wierd sciece questions

[Oddball]

Decided to open a thread for wierd science questions for everyone to ask and/or awnser.

Feel free to ask about anything science related. I may not be able to awnser it, but someone else will

So what im wondering is, is solid oxygen safe?

 

[Matseb2611]

Well, for the oxygen to be in a solid state, it will have to be of an extremely low temperature, so I doubt it'll be safe. Think liquid nitrogen. It's similar.

 

[Ralpf]

Decided to open a thread for wierd science questions for everyone to ask and/or awnser.

Feel free to ask about anything science related. I may not be able to awnser it, but someone else will

So what im wondering is, is solid oxygen safe?

Safe in what sense? I looked it up (I knew it was extremely low, just not specifics), and Oxygen solidifies just above 54 Kelvin (about -219 C, -362 F) so you definitely wouldn't want to touch it in any manner. But (and this is from someone who has taken one college level physics class) I think it would likely react slower at those extreme temperatures.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Looked it up. It (the solid) forms at -218.79C at normal atmospheric pressure. Liquid oxygen appears to have some functional applications in rocketry and it's thought that some forms of solid oxygen might be able to provide even better results. So, it looks like it's at least potentially useful.

It's definitely not something I've worked with before but I imagine it would require special care when handling just because of the low temperature alone. For comparison, liquid nitrogen is about -196C and it boils pretty much immediately. It would become a solid at approximately 210C.

 

[Oddball]

Ok good.

This is also a thread for people to ask random science questions

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Well if anyone does end up having questions I can give painful amounts of details about anything pertaining to plants and soil.~

 

[mlogan]

Is Google broken?

 

[EternalShadow]

Can you radiocarbon date ice? What about crystal? Quartz?

What are the transient properties of the electrical signals that operate within our brain?

In theory, could the electrical impulses within one's beain be transferred to another brain if both were touching? (Gross, I know!)

How much electrical power is required for a generator to operate a blimp? Is there a way to di so without a n electrical generator?

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@HFL I'm not super knowledgeable of carbon dating but I believe it can only be done on organic carbon based materials. However, glaciers can often be dated indirectly by finding the age of specimen preserved above and below glacial sediments.

 

[FM77]

Is ****** broken?

Scientifically speaking, yes and this is what breaks it and bumps irrelevancy to the top.

 

[Oddball]

Whats a plant that can kill hookworms, but is safe to consume by humans?

 

[Ms Littlefish]

The herb thyme produces a compound called thymol, which has been sited as an old time-y (heh) treatment for hookworm infection (as well as other microbial infections). That being said, I don't think just eating thyme would cure it. You'd probably need to extract and prepare the active.

 

[Oddball]

I dont have hookworms. I was just curioud

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Haha, didn't think you had them! I just like to think that people are making plant based items for their games and that my horticulture education is useful for games~

 

[Matseb2611]

Can you radiocarbon date ice? What about crystal? Quartz?

What are the transient properties of the electrical signals that operate within our brain?

In theory, could the electrical impulses within one's beain be transferred to another brain if both were touching? (Gross, I know!)

How much electrical power is required for a generator to operate a blimp? Is there a way to di so without a n electrical generator?

Some interesting questions. I might not be able to give a super clear or detailed answer, but let's see.

Carbon dating is done on a radioactive isotope of carbon (Carbon 14). Knowing the half life of that carbon allows us to estimate the approximate age of the fossil. So I have doubts ice can be carbon dated. I am not sure what the chemical compositions of crystal and quartz are, but if they don't contain C14, then I don't think you can carbon date them.

The signals within our brains aren't strictly 'electrical', but more electro-chemical. It's done by chemical messengers, in particular when it comes to the synapses (the gaps between the neurons). What do you mean by transient properties though?

Hmm, this is speculation, but probably. If you can connect two neurons from two different brains, it's probably possible. Those chemical transmitters I mentioned above will carry the message from one neuron to the next one. But then, once the signal reaches the other brain, it still needs to be 'deciphered'. I would guess it must be possible on some basic level. Like inflicting the pain to one person person might be felt by another, if their pain signalling pathway is linked, but I doubt they'll be reading each other's thoughts. If something as crazy as that is even possible, we'd need a very sophisticated level of technology. I am willing to bet it's doable, but we're still years or even centuries before we can do that.

Wasn't sure what a blimp was, so had to look it up, but it appears the blimps operate via hot gas lifting them up rather than electrical generators. Unless you mean zeppelins, then that's different.

Edit: Here's an article on blimps and zeppelins I've found:http://www.airships.net/dirigible

Can't honestly give you much of an answer here, since I don't know how they're operated other than using hot gas to be lifted off.

 

[Ralpf]

Wasn't sure what a blimp was, so had to look it up, but it appears the blimps operate via hot gas lifting them up rather than electrical generators. Unless you mean zeppelins, then that's different.

Edit: Here's an article on blimps and zeppelins I've found:http://www.airships.net/dirigible

Can't honestly give you much of an answer here, since I don't know how they're operated other than using hot gas to be lifted off.

I don't know enough to answer the question either. But not all blimp use hot gas, some use lighter then air gas (such as Helium) and some newer ones are actually heavier than air (though would still be using hot air or a light air, I would think) and use engine power to compensate.

The question revolves around the engines providing thrust (and maybe also heating air, depending on design) which I don't know where to look for details on that.

Theoretically, I think if you had a design that relied on lighter then air gas you could potentially power it via solar panels, however, it would be slow, unreliable, and potentially dangerous (not to mention, expensive). A backup generator would be required with our current technology. I don't see that as being a practical design, not in the foreseeable future anyway.

 

[EternalShadow]

Yes, sorry, zeppelin would be more appropriate than blimp in this instance. Interesting answers!

Transient properties: temporary properties, short-term, etc.

 

[Braydon]

Hmm, this is speculation, but probably. If you can connect two neurons from two different brains, it's probably possible. Those chemical transmitters I mentioned above will carry the message from one neuron to the next one. But then, once the signal reaches the other brain, it still needs to be 'deciphered'. I would guess it must be possible on some basic level. Like inflicting the pain to one person person might be felt by another, if their pain signalling pathway is linked, but I doubt they'll be reading each other's thoughts. If something as crazy as that is even possible, we'd need a very sophisticated level of technology. I am willing to bet it's doable, but we're still years or even centuries before we can do that.

You might be able to do it with identical twins since their brains would be far, far closer than two random people's.

 

[EternalShadow]

I am now slightly excited by the possibility of transferring consciousnesses. 

 

[cabfe]

I think it's probably easier to download the data from the brain onto a support of some kind, and then upload it elsewhere, rather than trying to physically connect synapses.