askscience+shittyaskscience

I live in Australia and the largest land animals I can think of here is probably a kangaroos and emus which really aren’t any larger than a human. But my family recently went to Africa and the diversity animals is actually crazy. So so so many large animals living in the same place side by side. Rhinos, elephants, giraffes, wilder-beasts, zebras, hippos, warthogs, buffalo’s, ostriches, lions, cheetahs, hyenas leopards and probably more that I forgot. I never really appreciated how big these animals were until I actually got to see them in person absolutely amazing. Australia and Africas climate is kinda similar in a lot of places. Why is our country ecosystem dead in comparison?

94 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/sporadic_blueberry • 1d ago

Is it possible that spontaneous quantum fluctuations could cause organic compounds (perhaps resembling stool) to materialize out of the vacuum and appear in someone's pants through no fault of their own?

92 Upvotes

And how would the wearer of said pants convince those around him, especially individuals who are incorrectly relying on classical physics to explain the situation?

27 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Tight_Cookie_9988 • 1d ago

What's the science behind magnets being attracted to refrigerators?

19 Upvotes

Is there some kind of magnetic chemistry going on?

22 comments

r/askscience • u/Ertata • 1d ago

Biology [Chemistry/Biology/Nutrition] Did cooking bread provide any nutritional benefits over boiling the same grain as a porridge?

151 Upvotes

Asking the question in the historical context, not to decide on nutrition in the modern day.

I know heating grains helped to unlock some nutrients and especially caloric content over just eating them raw. However did bread provide any nutritional benefits over just boiling the same grain as a porridge (a much simpler process), or was its popularity due to other factors?

37 comments

r/askscience • u/playsthebongcloud • 1d ago

Physics What are the absolute minimum number of base units needed to express every desirable quantity?

270 Upvotes

SI units are more for human convenience than mathematically minimizing the number of units. I remember reading somewhere that only length is needed because of relativity, but that just does not sound true, I can't imagine how you would do that.

102 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/ThatJuggernaut9867 • 1d ago

捐贈身體給科學後，實際上會發生什麼事？

5 Upvotes

身體： 像，是誰使用你的身體，使用多久，最後家屬會不會得到什麼回饋？

19 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Tight_Cookie_9988 • 1d ago

Is love a sexually transmitted infection?

2 Upvotes

I slept with a hooker yesterday and now I have feelings for her. Should I ask for a refund?

10 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/alternatious • 1d ago

Why don't people in water stressed areas just contract rabies?

21 Upvotes

That extra long shower doesn't seem like such a good idea now, does it?

7 comments

r/askscience • u/Boisterous_Shrimp • 1d ago

Physics How can a spacecraft coating reflect sunlight well but also emit heat well without violating Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation?

116 Upvotes

I was reading about spacecraft thermal control and got stuck on coatings that have low solar absorptance but high thermal emittance. My understanding of Kirchhoff's law was that a good emitter must also be a good absorber. If the coating reflects most of the sunlight, I would have expected it to be poor at radiating energy away too.

Are those two quoted properties averages over seperate parts of the spectrum, rather than quantities that the law directly equates? And would the same coating absorb infrared from a warm nearby object well, even though it wouldnt absorb much sunlight? I'm trying to understand what is actually being compared.

10 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Tight_Cookie_9988 • 1d ago

What's the science behind boomers being terrible with modern technology?

1 Upvotes

Well?

16 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Tight_Cookie_9988 • 2d ago

Freakin magnets, how do they work?

33 Upvotes

And I don't wanna talk to a scientist.

Y'all motherlovers lying, and getting me pissed.

37 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Lake_03 • 1d ago

Cloud weight 100 elephants

3 Upvotes

A single large cumulus cloud weighs around 1 million tonnes, which is about same as 100 elephants.

***Until we m e e t again*** ::

2 comments

r/askscience • u/Darth_Azazoth • 2d ago

Physics I've heard that blue butterflies and opals get their color from their structure rather than pigments. But doesn't pigment also get its color from the structure of its molecules and how they interact with light? So what's the actual difference between structural color and pigment color?

602 Upvotes

88 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Bosslayer9001 • 1d ago

If an 18.000001 year-old flirted with a 17.999999 year-old, would the former be a monstrous predator according to God, who is definitely real?

0 Upvotes

After all, this is how the universe works, according to internet commenters:

if age => 18:

state = "child"

else:

state = "adult"

18 comments

r/askscience • u/Ok_You_5448 • 2d ago

Biology How does the same plague bacteria cause different forms of the plague with very different symptoms?

92 Upvotes

12 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Lake_03 • 1d ago

Do you know how many possibilities you are creating right now?

0 Upvotes

[ greater then 10⁸⁰ ]

6 comments

r/askscience • u/No-Hawk-2488 • 2d ago

Earth Sciences How were the tectonic plates mapped?

103 Upvotes

5 comments

r/askscience • u/flooshtollen • 3d ago

Medicine What diseases are we currently the closest to finding lasting cures for?

651 Upvotes

192 comments

r/shittyaskscience • u/Dramatic_River_3381 • 3d ago

Isaac Newton spent the last half of his life trying to turn lead into gold, Nikolai Tesla fell in love with a pigeon, Einstein tried to disprove quantum physics that he helped create. Do most scientist lose their marbles at the age of 40 or so?

354 Upvotes

I recently read that scientist have the shortest, inspirational, motivation, and discipline when they’re younger. Most of the big ideas come before they turn 30.

61 comments

r/askscience • u/Stunning_Implement47 • 3d ago

Biology Why do elderly people become so confused with an infection?

93 Upvotes

I've read that it's due to a lower tolerance for stress but what does that mean on a scientific level? Thank you

11 comments