Category Archives: Science

Food, Science

Boiling water

You know how some people add salt or other things to water to help it cook faster when they are making a meal? Well, is there a valid reason for that, scientifically?

What is the fastest and most economical (uses the least energy) way to boil a pot of water?

Cheers, eh.

You should go to a very high elevation, and it will boil at a lower temperature, so I assume will require less energy.  But, the energy costs of travel to a place like La Paz may cancel out your cost savings in boiling the water.

You also want pure distilled water.  Dissolved substances will raise the boiling temperature and thus require you to heat it longer to boil.  If boiling water is your goal, this makes it boil slower, not faster, but on the other hand if you need hotter water in which to cook something  then the salt does help increase the temperature of the liquid. (At high elevations, the lower boiling temperature makes it more difficult to cook something without using a pressure cooker.)  The amount of salt typically used, however, may not have a noticeable effect.  This topic is authoritatively discussed by a bunch of PhD types at a U.S. Department of Energy webpage.

Medicine, Science

To skin a cat

2 Comments

Describe adaptations related to the integumentary system the cat has that differs from humans

There are entire books about this (or at least chapters, such as ch. 2 in the Atlas of Feline Anatomy for Veterinarians at the Medical Center Library), which I won’t repeat here. But for starters, they have a fur coat and most humans don’t.

2007, Duke, Lobby Book, Science

Numbered trees

Why are all the trees on campus numbered? [3356C]

Duke serves as a tree prison, and prisoners are given numbers.  Also, it’s part of an inventory to help monitor the health of and schedule maintenance on the trees.  The round metal tags identify a sample (certainly not all) trees in different stages in their life cycle, of different species, etc., and if problems are noted then the grounds people can tackle the problem on other trees with similar characteristics.

Science

Light, waves, and particles

When light travels from the earth to space, how does it transform from waves to photons? In fact, why does it ever bother being generated in waves at all? Or is it only a photon in a vacuum?Thank you for your illumination.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP knows what needs to be known about light. You need good light to read a book, and also to keep from tripping down the stairs. I don’t quite have the room here to write the volumes of information that exist on the physics of light.

The way to figure it out is to ask yourself, if you were light, would you rather be a wave or a particle? Wouldn’t you really rather have characteristics of both? Any self-respecting light beam would.

When it comes to the physics, despite being much maligned by many academics these days, you might want to start with some of the Wikipedia articles, such as the article on Wave-particle duality, which has some nice links to discussions of this topic. Keep in mind that there is a difference between electromagnetic waves, like light, and mechanical waves, like a tsunami — light waves can exist in a vacuum.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Static

How does one avoid getting shocked by static, or at least diminish its effects?? [3348C]

You need to remain permanently grounded so you don’t build up a charge.  I recommend walking around barefoot, and drinking lots of coffee so the soles of your feet stay sweaty.  You could also attach to your body those anti-static straps that dangle from some cars and trucks to keep the vehicle grounded.  You can find these next to the fuzzy dice and curb feelers in your friendly local auto parts store.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Animal battle

Fusa vs. Narwhal The ultimate battle… who wins???? [3346C]

And which fusa might that be? Do you refer to the fossa, the carnivorous beast of Madagascar? Besides disliking each other’s habitats, I don’t think these two would be much interested in each other (as a meal), so they’d probably leave each other alone unless fighting over a feast of fish. Being an aquatic mammal and able to dive deeply would enable the narwhal to easily run away, not bothering to impale the fossa on its tusk.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Defensive ants

Dear Answer Person, I apologize for my long absence, but I have been most busy and I have been trying to devise a worthy challenge for you.  One day, I happened to disturb an ant colony; swarms of ants naturally stormed out of the colony; what was most curious was that their defensive/search movements seem to follow an organized but complex pattern.  Does there exist any research on modeling ant defense movement?  And if so, what’s the current/most researched model?  I thank you so much for what you’ve done.  Sincerely, AJL, Class of 2009. [3343A]

A simple literature search in a database such as Biological Abstracts indicates some research in this area.  Just one example would be this article regarding one species of ant defending against another species, “Combat between large derived societies: A subterranean army ant established as a predator of mature leaf-cutting ant colonies” by Powell & Clark (Insectes Sociaux. 2004; 51(4): 342-351). The authors discuss strategies used by the defending ants, such as “Lancaster’s Linear Law of Combat.”  Also: “Do Lanchester’s laws of combat describe competition in ants?” by McGlynn (Behavioral Ecology Vol. 11 No. 6: 686-690); and “Ant defence system: A mechanism organizing individual responses into efficient collective behavior” by Sakata & Katayama (Ecological Research. 2001; 16(3): 395-403).  It’s unclear to AP whether ants will use these same strategies against humans.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Politics of science

Is a progressive politcs of science possible? [3341A]

I suspect that it’s just as possible as a conservative or reactionary politics of science. Although some would say that everything involves politics, and AP won’t argue too much, I would hope that progressives would ostensibly try to keep politics out of science as much as possible (and that conservatives would try to do the same).

Science

hair growth

2 Comments

When you shave hair, does it really grow back thicker?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Nope, just an old wive’s tale (or “urban legend,” as they say nowadays). The follicles that are creating new hair don’t even know whether the end of the hair above has been cut at the scalp, one inch out, or 6 inches out.

Science

Dogs

2 Comments

Do dogs get bored? Do dogs sweat? Why do they smell bad, even if freshly-washed? Maybe not bad, but like dog.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Oh yeah, they get bored. Anything that’s cooped up will suffer boredom, maybe even crickets. Although dogs don’t sweat, their boredom makes them emit putrid oils into their coat. Lack of boredom is why wild dogs don’t have this odor problem. (Still, AP thinks you’ll notice an improvement in the smell if wash your dog a little better, and rinse well, too.)