this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
596 points (76.0% liked)

Science Memes

20690 readers
1661 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Meta Post Tags



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


If you are here asking: "Is this a science meme?"

Probably, yes. We use the Dawkins definition of meme: a replicating idea, not just an image macro with a fact on it. A good post here doesn't need to teach you something. It needs to make you ask something: who, what, where, when, and especially why or how.

Science isn't a filing cabinet of facts, it's a conversation. For example, a photo of an eel or other localized wildlife counts because most people never see one, and wonder is the first step of inquiry. A car meme counts if it makes you curious about what's under the bonnet. If you want to talk about something you noticed in the world, chances are someone else wants to talk about it too.

We moderate for vibe, not category. Pruning is light, especially where a post creates interesting discussion. Experimenting is encouraged.

See the pinned paper on Shitposting as Public Pedagogy if you want the academic case for why this works.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 64 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Reading these comments, my spiteful genie wish is to invent and proliferate a log base 10 scale, something like earthquake magnitudes or decibels. Y'all hate F or C? Welcome T, where 1 equals 1 Kelvin, 2 equals 10 Kelvin, 3 equals 100 Kelvin, 4 equals 1000 Kelvin, and so on.

It's easy! Humans live somewhere around 3, as does boiling and freezing, while the sun is between a 4 and a 5 at the surface and the core is closer to an 8.

[–] Hagdos@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Make it log, but not start at absolute zero anyway

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yessss .. something positively baffling, like the body temperature of my cousin's guinea pig when experiencing a slight fever.

[–] Hagdos@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, or the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride. Wait, that's Fahrenheit already.

[–] zaphod@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

No, please start at absolute zero, then you get negative infinity.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Take a look at the mean molecular kinetic energy.

As a bonus, it's measured in Joules. Or eV if you want a sensible unity, but I don't think you'll want it.