Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 July 12

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July 12[edit]

Glandular fever not found in a blood test, even though it's supposed to remain in the body for life[edit]

Somebody is saying that they had Infectious mononucleosis (glandular fever) and when they recovered, had a blood test and the virus was not found. But the glandular fever virus is supposed to remain in the body for life right? Is it possible a blood test wouldn't find it or some other explanation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8000:1A4F:C500:2169:E3AB:DAE4:2459 (talk) 02:24, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Depends on which test was done. As you can read further at Infectious_mononucleosis#Serology and its sources, most blood tests for Epstein-Barr are actually for the antibodies your body raises against the virus. Once it has been in the latent phase for a while, most of those antibodies become undetectable. There is also the possibility of a false-negative. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:57, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
In latency the virus is tightly controlled by the immune system and it is usually undetectable because it is present in the blood only in very low numbers. Ruslik_Zero 06:40, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Spatial memory[edit]

What games (video games, traditional games, etc) are scientifically proven to enhance spatial memory? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.129.219.94 (talk) 07:14, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"Playing “Tetris” on Nintendo DS develops the ability to imagine rotations of objects in 2D and 3D (spatial relations) to a greater extent than playing Tetris on a PC."

(PDF) Do Video Games Improve Spatial Abilities of Engineering Students?. Available from: [1]. See also: [2] Richerman (talk) 13:15, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Rubik developed his cube to help students understand 3D rotations. Don't know if there's any studies on whether it helps though. Dmcq (talk) 15:31, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]