So couple of things. Physicists say if our current universe is infinite, then there are identical you's out there right now. Do you sense them? Feel their anxiety? No. So while they may be identical to you even living the same exact life as you (when things get infinite, the probabilities of this happening become very likely, infinity is big, really big). We don't know with certainly our whole universe, including the vast part we cannot every communicate with or observe, is in fact infinite, but it could be. Then this scenario likely is true probabilistically.

But you are missing something with the big bounce, it would be a mistake to assume in the next bounce that it produces a universe like ours, with our physical laws, atoms etc. It is quite possible maybe even likely that most, and am talking a very high percentage are universes with different physical laws where you literally could not exist. Change the physical laws, you get a different universe, it could be a universe that contains no atoms at all and may have something else. If conditions for life are possible there, that life would be very different, most of the them would probably not have the needed conditions. A lot of thought has been put into our universe's laws and we find them balanced in just the right way that conditions developed where life could even exist. Some physicists say our current universe may not be at is ground energy state, put simply it could be at a temporary stable state that hypothetically could drop into a lower, more stable energy state. If that would happen, our universe would be "consumed" by this new state and in the process will wipe out the current universe and all that we know would change into a universe with different key physical properties where we could not exist after being wiped out from existence. Don't worry about this because if it does happen we will not be able to see it coming at us as it would move at the speed of light, and once here on earth you would simply blink out of existence without having even a moment to think about what is happening.

We do not have the ability to tell what our universe was like at time zero, that is a singularity where our current physical laws break down and we do not have any idea for what exactly existed at time zero, we can only see so far back in time to the big bang, which is not time zero when the singularity existed. The big bang, as far as we can tell wiped out any evidence that could be detected before it happened.

So the big crunch would return the universe to that singularity. In that singularity we have no information on what the physical laws existed, as our physical laws were spawned out of the big bang. We do not have a current theory of quantum gravity that might give us some insights but we can never know time zero. So with infinite bounces, probabilities (again infinite is big, really big) some of those bounces, a very very very small fraction of which would like make another universe with the same physical laws as our current one, where as the vast vast majority of the other universes quite likely have different physical laws that precludes life of any kind forming. Another might have physical laws that allow life, but this does not mean it would be life like ours. That universe many not have atoms and all the other stuff, and have something completely different. However, infinite bounces is so many bounces that probability wise we could not only end up with a universe with physical laws exactly like this one, but infinity universes would also mean there would not only be universes like ours, but also some that play out exactly like this one right here, including making a new you, exactly as you are now, having lived the exact same life as you are now identically. However the future universe "you" will have no connection to you now in any way, even if that other you lives an identical existence. That other you may experience everything there is about your life, feelings etc., but has not connection to you now. It is a copy of you, not the actual current you, and our current understanding of how this might play out would mean anything about you, evidence you existed, your entire existence will be wiped in that crunch back into a singularity. So you would have ceased to exist, and latter a copy arose identical to you, but with its own conscious existance and no knowledge of you now, or of any of the other infinite you's that have been, or will be. Infinity is hard to mentally conceptualize, our brains cannot comprehend it beyond mathematical descriptions. So many other universes different than our own would form, but infinity being what it is, there would be infinite universes that form and develop exactly like this one with you doing the same things again in life in that universe, but also other universe where you are different and live a different life than you have led here.

The heat death may be a different situation. In that scenario the universe expands and keeps on expanding till the universe is dark, energetically homogenious without enough energy to perform any "work" in the physical sense, maximum entropy, empty, cold, not atoms as they have been torn apart by then and cold. That could be the extent of it, and it just stays that way forevere and ever. No planets, no stars, no black holes, just a very low level of energy that is too low to do any work, so it stays that way. There are some hypothesis that the heat death could allow certain quantum effects to occur that would spawn a new big bang out of that dead universe. But practically speaking we don't know if that is what would happen, or it just stays cold, dark and dead for enternity. This is assuming time still exists in the heat death scenario. One of the theories of what "time" is that it is a function of increasing entropy in the universe. If this is true (we don't know if this is what creates what we experience as time), in the heat death, entropy has reached its greatest disorder possible (more or less) and if so, does time continue to exist? Depends if the entropy changes are in fact why we experience "time" (note there are other theories). And that could be it, and it simply stays that way. A lot of what I described here is mostly hypothesis, and like a big crunch, we do not know if things will play out like this with any certainty. Just hypothesized possible ends that we can never be sure will happen. We won't be around to observe it as we would be long gone.

