Perhaps silly question. Some say cordless phone emit radiation. If this is true, would it work to surround the base with aluminum foil as a way to block it?

Tagged it physics cause I’m assuming it’s at least a physics thing. But yeah, whenever I’m in an elevator I can’t do anything on my phone, and the second the elevator dings and opens it goes back to normal. What’s going on?

What conditions must be met or what is the reason for a tree to shed its leaves (seasonally)?

I ask myself this because I observe that the trees do this at different times. The plum tree in the garden, for example, is always the first to do so, both in spring and in fall. While the cherry tree always takes the longest.

Covid 19 was new and several coronaviruses and flu viruses are new in my short living memory. Presumably the old ones havent gone away completely and are still circulating now and again. Is humanity doomed to be more ill every passing decade?

I am visiting northern New England fro southern Europe and I am wondering if the huge quantities of road salt spread all winter long have a detrimental effect on the ecosystems around, a non observable effect or no effect at all? Thank you for the answers

Do our mitochondria die off, then if we rest and drink some Gatorade do they regenerate? Sorry if this is a silly question.

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I just saw a Youtube short, showing the damage to the wheels of the Mars Curiosity rover. In it, the creator stated that Curiosity is the size of an SUV, but uses milimeter-thick aluminum for wheels. Why do we not use some kind of pliable material like rubber to shield the wheel? Like okay, weight is money in astronautics, but when you're sending a literal ton of material to Mars, what's a few pounds between friends?

Hi. I don't know if this is the right sub, but if it is, then I just wanna know what a quantum computer is.

I have heard this terminology quite often and there are always news about breakthrough advancements, but almost nothing seems to affect us directly.

How is quantum computing useful? Will there be a world where I can use a quantum computer at home for private use? How small can they get in size? And have they real practical uses for gaming, AI etc.?

Thanks.

There's so much media and information online about quantum particles, and quantum entanglement, quantum computers, quantum this, quantum that, but what does the word actually mean?

As in, what are the criteria for something to be considered or labelled as quantum? I haven't managed to find a satisfactory answer online, and most science resources just stick to the jargon like it's common knowledge.

I calculated with basic math that the Earth will reach the outer limit of the habitable zone at the same time the sun will become a red giant. It seems the solar system is so perfectly balanced for us in many ways. Google says Venus isn't drifting but doesn't explain why. My thought was we could planet hop inwards as they drift but that seems like a far fetched impossible fantasy. Why isn't Venus drifting like Earth?

Most foods and common cooking ingredients have a pH < 7. Tofu seems to be among the minority of basic foods. Why don't humans eat more basic foods? Is there something about how humans evolved to the diet they have or life in general which causes the living matter we eat to be generally acidic?

I think I remember seeing a video or gif of a Tardigrade “playing” with a bit of moss. But I could be misremembering…

Obviously, since there's a physical medium storing the information (memory B-cells), it can't be literally infinite. By "reasonably infinite" I mean that it can store as many diseases as a human being can encounter in a life-time.

This is flared as "Human Body", but "Medicine", "Microbiology", "Cellular Biology" or "Biology" would also fit.

In San Francisco we were issued a tsunami warning, which was soon cancelled. Why was that?

Was it because it *could* have caused a tsunami, but based on the particular earthquake didn't? I'm imagining maybe it depends on how much earth was actually displaced, but I'm not sure.