Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 March 22

= March 22 =

2 related questions about thought
I've read novels where a character says thinking too hard about relativity or some other difficult subject "made his head hurt." I've also had heard people say that, jokingly or not. Q1). Shoud I take it literally? Q2). Could there be microbes in the brain that cause inflamation and make hard thinking painful and exhausting? Rich (talk) 03:48, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * I think it is just idiom, like saying that something makes one's blood boil. Tension headache can result from being literally tense, for which stress can be a factor. So in a desperate last-minute study of a difficult subject for an impending exam, finding it inscrutable, a student may clench their teeth and at some time get a headache. But then it is not caused directly by the brain activity itself. The blood–brain barrier should defend the brain against invading microbes. If pathogenic microbes nevertheless manage to get in, as sometimes happens, a patient will likely develop encephalitis, which can be debilitating and life-threatening. Early symptoms include headache and confusion. --Lambiam 10:38, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I should add that the brain itself does not contain nociceptors. Brain surgeons poking around in the brain of a conscious and unanesthetized patient may cause all kinds of subjective sensations, but this is not by itself painful. --Lambiam 14:44, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Lapse rate between sub-adiabatic and inversion
I sketched this graph but am unsure what to label the teal vertical line. Does it have a special name? Thanks, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 08:13, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * "Isothermal lapse rate" is used e.g. in the abstract of this article. --Wrongfilter (talk) 09:58, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much. Updated... cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 13:13, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The area between dry adiabatic lapse rate and wet adiabatic lapse rate is marked as neutral. It could be stable or unstable, depending on the humidity. Neutral is a single line, that must be in the area marked as neutral. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:36, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Fair point, thanks. It was too wordy to label ("region with neutral"?) so I just omitted the label. cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 12:29, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Chemical X real or not?
From cartoon references this chemical they can real or not? 2001:44C8:40E2:8DFE:54A:6AF:F2CA:27EA (talk) 08:18, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Chemical X is clearly fictional. Shantavira|feed me 09:44, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * It is a plot device. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:09, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * As with Roger Ramjet and his proton pills, and Mighty Mouse with his super cheese. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:20, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Personality of science deniers
Have any studies been done whether, say, climate change deniers and flat earthers typically share specific personality traits? --Lambiam 14:32, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Somewhat related: The article Anti-vaccine activism may contain relevant links / references.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:42, 22 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The article contains 180 wikilinks and 172 references with 183 external links, but I did not spot anything suggesting any studies of personality traits of anti-vaccine activists. --Lambiam 20:19, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Not sure that there's much on personality traits but this paper may be of interest. Mikenorton (talk) 20:31, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Denialism is the Wikipedia article that should cover that, but it doesn't say anything much about it. Some of the external references though could be of interest to you. Quite a few of them are in it for the money from their audiences, but there's lots of perfectly reasonable people out there who seem to just get this urge to spend time learning more just so they can defend their denial and spread it to the world. NadVolum (talk) 20:57, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * The article Sectarianism may contain some interesting links, eg Collective Narcissim et al. It seems that S Freud (and, by implications, others) were speculating on these internecine dynamics.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 07:17, 23 March 2024 (UTC)


 * PS: Using Google Scholar with suitable query terms seems to bring up useful references on psychological parameters. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 14:05, 23 March 2024 (UTC)