So don't worry, any future you's will live their own identical lives, but the current you would not have any connection with it in any way whatsoever.

I would like to say that you behaving in an honest legit way like this would be understood by the IRS. My personal experience being audited is that you have very good reason to worry.

Yup, they audited me to get $700.

OK, Ukraine gets the dish, Iranians are getting the dish, but here in the U.S., despite a deposit, I cannot get them to send me a dish.

I have looked up some websites that describe this operation hour by hour. The amount of men and material they landed there in 24 hours was just mind blowing. 156,000 men and all the weapons, ammunition, armor, food and fuel moved over the channel in just 24 hours. The numbers are so huge it is hard to comprehend. When they say logistics wins the wars, you see this and realize how true that is.

It contributes. But generally the reproducibility crisis is with good faith research that was done vs. this stuff which is just fraud. As a scientist myself, the garbage that is published is overwhelming. Seems much worse today than 20 years ago.

How is it that we don't have a lot more historical information about ancient Rome. They were so huge, influenced so many people, seems hard to believe more information is not around today than there is. Is there any reason from this?

I had one chance to see them in Philly back then and they pulled a Sex Pistols and didn't show up. I missed my chance.

For strep throat, one of the ways the bacteria hides from the immune system is by covering itself in fragments of red blood cells. In this way it is not recognized as foreign and can keep growing. Thus the need for antibiotics. Flu in contrast has a different growth strategy. I does not plan on getting around the immune system. It makes itself so infectious that it lives in the population spreading from one to the next easily. So it is defeated in one person, but it has already spread to three others, so it fulfilled its goal of spreading its genetic material.

Here is a general answer. All bacteria and all viruses are not the same. Some bacteria for example have developed ways around the immune response. Different organisms do it differently. When you really get into the details of how each works, it is pretty fascinating. Some general examples. You have macrophages that will swallow and destroy bacteria. Some microbes figure out a way to be swallowed up, but not destroyed, and live and grow in the macrophage. Other bacteria have devised ways so they cannot be swallowed at all. And this is just scratching the surface. Some viruses actually have proteins that are immune decoys. So when they infect a cell, the virus puts a protein on the surface that says "no virus in here" so the immune system then cannot recognize that it is a virally infected cell. Other viruses, like HIV mutate so fast that by time the immune system responds to one strain of the virus, another is already growing, immune system attacks the new one, but there is yet another new one growing and on it goes. For these things that our immune system cannot fight off we need antibiotics or antivirals to help. Otherwise the patients health can be severely damaged if not actually die from the infection.

You are correct. Many (but not all) viruses stimulate a similar immune response as with the flu. Then you feel "flu like". In truth, not all flu's are caused by the flu virus. There are other viruses that can create similar symptoms to the flu. Most of the time we just don't go and check every patient, and it resolves much as the flu does. But the immunological response is similar causing similar symptoms. Same with colds by the way. Most people think there is a "cold virus". Actually colds are caused by multiple different viruses. Rhinoviruses may cause 50% or so, but what most don't realize is maybe 25% are caused by corona viruses. Yes, same family as SARS-CoV2 but a bit more distantly related at a genetic level. But the symptoms are that of a common cold. The common cold has the added symptoms of a runny nose, which again is a function of the immune response to the virus, not caused by the virus itself.

