Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2011 November 25

= November 25 =

MAP2K1 enzyme
MAP2K1 is also referred to as MEK1.

I can understand why it's called MAP2K1, from "mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1".

But where does the acronym of MEK1 come from? What does the "E" stand for?  Chzz  ► 00:40, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Could it stand for "extracellular"? 67.169.177.176 (talk) 00:46, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * As far as I know, MEK is a fusion of "MAPK" and "ERK" - "mitogen-activated protein kinase" and "extracellular signal regulated kinase." I don't think each letter in MEK stands for something of its own, but instead represents the combination of the MAPK and ERK acronyms. You can see it referred to as such in the introduction of this paper - "MAPK/ERK(MEK)" Rishi.bedi (talk) 02:06, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Mmm, probably. I thought it might be that; I just wondered if anyone knew of any official reason. I can't find one. Doesn't matter, anyway; just curious. Thanks.  Chzz  ► 08:57, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Where does money come from?
How is it at first allocated to people based on their 'worth'? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.95.14.12 (talk) 03:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Money is "created" today by central banks such as the Federal Reserve System of the U.S. and Europe's European Central Bank. They "create" money through something called Monetary policy; that article has an explanation for how central banks create money supply and how money is allocated.  -- Jayron  32  03:50, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * But, of course, you asked how it was first created. I can think of two ways:


 * 1) The money has a value of it's own, even if only decorative. Coins made out of precious metal are one example, gems are another.


 * 2) The money doesn't have any inherent value of it's own, but enables the bearer to trade it in for something of value. US dollars could formerly be exchanged for set amounts of gold and silver, for example.


 * How it was allocated when first created is your other question. Perhaps when a king wanted to buy something they might give out either gold coins or certificates that could later be turned in for gold.  The person who got the coins of certificate might not have traded them in and melted down the coins, but traded them to somebody else for something else.  In this manner it enters circulation.  StuRat (talk) 04:12, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * If the OP was more interested in "first created" meaning the historical first money ever created, then Wikipedia does have an article called History of money. -- Jayron  32  04:15, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * If they're interested in social distribution of wealth over the history of civilisation then mode of production might help. Fifelfoo (talk) 04:25, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * They may also be interested in how people do it in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea here.  Sean.hoyland  - talk 04:34, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * We don't launder money here, but we do sweep it up... -- Jayron  32  04:48, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * See Bitcoin for a snapshot. Wnt (talk) 15:48, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Two more places you might want to look at: Fiat money - money created and issued by the state. Fractional reserve banking - the means by which the money supply can be increased by banks. By & large, money comes from one or other of these two sources. Questions of what money is worth, and how it is allocated are more complex that I have time (or knowledge) to deal with in this answer; but oth depend on market mechanisms. --

pH:
As we have read in this documents that the definition of pH is Negative logrithium of the activity of hydrogen ion.

But as per my openion: Therotical caluculation of pH based on activity is impossible and the activity could not be measured directly. So, the definition of pH could be determind according to the concentration of hydrogen ion. with out activity cofficent, activity can not be calculate.

Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.144.18.133 (talk) 06:22, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I deleted your contact info so's you don't get spammed. Now, what was your question? 67.169.177.176 (talk) 07:33, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * The article pH describes how to measure and calculate both pH and activity. Do you have any questions about it? --Colapeninsula (talk) 11:16, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Can not eating help cause depression
Dragons flight (talk) 18:32, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry it wasn't appropriate here, but I want to thank the people who responded (: Be— —Critical  20:16, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Which Place
Which place in the world averages closest 14 degrees Celsius (year round)?Curb Chain (talk) 11:24, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * How about the Channel Islands, with temps that average between 8°C and 19°C: ? StuRat (talk) 16:40, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * The are bound to be lots of caves where the temperature sticks near that value and never varies by more than a couple of degrees. Looie496 (talk) 16:56, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Producers of a lot of traditional cheeses claim that they rigidly adhere to  this cave temperature to matures their rounds of compressed stale  milk curd  - commonly known as cheese. is this the origin of your question? Brandy benefits from similar maturing conditions.--Aspro (talk) 17:10, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * There are many parts of the Temperate zone that would average 14 degrees over the course of a year. See also Köppen climate classification.--Shantavira|feed me 17:25, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Auckland cites an average high of 18.9 C, and an average low of 11.3. My (very quick) search didn't turn up anything closer to averaging 14 C. Pfly (talk) 07:25, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Budgeting for things that haven't yet been invented
Has any work been done on predicting the costs of cybernetic enhancements, nanotechnology etc. to consumers once they become available, for the purposes of savings/investment planning to be an early adopter? Neon Merlin  13:31, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * There are quite a lot of unknown unknowns in those particular technologies, so I don't think accurate numbers could be predicted. Why not aim for "being very rich" and have your options open, if that's important to you? The first generation of such things — which have the bear the brunt of the R&D costs more than the later generations — are no doubt going to be pricy. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:32, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * A decision whether to proceed or not with developing and marketing a novel product technology should be supported by a Business case study. This can be supported by formal cost/benefit and risk analyses. They will be needed if one needs to raise capital for a major new enterprise by distributing a Prospectus (finance) to potential investors. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:54, 25 November 2011 (UTC)


 * In many cases, yes, but I don't think that's the case when one is talking about technology that is still 20 years away. If there are R&D plans for that they are quite far off, probably part of general strategic goals of companies big enough to support speculative R&D on that scale.--Mr.98 (talk) 03:02, 26 November 2011 (UTC)