What is the sequence of energy utilization from protein, lipids, carbohydrates, which comes first, second and third for providing energy for our body?

Answered Oct 26

The first option is to burn glucose, because it is the least complex, and more direct.

If you run short on glucose, you have a store of glycogen in your liver and muscles. Glycogen is made of linked glucose monomers, which can be separated and burned.

You would also use other sugars, such as lactose, which take a bit more energy input to do.

Next, you would burn lipids. These are disassembled into 2-carbon units.

Last, you would start burning proteins. This may be a bad thing, for a couple of reasons. You need to get rid of the excess nitrogen, which takes resources. And, ultimately, you would start cannibalising things like your muscle tissue. In a starvation scenario, your body would be simultaneously burning tissue proteins, and using those carbon skeletons to manufacture glucose to send to the brain, which can only use glucose.

What elements differentiate the amino acids of a protein from the sugars of a carbohydrate?

Answered Oct 25

Carbohydrates and lipids are all CHO, which includes Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. These can be in different proportions, depending on the specific molecule.

Amino acids, by definition, have an amine group, which includes a Nitrogen. They all have an N on their backbone, and some have an N on the side chain. Cysteine and Methionine have a Sulfur on the side chain.

A few enzymes use an amino acid with Selenium instead of Sulfur.

What are the best biochemistry videos for the USMLE Step 1?

Answered Oct 25

There isn’t just one best channel, but I have compiled listings for university students at:

Resources For Science Students

There are various YouTube channels, plus other videos, which I have personally checked, and are good for students in various biological fields. There are also links to other academic sites in these fields.

Please feel free to message me with any possible additions to this directory.

Can the DNA remain in a girl after an abortion?

Answered Oct 25

Yes. It is called fetal microchimerism.

Material from the foetus can pass through the placenta, into the mother. This can result in ongoing cell lines which are based on that foetus, with a genome based on both parents, so different to the mother’s own genome. These cell lines can persist for the rest of the woman’s life.

No, you cannot grow a new foetus from these cells.

Will abuse continue in every relationships the abuser enters into?

Answered Oct 24

Yes. They are abusers. It’s what they do. It’s who they are.

They abused someone before getting involved with you? They will abuse you.

There is nothing so special about you that it will change an abuser into a nice person.

They abused you, and then moved on to another partner? They will abuse that person.

There is nothing so special about the next person that it will change the abuser into a nice person.

Sure, there may be a temporary period of acting nice to lure you in, or to lure in the next victim. But that is all a game, just to manipulate you/them into getting emotionally invested.

Then, the abuser shows her/his true colours. Which stay true with each and every partner they will ever have.

Once an abuser, always an abuser.

What did it take for you to finally leave an abusive relationship?

Answered Oct 24

Real conversation:

Me: “We have had these arguments over and over and over. I do not consent to anything being stuck up my anus. I will never consent to anything being stuck up my anus.”

Idiot: (With stone-cold personality-disordered expression) “It’s going to happen”.

Me: “You need to decide if you can be happy in a relationship where that does not happen, because, if you can’t, then the relationship is over right now”.

Idiot: “Whine! Whine! Whine! Oh gawd, I am a victim of you and your hangups! Whine! Whine! Whine!”

Me: “The relationship is now terminated”.

So, at that age and point in life, the breaking point was the idiot directly stating the intent to sexually assault me. The whole “relationshit” was about five months of gradually escalating conflict up to then.

An important point was the choice of words: “It’s going to happen”, as if a violent sexual assault was an event that just inevitably “happens” without either party having any control, or any responsibility.

I really should have bailed out before that, due to the person’s generally obnoxious, negative, controlling attitude. In retrospect, the red flags were there right from the beginning.

On the bright side, that situation helped to cure my expectations of rationality in other people. Sexual relationships are a major focal point of their senses of entitlement, and belief that they can do any bad behaviour they want, without any negative consequences. Many people seriously believe that, a sexual relationship (or even a platonic “friendshit”) is literally a license to commit ongoing acts of violent crime.

This is also important for anyone evaluating prospective partners. Vital points include evaluating their senses of entitlement, and also looking for any fixations on particular sex acts, fetishes, etc. Because they will never stop pushing those fixations onto you.