So couple things. The symptoms you get from the flu are not from the virus itself, it is the immune response to the virus. Don't believe that? Well when you get infected with the flu (or cold), you are infected and infectious before you have any symptoms at all. So there is a day, maybe two you are spreading it around but are not aware you are even infected. My point with this is to show you it is not the virus infecting you causing the symptoms otherwise you would get them as soon as you were infected. Then you start to get symptoms. As mentioned those symptoms are a function of the immune system fighting the virus, not from the virus itself. When you get infected with a virus interferon will be released in your body to help stop the spread of the virus internally. Also so happens interferon makes you feel flu like, and that is likely part of the reason you feel sick (although I am sure some other aspects of the immune system contribute to. But if you ever head to inject interferon as MS patients do, you would notice you feel sick with flu like symptoms. OK we have established your symptoms are related to your immune response, not from the virus itself. So you have been asymptomatic then sick for about 6 days and you are getting a little better but still have symptoms but don't seem infectious anymore. What gives? Well during that time you body has been working hard to make antibodies against the virus as well as cytotoxic T lymphocytes and other to destroy not only the virus, but also the virus infected cells. Once you body has produced antibodies against the virus they work surprisingly quick. Those antibodies will bind to any free virus which results in other cells swallowing and destroying the virus in some instances, or the antibodies might bind to the virus in a way so that it cannot infect another cell as the antibodies block the viral binding protein. When you reach this point you are not going to be infectious as there will not be free virus available to cough or sneeze out. The antibodies are very very efficient at finding their targets fast, and the the rest of the immune response to that antibody bound virus is fast too. At this point you are not contagious but you immune system is still involved in the fight so you will retain some symptoms for a few days that slowly get better. During that later period your cytotoxic T lymphocytes found and killed every cell that had the virus in it, all of them. The antibodies clearered the virus outside of cells including in nasal secretions etc. You then gradually feel recovered and this is when the immune system has not only won the battle, now it is time to throttle back the immune response as there is no more virus present. As it does this your symptoms disappear as your body goes back to "healthy mode" where the immune activity does not make you feel ill. This is simplified a bit as the immune system is quite complex but captures it pretty good.

Flip side of the same coin. Energy can be made into matter, and matter can be made into energy based on E=mc2

They are talking about dark photons. Hypothetical photons that do not act like known observable photons. Might interact with dark matter. Or possibly regular matter as they propose here.

This will be so anticlimactic when it happens. First "message" will be some sort of beacon to get our attention. Unless we win the powerball alien lottery, they will be hundreds if not thousands of light years away. So it will be we have detected and alien beacon, we are sending a response and will hear back in hundreds if not thousands of years. That will be it for anyone living at the time. Any interesting communication will come a long long time after we are all dead. Aliens are not going to be transmitting anything interesting initially, just some signal that stands out from the background so it can be detected.

Not likely. Your gut microbe actively defend their "territory" in the gut. They are not going to give up such valuable real estate without a fight. This is called microbial antagonism. So you may ingest all sorts of bacteria be it sex or just eating, if you are healthy you already have microbes in place and whatever you are ingesting basically can't easily take hold because of this. Not saying it can't happen at all, it is just that the microbes are not just "passively" there, they are there and intend to stay. That involves various biological processes they use to make sure they do. One is to simply take up all the real estate so something coming through has no space to colonize.

Generally speaking, how did the movie Braveheart deviate from actual history?

I had to look this up since I don't do this test. It actually isn't exactly like I stated, they aren't kept in the tank till they stop, it is a fixed period and close observation is used to determine the amount of effort to swim and escape. And apparently mice float just fine without swimming so they do not need to swim to keep their heads above water. So it is a bit more subtle experiment than I let on. I am sure there are variations in the test but it looks like this is done for 6 minutes.

In theory yes but I don't think we have done the experiment. That said, some of the animal models we use for researching depression would likely apply to any animal. For example the mouse forced swim test is used as a depression test. The mouse is put in water and swims till it gives up, then give it an antidepressant and that mouse will swim longer before giving up. You might say "is this really a model of depression?" Well since we can't ask animals if they are depressed things like this are the best we can do to "depress" the mouse. It may well not be a great model but stuff like this is what we have. Note they do not drown the mice, just record how long the swim before giving up, then they are taken out. I would guess you can do the same experiment with an elk, and it is quite possible the antidepressants you give it might make it swim longer. Which as far as we know, that elk gets to depressed to continue and the drugs make him less depressed and continues longer. But again, we can't ask the elk, so we can't be certain just like the mice.

As to whether animals get depression like humans we can't really say again since we can't ask them. However a lot of animals have evolved to be very anxious due to predators. You may notice deer are very skittish. This evolved for a very good reason, a non anxious deer is likely to more easily to be killed by a predator. Now is this anxiety disorder in an animal? Probably not, but they certainly seem very anxious all the time. And I am betting if we gave them benzodiazepines in the wild they would be a lot less anxious (to their determent). If I were to guess it would not surprise me if animals get depression as a condition because we humans certainly did. We evolved with it and the question is why? There are theories that depression may have been an adaptation to maintain bodily energy in a limited food environment perhaps or a consequence of some immunological factors that we needed but resulted in the side effect of depression. None of those theories are proven but they do make some arguments why depression remained with humans when you would think it would be selected against over time.