Science desk | ||
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< April 1 | << Mar | April | May >> | April 3 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives |
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The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
A website I looked at said a dewar would cost like $400. What can I use instead? J.delanoy 00:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Actually, i was just thinking about how I would keep it from simply evaporating before I had a chance to use it all. i am aware of safety issues such as expanding liquid-to-gas things (having exploded more than one soft drink bottle with vineger and baking soda) I am also aware of the effects of very cold things on normally soft items, for example, my science teacher told me to put a marshmallow in liquid nitrogen and drop it into another student's hand to demonstrate the heat insulation of air. The student was scared (obviously) and dropped the marshmallow. Have you ever seen a marshmallow shatter???! i hadn't either.
Again, i simply wanted to know what I could cheaply store liq nitro in to keep it from dissapearing too fast. Thanks.
J.delanoy
02:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
According to coal#World coal reserves, the global coal reserves will last 600 years. Then on the very next paragraph says that it would last 155 years. But the final word on the third paragraph is that it would last 285 years.
I know that wikipedia is very accurate because someone else told me that it would last 186 years. So for my school assignment it would contain all 4 different correct answers. 202.168.50.40 00:17, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I sit actually possible for it to be too loud to hear yourself think? I really don't think so, but I just want to make sure. Thanks!! Reywas92 Talk 00:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
My science teacher has a tornado machine which functions by creating a vortex which can then be illustrated using dry ice and lights. Recently he came up with the idea of using it to create a fire tornado. There are several problems that we (the pyromaniac students interested in helping) have come up with:
Many thanks, AMP'd 00:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Just look at how a vortex vacuum cleaner works. You would just introduce the combustion air at an angle, and have a chimney effect for the hot air. Sounds like custom glass work, but the temperatures might be too hot (kaboom!). -- Zeizmic 11:52, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
You also need to vent the combustion products. I strongly suggest running this hole thing outside, with a remote control so you don't have to stand near it. StuRat 21:38, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Why can't small childern cross their legs?
/\ /\ O StuRat 21:31, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I can sit like that diagram, and im 21. I do have 'double jointed' knees though...still it's good for freaking people out. Rickystrapp 21:53, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
It seems that nearly every toddler can sit that way, and they even appear to find the position comfortable. So, something must be different in the hip joints at that age, I imagine. StuRat 01:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
They discovered a new element, element 126 I think, that has a half-life so long its radioactivity isn't considered dangerous. This element is extremely dense and, due to its high density, can have a lot of applications. It's also possible to produce in ton quantities. So where can I get this thing? Thanks. --Anonymous
I believe there is a theory that an "island of stability" exists somewhere around there, so this possible prank may be based on that. StuRat 21:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
-- Bowlhover 02:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Don't forget Unobtanium.
Atlant 13:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
So I've noticed that if I drink a lot of water, I get a sensation of fullness that then dissapates. Better yet, if I drink a lot of water and then eat a bit, I get full and it seems to last for a while. The question isn't whether drinking a lot of water before meals would be an effective way to lose weight by cutting down on how much you eat, because I'm pretty sure the answer is yes and I don't plan to put it into practice anyway. The question is whether one would "shrink" one's stomach by doing this on a regular basis. And, for that matter, what really is "shrinking" a stomach? Is it literal? For instance. A couple years back I went to camp for a month, hated the food, ate an apple a day, and returned home much lighter and needing much less food to get full. If, instead, I had drank lots of water every day at that camp and then eaten just as little but, because of the water, ended up as full, theoretically, as a completely meal would make me, would I just lose weight but retain an unshrunk stomach (because I'm not dealing with the hunger, just tricking it), or would both my weight and hunger go down? 70.108.199.130 06:50, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
In the ‘Yowie (cryptid)’ article in the Wiki there is a statement made in the Candidates section as follows:
Candidates “Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has attempted to popularise the scientific term Gigantopithecus australis for the creature (without support from the Australian scientific community), based on his theory that they comprise a relict population of the extinct ape Gigantopithecus. There is, however, no evidence that Gigantopithecus ever existed in Australia.”
I am seeking the source for this above statement. Will you please direct me to it? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Rorechof
07:20, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I would like to reference Wikipedia in my PhD thesis. I am using Endnote to compile and annotate my thesis with references. Do you have a standard form of referencing for Wikipedia in theses or studies.
