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Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

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Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#451

Post by johnmorrison »

madhadron wrote: post #357
lisper wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Electrons aren't really spinning, right? Correct. > But why do we call it spin? Because it is a physical quantity whose units are those of angular momentum, and we have to call it something . > What are the possible values? +/- h/4pi where h is Planck's constant. (It is usually written has h-bar/2 where h-bar is h/2pi.) > Is it a magnitude or a vector? It's a vector that always points in a direction corresponding t…

> It's a vector It's not exactly a vector...

It only has direction + magnitude right? (±h/4π)e_i for some unit vector e_i.

So it can be written as a vector? No?

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#453

Post by jryb »

umvi wrote: post #119

I would like to understand how cellular biology processes actually work. Like, how do all the right modules and proteins line up in the right orientation every time? Every time I watch animations, it seems like the proteins and such just magically appear when needed and disappear when not needed [0]. Sometimes it's an ultra-complex looking protein and it just magically flys over to the DNA, attaches to the correct sp…

I really like this video as it shows diffusing proteins at a realistic concentration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdmbpAo9JR4

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#454

Post by sodafountan »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #398
ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's accurate (because I never understand anything I read about it) but this is the most concise and clear explanation I've read on this subject to date. Thank you!

It's accurate. QC is just linear algebra with complex numbers, plus probability extended to the complex domain. Why that's useful is something I'm still struggling with as well.

I'd assume it's the speed advantage, but the only problem I can think of that would require that type of exponential speed is cracking hashing algorithms which just seems destructive and counterproductive, like building a digital nuclear bomb - and from my very limited understanding that's a long ways off from being achieved.

I assume there's probably many more complex computational problems outside of my domain that QC can help with. Does anybody know of any?

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#455

Post by [deleted] »

lifeformed wrote: post #347
JabavuAdams wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It's interesting how powerful and clarifying this model of its-all-just-atoms-bumping-into-atoms is. It's interesting how many people take science courses, but don't really get this. In the context of Covid19, I see so many people wearing PPE, but failing to act as though they understand that the actual goal is to prevent this tiny virion dust from entering your orifices. Like wearing gloves and a mask, but then…

Masks are for keeping your own particles from spreading far, not the other way around.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#456

Post by henearkr »

[Sorry I have misinterpreted the subject, I thought it could be some phenomenon still not well understood by science.]

Placebo. There are biological bases of it (I don't believe in soul). Find these bases, study them, make a model of them. Then use proxy variables to measure it instead of trying to eliminate it statistically. Predict it in studies to avoid the need of placebo groups (and possibly of double blind methodology). Also, after it is completely measurable and its mechanisms are understood, if (very hypothetical) it has a really substantial effect, just use it to help treat patients.

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#457

Post by lisper »

johnmorrison wrote: post #451
madhadron wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a vector It's not exactly a vector...

It only has direction + magnitude right? (±h/4π)e_i for some unit vector e_i. So it can be written as a vector? No?

It's a vector. madhadron doens't know what he's talking about.

(To be excruciatingly precise, it's a ray in Hilbert space. But that's close enough to a vector for the purposes of HN comments.)

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#458

Post by jryb »

Waterluvian wrote: post #394

Why does my bread last for a while and then go bad? Or is it constantly going bad and I just haven't hit critical mass of mold for me to notice?

Although your question was about mold, you may be thrilled to learn that the process of bread going stale is not fully understood. I found this to be a somewhat jarring claim in a review I read recently: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1541-4337...

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#459

Post by [deleted] »

logicslave wrote: post #386
vmception wrote: post #202

Has someone that thought they were taking LSD ever turned into a permanent schizophrenic zombie or in a mental institution, or is it all urban legend. If someone that didn't know they were predisposed to mental illness, is it applicable to dismiss their experience in order to maintain how safe LSD is? If any of this is true, are there any sources aside from "my friend's friend's brother took too much and now he is...…

The answer to this is really easy. Go to any mental institution and get to know the patients. An institution where they are allowed out, but are still in an enclosed area. A majority of the patients will have had some sort of heavy drug use in their past. Sure, whats causation and whats correlation, but its pretty clear that drugs cause mental breaks. How do I know this? I have mental illness in my family and have sp…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?

#460

Post by mistermann »

johnmorrison wrote: post #437
xyzzy99 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be rude, but given current daily attacks on science and the scientific method, I can't let this stand - I think your meta intuition represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how science works. It is simply wrong to think that scientific questions can never be definitively settled. Clearly there are some hypotheses that have been difficult (and may be impossible) to prove, for example, Darwin's idea that nat…

> Establishing causality can be difficult but not impossible - the standard is "necessary and sufficient". You must show necessity: CO2 increase (for example) is necessary for global warming; if CO2 remains constant, no matter what else happens to the system global temperatures remain constant. And you must also demonstrate sufficiency: temperatures will increase if you increase CO2 while holding everything else cons…

> No. What is the basis for these claims?

"Science", as it is represented in the media, and in turn repeated and enforced (not unlike religion, interestingly) on social media and in social circles.

As opposed, of course, to actual science.

"Perception is reality." - Lee Atwater, Republican political strategist.

https://www.cbs46.com/news/perception-is-reality/article_835...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

"Sauron, enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death."

"And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge."

https://www.edgestudio.com/node/86110

Threads like this one, and many others like it, well demonstrate the precarious situation we are in at this level. Imagine the state of affairs around the average dinner table. Although, it's not too infrequent to hear the common man admit (which is preceded by realization) that they don't know something. As one moves up the modern day general intelligence curve, this capability seems to diminish. What the exact cause of this is a bit of a mystery (24 hour cable propaganda and the complex dynamics of social media is my best guess) - hopefully someone has noticed it and is doing some research, although I've yet to hear it mentioned anywhere. Rather, it seems we are all content to attribute any misunderstanding that exists in modern society to Fox News, Russia, QAnon, or the alt-right. I'm a bit concerned that this approach may not be the wisest, but I imagine we will find out who's right soon enough.

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