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Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.
This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.
The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.
Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!
You are eligible to join the panel if you:
Are studying for at least an MSc/MA/MPhil or equivalent degree in the natural or social sciences, AND,
Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.
OR have flair in /r/Science
Those studying towards undergraduate/integrated masters degrees must be in their final year.
All panel applications are at moderator discretion.
Instructions for formatting your panelist application:
Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).
State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)
Succinctly describe your area of research or expertise in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)
Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?
Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience or another subreddit which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in reddit.
Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that contain citations so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.
Here's an example application:
Username: /u/VeryLittle
General field: Physics
Specific field: AstroPhysics
Particular areas of research including historical: Neutron stars.
Education: PhD student.
Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.
You can submit your application by replying to this post.
Today in AskScience we wish to spotlight our solidarity with the subreddits that have closed today, whose operations depend critically on timely communication and input from the admins. This post is motivated by the events of today coupled with previous interactions AskScience moderators have had in the past with the reddit staff.
This is an issue that has been chronically inadequate for moderators of large subreddits reaching out to the admins over the years. Reddit is a great site with an even more amazing community, however it is frustrating to volunteer time to run a large subreddit and have questions go unacknowledged by the people running the site.
We have not gone private because our team has chosen to keep the subreddit open for our readers, but instead stating our disapproval of how events have been handled currently as well as the past.
Hello subscribers of /r/AskScience!
It has been a long time since there has been a meta post from the mods, and I wanted to give an update. The previous top mod /u/TheWalruss has just stepped down, leaving me as the top moderator. I want this subreddit to succeed, and it has always been the moderators as a team that ran things behind the scenes. Because of this the subreddit will continue running as it has.
TheWalruss' life has taken a turn for the better, and he is dedicating his time to life outside of reddit. If you have any questions for either myself or /u/TheWalruss, feel free to speak your mind here. We will both be watching this thread to answer your questions that you have for us.
My goals for this subreddit are to keep quality as high as possible, as well as getting the community involved. Our users and panel members are what make /r/AskScience great. However, we still need your help to keep the subreddit running. If you see something that you think would help, a post or comment that breaks the rules or an addition that could be added to the FAQ page to help let us know!
Remember, our moderators and panelists volunteer a lot of their spare time to /r/AskScience, so please be patient! Our panelists are real-life scientists who strive to answer your questions. This is often a thankless job, so please keep that in mind when replying to them and be courteous.
Current changes to the subreddit
We have updated the wiki to help make it more user friendly. We have included a Quick Start Guide for our new users as well as making the index page more navigation friendly.
Let us know what you think!
Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.
This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.
The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.
Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!
You are eligible to join the panel if you:
Are studying for at least an MSc. or equivalent degree in the sciences, AND,
Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.
Instructions for formatting your panelist application:
Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).
State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)
Succinctly describe your particular area of research in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)
Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?
Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in /r/AskScience itself.
Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that contain citations so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.
Here's an example application:
Username: foretopsail
General field: Anthropology
Specific field: Maritime Archaeology
Particular areas of research include historical archaeology, archaeometry, and ship construction.
Education: MA in archaeology, researcher for several years.
Comments: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.
You can submit your application by replying to this post.
We've made inanimate digital attractions so astounding that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet.
Here's some of our biggest and bestest threads for the past few months:
The Philae lander has successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. AskScience Megathread.
Introducing: AskScience Quarterly, a new popular science magazine by the scientists of reddit!
FAQ Friday: Ask your questions about the Ebola epidemic here!
What have been the major advancements in computer chess since Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997?
How close to Earth could a black hole get without us noticing?
Here's some cool science pictures which make great conversation starters at parties!
Impress your friends with all the knowledge in your noggin!
Hello /r/AskScience users! This post is part of a collaborative effort of over 100 subreddits to give a basic overview of reddit. You'll find lots of information about using the site, along with a few things specific to our community.
Thank you very much for being a valued participant of /r/AskScience.
What is reddit, really?