Nic Gellie PhD Student The Australian National University Canberra, ACT Australia
@ 2007-04-02T12:43Z
@ 2007-04-02T17:05Z
If you find a really wonderful and relevant fact in Wikipedia that you need to cite, and that fact has no citation, then you must not cite the fact. Instead, find a valid citation and edit Wikipedia to cite it, or remove the offending sentence from wikipedia. - Arch dude 02:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
FTW??
Archimedes says that the amount of water displaced by a mass is equal to the volume of the mass. I had a doubt. If I fill a bucket of water to the brim and drop an object from a certain height, does the height factor determine the volume of the water displaced. In simple words, does the height from which a mass is dropped affect the amount of water displaced? If so, how? Is there any standard constant or some proportional constant that has been already found out and if so, can anybody suggest some standard experiment or procedure to determine the above?
Archimedes' Principle does not apply to water which splashes out of the bucket. StuRat 21:18, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Archimedes' Principle actually states that the upthrust is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. This can easily be proved by considering the pressure difference between the top and bottom of a cube, say (keep it simple) either floating or completely immersed in a fluid. Pressure = depth * density = force/area. Try it with a 1 m cube (on paper)
Is there any constant ratio in which the amount of water displaced is proportional to the height from which it is dropped. Or if I make an experiment and find out the numerical values of the height from which a mass is dropped and take the ratio between the mass and the height dropped, will it give me a constant, for a particular mass?
While was studying surface tension, I wanted to explore the various factors which may bring about a change in the surface tension of any liquid.
So, if I electrically charge a droplet of water and measure the surface tension, will it be any different than the original surface tension of water ... ????
Kindly illuminate.
I'm searching for references on
I've seen Copper extraction and followed links .. any thoughts? DDB 12:33, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
My kitchen is inundated with ants that are fond of both sugar and meat. I mixed 1 part Boric acid with 16 parts sugar (by volume) and dissolved this mixture in 2 cups boiling water. When it cooled I poured it into a squeeze bottle and placed drips of it in jar lids and left one where I could see it. The ants loved it and then after a couple of days diminished in number until all were gone. Just before disappearing in the kitchen they began showing up in the bathroom so I added jar lids with the Boric acid/sugar solution there. Again they began to diminish and then disappeared. A few days later they reappeared and now they seem to be flourishing on the solution rather than dying. What in the heck is going on? Did they become immune to the Boric acid or what? Also can I mix Boric acid with meat scraps and kill ants and other meat eating insects as well or will Boric acid not mix with meat in the same way as is does with hot water and sugar? 71.100.167.232 15:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Ants do not build up immunity to boric acid, however, perhaps the solution was not thouroughly mixed, and you have too litle poison in what is left. There could be more than one nest of ants involved, so give them at least a week to find the poison and eat it. You can use borax instead of boric acid. Even mixed borax and sugar crystals can confuse and poison ants, borax does not taste too bad but is no good to eat.
GB
21:15, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
The only thing odd I noticed about the solution of Boric acid and sugar was that what was left in the squeeze bottle developed some slimy dark brown "strings" (possibly just old mustard clinging to the inside of the bottle) but it looked more like some kind of mold or bactreria growth due to the sugar. I'll try Borax and mixing the sugar and Boric acid or Borax better in the next batch. 71.100.167.232 17:33, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
You can also use honey or jam instead of sugar to mix witht he borax/boric acid. boric acid reacts with sugars. GB 02:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
Hi. A friend of mine took this picture a few days ago in the forests at the mountain base at the Northern outskirts of Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. It looks peculiar and not like the beetles we are used to find here. Anybody out there who can tell us what it is? TIA. Simon A. 15:39, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
OOps! Typo, it's Meloe sp.
