Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2020 January 15

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January 15

Lye & metal

Is it true that a bottle of Drano could do fantastic damage to a statue made of aluminum/brass/bronze, perhaps even to the level of its collapse? Temerarius (talk) 00:36, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Sodium hydroxide solution certainly does dissolve aluminium, or zinc. Brass or bronze may have enough copper to still remain intact. Also pouring a liquid on a statue will likely have it mostly run off. You would have to dam it up some how to keep it dissolving. Also it depends how big a statue it is, as one bottle will only dissolve so much. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 01:04, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

tick bite

This is clearly a request for medical advice as it contains a clear request for diagnosis. Please seek the advice of a medical professional. Random users at Wikipedia are not supposed to look at pictures and diagnose possible medical conditions --Jayron32 13:01, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Actually, not a request for a diagnosis, but a request on where to go to get a diagnosis. — kwami (talk) 01:11, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

A medical doctor. Start with your general practitioner or family doctor, and follow their advice. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:21, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Bugs, I don't know where Kwami's friend is, but did you see that they already did that stuff? They need a specialist, and in the US, getting to see one often requires a referral from your PCP, and that itself can be quite hard unless you know exactly what to ask for. So you have to research the illness yourself, which is what Kwami was trying to do here. Kwami, you might try Reddit. 2601:648:8202:96B0:0:0:0:DF95 (talk) 08:27, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

If his family doctor doesn't know someone to refer him too, then he should find another family doctor. Trying to use the internet for a "diagnosis" is foolish. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:03, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

If a patient was occasionally "hearing voices", they might need to narrow it down before seeing a specialist. The problem could be dental work picking up a radio station, a defective hearing aid, audio hallucinations, thin walls, or a heating duct. Somehow a family doctor doesn't seem very useful in distinguishing these cases. NonmalignedNations (talk) 13:58, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Prejudging the family doctor does no one any good. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:34, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Bugs, the issue in the US is that there are rules imposed by insurance companies about when primary care providers (family doctors) are allowed to give out referrals. They can give it if you specifically ask, but otherwise they can be under rather severe constraints. (Similarly under some state laws iiuc, ob/gyn's are allowed to refer you to abortion providers if you ask, but they are not allowed to bring it up themselves). So it helps if you do enough research to know the possibilities before going in. Also, those pictures aren't enough for a diagnosis, which would likely involve blood tests. They give enough info to describe the symptoms, which is helpful. 2601:648:8202:96B0:0:0:0:DF95 (talk) 09:58, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

How badly does the OP want to get the problem solved? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:15, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

medicine myths newsletter

This was posted on the Wikiversity:Help desk. "Hi, There is a doctor who runs a newsletter abouth medicine myths. He shows with proofs and articles why some myths are just that: myths. I received his newsletter but then I cancelled the subscription because I was receiving too many e-mails (not from him but in general). I need to obtain some info I had read in the past. I cannot remember his name. Do you have a clue who this doctor may be? As I said, I need to re-read one article by him... Thanks so much, Leonardo Cardillo — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leonardo T. Cardillo (talk • contribs) 08:49, 15 January 2020 (UTC)"[1] Can anyone help out with this? --mikeu ^talk 15:08, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps if you could give us more information on what this specific article entailed, we may be able to find the article. This may equally elusive to finding said doctor, yet more helpful. Anton. 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:50, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

@Leonardo T. Cardillo: what was the article topic? --mikeu ^talk 17:46, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

There was a non-medical doctor (PhD) Simon Singh who regularly wrote about holistic medicine myths and debunked them. Many people complained that he was pretending to be a medical doctor, but he repeatedly said that was a lecturer, not an MD. 135.84.167.41 (talk) 17:20, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

I am pretty sure the Doctor is from England. Or US. One of the myths he talked about is reiki. Leonardo T. Cardillo (talk) 21:51, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

That might be Stephen Barrett who has the site Quackwatch. There's an article Reiki Is Nonsense. --mikeu ^talk 23:25, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

"That might be Stephen Barrett who has the site Quackwatch. There's an article Reiki Is Nonsense. --mikeu talk 23:25, 15 January 2020 (UTC)" -> Exactly!!! That is what is was lookig for!!!! Thank so so so so much!!! --Leonardo T. Cardillo (talk) 16:13, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

badscience.net ? Greglocock (talk) 22:36, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

I was also going to suggest Ben Goldacre. --ColinFine (talk) 23:38, 16 January 2020 (UTC)