Don't think of reddit as one giant community. This site is made up of "sub"reddits, which are all their own communities. Every single post you see on this site belongs to its own community, with its own set of users, and with its own set of rules. reddit provides you an easy-to-use interface for managing what posts you see by letting you subscribe or unsubscribe from certain subreddits.
By making an account, you are automatically subscribed to a set of "default" subreddits which are a set of highly popular communities that the administrators of this site feel would give the average person an interesting first experience.
Don't like one or more of these default subreddits? Use the "unsubscribe" button on the sidebar, and start customizing your reddit front page! Find subreddits that interest you. Many subreddits feature lists of "similar subreddits" that will help you find other awesome places to subscribe to. Looking for a subreddit but you just don't know its name? Try /r/findareddit! Finally, try setting up a multi-reddit to categorize your subreddit list even further!
Tips for your account.
See and change your preferences. Customize how many comments show up, what kind of posts show up, and more!
Verify your e-mail. If you don't do this and you lose your password, you will have no way to log back onto that account. Ever. Please do this!
Karma is a point system that lets you know how your submissions or comments are doing. The more karma your post has, the more people have upvoted it. Generally a higher karma count on a post means that the community of that subreddit found your post valuable and interesting. Your karma is logged on your user page on the top right. Please note that self-posts earn you no karma. Only comments and link-posts do.
What is the sidebar?
The "sidebar" is the list of information pertaining to a specific subreddit. At the top you will find a link to submit a post and a link to search the subreddit. It also contains the link to "subscribe/unsubscribe" from that subreddit. Underneath that it generally lists the rules, guidelines, relevant information, similar subreddits, etc.
Note: many mobile reddit apps require you to press a certain button for the sidebar to show up. Every subreddit has a sidebar. Please don't forget to look for it even if your app doesn't immediately show it! Here's an image showing where to find it on common reddit apps.
You should always read the sidebar before submitting a post to any subreddit, and if you don't understand a rule message the moderators to ask. This ensures that your post stays on the subreddit, as rule-breaking posts will likely be removed.
Have a question about a submission to a particular subreddit? Ask the moderators there! Here's an image that shows you where you can typically find the link to message the mods.
Who are moderators? What do they do?
Each subreddit is a community with its own focus. The mods are volunteers who ensure the subreddit stays true to its purpose by enforcing set rules. For example, /r/android is a subreddit dedicated to discussion of the Android operating system. Anything not directly related to Android is removed by its moderators. Similarly, /r/apple is a subreddit dedicated to discussing Apple and its products.
Moderators have the power to approve or remove any comments or submissions made to only the subreddits they moderate. They can also issue a ban for users on their subreddit. Moderators enforce the rules laid out in the sidebar, so if you follow all the rules in the sidebar you should be good!
Who are admins? What do they do?
Meet the admins. The admins are like super-moderators. They have all the abilities of moderators across every subreddit plus more. They are paid employees of the site and they ensure that the site runs smoothly for all users.
The admins are generally hands-off when it comes to individual subreddits, letting the moderators and the community decide how its run. However, the admins will enforce the rules of reddit on every subreddit. Be familiar with these rules. Failure to follow these rules may earn you a sitewide ban, or the closing down of a subreddit.
What is reddiquette?
- reddiquette is an informal set of guidelines to follow before commenting or submitting on reddit. As reddit has grown, certain behaviors have been frowned upon and other behaviors have been encouraged. reddiquette spells out these behaviors so you aren't left wondering why your posts aren't well-received. You might not be banned not following reddiquette, but you will probably be showered in downvotes if you don't.
Help! What happened to my post?
reddit is a huge forum with millions of users. Many posts are made here every day. Many, many posts are made with the intention to spam or harass other users. Other posts just don't fit the subreddit. Moderators have to filter through these posts every day to ensure their subreddit stays on topic and free of hostility. Some moderators use bots to help them report posts, some moderators do it all themselves. Every subreddit is different. If you find your post not showing up in the subreddit, your best bet is to ask the moderators there why it's not showing up. Please note: when you message the moderators, ALL moderators can read it! It's a shared inbox!
