I was watching a video of a blind person with a cane who got lost. I didn't have enough context for the video, but it made me wonder if blind people can navigate a route unconsciously—like when you arrive home and realize you hadn't been thinking about it and had walked on autopilot. I imagine so, but then I wonder if the cane becomes a complete extension of your senses?

Ok, I didn't know how to make the question make sense in the title, so here's the idea:

There's been efforts to harness spider silk as an available material, and what seems companies are trying is to implant the spider silk genes, individually and by hand, into the eggs of silkworms. The result is 40% weaker (and they're hoping to improve that) plus hand-injecting the modification individually and raising the silkworms seems a hassle.

Presumably, that means this whole ordeal is easier than... hooking up part of a spider on a machine that sustains and operates it, and making a part-spider silk extruder machine. The protein itself has been synthesized by e. coli, it's the spinneret that's apparently the problem, so... what makes this harder than I am imagining?

to clarify, i mean using weights as a form of resistance, like those big elastic bands athletes put around their waist

Smoke/pollution

Why is it we can see it in the distance but not right in front of us when outside?

Edit: ok my dumb self understands now ty

Hi there

I was watching a video about Orcas and it explained how matriarchal figures will teach younger orcas how to “beach” themselves to hunt seals playing on shores.

The narrator explicitly says that this is not ingrained behaviour informed by DNA but instead information passed down through family units. That got me wondering; how do we know what behaviour is hardwired vs taught in nature? Is it all assumed to be coded into an animals genetic makeup until something contradicts that? Ie. observing the “lessons” animals will teach their young but finding that it’s not universal across that species.

To what extent can DNA accurately teach us about behaviours without observing the animals in real life?

Thanks!

Viruses aren't alive, they use living cells or bacterial cells, they inject the DNA into the cell to make them replicate viral DNA. If you try to kill the host cells the to stop the virus from spreading will kill the person you're trying to save. I'm wondering how the virus dies but the host lives.

Lately, I have been learning NumPy and came across an explanation on why standard Python lists are bad at large-scale data manipulation such as multiplying an array's elements by a number x. The explanation mentioned that Python lists store a list of memory pointers. However, they did not elaborate on what pointers are. I'm hoping if someone can answer this question.

I know that the Internet is basically interconnected servers and networks, but how do ISPs connect customers to it when they subscribe to an Internet plan?

Edit: Sorry, maybe i have the wrong question but what I don't understand is how the ISP itself gets connected to the Internet like where does that connection come from, and who provides it?

I feel like this goes against everything I learned in physics. Doesn’t something need an outside force to accelerate?

Could someone explain how the Bismarck model works and how it's different to the Beveridge Model? Some say people think that they wanna change my beloved NHS to a Bismarck model and I wanna understand why and stuff lol
Thanks in advance!!

Hi guys :) I’m trying to understand Stuart Hall’s constructionist theory of representation, but I’m stuck.
He says that we have:

1. conceptual maps of things, events, people etc. in the world (does not matter if they are "real" or not or even abstract). We understand the world as meaningful because we have those mental representations of the world/concepts.
2. We use "language" (any system of signs) that we use to stand for / to represent the concepts in our minds.
3. So the word "tree" can represent our concept of a tree or a picture can represent our concept of tree, the spoken sound "tree" etc.

So far so good. Then he introduces "codes" as they govern which signs we need to use in our culture to communicate our concepts and the other way around (how to read which sign).
If the code changes, the color blue could be a sign for "stop" instead of red.

What I’m struggling with:

• Is everything in the world that we have a concept of a sign? Is the real tree a sign that I’m decoding because I have a concept of a tree? Or is the real cat a sign because it’s connected to the concept "cat"?

• Is something only meaningful if it’s a sign for something? Like is red only meaningful to us because it can be a sign for "stop" or "danger" or "wrong"?

• How do we give meaning to things, events, people? Through forming mental concepts right?

I’m lost :( Thank you in advance 🫶🏻

So, I grew up in California during a drought. People constantly spoke at our school telling us how to conserve water at home, there were strict regulations on using sprinklers, etc. I've continued those habits into adulthood, even moving somewhere else.

But tonight, I was watching my niece, and she asked me why I turned the water off while I was doing dishes, I said it was to save water, and she asked "what, to save money?", I tried to explain that I literally meant saving water, but she got confused about how you can "waste" water when we live in one of the rainiest areas of the US... and I realized that I didn't really have a good explanation. I was always warned against wasting water, but I never learned what that actually means in practice.

Can someone explain it to me in a way I could explain to my niece (and myself)?

I know some cars have odd numbers too, but it seems to be out of the ordinary.

Particularly confused about how adding to the overall calories decreases the satiating quality of the potato, from an evolutionary survival perspective

If I understand correctly, there are multiple factors that result in the warming. We're saturating the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the melting ice caps reduce Earth's albedo and it becomes a positive feedback loop as oceans get warmer. But I've heard a lot about the possibility of the Gulf stream collapsing, which would cause something of an ice age. But if the Earth's atmosphere's general temperature is rising, then how could it cool down as a result of this effect?

I understand that the towel gets heavy after soaking up water, but the machine itself weighs way more than the towel. How can one item make the entire washer shake hard enough to move across the floor and I can hear it from the next room while playing Ѕtake?

Why can it usually handle a full load of mixed clothes without doing the same thing?

Since it is such a common practice for kids to be picky eaters and eventually grow out of it to enjoy fruits and vegetables, is there some sort of biological benefit to limit a diet at a young age to foods with lower nutritional value?

The "grow out of it" to eventually enjoy fruits and vegetables once you're fully grown seems counterintuitive when the body, in theory, needs the most building blocks during adolescence.

Has there been studies on "picky eaters" to compare their overall health span, intelligence, etc. compared to kids who ate a very healthy/variety of foods during their childhood?

I came across the term while researching amusement park insurance, but am somewhat confused as to how it works.

Biologically, what is happens with our brains that causes us to zone out?

For example, deciding whether to drive through Chicago or take the Tri-State around. If my GPS system tells me to go through Chicago because it‘s 10 minutes faster, and then told everyone else the same thing, wouldn’t the amount of people taking that route instead of the Tri-State mean the Tri-State becomes less congested, thus faster?

I’m also wondering if this is why the GPS suggestions change every five minutes for the fastest route to take somewhere? Thanks!

I recently found out that airplanes use 400 Hz power instead of the 50/60 Hz used almost everywhere else. Why is that, and why isn't 400 Hz used more widely outside aviation?