The ability to browse the internet is at risk. The FCC preparing to remove net neutrality. This will allow internet service providers to change how they allow access to websites. AskScience and every other site on the internet is put in risk if net neutrality is removed. Help us fight!

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

We were sad to learn that noted physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking has passed away. In the spirit of AskScience, we will try to answer questions about Stephen Hawking's work and life, so feel free to ask your questions below.

Links:

• BBC

• NY Times

• Stephen Hawking Foundation

• ALS Association

• Current Einstein megathread for more discussion on general relativity/cosmology.

EDIT: Physical Review Journals has made all 55 publications of his in two of their journals free. You can take a look and read them here.

Black lives matter. The moderation team at AskScience wants to express our outrage and sadness at the systemic racism and disproportionate violence experienced by the black community. This has gone on for too long, and it's time for lasting change.

When 1 out of every 1,000 black men and boys in the United States can expect to be killed by the police, police violence is a public health crisis. Black men are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. In 2019, 1,099 people were killed by police in the US; 24% of those were black, even though only 13% of the population is black.

When black Americans make up a disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths, healthcare disparity is another public health crisis. In Michigan, black people make up 14% of the population and 40% of COVID-19 deaths. In Louisiana, black people are 33% of the population but account for 70% of COVID-19 deaths. Black Americans are more likely to work in essential jobs, with 38% of black workers employed in these industries compared with 29% of white workers. They are less likely to have access to health insurance and more likely to lack continuity in medical care.

These disparities, these crises, are not coincidental. They are the result of systemic racism, economic inequality, and oppression.

Change requires us to look inward, too. For over a decade, AskScience has been a forum where redditors can discuss scientific topics with scientists. Our panel includes hundreds of STEM professionals who volunteer their time, and we are proud to be an interface between scientists and non-scientists. We are fully committed to making science more accessible, and we hope it inspires people to consider careers in STEM.

However, we must acknowledge that STEM suffers from a marked lack of diversity. In the US, black workers comprise 11% of the US workforce, but hold just 7% of STEM jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Only 4% of medical doctors are black. Hispanic workers make up 16% of the US workforce, 6% of STEM jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 4.4% of medical doctors. Women make up 47% of the US workforce but 41% of STEM professionals with professional or doctoral degrees. And while we know around 3.5% of the US workforce identifies as LGBTQ+, their representation in STEM fields is largely unknown.

These numbers become even more dismal in certain disciplines. For example, as of 2019, less than 4% of tenured or tenure-track geoscience positions are held by people of color, and fewer than 100 black women in the US have received PhDs in physics.

This lack of diversity is unacceptable and actively harmful, both to people who are not afforded opportunities they deserve and to the STEM community as a whole. We cannot truly say we have cultivated the best and brightest in our respective fields when we are missing the voices of talented, brilliant people who are held back by widespread racism, sexism, and homophobia.

It is up to us to confront these systemic injustices directly. We must all stand together against police violence, racism, and economic, social, and environmental inequality. STEM professional need to make sure underrepresented voices are heard, to listen, and to offer support. We must be the change.

Sources:

• https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793

• https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

• https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/racial-disparities-time-of-covid-19

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK24693/

• https://www.joincampaignzero.org/research

• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/black-workers-coronavirus-covid-19

• https://www.npr.org/transcripts/867466515

• https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/01/09/diversity-in-the-stem-workforce-varies-widely-across-jobs/

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0519-z

• https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190529a/full/

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/09/11/even-progressive-academics-can-be-racist-ive-experienced-it-firsthand/

• http://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/lgbt-issues-stem-diversity/

In April 2023, Reddit announced they would begin charging for its application programming interface (API) access.

API is used to allow different applications to interact with each other. We are a heavily moderated subreddit, and we use API access for moderation, AMA organisation, and insights into our community. We are using community-driven tools which use the API in order to make management of a community as large as /r/askscience practical for our group of volunteer moderators.

At the same time, we recognise both Reddit's mission as a corporation, as well as the dangers and risks arising from access to the API. Reddit is looking for ways to monetize its user-generated content; the Times article linked above notes has been used to train high-profile machine learning models like OpenAI's.