- I can still see my post but others say they can't?
Nothing is really removed from reddit, if a mod removes something it is de-listed for others to see. You can still see it with a direct link. - My post was removed because it was spam? What gives? Spam is a tricky subject, reddit has several base rules but much of it is left for moderators to decide. reddit's FAQ has a good section explaining it.
- I can still see my post but others say they can't?
I have a great idea for a subreddit!
- Awesome! Message the moderators so you can talk to them
I have a great idea for reddit as a site!
- Awesome too! Post it in /r/ideasfortheadmins
What if I don't like the moderators or how the subreddit is run?
That's okay, reddit was built to handle just that! First though, make sure that you talk to the moderators of that subreddit just to be sure there aren't any misunderstandings, or if you can't just compromise. Otherwise, make your own community! Here is an excellent guide for starting and moderating your own subreddit.
Moderators are people, too, so if you want your voice heard consider messaging them politely with your concerns. We care about the communities we help run and would hate to see users leave because of something that we can help fix!
What if I need help with something else?
- Try /r/help for general help on reddit. /r/askmoderators can also help you out if you need to ask mods about anything.
I think I found a bug.
- Uh oh. If you are using an application or extension, most have a subreddit you can post in! (/r/RESIssues, /r/alienblue, /r/redditisfun). If you found a bug with reddit itself, post it to /r/bugs (more serious issues should be sent directly to the reddit security team: see the /r/bugs sidebar for contact information.)
Other Subreddits of Note
- Other good subreddits to check out for help with various topics are /r/Modhelp, /r/Modnews, /r/ChangeLog, /r/Blog, and /r/Announcements.
Read more about reddit and how it works.
How /r/AskScience is different
We moderate comments so they stay on topic and accurate
- We do not allow speculation or medical advice to be posted
- We strongly encourage sourcing statements
We manually approve all posts to insure they meet our guidelines and limit repeat questions, so submission don't show up immediately
We have a panel of scientists here to answer questions (sign up here!)
Please read our full guidelines for more information
The new thread is here
Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.
This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.
The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.
Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!
You are eligible to join the panel if you:
Are studying for at least an MSc. or equivalent degree in the sciences, AND,
Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.
Instructions for formatting your panelist application:
Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).
State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)
Succinctly describe your particular area of research in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)
Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?
Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in /r/AskScience itself.
Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that contain citations so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.
Here's an example application:
Username: foretopsail
General field: Anthropology
Specific field: Maritime Archaeology
Particular areas of research include historical archaeology, archaeometry, and ship construction.
Education: MA in archaeology, researcher for several years.
Comments: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.
You can submit your application by replying to this post.
The /r/AskScience community has more than doubled in size in the last five months! The mod team would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new readers and faithful subscribers.
We encourage you to take a look at the AskScience Guidelines to familiarize yourself with our posting policies.
We want to take this opportunity to review AskScience's mission and how you contribute to it. Our goal is to educate people about science by connecting them with experts across a wide array of subject areas.
We rely on our panel of scientists , who provide an incredible range of expertise. However, we also strongly value non-panelist users, who provide many of the answers to the hundreds of questions that we get daily.
As mods we are here to help the community, but it is our subscribers and panelists - you! - who ultimately accomplish our goals.
We strongly believe that for an answer to be good, it must go into some depth of explanation. We emphasize relevant expertise because this subreddit is not about providing isolated information without context. Even factually accurate answers are not necessarily educational.
We ask that anyone contributing a top-level comment consider the following:
• Does your answer demonstrate relevant expertise in the field? Topics should be appropriately explained for a popular audience and should not rely on copied-and-pasted text from websites.
• Are you able to answer follow-up questions on this topic?
• Are you able to provide appropriate sources if requested? By and large this refers to peer-reviewed scientific sources.
