this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 67 points 1 week ago (3 children)

One of our bioinformatics has a sign at his desk that says "taxonomy is a social construct".

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Conservatives hate this one trick!

(The trick: literally everything in all aspects of reality, from the larges to smallest scales to every branch of life and consciousness is a motherfucking SPECTRUM. No hard lines. Nothing is solid. Not even the matter you're standing or sitting on.)

[–] runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 6 days ago

"Yah but nuance is so hard! It's so much easier to just hate everything I don't understand"

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 11 points 6 days ago

A paper I quite enjoy is "Queer Theory for Lichens" which argued that queer theory is genuinely a useful framework for studying lichens; Lichens resist categorisation in a manner that feels like they're actively mocking our taxonomic efforts.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

“taxonomy is a social construct”

i mean for bacteria it actually is because bacteria can exchange genes across "species" so it's not really a species... at least not in the sense of eukaryotes (where species are defined such that different species cannot exchange genes with each other)

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 9 points 6 days ago (11 children)

Even for anything else, it actually is. Taxonomy is our construct that we came up with as a society to classify life. We cannot ever be "right" about it, it can just be more or less useful for us to understand life.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

in that case we cannot ever be "right" about anything, as any thought we have is just a model that helps us get through life?

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes and it is very important to constantly remind ourselves that all our abstractions and classifications are just that. Helpful tools for us to view and understand the world. People tend to forget that and over time see their categorization as essential and natural. For example, sex and gender are both socially constructed but people forget that and then create a whole set of rules around it to reinforce that categorization including social stigmatization and infant mutilation.

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[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 38 points 6 days ago (3 children)

BEHOLD! THE MAMMAL! IT GIVES MILK AND HAS HAIR!

(And has venomous claws, lays eggs, has electroreceptors, glows under UV, has 10 sex chromosomes, genetically it’s a mix of reptiles and mammals…)

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 2 days ago

It's one of twoish (one species of platypus, three of echidnas) mammals on its order (the other order which has all the more normal mammals — placental mammals) it's so different to the other mammals that really all monotremes have in common with placentals is hair and milk

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

sounds like average republican

[–] buttnugget@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago (5 children)

Please do not insult the platypus like that!

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[–] TheThrillOfTime@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Proof that God is fucking with us

[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I tell you it’s just an Echidna that made love to a Lizard and that’s how we got the Platypus.

[–] TomArrr@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Was the duck an innocent bystander or willing participant?

[–] tlmcleod@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

Videographer that accidentally mixed his genetic juice with the copulating couple

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Ok, but chickens produce milk too, just like coconuts:
wiki/Crop_milk

Also dis:

[–] credo@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Some spiders also produce milk.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 4 points 5 days ago

So they are coconuts.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Actually, it's about the teeth.

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