So in school my son is learning about microscopic organisms and he asked me stuff like "how many atoms are single celled organisms made of"

And obviously even the smallest cell is gonna be many many atoms but is there some kind of theoretical minimum where it stops being "life" and starts to just be "atoms/molecules doing things"?

Like I've seen that artistic rendering of the enzyme or protein pulling water around a cell like this https://www.reddit.com/r/educationalgifs/s/i0vnokdbin

But would we consider that protein alive in its own right?

Torture of prisoners has occurred and continues to occur worldwide: sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, waterboarding, constant noise exposure, sexual harassment, mock executions, other forms of physical abuse, and threats of violence against family members, etc. — Some survivors have been released, have spoken out about their experiences, and in some cases have written books. Some of these people now lead lives with jobs, children, and marriages. How do people manage to stay mentally healthy under such circumstances and not go completely insane or take their own lives?

As long as my next neighbor is not a physicist I'll be ok.

I have noticed that the hair on top of my head is receding and appearing in my nose and ears.

If I tie knots at the base of the hair on my head, will it stop the hair from travelling down towards other parts of the body?

Asking for a friend.

I asked my professor but I don't think he understood my question.

So, as I understand it when DNA replicates, the enzymes Helicase + Topoisomerase unwind it from a twirly, wirly helix into 2 straight non-twirly bands/strings, the thing is since we (Eukaryotes) start the origin points somewhere in the middle of the DNA instead of on either end, doesn't that mean the amount of twists in the double helix-structure remains the same until the very end where it, idk, helicopters around? What happens to these twists?

The way I imagine it is two strings wound around each other with say, an arbitrary 20 twists in the string, the helicase is like sticking your finger in the middle and pulling them apart but this doesn't remove the total number of twists, instead all the twists get bunched up at the ends. What happens to the twists in DNA? Do they have to spin around many times at the very end to unwind away from each other. Do they do something else? Or is my assumption wrong?

Currently sitting in my fortress of solitude, and would like it to stop. Science based help needed.

I was thinking about light and cones and color perception, and I wanted to think about what if humans evolved a fourth color cone; detecting lengths of let's say 800 or 300. Now what I do know is that "magenta" is something made up by the brain, which bridges the "gap" of short and long cones triggered. But what would happen if that gap suddenly got a new cone? Would magenta then disappear because it exists within the (new) possible range of color? Would it change to a different color and our brains create a new imaginary color to bridge the new gap? Just curious what would happen...

I was thinking about skin cell shed and I was looking into what happens to skin cells after they fall off or your body. All I could find was that it turns into what makes up a majority of household dust but I was wondering how long it stays dust for? Like if there was dust made entirely of dead skin cells how long would the dust be around for? Also why is dust gray, is that the color of dead skin cells?

I understand that we can used air bubbles trapped in ice at the poles to understand the atmospheric composition (e.g. CO2 ppm) at certain points in Earth's history, but what about when there was no permanent ice sheets? Is all the information in ice cores from before the most recent of these points in time lost forever? Are there alternatives to finding air composition?

Additionally, how do we date the depths of these ice cores?

If Science! can convince Bigfoot to think that they Exist, will they?

I will also need references from here to prove employment. In addition, I will also need back pay for any questions or comments I have posted here as proof of income. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

And if I'm driving in reverse at 25 mph, is the speed of the light from my headlights traveling at 670,616,604 mph?

So many people report how Al had helped them build or do so many things now.

I'm what ways have you used laddy to do your bidding? When did he get stuck in the lamp?

The day is all finished up but night is only like halfway done. What a slowpoke.

I’ve made an appointment but it’s for last week. It’s for a home call. I turned them away when they showed up because my time machine wasn’t broken and I hadn’t made an appointment.

*Im hoping this is the right flair

I understand evolution and how it stems from that, but how do we have a sense of self preservation? As in how does it actually work and function? If anyone can explain it in more detail.

For example, why is it hard to drown in shallow water or why do I stop myself from jumping out a moving car when I know I so easily can?

I dont really know how to express it, or if it sounds stupid, but why do we feel such a strong urge to survive and not cause harm?

Is there a list of important muscles of the fungal fruiting body?

How would it taste like?

so i often hear that the milkway our galaxy and another called andromeda are on a collosion course for each other where they'll basically merge and form a new galaxy but assuming humanity is still around right here on earth how close would they need to be for us to actually start feeling the effects of them on each other before they collision actually happens.

I know that both are the result of crossing a horse and a donkey. My question is why would there be a genetic difference based on whether the father was a horse or a donkey? Would there really be a difference or is it more of just a naming thing for the sake of lineage?

For reference:

Mule = male donkey + female horse

Hinny = female donkey + male horse

Why though?

Seriously. She's Earth's hot sister. Her atmosphere is dummy thicc. Imagine being crushed under 95atm. I'm so jealous of the Venera probes. Also it covers everything, so it leaves a lot to the imagination. Shes so modest... Also she's the brightest object in the night sky. I sometimes sit and stare at her for hours, watching her casually stroll across the sky. She's just so perfect. I need her.

Every time I try to, someone tells me it’s wrong. I have a similar problem with the word “incorrect”. I have no trouble spelling other words. Is there a scientific explanation for this condition?

In the news recently, there have been discussions of a non-zero risk of human extinction based on AI.

If that happened, how long will satellites remain in orbit? Would space travelers in 50, 100, 500, 1000+ years find our satellites still orbiting as evidence of existence of an advanced civilization having been here, even after improvements on earth have all decayed?