The Independent reported on April 1 that the Winter Heath Erica carnea contains a Viagra-like substance that can enhance erection when extracted from the flowers with alcohol. Some other newspapers have picked up the story, but Google and PubMed searches for "Erica and ("nitric oxide" OR erection OR erectile)" yield nothing. Was this an April Fool's joke? AxelBoldt 17:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
On the Wikipedia page for City of Hope Cancer Center, the 3rd paragraph references over 7500 HCT procedures, but it is woefully out of date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Hope_National_Medical_Center
The current figure of HCT procedures performed to data at COH is 7934:
http://www.cityofhope.org/hct/default.asp
Can you update this? 151.152.101.44 19:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)Carmen
What species of life form lives on average to the longest life spans? Or any single individual? My first guess would be some sort of tree, but who knows...-- Sonjaaa 20:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Well, some trees have lived for over four thousand years, and haven't died yet. So there is no "life span" unless they die! The trees can probably grow indefinitely until they no longer have any light, so I'd say 20 billion years, when Sol supernovas.--
Ķĩřβȳ
♥
♥
♥
Ťįɱé
Ø
20:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Some animals can survive dehydrated or frozen for thousands of years. Rotifers and tiny crustacean eggs have this capability. GB 21:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
In addition you must consider the possibility that humans will learn how to extend human lifespan, or create a new species that has an arbitrarily long lifespan, at the technological singularity. - Arch dude 02:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
So most trees will never die of "old age"?--
Sonjaaa
02:31, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
OK then what about the animal kingdom? Or the mammals?-- Sonjaaa 02:32, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Speaking of longetivity, is it just me or are non-prey vegetarian/pesco-vegetarian animals (elephants, ~60 years; turtles, sometimes over 150 years) a lot longer lived than non-prey predators (lions, ~7 years)? Vranak
As far as trees go, I read somewhere that if a giant sequoia lives long enough to get 3 cm thick bark, it will never die unless: A it gets cut down by humans or: B it get struck by lightning. J.delanoy 02:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm in the middle of making a high-school presentation about Stem Cell Research, and as an introduction would like to include a ballpark estimate of how many people (in America or in the world) researchers believe can be affected by their results. I've seen sites online talk about how Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and organ transplants will be improved, but nothing seems to actually name numbers. Does anyone have an estimate, or an idea for how to find one? Thanks The Uglymancer 21:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
It's a great show but it does leave me wondering as to the medical accuracy of some of the events depicted. The titular character is supposedly a world-renowned physician and medical genius - but even so, would such a person *really* get so much leeway for his crazy-sounding, untested, sometimes unethical schemes, borderline illegal behaviour and self-confessed malpractice from The Powers That Be? In real life, he'd have been sacked and struck off the medical register a long time ago, wouldn't he? Or are there really doctors like that running around like Dirty Harry with a stethoscope, turned a blind eye to because they are good at what they do and get the results? -- Kurt Shaped Box 21:56, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I'd suggest that Scrubs is one of the more accurate medical television shows. Perhaps not so much for the medical science as for what a resident's life is like. — Knowledge Seeker দ 03:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Plenty of material here for On-screen clichés. Go to town, folks. JackofOz 05:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm pretty sick of the "rebel" cliche that seems to take over every cop show, and is now spreading to every other genre. One of the worst examples was Armageddon (film), where NASA apparently was unable to figure out how to drill a hole in the comet threatening Earth, so had to hire a dozen oil well drillers, every one of which seems to be a rebel without a clue. Aside from the dismal science ("Oh no, that comet is made of iron ferrite !") and camera changes every second (making it look like an MTV video), and cheap special effects (all they could do to show people experiencing 11 g is have them shout while they wiggled the camera), this movie gets my vote for worst of the decade. StuRat 21:42, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I still don't get why people who watch this show idolize a character who is basically a racist, sexist bully and borderline criminal psychopath. -- 81.77.84.86 22:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Not wishing to be annoying, but this seems to be straying off-topic into a general discussion of what people think about films and TV, which does not belong on the reference desks. There are some good answers above, but the temptation to 'express ourselves' seems to have overtaken a few. Save the desks! Keep them referencey! Skittle 22:23, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
The purpose of any drama show is not entirely to portray accurate situations, but dramatic ones. A real hospital would not run like the one portrayed in House, but House is very good at exploring issues and showing science that many would never witness in their lives. Many brilliant scientists don't feel the need to write a biography (may not be allowed if they work in some areas). House is fable and drama, not to be confused with fact. There are many valuable things learned, and it is fun highlighting the flaws ;) DDB 05:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Can someone please tell me what the Vapor Pressure (in torr or mmHg) is @ 16 degrees celcius? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.176.32 ( talk • contribs) 23:58, 2 April 2007
{HELP ME} how are flagellates important besides being on the food chain?
