Ask Science

Niche Gravity Theory?

There’s a good many gravity theories, some that don’t even try to explain the why, only the how and other’s that involve some particle like the graviton. But anyone know if there’s any based on the energetic vibrations of our known particles with mass (those within protons and neutrons)? In other words, gravity’s space...

What happens if an electron collides with an antimatter particle that is not a positron?

I know that if an electron collides with its antiparticle, the positron, they annihilate each other and energy is released. But what happens if an electron collides with other antimatter that is not its antiparticle, like an antiproton or an antineutron? Do they annihilate each other too?

Could the fabric of space be the origin of baryon matter?

I’ve been doing a bit of searching for theories on the origin of baryon matter (including antimatter of course) and some seem to hint at quantum particles spawning from the fabric of space (but doesn’t seem to theorize on how this happened) but not many focus on hypothesizing how all forms of baryon matter ether: was the...

Has there been any psych research about why some people prefer certain kinds of pets over others?

There’s a billion quizzes online that say they can help you choose your first pet, and my 45 minutes of googling before posting this did turn up a single blog that suggested that owners of a class of pet share certain personality traits and lifestyles (although they frustratingly seemed to forget that people own things like...

What shape would the universe's equivalent of a single pixel of 3D space be?

In digital devices, we have pixels, which represent the smallest unit of size anything can be in a digital program. Something that is a single pixel in size in every dimension cannot get smaller. Depending on the software, though, sometimes their shape is not consistent with one another; a pixel could be square, hexagonal, etc....

At what systemic level do we start to see living beings making decisions rather than purely chemical reactions?

Starting from a molecule on up, to cells and beyond, at what system level is a being actually making a decision rather than reacting to their chemical environment based on purely chemical laws? For example, the molecules in a cells are solely reacting to their environment based on chemical fundamentals. However, a person thinks...

Area of gravity at the center of large, dense celestial bodies...

I’ve read that at the center of large celestial bodies there’s zero gravity (or close to). While confirmation would be nice, if true, I’m wondering how large that area can actually be and moreover, does it scale up with more mass and/or even size - that is, does the sun have a larger center area of low (zero?) gravity than...

Does faster than light travel violate causality? Why/Why not? How?

I have heard this mentioned several times with this exact wording, that faster than light travel would break/violate causality and I do not exactly understand why and how it would do that. Could someone more well-versed in physics explain to me why that would be the case? Or is it not the case? (Yes, I am fully aware, that...

What if solving interstellar travel isn't about figuring out faster than light propulsion, but how to extend our own lives?

So I was day dreaming and I caught a thought. What if what we understand about physics is actually all there is to understand? What if you objectively cannot move faster than the speed of light because you can’t do the time traveling things necessary. This would mean that the only way to travel amongst the stars would be to...

Is it worth closing the lid on a toilet before flushing?

This seems like something that should be true, but I think I remember seeing a Mythbusters episode where they decided it didn't make a difference. That show was more about entertainment than science, so I wondered if there was a more rigorous study done? I've definitely seen splashes of water(?) come out from flushes so that...

How does a signing a post with a pgp key prove that you are actually the person behind the post?

I saw that people on the dark web would sign their posts with a PGP key to prove that their account has not been compromised. I think I understand the concept of how private and public keys work but I must be missing something because I don’t see how it proves anything....

Did Folding@HOME or other distributed computing projects actually make a significant difference in the creation of COVID vaccines?

Like many, when I heard about Folding@HOME and how I could contribute to the fight against COVID, I put my hardware to work. Now that’s it has been a while, what effect did those projects ultimately have on the outcome? Did it actually help with the creation of vaccines, or was it effectively just a massive waste of energy?

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