Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 June 18

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June 18

Terminal dehydration mechanism

I looked for this on Google, but all the results I saw were too technical for me to understand.

If you die of terminal dehydration, what's typically the reason of death? Is it dehydration itself (and in particular, what fatal effect does extreme dehydration cause), or is it some side thing, like a simple illness (e.g. the sufficiently dehydrated immune system can't function properly), or urea poisoning (you don't have enough water to urinate, so you build up urea to a fatal level), or something else? Nyttend (talk) 01:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

I dont have expert medical knownledge. Good chance someone else can answer this way better but i think i have the basics right and you wrote that you didnt want tomuch detail anyway: It depends on your body's condition, training and your surrounding. In a hot area you will fail to regulate your body temperature, overheat and then multiple vital organs may fail. If you are used to living in a hot desert your body will adapt and you likely already have allot of experience with dehydration. So you may survive a level of dehydration that would kill anyone else even in an earlier stage. In a mild climate your kidneys will likely stop working first and as a result you slowly become "toxic", which will affect other organs. So the typical reason of death is some (or multiple) Organ dysfunction(s). Because many organs have a vital function its hard to pin the cause down to one. --Kharon (talk) 02:35, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Popular Science magazine says likely liver or kidney failure. Rmhermen (talk) 16:58, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Giordano Bruno crater

Per our article, Giordano Bruno (crater) is on the far side of the Moon "that always faces away from Earth", so how five Canterbury monks could have observed the crater's formation? Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 07:01, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

There is no actual evidence that they did, but the location of the crater isn't the real issue. It's just behind the limb, and from our article "At this location it lies in an area that can be viewed during a favorable (sic) libration". Also, debris would be thrown much higher, out past the limb, even if the impact itself wouldn't be visible. Fgf10 (talk) 08:02, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who.

Or favourable (sic). ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC) Not what the article says, so would be an incorrect quote. Do you have anything factual to add to my answer? Fgf10 (talk) 17:31, 18 June 2018 (UT Can you restrain yourself from gratuitously provoking Americans in an otherwise useful answer? --Trovatore (talk) 17:36, 18 June 2018 (UTC) What on earth did I say that was a gratuitous provocation?! I gave a correct and useful answer to the OP. Is that against the Trump ethos or something? Fgf10 (talk) 18:37, 18 June 2018 (UTC) Favorable is not (sic) in America. I'm not offended but some might be. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:47, 18 June 2018 (UTC) Really? That's it? I would expect Americans do to exactly the same the other way around. That's how language works. Christ, you people need to grow some thicker skin. Fgf10 (talk) 19:19, 18 June 2018 (UTC) Probably only the unusually nationalistic would be offended. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:43, 18 June 2018 (UTC) Or would feel the need to say (sic) after an acceptable spelling. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:45, 18 June 2018 (UTC) It's not acceptable in Fgf10's language, which is British English. Why do you assume that he/she must be familiar with all spellings in a foreign language, namely American English? {The poster formerly known as 87.981.230.195} 2.125.75.224 (talk) 14:45, 19 June 2018 (UTC) English is English. It was originally "-or". The Brits changed it.[1] ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:44, 19 June 2018 (UTC) Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? often fails to add anything factual or supported by references. I've gotten used to it by always considering the source. 128.229.4.2 (talk) 14:33, 25 June 2018 (UTC) I'm citing facts, and you're citing zilch. Likewise considering the source. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:05, 25 June 2018 (UTC)