Science desk | ||
---|---|---|
< April 1 | << Mar | April | May >> | April 3 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
A website I looked at said a dewar would cost like $400. What can I use instead? J.delanoy 00:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Actually, i was just thinking about how I would keep it from simply evaporating before I had a chance to use it all. i am aware of safety issues such as expanding liquid-to-gas things (having exploded more than one soft drink bottle with vineger and baking soda) I am also aware of the effects of very cold things on normally soft items, for example, my science teacher told me to put a marshmallow in liquid nitrogen and drop it into another student's hand to demonstrate the heat insulation of air. The student was scared (obviously) and dropped the marshmallow. Have you ever seen a marshmallow shatter???! i hadn't either.
Again, i simply wanted to know what I could cheaply store liq nitro in to keep it from dissapearing too fast. Thanks.
J.delanoy
02:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
According to coal#World coal reserves, the global coal reserves will last 600 years. Then on the very next paragraph says that it would last 155 years. But the final word on the third paragraph is that it would last 285 years.
I know that wikipedia is very accurate because someone else told me that it would last 186 years. So for my school assignment it would contain all 4 different correct answers. 202.168.50.40 00:17, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I sit actually possible for it to be too loud to hear yourself think? I really don't think so, but I just want to make sure. Thanks!! Reywas92 Talk 00:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
My science teacher has a tornado machine which functions by creating a vortex which can then be illustrated using dry ice and lights. Recently he came up with the idea of using it to create a fire tornado. There are several problems that we (the pyromaniac students interested in helping) have come up with:
Many thanks, AMP'd 00:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Just look at how a vortex vacuum cleaner works. You would just introduce the combustion air at an angle, and have a chimney effect for the hot air. Sounds like custom glass work, but the temperatures might be too hot (kaboom!). -- Zeizmic 11:52, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
You also need to vent the combustion products. I strongly suggest running this hole thing outside, with a remote control so you don't have to stand near it. StuRat 21:38, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Why can't small childern cross their legs?
/\ /\ O StuRat 21:31, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I can sit like that diagram, and im 21. I do have 'double jointed' knees though...still it's good for freaking people out. Rickystrapp 21:53, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
It seems that nearly every toddler can sit that way, and they even appear to find the position comfortable. So, something must be different in the hip joints at that age, I imagine. StuRat 01:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
They discovered a new element, element 126 I think, that has a half-life so long its radioactivity isn't considered dangerous. This element is extremely dense and, due to its high density, can have a lot of applications. It's also possible to produce in ton quantities. So where can I get this thing? Thanks. --Anonymous
I believe there is a theory that an "island of stability" exists somewhere around there, so this possible prank may be based on that. StuRat 21:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
-- Bowlhover 02:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Don't forget Unobtanium.
Atlant 13:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
So I've noticed that if I drink a lot of water, I get a sensation of fullness that then dissapates. Better yet, if I drink a lot of water and then eat a bit, I get full and it seems to last for a while. The question isn't whether drinking a lot of water before meals would be an effective way to lose weight by cutting down on how much you eat, because I'm pretty sure the answer is yes and I don't plan to put it into practice anyway. The question is whether one would "shrink" one's stomach by doing this on a regular basis. And, for that matter, what really is "shrinking" a stomach? Is it literal? For instance. A couple years back I went to camp for a month, hated the food, ate an apple a day, and returned home much lighter and needing much less food to get full. If, instead, I had drank lots of water every day at that camp and then eaten just as little but, because of the water, ended up as full, theoretically, as a completely meal would make me, would I just lose weight but retain an unshrunk stomach (because I'm not dealing with the hunger, just tricking it), or would both my weight and hunger go down? 70.108.199.130 06:50, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
In the ‘Yowie (cryptid)’ article in the Wiki there is a statement made in the Candidates section as follows:
Candidates “Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has attempted to popularise the scientific term Gigantopithecus australis for the creature (without support from the Australian scientific community), based on his theory that they comprise a relict population of the extinct ape Gigantopithecus. There is, however, no evidence that Gigantopithecus ever existed in Australia.”
I am seeking the source for this above statement. Will you please direct me to it? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Rorechof
07:20, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I would like to reference Wikipedia in my PhD thesis. I am using Endnote to compile and annotate my thesis with references. Do you have a standard form of referencing for Wikipedia in theses or studies.
