Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2015 December 24

= December 24 =

Removing stains from white clothes with UV cross linking machine
I have a white shirt with various stains on it. I was wondering whether subjecting it to UV light using a laboratory UV cross linking device could be expected to bleach it back to white. The shirt has other colours which I intend not to bleach by having them folded underneath. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.255.234.224 (talk) 16:17, 24 December 2015 (UTC)


 * It would be unlikely to remove every conceivable stain, so it would depend on what the stains are. Sunlight is known to bleach lily pollen (see here, for example) so you could always start by experimenting with sunlight.--Phil Holmes (talk) 16:58, 24 December 2015 (UTC)


 * UV light may degrade some polymers, so you may end up with a crumbly patch and a hole. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:45, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Refraction of particles
How do you demonstrate the refraction of particles? And why do they refract through different mediums anyway? It can't be the same change in speed like for waves?2A02:C7D:B91D:CC00:3538:7270:A1B:B3EF (talk) 16:54, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * See Electron-refractive effect. The atomic structure of crystals acts as a diffraction grating to the electrons.  See DeBroglie wavelength if you don't understand how a particle can have a wavelength. SpinningSpark 18:55, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

How bad is it for a scientist to ignore publications not written in English?
The question above (Share of scientific publications written in English) makes me wonder: how safe is it for a scientist to ignore publications in languages other than English? Could one assume, at least in the natural sciences, that if it cannot be found in English it's either unimportant or non-existent? --Denidi (talk) 17:20, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * In the last 30 or 40 years or so, at least in my field (biomed) I would say yes. There are already plenty of bad journals in English. If you can't even get it in one of those, I'm not going to be paying much attention to you..... Fgf10 (talk) 17:36, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * In mathematics until about 20 years ago many important English language journals accepted papers written in some other language (mostly German or French, but that depended on the journal) though in practice that was taken advantage of fairly rarely. I bet nowadays that option is no longer even offered. Contact Basemetal   here  18:18, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * In geology, I occasionally find interesting stuff about regional geology in local language journals. So over the last few years I've read through useful articles in Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Norwegian, but I would emphasise that it's a very small proportion of the literature that I do read. Mikenorton (talk) 19:39, 24 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Even when articles are not written in English they are often translated, and in any case the abstract at least usually appears in an English version. So an alert scientist is unlikely to miss anything critical. Looie496 (talk) 19:55, 24 December 2015 (UTC)


 * How "bad" is it? We don't answer requests for opinion.  Do you have an actual request for references, Scicurious? μηδείς (talk) 20:17, 24 December 2015 (UTC)


 * I suppose you mean me, not Scicurious, otherwise you are posting on the wrong question. Anyway, although my question lends itself to discussion and personal opinion, it also can be answered, interpreting it reasonably, pointing to information about secondary research. I fail to see how such a question is not adequate for a ref. desk. Denidi (talk) 01:21, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

Tetanic convulsion
Is a tetanic convulsion the same thing as an involuntary tetanic contraction? In other words, is that the right place to redirect the term to? SpinningSpark 18:48, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes to the first question, no to the second. Looking at various on-line medical dictionaries, "tonic spasm" and "tonic seizure" are the most common synonyms.  "Tonic spasm" redirects to Paroxysmal attack (which I'm not sure is the right target), and "tonic seizure" redirects to Tonic-clonic seizure (which seems like a better one).  There's also Convulsion itself and Non-epileptic seizure to consider. Tevildo (talk) 19:29, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
 * ...However the tetanic contraction article was unsourced and full of misinformation, which I've removed. Looie496 (talk) 19:51, 24 December 2015 (UTC)