I was under the impression that psychology is biology which is chemistry which is in reality physics which in turn itself is actually mathematics being itself all made up.
That's easy. It doesn't exist, as we understand it anyway. Go ask Pons & Fleischmann . But the definition of a "breakthrough" is one that "breaks through" every accepted scientific theory, as you put it. Go ask Einstein about that one.
Well, there is no proper explanation except that our perception is a marvellous tool that let our species survive for quite some time. Maybe it stems from the time where sabre tooth tigers rather than the pretty brunette across the room were giving you longing looks.
I was alway taught to put the salt in after the water boils. But I was skeptical of this and always put it in with the cold water. Now I know the grannies were correct. Never doubt the grannies!
BTW, just curious, if you stir the water when it's at the tiny bubble stage (as you describe above), will it take longer for the water to boil?
I guess that would depend on what you stirred it with. Some sort of rough surface that affords lots of nucleation sites vs. something very smooth.
Wooden spoon would help more with boiling once it got to the tiny bubbles phase, not sure about a stainless steel spoon though. Probably wouldn't slow the boiling but I doubt it would speed it up.
It will raise the boiling point at pretty much any time, once it's dissolved. However, as stated earlier, you'd have to add a lot of salt to notice. If you add ~20 grams of salt to 5 quarts (4.7l) of water it would raise the boiling point seven hundredths of 1°F.
So realistically, we have no idea and probably won't for a very long time? The macro space beyond our universe could very well be composed of an infinite sea of ethereal strawberry yoghurt for all we actually know It's a neat idea to ponder though.
By how much you stir it is also a factor. If you stir too vigourously and for too long, then you can create a higher temperature difference between the water and the surrounding air, leading to a drop in overall water temperature.
The question is misleading and assumes that all traits are a direct result of evolutionary/devopmental advantages. There are always limits and tradeoffs. For example, ever notice that its big men who snore the most. Maybe women also have a slight tendency to prefer big men and the fighting advantages they offer (if you care to see evolution in that sense). Since in almost all situations humans are the biggest predators, it also lets all the smaller predators know there's a family of humans there and 'geez, based on that snoring the dude must be huge' (that a quote from an actual hyena - ok, there was some laughing in between).
But similarily important - the male has already mated with the female before sleeping and snoring thus the term 'sorry baby, too late to wait' applies.