Nic Gellie PhD Student The Australian National University Canberra, ACT Australia
@ 2007-04-02T12:43Z
@ 2007-04-02T17:05Z
If you find a really wonderful and relevant fact in Wikipedia that you need to cite, and that fact has no citation, then you must not cite the fact. Instead, find a valid citation and edit Wikipedia to cite it, or remove the offending sentence from wikipedia. - Arch dude 02:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
FTW??
Archimedes says that the amount of water displaced by a mass is equal to the volume of the mass. I had a doubt. If I fill a bucket of water to the brim and drop an object from a certain height, does the height factor determine the volume of the water displaced. In simple words, does the height from which a mass is dropped affect the amount of water displaced? If so, how? Is there any standard constant or some proportional constant that has been already found out and if so, can anybody suggest some standard experiment or procedure to determine the above?
Archimedes' Principle does not apply to water which splashes out of the bucket. StuRat 21:18, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Archimedes' Principle actually states that the upthrust is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. This can easily be proved by considering the pressure difference between the top and bottom of a cube, say (keep it simple) either floating or completely immersed in a fluid. Pressure = depth * density = force/area. Try it with a 1 m cube (on paper)
Is there any constant ratio in which the amount of water displaced is proportional to the height from which it is dropped. Or if I make an experiment and find out the numerical values of the height from which a mass is dropped and take the ratio between the mass and the height dropped, will it give me a constant, for a particular mass?
While was studying surface tension, I wanted to explore the various factors which may bring about a change in the surface tension of any liquid.
So, if I electrically charge a droplet of water and measure the surface tension, will it be any different than the original surface tension of water ... ????
Kindly illuminate.
I'm searching for references on
I've seen Copper extraction and followed links .. any thoughts? DDB 12:33, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
My kitchen is inundated with ants that are fond of both sugar and meat. I mixed 1 part Boric acid with 16 parts sugar (by volume) and dissolved this mixture in 2 cups boiling water. When it cooled I poured it into a squeeze bottle and placed drips of it in jar lids and left one where I could see it. The ants loved it and then after a couple of days diminished in number until all were gone. Just before disappearing in the kitchen they began showing up in the bathroom so I added jar lids with the Boric acid/sugar solution there. Again they began to diminish and then disappeared. A few days later they reappeared and now they seem to be flourishing on the solution rather than dying. What in the heck is going on? Did they become immune to the Boric acid or what? Also can I mix Boric acid with meat scraps and kill ants and other meat eating insects as well or will Boric acid not mix with meat in the same way as is does with hot water and sugar? 71.100.167.232 15:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Ants do not build up immunity to boric acid, however, perhaps the solution was not thouroughly mixed, and you have too litle poison in what is left. There could be more than one nest of ants involved, so give them at least a week to find the poison and eat it. You can use borax instead of boric acid. Even mixed borax and sugar crystals can confuse and poison ants, borax does not taste too bad but is no good to eat.
GB
21:15, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
The only thing odd I noticed about the solution of Boric acid and sugar was that what was left in the squeeze bottle developed some slimy dark brown "strings" (possibly just old mustard clinging to the inside of the bottle) but it looked more like some kind of mold or bactreria growth due to the sugar. I'll try Borax and mixing the sugar and Boric acid or Borax better in the next batch. 71.100.167.232 17:33, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
You can also use honey or jam instead of sugar to mix witht he borax/boric acid. boric acid reacts with sugars. GB 02:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
Hi. A friend of mine took this picture a few days ago in the forests at the mountain base at the Northern outskirts of Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. It looks peculiar and not like the beetles we are used to find here. Anybody out there who can tell us what it is? TIA. Simon A. 15:39, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
OOps! Typo, it's Meloe sp.