If the answer to any of the above is no, we strongly recommend waiting until someone with the relevant expertise the question comes along. However, we still welcome your participation in any discussion that arises, and strongly encourage follow-up questions from anyone interested! We also encourage users to report comments that do not follow our guidelines.
For examples of the level of depth that we want from our answers take a look through our Mods' Choice threads.
Note that our guidelines have been developed with input from the community as we've grown. We strongly value users' experiences and want to offer high quality answers to as many questions as possible.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have about our guidelines, so please leave them below! Thank you for everything you do to make /r/AskScience great!
Scientifically yours,
The AskScience Moderator Team
AskScience wants to celebrate reaching the 2 million subscriber mark today!
Submit your original AskScience themed original artwork as a top-level response in this thread.
All kinds of art are encouraged. Design us a new banner, sing us a song, make a video, draw a picture, start a photoshop battle, create a ridiculous meme, whatever your heart (or cerebral cortex) desires.
Please do not steal anyone's work. Your work must be original. If you contribute anything using open source materials please cite your source.
Prizes include sweet karma, the love and gratitude of science nerds everywhere and we will try find some amazing ways to flair or tag you in AskScience so you can strut around like a glorious peacock.
We will hold this contest open (in contest mode) for the next week. We encourage you to upvote all your favorite submissions and the panel of scientists here will peer-review the submissions and recommend a few winners in some completely made up but highly scientific categories.
If you have any questions please submit them as a response to the call for questions below.
Thank you for making AskScience the best Q&A science forum in the known universe! Have fun!
We have chosen our winners for the 2013 BestOf AskScience! Although we sent out the call for 5 separate categories, we received some excellent nominations in Best Question and Best Answer categories and wanted to recognize them! We have three winners for Best Answer, and four for Best Question, each listed below.
Best Answer:
/u/bluecoconut answered the question posed by /u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix, How long would I have to plug myself into a wall to get the equivalent energy to eating a full day's worth of food? which was nominated by /u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix.
/u/wazoheat answered the question posed by /u/swapnil1499, Why can't we predict weather accurately? which was nominated by /u/StringOfLights.
/u/feedmahfish answered the question posed by /u/blumelon, Do insects and other small animals feel pain? How do we know? which was nominated by /u/unsympathetic_troll
Best Question:
/u/theonewhoknock_s posed the question, When a photon is created, does it accelerate to c or does it instantly reach it? which was nominated by /u/wazoheat.
/u/Spidooshify posed the question, You have three cookies. One emits alpha radiation, one emits beta radiation and one emits gamma radiation. You have to eat one, put another in your pocket and put a third into a lead box. Which do you put where? which was nominated by /u/coniform.
/u/nordee posed the question, Given that each person's DNA is unique, can someone please explain what "complete mapping of the human genome" means? which was nominated by /u/NonNonHeinous.
/u/chiefdias posed the question, How is it Chicken Pox can become lethal as you age but is almost harmless when your a child? which was nominated by /u/hamolton.
In the next week, we’ll be awarding Reddit gold to the question askers, answerers, and nominators for the Best Answer winners, and to the question askers and nominators for the Best Question winners (moderators recused).
Congratulations to all of our 2013 winners!
Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.
This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.
The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.
Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!
You may want to join the panel if you:
Are a research scientist, or are studying for at least an MSc. or equivalent degree in the sciences, AND,
Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.
Instructions for formatting your panelist application:
Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).
State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)
Succinctly describe your particular area of research in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)
Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?
Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in /r/AskScience itself.
Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that have a reference so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.
Here's an example application:
Username: foretopsail
General field: Anthropology
Specific field: Maritime Archaeology
Particular areas of research include historical archaeology, archaeometry, and ship construction.
Education: MA in archaeology, researcher for several years.
Comments: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.
You can submit your application by replying to this post.
Calling all science enthusiasts - AskScience needs your help! Help us ring in the new year with your recommendations and upvotes for our community's Reddit BestOf 2013 Awards!
