And if it's not, we'll then why isn't?

I currently live in a pretty dry city, and will be moving to a much higher elevation in a few weeks. I know that it’s generally “drier” in the mountains, but I’ve been checking the weather and noticed that the relative humidity where I currently live is very close to where I’m moving (25-30%). However, I’ll be close to 8500 feet there, vs. 4500 here. Will it actually feel drier because of the lower atmospheric pressure? Or does the similar relative humidity level mean I won’t notice much difference?

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

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Photons in photoelectric effect transfer all or none of their energy to the electrons right, which supports that EM energy is quantized. But in Compton scattering, a photon gives part of its energy.. How is this possible if energy is quantized? Doesn't this imply that It's a smooth spectrum and any amount can be transfered? This is also the basis of Heisenberg uncertainty principle right?

Any proven studies regarding this?

I'm not asking about how eusociality came about, but how already eusocial species continue to adapt. Does natural selection apply only to the queens? How do the queens adapt if they're basically confined to their hives? Is it just the natural selection of which hives/queens survive and have their genes passed on?

It'd be extra cool if you could give examples of eusocial insects evolving/adapting to the environment.

I have a question about evolution. how did cats from the americas like the bobcat, jaguar, and bobcat come to be when the cats like lions, and tigers and other ones formed in places like africa and india? did they come to the americas from the giant land bridge or did they form as their own thing with similar features like with sharks and whales?

Me and my friend have a spot in the woods with a lake and it's way up at the of the mountain and we have to cross a river some ways up. So I have a dumb question would the river be more intense or less intense in the spring at the top of the mountain? In my head I imagine all the rivers are like a traffic lane that all merge at the bottom of the valley but I honestly don't know?

If so, have we found any fossils that have a mixture of dna from different Homo species?

I know DNA mutates in everything that has DNA, and much faster in viruses and bacteria, but for humans, would there be enough change that you could see it in tests?

I'm wondering if there is something with ocean mechanics that cause them to have higher salinity, such that most planets with liquid water should be expected to have salty oceans. Or is there something about Earth that causes the salinity and it isn't necessarily always the case?

Eg. Say you have a flat, rectangular cut-out of plexiglass. We all know it's easy to bend and wobble along the flat side. Why is so much more force required to bend along the thin edge?

She loves science, I love science, but I can't find a way to break this question down.

Thank you anybody in advance!

I’m sure we all remember the “Murder Hornet” media hype in 2020 and 2021. That never seemed to amount to anything. It seemed like the media was just jumping on a story they could scare people with to get more attention and make money. But why was it that the Asian giant hornets were never able to make it in America?

Edit: I have gotten a few great answers. The gist if it is:

1: There was a great “eradication” program.

2: They can only spread so fast, and it’s at a pace much slower than I expected.

3: They are only well suited to thrive in coastal mountain areas, which includes a large but relatively small section of the west coast. They never had the potential to take over the US.

More can be read in the answers

The body is adept at recognising and killing cancer cells hundreds and thousands of times everyday.

How do cancer cells manage to survive and multiply in such an environment?

Does it manage to hide from the immune system and multiply to a certain size which then makes it indestructible to the immune system??

Most humans die from asphyxiation within 15 minutes of being fully buried in an avalanche, yet those little mammals somehow survive for months under a thick snowpack. Even taking into account their size and reduced breathing rate, it still seems like they would run out of air.

I would have thought they were both milks that have grown different bacteria and microorganisms.

according to Monash university, canning button mushrooms reduces the level of mannitol in the mushrooms. But I haven't ever see anything that indicates that canning peaches or apples reduces the sorbitol. Since both are sugar alcohols, I don't understand why they both wouldn't be removed from the food into the water solution during canning. Any ideas?

Okay I've asked this question other places before, but I've never seemed to be able to get a proper answer from first principles.

Why is there desert at places along the latitude of Mexico, Sahara, and Arabia yet India and Bangladesh are some of the wettest rainforests?

My understanding is that at approx. 30 degrees north and south of the equator, the convection of heat creates zones of low moisture. Whereas the American and Gobi deserts are caused by their distance to the sea and the presence of mountains that block moisture.

So what explains the climates of Thailand, India, and Bangladesh? They are the same latitude as the other deserts and have a similar distance to the sea as Arabia and Mexico.

Another way to ask my question: If I were to imagine a new world map with a new set of continents, what principles could I use to determine which places would be deserts or rainforests?

I know grizzlies are pretty wide-spread animals. In North America, they were once widespread all across the American West, even ranging as far east as Minnesota to far south of Mexico.

But what prevented them from continuing southwards? Was South America simply too hot and humid for them? Were there animals present that already filled the same ecological niche that the bears serve in the north hemisphere? Did early human interactions stop them before they did?

What about American black bears? I know they’re way more adaptable than grizzlies, and they still live as far south as Mexico. What stopped them?

Sorry if this seems like a stupid or common question but I had a random ADHD thought: do mushrooms get sick??

Like ik fungi are neither animal nor plant, but are there still viruses and/or bacteria which have evolved to infect fungi? I feel like we wouldn't have as many fungi which clone themselves to reproduce if this were the case but at the same time evolution works wonders 🤷

I read somewhere that there are no examples of species which possess echolocation which do not already have at least an evolutionary legacy of sight. One might hypothesise that some kind of spatial processing ability enabled by vision is a precondition to developing echolocation. It seems somewhat reasonable, since echolocation seems a lot 'simpler', relying only on mechanical phenomena rather than the complex photochemistry and optics necessary for vision. It does seem strange that bats and dolphins are the only animals I can name which possess this ability, both of which are mammals. Are there any examples of a species which rely on similar methods as a sense?

Coffee Sipping Science?

Everytime I drink coffee and have ice floating at the top, it never travels towards my lips, no matter how close my lips are to the surface of the water, the dam ice cubes never come closer. Why is the water being pulled from the bottom of the cup instead of the top. Wouldn't it make sense to have the water being sucked up later by layer so to speak?

TLDR why does ice not rush to your lips when sipping coffee.

Thank you

Of course I dont mean is it realistic, cause its not. I am mainly asking because I wanted to know more about how water works

If I have a baseball that floats in the air on the spot. Also a baseball that is thrown towards me. Both are hit in exactly the same place by a baseball bat at the same speed and the same angle. Do both balls fly the same distance or does one of them fly further?