choose wisely. To better save humanity and marine life. Otherwise i would choose fanta orange ofcource.

I’m working on a sci-fi project set a few decades into the future, and right now I’m trying to figure out whether an idea I have for an unmanned mission to study Europa would work.

I‘m thinking of a probe designed to dive close enough to Europa to get a sample from an erupting ice plume. Is this something that a future probe could conceivably do without risking some serious damage, and if so, is it possible for the sampling equipment to be protected from the radiation environment like the rest of the instruments?

Definitely not an engineer here, and I’d like to be as accurate as I possibly can. Thanks so much!

What are some interesting science concepts that are unexplored in films? (Yes the title)

So the theoretical worldbuilding setup: a world that is somewhat similar to ours with hydrocarbon-and-water-based life, none of the theorized iron-and-sulfur or whatever. Also people live above the sea level and breathe the local atmosphere (whatever it is) and use iron or bronze tools.

In such circumstances is it possible to imagine atmospheric composition, density, or any other change in physical parameters of the entire planet making it impractical to use black powder as a propellant? It is fine if it explodes far more violently, or does not explode at all, the one thing it should not do is be useful to provide steady acceleration to projectiles of human-scale weapons. I don't think you can avoid basic elements of the black powder being available and have a life at the same time, so what can prevent it from working? I understand most people would be satisfied with "not invented here" or "a wizard did it" but it is interesting to try to solve it within real physics.

Stretch goal: Also make nitrocellulose non-viable as a controlled propellant too (fine if it explodes).

As one example I learned that Europeans and East Asians convergently evolved different biological mechanisms for light skin, with European light skin largely coming from mutations in genes like SLC24A5 to reduce melanin production, and East Asian light skin mainly coming from mutations in OCA2 to reduce melanin production.

So in the case of people with half European and half East Asian ancestry, where they have alleles from these two different genes playing a role, how do they work together to maintain proper pigmentation in the skin?

If both of these mechanisms to reduce melanin production are equally activated, would that result in extreme underproduction of melanin?

Hi guys, I'm in my first year of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, and going to be starting my Extended Essay soon (Biology), however I'm in need of a main topic for the essay. I love lab work, but the resources in my school lab are limited, however we might have the opportunity of working in a university lab if we absolutely need to. My main bio interests are neurology and genetics, I don't really want to work with plants unless I absolutely have to. Can you guys give me any ideas that aren't too cliché, and I can do a bit of basic lab work with? Thankssss. (I need to be able to elaborate 4000 words worth of research, but it can't be a topic that's too general either)

We are ultimately made up of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, etc. A human body is basically an incredibly complex (n mathematical) arrangement of all these components.

So, given enough time and enough humans, is it theoretically possible that the exact same overall configuration of a human body could occur twice (down to the arrangement of its cells and molecules) purely by chance?

I'm not necessarily talking about having the same genetic make up / being genetically identical. I mean the entire physical architecture of the person: every cell, tissue, organ, molecular arrangement, etc. If this is too much, then how about when we only consider the genetic makeup?

Could there theoretically have been (or be) another human being, completely unrelated to you, who is physically an exact duplicate of you at some point in time?

And if this is theoretically possible, does that mean that somewhere in the enormous space of possible physical configurations, there could be multiple instances of essentially the "same" human?

I'm not restricting this to the current human population on Earth. I'm considering every human being who has ever existed, every human currently alive, and every human who will exist in the future in our universe

I don't get a feel for this, how can it travel through vacuum.

I've been thinking about a question that I don't see discussed very often in alternative-history circles.

We generally treat radiocarbon dating as if it were a straightforward clock: an organism dies, carbon-14 begins declining, and the remaining amount gives us an approximate age.

But the atmosphere's carbon-14 concentration hasn't been constant.

Carbon-14 is produced when cosmic rays interact with Earth's atmosphere, and solar activity influences the cosmic-ray environment reaching Earth. We also know of unusually large ancient radiocarbon spikes, such as the events associated with what are now called "Miyake events."

