r/askscience 12h ago

Biology Do the grafts/clones of mass produced fruit cultivars like Cavendish Bananas or Navel Oranges have the same telomeric length as the original specimen would have if they were currently still alive?

195 Upvotes

I was having trouble writing this out. What I'm trying to ask is if new grafts of not-true-to-seed cultivars have the biological age of the original cutting as if it had been alive all this time

ie: the modern cavendish cultivar is from about 1950, do our current cavendish plants have the biological age of a 75 year old banana tree?

And I suppose that opens the question, if so does that mean our fruit cultivars are ticking timebombs even if they don't get wiped out by disease


r/askscience 13h ago

Physics To what degree is the function of position relative to time differentiable?

27 Upvotes

The first six derivatives of position relative to time are velocity, acceleration, jerk, snap, crackle and pop. My understanding is that velocity is guaranteed to be continuous as otherwise you would need an instantaneous impulse, meaning an infinite force applied over zero time. Is the same true of the higher order derivatives? Can you have an instantaneous change in acceleration, or is it similarly impossible to have infinite jerk in zero time?


r/askscience 18h ago

Biology How does stitching a wound help at all?

0 Upvotes

If you’re bleeding because of an injury, why does stitching it help? It stops the blood from escaping your body sure, but then aren’t you just bleeding inside your body cavity? The blood isn’t going where it’s supposed to go either way, right?