Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 July 2

= July 2 =

Are there internationally recognized scales for (male) body hair and hair color?
Are there internationally recognized scales for (male) body hair and hair color? There is a scale for skin color (Fitzpatrick) but not for hair color (my hairdresser said #6 means "dark blonde" bu I've found also "medium brown") and for normal body hair (I read once I grade hypo ~ III grade hyper but I can't find anything)-- Carnby (talk) 06:33, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

Are Resveratrol and Propranolol Similar in anything
I don't have any significant knowledge in Chemistry and may ask an absurd question.

When I look at the 2D molecule diagrams of both molecules I think I see two benzene rings.

Are these molecules similar in any way from your knowledge?

Thanks. 2A10:8012:F:F548:B1F8:B34F:41AF:8476 (talk) 13:32, 2 July 2023 (UTC)


 * IP editor. You have already identified one way in which the two compounds are "similar" and for a non-chemist that's probably all one needs to say. Both also include OH (hydroxy groups), so that's another point of similarity. However, their behaviour in biological systems (and hence usefulness as drugs) are very different, as the articles describe. Professional organic chemists formalise chemical similarity between two compounds in terms of something called the Tanimoto coefficient but unfortunately the Wikipedia article on that is too specialist to be of much use to non-experts or even most experts! See also chemical similarity for the basic idea and some reading. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:58, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Incidentally, you can do your own similarity searches in the RSC's large ChemSpider database from this URL. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:08, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Our Chemical similarity article is less-specialized, both in tone and in the specific type of techncial analysis. DMacks (talk) 12:00, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Why is one pea per 1-10 cans or so greener than the rest?
Also why are canned peas often olive green colored, compared to the bright green of frozen peas? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:23, 2 July 2023 (UTC)


 * It's call cooking Dhrm77 (talk) 18:24, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I considered this, but frozen peas are blanched, a vital step before canning, and I don't see how that differs from the heat treatment described at Canning. But maybe it's simply a different amount of cooking and that's the reason. Marrowfat peas makes a slight suggestion about selecting the bright green peas for export markets and putting the less good-looking ones in cans, but that may not be relevant. Card Zero  (talk) 18:53, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Even when peas are blanched, there is no cooking involved. Blanching is supposed to a be quick, and halted before the cooking process start to change the chemical composition of whatever you are blanching. The change in color reflects a chemical change that is caused by the cooking. Dhrm77 (talk) 14:26, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The primary purpose of blanching is to inactivate the enzymes responsible for enzymatic browning. These enzymes are proteins, and are inactivated by the protein denaturation effected by heating. This is an irreversible chemical change. There is no precise definition of the term "cooking", but note that our article on blanching writes, "... finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water ... to halt the cooking process". This formulation implies a point of view in which the cooking process has already started. Although our article only mentions the process as a treatment prior to freezing, drying, or canning, it is also used as a step prior to fully cooking green vegetables in order to attain a result that is a brighter green. Then keeping the food immersed in boiling water for up to a minute is not unusual. By the end, the cooking process has definitely started. This is not considered parboiling, not only because the purpose is different, but also because parboiling is not terminated by shocking the food to halt the cooking quickly. --Lambiam 18:45, 3 July 2023 (UTC)


 * In the UK, canned peas have artificial colouring added in the last stage of canning. This is especially noticable in canned marrowfat peas (probably peculiar to the British diet). Alansplodge (talk) 08:58, 4 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I don't really know about blanching peas, but I have blanched chestnuts (for the purpose of peeling them more easily), in the past. And what happens when you do that is that the outer layer is cooked while the inner part is still uncooked. I suppose that if you blanch peas very fast, the skin gets cooked while the "meat" stays uncooked, and since the skin is basically translucent, the color comes from the meat, it would explain that they stay bright green in the process. But I suppose colors can also be added. Dhrm77 (talk) 19:28, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Climate questions
In Köppen climate classification: --40bus (talk) 19:01, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Is there any area in Europe with Cw or Dw climate?
 * 2) Is there any place in British Isles with Group D climate?
 * 3) Is there any place in Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica with below-freezing average high temperature in coldest month?
 * 4) Is there any place in Eastern Europe outside Russia with average low temperature below -10 C outside mountains?
 * 5) Is there any place in Western Europe with Ds climate?
 * Did you ask this before? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:47, 2 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Does this map of Europe from the Köppen climate classification article help? 136.54.99.98 (talk) 00:08, 3 July 2023 (UTC)


 * In short:
 * No;
 * Yes, Dalwhinnie (isotherm 0°C for D climates);
 * Yes, Bouvet Island;
 * Yes, Rovaniemi;
 * Yes, Mount Olympus peak (isotherm 0°C for D climates).--Carnby (talk) 06:03, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

For 1. Why there are no such places? For 3. And are there any such places for all Southern Hemisphere places which have group D climate? For 4. Finland is not in Eastern Europe. Are there any such places in Ukraine? --40bus (talk) 11:53, 3 July 2023 (UTC)


 * 1. Because Europe is on the West side of Eurasia and Cw climate types are more typical of the east side of continents; Köppen described them as having a summer month with 10 times the amount of rain of the driest winter month and AFAIK there's no place in Europe with this feature;
 * 3. Nope, the coldest South American locations are all Cfc (Ushuaia, Punta Arenas); there are no vast landmass to enable the formation of strong winter anticyclones;
 * 4. Yes, Luhansk, Dfa.-- Carnby (talk) 06:44, 4 July 2023 (UTC)
 * 3. There surely are some Df and Ds (but not Dw) places in South America. And this map shows some areas in Lesotho with Dfc and Dwc climates. --40bus (talk) 17:40, 4 July 2023 (UTC)
 * If we consider 0°C as the isotherm fo D climates (remember the original definition by Köppen was -3°C) there are patches of Ds and Df in Argenitina (but not in Chile!) on the Andes slopes; Dw should be present also in South Africa but it's not visible on the map.-- Carnby (talk) 06:15, 6 July 2023 (UTC)