Science & Technology Quiz 2: The one with the catchy title.

[lovett]

Open floor? Well, then I feel free to ask a question.

John and Jake are both identical brothers. They have a lifespan of exactly 10000000000000 heartbeats (they exercise and eat all their greens and stuff). However, they were separated at birth. Jake lives on Earth, he's very happy there. But John lives on Jupiter, he's also quite happy there (he's into hurricanes). This does not alter their shared lifespans at all, it's still 10000000000000 heartbeats.

The question then, is who dies first, John or Jake? And how many heartbeats does the last brother have left after his sibling dies? Explain.

 

[Brighteye]

I'm having trouble imagining anyone living on a gas giant, but are you trying to suggest that higher gravities require greater workload to shift blood around, perhaps because of the greater effort involved in movement?
So John dies first?

 

[History_Buff]

Wiseguy answer: John dies first. A human cannot survive on a hypothetical surface of Jupier as the gases would crush him before he could draw a breath. Thus Jake has about 999999999990 heartbeats left when John dies. But this violate the condition that John lives for 10000000000000 heartbeats. Thus:

Because gravity is higher on Jupiter, the heart would need to pump faster to support the blood flow to the brain. Therefore John would be consuming his heart beat quota at a faster rate, and die first. As for the number Jake has left, I don't really think that's possible to calculate, particularly without some measure of the gravity on Jupiter where John happened to live.

 

[Ammar]

i suppose you are talking relatoivity here.then it is impossible to say exactly since we would have to have a spacetime describing the entire universe.

a rough schwrzschild approximation gives on the surface of a planet a time dilation facmtor of 1:f with f being 1-2m:r. the larger the factor the longer you survive seen from outside.tnis should give an answer but i am too lazy to look up r and m for the two planets.

 

[lovett]

I'm having trouble imagining anyone living on a gas giant, but are you trying to suggest that higher gravities require greater workload to shift blood around, perhaps because of the greater effort involved in movement?
So John dies first?

'fraid not. I'm just using 'heartbeats' as a useful unit of time. Years could be confusing for obvious reasons. If you want, change it to seconds on their respective wristwatches. And Johns living in a Special-Gas-Giant-Bubble (tm), so he's fine

And incidentally, don't anybody tear themselves up over this:

'And how many heartbeats does the last brother have left after his sibling dies?'

I'm only looking for general magnitude, perfect accuracy is unnecessary.

 

[qwertz]

I'll give it a try;

the schwarzschild radius of the Earth is:
Se = (2*G*me)/c^2 = (2*(6.67*10^-11*m^3/(kg*s^2))*(5.974*10^24 kg))/(299792458*m/s) = 0.00887 m


the one of the jupiter is:
Sj = (2*G*mj)/c^2 = 2.82 m



so the time dilatation on the earth's surface is:
(1-(Se/Re))^(1/2) = 0.999999999



the one on the jupiter's surface is:
(1-(Sj/Rj))^(1/2) = 0.999999980




so one heartbeat on the earth is equal to 0.999999980/0.999999999 = 0.999999981 heartbeats on Jupiter.


So Jake will die first and John will still have 10^13-(10^13*0.999999981) = 190'215 heartbeats left.

 

[lovett]

Yup, absolutely right.

Over to you Qwertz.

 

[qwertz]

how many isomers of C4H8 do exist?

 

[ainwood]

how many isomers of C4H8 do exist?

4.

Normal butene (or 1-butene)
2-methyl propene
then there are cis & trans 2-butene (or cis/trans but-2-ene as it was alternatively called when I learnt it...)

 

[qwertz]

so far so good, but there are still few more (they're a bit more exotic than those 4)

 

[ori]

should be all:

 

[qwertz]

yes that's it

 

[ori]

talking biology here
what is a chaperone? what has it to do with mad cows?

 

[Firstlady]

a chaperone is a type of protein that keeps the normal structure and function of a polypeptide chain from aggregating into a nonfunctional structure. aggregating increases when proteins are denatured by high temperatures and stress causes that.

the only connection i can make to Mad Cow Disease is that perhaps something inhibits the chaperone from doing it's job, or just plain destroys the chaperone so that when high stress levels occur and denature proteins, nothing is there to fix them up.

 

[Brighteye]

The connection with mad cow disease is that the protein is its own chaperone, and the deformed protein makes more deformed proteins?

Alternatively, a chaperone is someone who accompanies young mad cows when they meet men in case the madness is infectious and the man attempts to get some of her milk. Chaperones are usually older mad cows or family members.

 

[ori]

a chaperone is a type of protein that keeps the normal structure and function of a polypeptide chain from aggregating into a nonfunctional structure. aggregating increases when proteins are denatured by high temperatures and stress causes that.

the only connection i can make to Mad Cow Disease is that perhaps something inhibits the chaperone from doing it's job, or just plain destroys the chaperone so that when high stress levels occur and denature proteins, nothing is there to fix them up.

the chaperone definition is mostly correct - though chaperones also help other polypeptide chains to acquire the correct folding and can actually help de-aggregate wrongly folded polypeptides...
the mad cow thing is not quite right - you need not denature proteins for the aggregation to occur - but you need to "refold" them either by heat or similar influences or by catalyzing the change from their physiological folding to the insoluble one - in this respect Brighteye is closer to the truth

The connection with mad cow disease is that the protein is its own chaperone, and the deformed protein makes more deformed proteins?

this approaches correct the culprit in mad cow disease causes the physiologic form of itself to be folded into the aggregating form that causes mad cow disease and other such diseases. It is not clear if itself acts as a chaperone or causes a chaperone to act wrongly though (the latter seems to be the more likely one though it is possible that it is both).
Curiously one chaperone - Hsp104 - has been shown (in yeast) to increase the rate of soluble prions being converted to insoluble ones when low amounts of Hsp104 and low amounts of insoluble prions are present - however when high amounts of Hsp104 are present it seems to actually accelerate the reverse (insoluble to soluble) folding more readily and can clear the aggregates in that chaperones such as this are touted as a potential target for therapies... that is atleast if yeast get mad cow disease

Alternatively, a chaperone is someone who accompanies young mad cows when they meet men in case the madness is infectious and the man attempts to get some of her milk. Chaperones are usually older mad cows or family members.

you are up

 

[Brighteye]

I'm going to New York in day or so, so answer it quickly:

Apart from effects on co-ordination and anxiety, how does alcohol affect athletic (muscle) performance?

I should add that I'm looking for a mechanism as well as a result.

 

[Brighteye]

Well, no-one has an answer, and I'm not likely to be around for a few days. Au revoir.

 

[Firstlady]

Yeah, I had absolutely no idea about that one.

Should we open floor? If so, someone else feel free to take it away.

 

[Perfection]

How many cells are in a standard (alkaline) 9V battery?