So here's the question:

What would happen to radiocarbon chronology if Earth experienced an extraordinarily powerful, possibly unprecedented solar/cosmic-ray event?

Well, also, if there was only one color, what was it? Probably brown since we mostly have brown hair. I bet the first blonde surprised the heck out of them.

I'm preparing myself for a degree in STEM. I'm currently self-studying math (precalculus; last topic was trig identities) and programming. I'm thinking about studying linear algebra alongside precalculus. Obviously, I will study calculus only AFTER precalculus. The question is that should I start studying physics now or after calculus and linear algebra?

I know I'm at the point where I can start studying middle-school and high-school physics. I'm asking if it's better to start fromvhere right away or start from physics 1 later.

I just wonder if it'll be too much to study 3 subjects in parallel. My current physics knowledge is little-to-nothing.

Maybe I should take it further and study physics only after covering (partial) differential equations?

Thanks in advance!

whats up with that

Would a more typical octopus (and I really mean a shallow water one) die immediately if it was released that low?

Or would it just have no idea what to do down there?

Or would he swim upwards and try to go back to its normal depth (or could he?)

You have been given a task to travel into the past two thousands years ago and bring the light of the metric system to the world. You cannot bring any external object with you.

Assume you do not need to redefine the second, and astronomical observations give the best possible results given the limits of timekeeping back then. Given the technology of the time, what is the best you can do for other units - either right there and then or leaving instructions how to calculate them from the units you have established to the future scientists? Memorizing the lengths of your body parts probably is not the best way to define a metre, and kilogram defined as one liter of water is bound to be influenced by the local water to a perceptible degree.

P. S. Tagged as "physics" but any approach is welcome - whether you would recommend measuring height of the mountain peaks, or believe that carob seeds are actually uniform enough to offer the best approximation of a kilogram.

Or would any color past the visible spectrum to us be perceived as black to us, for example say this alien has five tools and all are colored based upon colors they know (past our visible spectrum of colors) would we see those colors as Black or some other color?

Inspiration for this idea came from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Color Out of Space” and “Project Hail Mary” and I’m just really curious as to what the science says about this, sorry if this isn’t the right place for this,

This makes it harder. You are in a different world so rotation and gravity likely differ significantly from earth. Body is different so no body measures.

How do you hack it? Assume technology to the 1500s.

If a human really got down to it and spent time on memorizing locations, could they remember as many as a bird can?

I love finding facts about outer space but this one’s been bugging me.

Atoms don’t touch due to their electron clouds constantly pushing other electrons away due to negative charges and such, but would these electron clouds and atoms take up ALL of the space?

(I’m a quantum physics noob so sorry if this is a dumb question)

If a star and black hole achieved a stable orbit around each other, what affects would that have on an earth-like planet orbiting them? Would it give off gravitational waves, or crazy radiation? Would a stable orbit for the earth look very different from our current elliptical one? Would day and night change?

I heard that the mind has 2 types of memories, episodic memories and semantic memories with semantic memories being things like facts and knowledge and concepts. I also heard that while parts of a semantic memory can be altered (emotions personal meaning and some minor details) the main idea/gist facts of a semantic detail are very resistant to any major alteration and can't be erased. So I was wondering does this mean that everything you leaned in school is still in your mind and can be recalled with the right recall. Or is this thing about the core gist of a semantic memory not being easily changeable is false or oversimplified. Have researcher ever done tests on long term semantic memories several years old or is this kind of thing harder to determine.

Also a related question but can episodic memories become semantic memories or can semantic memories become like non semantic memories or something like that.

I'm not sure if this question fits here. If it doesn't, I will remove it.

Imagine this hypothetical scenario: every human consciousness all of sudden were placed into an alien body on an alien planet, what would it need for humanity to confidently identify something as ordinary as water?

First, they don't bring earth scientific instruments. So everything had to be built from scratch. They can't rely on senses, since it's alien body, water might be smell awful or looks opaque instead of transparent.

There might be some people remembering fun facts about water, like its density, boiling point, conductivity, etc. But there's nothing to compare, how do they even know how much a kilogram or how hot 100 degree celcius is