Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2017 June 9

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June 9

If there are more Na+ ions in the extracellular space, then will raw red meat taste salty?

Disregard the possibility of catching a foodborne illness. Will raw red meat taste salty? 50.4.236.254 (talk) 03:44, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

meat has lots of sodium to begin with apparently? 0164.170.21.194 (talk) 04:49, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Ever tasted blood? Abductive (reasoning) 05:51, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Raw beef isn't bloody. It's myoglobin from the muscle tissue itself. --Jayron32 05:53, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

"specifically in the red blood cells. In humans, myoglobin is only found in the bloodstream after muscle injury. It is an abnormal finding, and can be diagnostically relevant when found in blood".... right.. no blood... 64.170.21.194 (talk) 22:29, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

You guys are confounding myoglobin with electrolytes. It is the electrolytes that are perceived as salty. And there nearly the same levels of electrolytes everywhere in the body. Abductive (reasoning) 17:53, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

CG and crosswinds

How does a forward CG affect crosswind takeoffs and landings in a taildragger (not necessarily just the Electra 10-E, but any taildragger like for example a DC-3 or a Ju-52)? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:4F8:7AED:9CA5:90AA (talk) 06:22, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Anyone? Come on, I'm sure there's at least one pilot on here who knows this stuff! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:E957:E363:9DD1:1743 (talk) 02:51, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Is there a term for functional groups that are displaced during electrophilic substitution reactions?

I think the term leaving groups is reserved for functional groups that are displaced during nucleophilic substitution. OrganoMetallurgy (talk) 18:00, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Electrofuge. DMacks (talk) 19:17, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Electrofuges are a kind of leaving group; I've added IUPAC references to that effect in that article. Wnt (talk) 16:19, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. I've been terribly confused about that. OrganoMetallurgy (talk) 18:02, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

I have the vague sense that a leaving group is simply a group that is "happy" with the structure and charge it ends up with, whatever the charge (or lack thereof) may be. So H+ and Cl- are good leaving groups - H- and Cl+, not so much (though I think the first does happen, and I'd be afraid to say the second is impossible...). Wnt (talk) 18:31, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

A hyride leaving group is common in several sorts of reactions, but the only ones I can think of involve it transferring directly as a nucleophile onto some other substrate rather than merely becoming solvated (Cannizzaro reaction and some biological dihydroquinone oxidations, or even less distinctly Oppenauer oxidation). I wonder what the mechanism is for the formation of the I⁺ (-like reactive intermediate) in the "I₂+HIO₃" electrophilic halogenation protocol? DMacks (talk) 20:29, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for cleaning up the defs! DMacks (talk) 20:29, 10 June 2017 (UTC)