Ask your crazy science/technology questions!

[danaeris]

I've been assigned to find 30 really interesting science questions for our Q&A special. Post some question ideas here and maybe they'll get answered by one of our experts when this issue comes out.

(example questions: "Why do clouds float")

Comments

[outcastspice.livejournal.com]

how do dishwashers work? i was wondering yesterday. do they fill up with water?

Dishwashers

[admiralthrawn.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered that too. I think they're spraying water around rather than filling, but how do they rinse things out so you don't end up with soapy water on things? And how do they spray such that all the little oddly shaped bits on things get cleaned?

[coraon.livejournal.com]

whats the most promising alternative to petrol?

Alternatives to petrol

[admiralthrawn.livejournal.com]

That's unfortunately as much a policy as a science question.

There is nothing on the horizon that is a drop-in-replacement that can be used in exactly the same way as we use petrol right now. So... Is wind power better than bio-ethanol? One of them is great for generating electricity and can be a replacement for using oil-fired power plants, but you can't realistically put a windmill on your car; the other is a horribly inefficient way of generating electricity but is fine as a portable fuel source for internal combustion engines to replace petrol for your car. Either requires some investment in replacing/upgrading/changing the relevant part of our infrastructure (heavy wind power usage has some issues on days when the wind isn't blowing, ethanol has some issues being distributed the way we distribute gasoline; neither issues are insurmountable, but they're hard to compare). So, it's not clear that there is an answer to which of those is more promising...

And much of the way the world will move past petrol dependence may involve changes to society -- having more people live in dense cities with heavy mass transit reduces petrol usage, as does causing people to live in more temprate climates (drop the energy used for heating/cooling...). The value of either of those solutions requires asking what your ideal society is and how you weight different aspects of society (freedom to live where you want, the value of free markets and trade, etc.)

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Which are smartest: dolphins, apes, smart dogs, or giant squid?

How do they make computer chips?

Why can't the doctor find out exactly what kind of flu someone has and give their friends the exactly right vaccine?

What's the strongest material known?

If all the ice in the world melts, how high would sea level rise?

If the entire earth used to be covered in ice millions of years ago, all the way to the equator, why didn't all life on earth die out?

When we radioactive date a rock and find out it's billions of years old, when does the "clock" start? When the rock turns solid, or way back when the old star exploded?

Can we mine magma someday? Pull out the liquid iron or gold and put the rest back?

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

We've never had a global-coverage ice age.

We have, however, had at least one polar shift, so most places have, at some time in geologic history, had ice at some time, but not necessaily glaciation.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

There is a "Snowball Earth" theory, actually, that the entire Earth was covered pole to pole on at least two occasions with solid ice. I read about it in New Scientist, and ever since I've been wondering exactly how that is supposed to work.

snowball earth

[admiralthrawn.livejournal.com]

Depending on how cold it was... There are a number of single-celled things that can and do live on solid ice.

And covering all land to the equator with ice doesn't necessarily ice the oceans (even if they are cold enough, they're salty and in motion, so they're harder to freeze). Some sea life is quite happy in near-freezing water, and even under a thin enough ice sheet that some light gets through. If you go far enough back, most life was in the oceans anyway.

There's also a lot of life at volcanic vents at the ocean floor, most of which would never even notice if you cooled the surface to the point that you had a solid sheet of ice over all ocean surfaces.

So in short: it's easy to kill 99% of the life on earth. The last 1% is resilient to just about anything, and on long enough timescales will happily recolonize everywhere.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

How much will sea levels rise if the arctic ice melts?

(This allows a fun riff into how floating ice doesn't cause levels to rise much at all, but ice up on land formations does, and all sorts of other phase-change hijinks.)

[cos]

Why does the fogging on the bathroom mirror always start clearing away from the middle first, with the corners remaining fogged up the longest?

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

Depends on whether the mirror is on an inside or outside wall, (actually, it depends on the temerature difference behind the mirror and in front). Basically, condensation forms on the coldest surface first, and leaves the warmest first. My mirror usually de-fogs on the edges first, because the edges heat first from the warm air in the bathroom. If the wall behind the mirror is warm (as if there was a warm room on the other side) the center would de-fog first.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

What I want to know is how they get the Teflon to stick to the pan.

I want to know the frequency of the "global hum", and whether it is changing, and what causes it.

I want to know what would happen if you had edges passing each other at agles near light-speed so that the point of intersection went faster than light...and put something in that point...could it go faster than light, or would increasing mass make it impossible to move the edges, even though they themselves are not moving that fast. (Think putting a pin in the junction of closing scissors.)

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

It would get harder and harder to close the scissors, and they would decelerate enough so that the pin was always going slower than light. The faster it goes the heavier it gets, and the harder you have to push to make it go faster. Also, materials are not infinitely strong.

[vsbooklady.livejournal.com]

Is there any known way that toxins can be removed through the feet, or are these guys just laughing all the way to the bank?

[vsbooklady.livejournal.com]

oops, sorry:
http://www.takarapatch.com/