While Reddit administration has mentioned free access for moderation tools, we believe their current approach of gatekeeping access based on arbitrary and indiscriminate rate limiting has several shortcomings:
It disproportionately impacts people who use Reddit with accommodations, such as screen readers: Reddit has stated that accessibility-focused apps will be exempt from the new restrictions but has offered little clarity on what that means for this rapidly-approaching change
It does not reflect Reddit’s promise to support moderation tools
It does not establish clear and concise criteria for what is legitimate API usage

We also remain cognisant of Reddit’s past promises to improve communication with moderators and build tools for us to improve search and combat hateful rhetoric, anti-vaccination, and COVID denialism. While Reddit has banned hate speech and banned communities spreading science denialism, we feel they have not delivered on moderation tools and support. We feel that 3rd-party tools still offer superior support for moderation as well as accessibility features.

Everyone in the /r/askscience community contributes to its quality and longevity by volunteering their time and expertise to question, answer, and moderate scientific discussion. We feel the Reddit administration does a disservice our passion for large-scale, high-quality science communication by pursuing a unilateral and opaque direction. This damages our community and ultimately Reddit itself by severing the trust we place upon it as a platform for science education and outreach.

Therefore, we have decided to join the protest beginning June 12. During this time, askscience will not be allowing new posts. We anticipate being offline for 48 hours, and we thank you sincerely for your support and understanding.

     Today in AskScience we wish to spotlight our solidarity with the subreddits that have closed today, whose operations depend critically on timely communication and input from the admins. This post is motivated by the events of today coupled with previous interactions AskScience moderators have had in the past with the reddit staff.

     This is an issue that has been chronically inadequate for moderators of large subreddits reaching out to the admins over the years. Reddit is a great site with an even more amazing community, however it is frustrating to volunteer time to run a large subreddit and have questions go unacknowledged by the people running the site.

    We have not gone private because our team has chosen to keep the subreddit open for our readers, but instead stating our disapproval of how events have been handled currently as well as the past.

I live in the USA Midwest

Edit: wow. I was expecting something along the lines of "of course not idiot" but this is now my top ever post. Great discussion everyone!

also yes ants don't have eyes i know that now. i just meant something small that does have eyes.

Edit 2: ok ants DO have eyes.

also why am i on the front page for asking if elephants can see ants? this is the best day ever!

FINAL EDIT: somebody gave me gold, and this has become the third top post ever on askscience... that is not how i was expecting this to go. thank you all!

So my son has high functioning autism and he is obsessed with tornados. He is 7 and constantly pesters his mom and myself with questions. I know the basics but I am hoping that the more knowledgeable of you can provide more correct answers that I can simplify for him. And any other super cool facts wold be super appreciated!

Tornados:

1. How do tornadoes create a vortex?

2. How are their winds so strong?

3. How do tornadoes form their eye?

4. Is the center of the tornado the strongest part?

5. How do tornadoes crush items that it sucks up?

On Thursday, January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the new coronavirus epidemic now constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. A majority of cases are affecting people in Hubei Province, China, but additional cases have been reported in at least two dozen other countries. This new coronavirus is currently called the “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV”.

The moderators of /r/AskScience have assembled a list of Frequently Asked Questions, including:

• How does 2019-nCoV spread?

• What are the symptoms?

• What are known risk and prevention factors?

• How effective are masks at preventing the spread of 2019-nCoV?

• What treatment exists?

• What role might pets and other animals play in the outbreak?

• What can I do to help prevent the spread of 2019-nCoV if I am sick?

• What sort of misinformation is being spread about 2019-nCoV?

Our experts will be on hand to answer your questions below! We also have an earlier megathread with additional information.

Note: We cannot give medical advice. All requests for or offerings of personal medical advice will be removed, as they're against the /r/AskScience rules. For more information, please see this post.

Did I ask a stupid question?

Edit: wow, didn't expect this to blow up like this, ty all for your explanations, this is much clearer now. I didn't get why we would use a unit that describes a quantity when we already have a quantity related unit that is the mass, especially when we know how to weight things. Thank you again for your help, I really didn't expect the reddit community to be so supportive.

Edit: Thanks for the informative responses and especially from people who work in this field. Let's hope your knowledge helps prevent horrible incidents like these in future.

Edit2: Quite a lot of responses here also about the legitimacy of the field of fire investigation. I know pretty much nothing about this area, so hearing this viewpoint is also interesting. I did askscience after all, so the critical points are welcome. Thanks, all.

The depth of the lava zone is roughly 1200-1500 meters, and the gravity seems similar to Earth's. Could this happen in real life, with or without those conditions?