The anal obsession seems to be quite common, and they will keep it up for weeks, months, and even years, making the relationship into one long argument about it. When they get sufficiently frustrated and tired of arguing, there is a high risk of physical violence.

Regardless of the particular form of abuse, as long as the relationship is going on, the abuser simply cannot grasp that the target has the right or ability to leave. This includes situations where the target is not in any way financially or materially dependent on the abuser, and can even be a situation where the abuser is dependent.

After you terminate the relationship, you should cut off all contact with the abuser. Because any conversation will be all about trying to manipulate you into getting re-involved.

When I scan over local and national news headlines, and see something like, “Woman found dead in her home, stabbed fifty times”, my first guess is that the perpetrator was someone known to the victim, and most likely an estranged spouse or partner.

Does female privilege exist?

Answered Oct 24

Yes, and it can even be used against other females.

The first thing that comes to mind is violence. I have actually heard the following:

  • “I’ve heard of men beating their children, but I’ve never heard of a woman doing that, so you are lying”.
  • “If you said that your father beat you, I would automatically believe that. But, since you say your mother beat you, then you are lying”.
  • “If you think that your mother beat you, then you are dangerous and need to check into a mental hospital, and don’t come out until you have learned that women never do that!”
  • “You’re going to tell me what you did to make your poor, innocent mother beat you!”
  • “No male should ever hit a female, because males are all larger and stronger than females”. (Gets really quiet and nervous when asked why it shouldn’t just be “Nobody should ever initiate violence against anyone”, or when asked about a 30-year-old female vs. a 5-year-old male).
  • A woman who beats her children is actually the innocent victim of a mental illness, while a man who beats his wife is a fully responsible thug.
  • A woman who beats her small child is defending herself from aggression perpetrated by the child.

These things will be hurled at a female abuse survivor, so it is largely about Mommy-Privilege.

Between adults, many women have been trained to feel totally immune to receiving violence. Which can lead to a sense of entitlement to initiate physical aggression, without any fear of the other party defending themselves. This includes entitlement to initiate aggression against both men, and also against other women.

Some other angles:

A male schoolteacher who gets caught for having sex with an underage female student is viewed as a disgusting, predatory paedophile. While a female schoolteacher having sex with an underage male is viewed as showing him a good time, with lawyers, courts, and journalists making excuses, as Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” plays in the background.

Among adults, rape of females is a heinous crime, while rape of males is considered funny.

I have personally known females who directly stated that, false accusations of domestic violence would be a cool way of asserting power and extorting resources. Including false accusations against a platonic friend or acquaintance.

Some countries have policies of never prosecuting known false rape accusations, and false domestic violence accusations.

Most females refuse to care about such accusations, due to the naive assumption of being immune. In reality, all females need to learn about Haley Maxwell, and her false rape accusation which devastated the life of another female.

Child support payments are often ex-wife support payments. You won’t see many men using their kids as a meal ticket.

Alternately, use your kids as a meal ticket via the government welfare system.

Generally, popping out unplanned, impoverished children in a totally irresponsible manner gets you social Mommy Privilege, while a man who irresponsibly fathers children doesn’t get any corresponding privilege.

Use men as proxy weapons to threaten and abuse men, or other females. Including threats of, and actual physical violence.

Military conscription has never, and will never disadvantage females, while males are viewed as cannon fodder.

Workplace conditions, including rates of injury, disability, and fatality, are much worse for working class men.

Don’t feel like working at a job? Get a boyfriend or husband.

Don’t feel like being an independent adult? Feel free to keep living with your mommy and daddy, when you are in your late-20s, or even older, without any social stigma.

The idea that, being female entitles you to financially leech off of males can even extend to entitlement to leech off of other women, including in totally platonic situations. I have personally known individuals with this attitude.

If you desperately need a bottom-of-the-barrel job, females will be hired over males for caring for elderly and disabled people. I have worked in that field, and know what it is like, including the need for male staff. There is also a large difference in social perceptions of men vs. women in that field.

Female-dominated workplaces are bullying-dominated workplaces, with zero recourse for the targets.