The Independent reported on April 1 that the Winter Heath Erica carnea contains a Viagra-like substance that can enhance erection when extracted from the flowers with alcohol. Some other newspapers have picked up the story, but Google and PubMed searches for "Erica and ("nitric oxide" OR erection OR erectile)" yield nothing. Was this an April Fool's joke? AxelBoldt 17:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
On the Wikipedia page for City of Hope Cancer Center, the 3rd paragraph references over 7500 HCT procedures, but it is woefully out of date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Hope_National_Medical_Center
The current figure of HCT procedures performed to data at COH is 7934:
http://www.cityofhope.org/hct/default.asp
Can you update this? 151.152.101.44 19:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)Carmen
What species of life form lives on average to the longest life spans? Or any single individual? My first guess would be some sort of tree, but who knows...-- Sonjaaa 20:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Well, some trees have lived for over four thousand years, and haven't died yet. So there is no "life span" unless they die! The trees can probably grow indefinitely until they no longer have any light, so I'd say 20 billion years, when Sol supernovas.--
Ķĩřβȳ
♥
♥
♥
Ťįɱé
Ø
20:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Some animals can survive dehydrated or frozen for thousands of years. Rotifers and tiny crustacean eggs have this capability. GB 21:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
In addition you must consider the possibility that humans will learn how to extend human lifespan, or create a new species that has an arbitrarily long lifespan, at the technological singularity. - Arch dude 02:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
So most trees will never die of "old age"?--
Sonjaaa
02:31, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
OK then what about the animal kingdom? Or the mammals?-- Sonjaaa 02:32, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Speaking of longetivity, is it just me or are non-prey vegetarian/pesco-vegetarian animals (elephants, ~60 years; turtles, sometimes over 150 years) a lot longer lived than non-prey predators (lions, ~7 years)? Vranak
As far as trees go, I read somewhere that if a giant sequoia lives long enough to get 3 cm thick bark, it will never die unless: A it gets cut down by humans or: B it get struck by lightning. J.delanoy 02:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm in the middle of making a high-school presentation about Stem Cell Research, and as an introduction would like to include a ballpark estimate of how many people (in America or in the world) researchers believe can be affected by their results. I've seen sites online talk about how Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and organ transplants will be improved, but nothing seems to actually name numbers. Does anyone have an estimate, or an idea for how to find one? Thanks The Uglymancer 21:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
It's a great show but it does leave me wondering as to the medical accuracy of some of the events depicted. The titular character is supposedly a world-renowned physician and medical genius - but even so, would such a person *really* get so much leeway for his crazy-sounding, untested, sometimes unethical schemes, borderline illegal behaviour and self-confessed malpractice from The Powers That Be? In real life, he'd have been sacked and struck off the medical register a long time ago, wouldn't he? Or are there really doctors like that running around like Dirty Harry with a stethoscope, turned a blind eye to because they are good at what they do and get the results? -- Kurt Shaped Box 21:56, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I'd suggest that Scrubs is one of the more accurate medical television shows. Perhaps not so much for the medical science as for what a resident's life is like. — Knowledge Seeker দ 03:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Plenty of material here for On-screen clichés. Go to town, folks. JackofOz 05:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm pretty sick of the "rebel" cliche that seems to take over every cop show, and is now spreading to every other genre. One of the worst examples was Armageddon (film), where NASA apparently was unable to figure out how to drill a hole in the comet threatening Earth, so had to hire a dozen oil well drillers, every one of which seems to be a rebel without a clue. Aside from the dismal science ("Oh no, that comet is made of iron ferrite !") and camera changes every second (making it look like an MTV video), and cheap special effects (all they could do to show people experiencing 11 g is have them shout while they wiggled the camera), this movie gets my vote for worst of the decade. StuRat 21:42, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I still don't get why people who watch this show idolize a character who is basically a racist, sexist bully and borderline criminal psychopath. -- 81.77.84.86 22:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Not wishing to be annoying, but this seems to be straying off-topic into a general discussion of what people think about films and TV, which does not belong on the reference desks. There are some good answers above, but the temptation to 'express ourselves' seems to have overtaken a few. Save the desks! Keep them referencey! Skittle 22:23, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
The purpose of any drama show is not entirely to portray accurate situations, but dramatic ones. A real hospital would not run like the one portrayed in House, but House is very good at exploring issues and showing science that many would never witness in their lives. Many brilliant scientists don't feel the need to write a biography (may not be allowed if they work in some areas). House is fable and drama, not to be confused with fact. There are many valuable things learned, and it is fun highlighting the flaws ;) DDB 05:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Can someone please tell me what the Vapor Pressure (in torr or mmHg) is @ 16 degrees celcius? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.176.32 ( talk • contribs) 23:58, 2 April 2007
{HELP ME} how are flagellates important besides being on the food chain?