The admins have given us Reddit Gold to help us celebrate our community’s superlatives in 2013. We need your help to find, nominate, and vote on posts you feel best reflect these five categories:
Most Helpful Panelist (must be nominated by the OP/question-asker)
We've made a separate page for each of these categories, and you can link to each from the list above to submit your nominations. We invite you to add top level posts with direct links to the individual submissions/comments from this calendar year that showcase why our community is such a great place to ask science questions and get science answers. Annotations and/or brief explanations of your nomination are always welcome.
We'll run all five of these pages in "contest mode" (a feature courtesy of the admins) which randomly sorts top level posts and hides vote tallies until the end of the contest. Please vote on the top level comments in each thread so the best-of-our-best accumulate the most upvotes and can be recognized for the awesomeness they are!
To get started with your nominations, here are a few tips:
Search for posts by field with the clickable icons in the side panel.
You may also find posts with reddit search and Google search.
Feel free to look at Gilded comments and Mods' Choice posts for ideas
Self-nominations are allowed. In one category (Most Helpful Panelist), the nominator must be the OP!
You don’t need to nominate in order to vote, and you may want to check back a few times over the next week to vote again as more nominations have been submitted.
Thank you for everything that each of you bring to this community throughout the year. Here’s to a fantastic 2014 in AskScience...and beyond!
Note: If you have questions or general comments, feel free to leave them as comments on this main post. All nominations should happen within each of the five category posts, linked above.
On occasion an AskScience thread goes beyond simply answering a science question to answering it brilliantly and sparking the imaginations of our readers, leading to lively discussions that raise new questions they wouldn't have had otherwise
To highlight these threads, we are introducing the "Moderators' Choice" award to those that we judge to have outstanding educational value. These threads will receive a special flair and be listed in an archive in our sidebar much like our gilded answers.
Unlike gilded answers, the thread as a whole receives the flair, because a great thread combines an interesting question from a curious mind, thorough and expert answers, and in-depth discussion from visitors.
This flair will be given as often as it is earned, based on the official criteria:
"A thread that exemplifies the best of AskScience, in which the question is answered thoroughly, expertly, and sparks insightful conversation."
Scientifically yours,
The AskScience Mods
Hello science enthusiasts and enthusiastic scientists! Also hello to non-enthusiastic scientists and non-scientific people who might or might not be enthusiastic. We are proud to announce the official AskScience IRC channel. In it, you can talk to scientists from around the world, who have expertise in a multitude of scientific disciplines. Ask them your burning scientific questions, discuss a recent interesting AskScience thread, or inquire about what they had for lunch.
Everyone is welcome, as long as the conversation remains civil and respectful.
So please join us on Freenode in channel ##askscience (double hash!). or here is a direct link For those who use an IRC client, connect to server irc.freenode.net. We hope to see you soon!
Hello all you AskScience readers, submitters, scientists, deviants, and students. I am very happy to announce the creation of a new sister subreddit AskScienceDiscussion.
The reason you should love this new subreddit? Lets say that you're in the middle of AskScience, you come across something that is really neat within the comment section, but it's going off on a tangent. An interesting tangent that you know will probably get deleted. Well, now all you need to do is make a new post in AskScienceDiscussion, post a link in the AS comments, and continue your tangent there. Easy as that!
It's also a place where you can ask questions like "Is there a history of superseded science?" or "I heard about this phenomena the other day, what can you tell me about it?" or " I am extremely interested in <subject>, how do I learn the basics?" or "What do you think is the most challenging aspect of your field?".
We have all of the AskScience tags within the new subreddit so you know exactly what field the people are in.
Moderation will be much more lax, but there will still be no tolerance for hate speech, pet theories, memes, religious debates, and completely unsourced debates. As usual sources are encouraged when talking about, and especially when debating about, a subject.
So please, come join us over in AskScienceDiscussion and follow your tangents!
Please help our humble group of scientists who toil day in and day out to keep the quality and high level of scientific discussion that you have come to expect from /r/askscience.
We appreciate the thought, and hope you have a wonderful day!