Want to manipulate, lie, and/or evade consequences for bad behaviour? Turn on the tears, boo hoo hoo.

Domestically abuse, and even sexually assault another female, and she may be viciously called a liar if she ever dares to speak about it. Which is more common than the above-mentioned Maxwell case.

It helps if you are also white, middle-class, hetero-normative, cisgender, and non-immigrant, as you use your whiny little female privilege to savagely abuse other women and children, while pretending to be the victim.

Children most often killed by mothers

Psychiatry Online

Why don’t we ever talk about abusive mothers?

How do astronauts survive without sex for so long?

Answered Aug 21

OK, here’s how it works.

First, it’s only a problem for the male astronauts. Research based on males between the ages of 13 and 25 shows that, a lack of sex causes a medically dangerous buildup of pressurised semen in the testicles.

So, on the space station, they have a periodic health and safety routine to alleviate this.

Basically, they open the door, and allow all the air to escape, so the entire station depressurises. The vacuum of space then pulls all of the accumulated semen from the astronauts, in one big spooge, thus relieving their painful internal pressure. Then, they close the door and fill the station with air again.

They do this about every three or four months or so.

There have been long-standing but never confirmed rumours that the old Soviet space program’s Mir station didn’t have this procedure, and that a crew member suffered a fatal explosion due to the chronic lack of sexual release.

It’s amazing what you can learn when you ask questions of random strangers on Quora, isn’t it?

To what extent does nature select for simplicity?

Updated Aug 11

Selection tends to be a numerical issue. It is largely about who survives their environment long enough to reproduce efficiently. Which leads to large numbers of progeny and descendants.

Without getting into a debate as to whether they are “really alive”, the most numerous species on the planet are bacteriophages. They are viruses which infect bacteria. They are very small, and relatively simple (although they are actually more complex and elegant than they seem at first).

The next most numerous are bacteria and archaea, which are comprised of single cells. These domains contain a range of species that can survive a very wide range of environments. Each individual species has its own needs, but, as general groups, bacteria and archaea can be found in many places that more complex life forms cannot.

Simplicity vs complexity relates to the amount of time and energy that is required for replicating yourself. A human being takes nine months, while bacteria have a theoretical minimum of 20 minutes (although, in reality, it tends to be somewhat longer, like maybe an hour, depending on conditions). The required energy and nutrients are vastly less per new bacterium.

Some species can evolve towards being more simple. If you are a microbe in an environment where certain needed molecules are plentiful, then you can lose the genes that code for enzymes to make those molecules yourself. Then, replicating yourself takes less time and resources, so you are now more efficient.

Microbes were around for a very long time before humans, and will continue long after we are gone.

Some multicellular organisms are also advantaged by relative simplicity. There are far, far more insects than there are mammals, for example. Also, their progeny are independent immediately, rather than needing years of parenting, sexual development, etc.

Can we say that the relationship between a bacteriophage and a bacteria is parasitism?

Updated Jul 13

Not always.

Some phages may be aggressively lytic (such as T4), and are possibly just parasitic.

However, phages that are slower-acting, and are present for an extended time period without killing the host, may have some kind of beneficial contribution.

The CTXφ bacteriophage infects Vibrio cholerae. The phage DNA is spliced into the host chromosome (as a “prophage” which isn’t necessarily making any new particles at the moment).

CTXφ contains the gene which codes for the cholera toxin, That toxin is what induces a human to have massive diarrhea during a cholera infection. That spews out lots of Vibrio cholerae, thereby helping the host to spread.

There is the Ff family (f1, fd, or M13), which keeps its genome separate, but secretes copies of itself without immediately lysing the host. I have read a couple of obscure mentions of some metabolic changes in the host. Although I don’t know if they are beneficial in any way.

I think another possibility is Lambda λ, which integrates as a prophage, which protects against further infection by any more Lambda λ copies. I suspect that maybe it also protects against other, more aggressive phage species.

Also, phages might be beneficial in the big picture. When prophages are being copied, the process isn’t perfect, and sometimes short segments of adjacent host DNA sequences are accidentally packed into new phage copies. This may result in horizontal gene transfer. That genetic information from the dead host is then injected into other bacteria.