ from normal skin?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: what organic substance/biofilm could stay on the skin for 9 years

« on: 18/09/2024 10:41:44 »

Different shampoos may have different ingredients but they all act in a similar manner. The surfactant is what does the business and while there are different surfactants and concentrations I think they would all be equally effective at solubilising oily substances. The only significant difference would be those that have medicinal ingredients such as selenium sulphide and ketoconazole for dandruff control.

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 24.08.09 - Do bacteria in probiotics become part of the microbiome?

« on: 03/08/2024 21:39:02 »

That is the intended plan but how many survive stomach acid and then the various digestive enzymes is the real question. I have seen various reports suggesting that none do and other reports suggesting a significant proportion of viable cells make it to the colon. I have no definitive answer-sorry, but since no other replies were forthcoming I put in my two cents.

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COVID-19 / Re: Was the Covid Pandemic Panic justified?

« on: 01/08/2024 19:02:40 »

Hi BC, I think you have an error: i'm sure you meant to say "the vaccine reduced mortality and infectivity".

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: What Is Junk Food?

« on: 28/06/2024 04:37:17 »

I would also add mechanically recovered "meat" dosed with various chemicals to give it some flavour.

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General Science / somethingRe: What Is Synchronicity?

« on: 23/05/2024 13:20:38 »

When something "appears meaningful" one is dealing with subjective effects as opposed to objective effects. As such no possibility of research into the alleged phenomenon exists. You more or less answered your own question with the reference to Jung's predilection for "magical thinking". In a word , no.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Do Fish Salivate ?

« on: 17/05/2024 19:49:23 »

Whales being mammals almost certainly do but fish?, I don't know. By a statement in your question we now know that sheep salivate, much as I suspect is the case for all mammals. Then again i'm just a lowly retired engineer, not a biologist and I replied as no one else had and i'm bored. And I enjoy these ovine onslaughts.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How Do the Immune Cells Detect The Invading Infection ?

« on: 15/05/2024 08:58:29 »

An addendum re cancer and dna. Dna is generally well sequestered within a cell and is not "visible" to the immune system. What determines the "self" versus "nonself" is the cell surface antigens and sometimes these can reflect changes in dna. Some cancers involve alteration to the cell's dna: the Philadelphia chromosome occurs due to two genes being partially transposed resulting in a new combination, this leads to one of the leukemias . A lot of cancers occur due to the switching off of apoptosis genes. Apoptosis is programmed orderly cell death which may occur due to serious faults within the cell or simply that time has run out for that cell. In the absence of apoptosis rogue cells can multiply and cause chaos.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: What Organisms Have The Most Dissimilar DNA ?

« on: 14/05/2024 19:19:35 »

Indeed Halc, on your last point: there is strong evidence that our mitochondria(which have their own dna) were originally intracellular bacteria of the Ehrlichia species.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How Do the Immune Cells Detect The Invading Infection ?

« on: 14/05/2024 18:58:34 »

Cells of the immune system find their target by the process of chemotaxis. This is where the gradient of certain signalling molecules indicates the direction of it's source much like tracing the source of a smell. The processes involved are quite complex involving the placing of markers on the surface of damaged or infected cells followed by complex messaging between macrophages, reticular cells and t lymphocytes. If a cell is infected by a virus, fungus or intracellular bacterium the final stage is the homing in of killer t lymphocytes, via chemotaxis, to destroy said cell. Free floating bacteria are dealt with by neutrophils and I think this is not directed, but I could be wrong.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Why Make Scar Tissue Instead Of Bog-standard Tissue To Heal ?

« on: 14/05/2024 16:02:27 »

My knowledge in this area is rudimentary and wooly:  when damage occurs the first responders are cells of the immune system( neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes etc) to deal with any microbiologic intruders and these are followed by fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are immature fibrin producing cells which lay down a mechanical barrier to seal the area- otherwise consequences would be devastating with the amount of hostile agents in the environment. To replace identical tissue  new cells of the correct type would have to generated by mitosis of competent progenitor cells and would take too long, the fibroblasts are much faster.   

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Observing Quantum Entangled particles At the Same Time . What Happens ?

« on: 13/05/2024 19:10:18 »

To solve that conundrum we have invoke the Lamb shift!!  sorry Neilep, I couldn't resist, I have no clue as to the answer as it is well above my pay grade.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why didn't the total solar eclipse strain my naked eyes at all?

« on: 09/04/2024 13:50:30 »

Looking directly at the sun is inherently hazardous and something one should never do. Just because it did not hurt does not imply it was safe to do so. I am sure you have seen the effect of direct sunlight through a lens setting fire to a piece of paper- now consider the same effect directed at the fragile retina at the back of your eye. Damage may have been done only to show later.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Does time dilation and length contraction apply to light?

« on: 07/04/2024 10:38:10 »

Krytptid's thoughts here mirror mine very closely and it seems I have a major gap in my understanding of SR(not surprising really). If one could travel at the speed of light surely one's rapidity would be infinite and hence time and space would have no existence- why does this not apply to light?. I have heard several physicists state that "light does not experience time or space" or something similar expressed more accurately: I cannot remember any names other than the mathematician Roger Penrose(who can be controversial at times). This question of mine is a bit muddled but I could not find a better wording. 

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General Science / Re: Is Absolute Zero Possible?

« on: 04/04/2024 20:38:17 »

Just the same as trying to accelerate a massive object to the speed of light, we can get arbitrarily close by expending more and more energy but we can never get to the target speed. Similarly with absolute zero the closer one gets the harder it becomes to produce a further decrease. Mathematically one can only asymptotically approach either the speed of light(with mass) or absolute zero. |Oh dear Eternal Student beat me to it!

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New Theories / Re: Could quantum mechanics be wrong?

« on: 18/03/2024 09:27:20 »

"Could quantum theory be wrong?", yes of course it could be wrong, as could any theory. However quantum theory has been stunningly successful in explaining observations and making predictions and to debunk it would require a better theory and I see nothing on the horizon. Quantum theory is counterintuitive and baffling but that in itself does not make it wrong.