Ask Science

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....

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...

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?

If we have such a high field of vision, why can't we focus on everything within the vision simultaneously?

Why is it that I am not able to read a book without moving my eyes if the entirety of the page is within my field of view? Why do I have to center my eyes on an object to observe it fully? And why is it that I am still able to view changes in surroundings in the edges of my field of vision despite there being supposedly no way...

Hi, can someone explain to my small brain what reaction this is or what happened? ( imgur.com )

When I was cleaning a heatsink from an older laptop, the aluminum, and I think also a bit of copper, started to disintegrate very quickly and sometimes violently. I used a cleaning solution that was made for removing thermal paste and cleaning CPUs and PCBs. After some time, the only thing left of the heatsink was some grey...

Linguists: Mathematical writing vs. Typical written language, what's the difference?

I remember reading somewhere that mathematical symbols make up an “incomplete” written language (or something like that). I commonly formulate problems, or complete sentences using only mathematical symbols. From a linguistic perspective, what separates mathematical symbols from “complete” writing systems?

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...

Have humans adopted to high / low humidity?

Me and the fiance we always fight about the A/C or dehumidifier. For me coming from central Europe, as soon as the humidity goes over 65% I’m sweaty and hot and can’t get dry, I hate it. She as a Korean seems never to sweat at all and even when the humidity is at 80% she seems to have no problems and thinks running the A/C...

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...

Have we ever observed unique ecosystems and specific adaptations of wildlife in landfills?

Landfills have been around for a long time now, and some of them get quite large. I know seagulls are changing their habits and living off landfills, but are there any other interesting ecosystems forming around them? Maybe some new microorganisms we haven’t seen before?

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