Science is interesting

Exeres · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:43 pm

The left-to-right thing, or vice-versa, is bullshit your elementary teachers told you to get you to stop asking them questions.

Nefarious Bear · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:46 pm

YCobb wrote:

Isn't the rule that multiplication and division are treated the same, just from right to left?

So you'd handle the parentheses first, wind up with 6/2*3, then work your way over from the left and wind up with 9?

Depends. I learned PEMDAS, But some people learned with M/D and A/S with just going with which one goes first.

Personally, I use the latter nowadays.

D-vid · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:09 pm

http://www.wolframalpha.com interprets it as 6/2 * (1+2) the way it is written. It's my favourite source for when I have no clue and am not allowed to wikipedia. So I guess just go from the left, yeah.

Syobon · **Joined:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:34 am **Posts:** 15027

God fucking dammit, this shit again. The solution is: USE NONAMBIGUOUS NOTATION.
I'd go with right though if I was the one making the calculator. It makes more sense if you look at how the calculator has to read the input. I might be biased since that's how my calculator works though :p.

Exeres · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:04 pm

Do you guys remember that story about "spray-on skin?" They were developing technology that would allow almost instantaneous repair of skin damaged by burns or abrasions.

Check this shit out.

FatOldRobot · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:08 pm

Oh wow. Imagine the uses.

Dedivax · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:09 pm

A classmate of mine said that "the american government has discovered bacteria that turn radioactive waste to methane".
When I pointed out that it's impossible he replied with "If they can do that with cows' waste than why can't they do that with radioactive waste".

FatOldRobot · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:10 pm

I- What?

D-vid · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:15 pm

I think I remember reading about a bacteria that lives in and eats radioactive waste.

FatOldRobot · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:18 pm

Yeah, no, that part is true. Those things exist and could be useful as all hell.

D-vid · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:15 pm

There's also bacteria that live in molten asphalt laced with oil,
bacteria that are apparently unevolved descendants of some of the first living things on our planet are chilling in the south pole under a thick ice layer,
bacteria that don't give a fuck about 400 000 times earth gravity,
bacteria that live in the stratosphere and are theorized to have gotten there on the force of volcano eruptions,
a bacteria that evolved underwater and eats metal specifically the wreck of the titanic,
bacteria that live 3 miles underground and instead of sunlight rather have a dose of uranium radiation and have apparently a lifespan of multiple thousand years,
and bacteria that also like radiation, but from the remains of the nuclear reactor of chernobyl. Inside the nuclear reactor of chernobyl.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-mind-blowing-places-science-has-discovered-life/
Seeing this you're asking yourself why we haven't found at least 2 dozen different kinds of mars bacteria yet.

Ersatz · **Joined:** Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:52 pm **Posts:** 2278

Two 19 years old students find bacteria that "could degrade 70 per cent of the polystyrene into carbon dioxide within two weeks and all of it within three weeks".

SaintCrazy · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:42 pm

That's super cool.

Syobon · **Joined:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:34 am **Posts:** 15027

That's cool but it seems like a waste of polystyrene. One of my professors has talked about how the biggest concern about running out of oil is not energy, since we can theoretically get that from lots of sources, but running out of synthetic material. When you look at it chemically, it seems incredibly wasteful to burn long carbon chains that take so much effort to construct.

As for bacteria living in extreme conditions, those are Archaebacteria, a very interesting class of Prokaryotes that seem very good at adopting to extreme conditions. It is theorized we (Eukaryotes) are actually descended from them.

D-vid · **Posted:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 5:04 am

Syobon wrote:

That's cool but it seems like a waste of polystyrene. One of my professors has talked about how the biggest concern about running out of oil is not energy, since we can theoretically get that from lots of sources, but running out of synthetic material. When you look at it chemically, it seems incredibly wasteful to burn long carbon chains that take so much effort to construct.

Yes. I find it shocking that anyone always only talks about fuel when it comes to oil.
Look around your room and count how many electronic devices you have that are not made out of plastic, for starters.

AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Science is interesting

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