I guess there are two kinds of people because when I learned that splitting atoms causes a nuclear explosion, I got a craft knife and some sand from the garden and went to town on them trying to slice some atoms just right π
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
808 points (99.5% liked)
Science Memes
17663 readers
1932 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.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I had no exposure to school or formal education when I was real young. I just had a few picture books about the world, one was a cut-away that showed the layers of earth's crust, mantle and core.
Being about 5, I had no idea of the proportions or scales involved so whenever I saw someone digging a hole outside for a firepit or fencepost I would yell and scream that they were going to break through to lava and it would pour everywhere and burn everything up.
Nobody was able to explain things to me so I had to self-educate myself about science and everything else over the next couple decades. Fast forward to me now explaining to people on reddit what lava is, that it's actually molten rock... there are a lot of people who have never thought about it, saw pictures of volcanoes and just accepted that they spit out "hot goo" and never thought deeper.
I wish I was kidding, but also... I wonder if it's a simpler, more peaceful life when you don't know how anything works. I was up at 2:00 AM with my brain whirring away, like every night.
I loved this story, thank you for sharing.
I think the people who sleep well at night are the ones that don't care how anything works. Sometimes it's ignorance, but often it's just burnout, and worse sometimes it's a complete lack of empathy for anything that isn't themselves.
When I learned about germs, how they're everywhere and too small to see, I thought I must be squishing them every time I touch anything. So I went around the entire house touching every surfaces, especially the windows, because nobody ever touched those.
When I was in kindergarten they showed us a cartoon with anthropomorphic teeth to try to encourage dental hygiene and those teeth scared me so much that I refused to brush my teeth for years and I ended up getting gum disease because of it.
Learned about Vacuum Decay when I was 10...it gave me another complex layered on top of my other complex layer cake...
yeah my poor dyson /s
Seriously though, the best part about vacuum decay is you'd never see it coming and barely have time to notice if it did happen.
If I'm to believe that second person didn't misspeak, they had "mental breakdowns" with an "s", so multiple breakdowns, over the thought that their eating lettuce could cause a nuclear apocalypse.
They must really like lettuce. If I had a mental breakdown over the fear that my eating a specific food would cause untold human death and suffering, including my own, I would likely not eat that food again until I could convince myself it was safe.
(While chewing lettuce) βSome of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.β
Would you mind doing that more over towards Washington DC, please? TIA.
Tactical salad, lol.
load more comments
(6 replies)
Sometimes all kids need is a scientifically literate adult to explain precisely why their fear isn't possible.
Yea, just tell them they and the surrounding half mile would be instantly vaporized and wouldn't even know they were dead.
"It hasn't happened yet and you damn sure aren't special enough to be the one to do it"
It happens all the time. That's how the multiverse branches are kept under a manageable number for the simulation.
A single atom wouldn't even be worse than, like, a pop rock anyway. You need a whole mess of them motherfuckers to make a big boom.
If I accidentally bite an atom and the tiny shards shatters nearby atoms, wouldn't that just make more? Like sort of.. a chain reaction ?
Maybe I just have to gobble up all my salad before all the booms blow my jaws and neighbours away.
I think your jaw would have to be made of tungsten or something for that to happen, but I'm not a physist; I've just played one in a video game. π€·ββοΈ
Reminds me of a profoundly stupid movie I saw as a child called Young Einstein starring Yahoo Serious and no thatβs not aphasia talking. He takes an atom out to the shed and splits it with a chisel. An explosion ensues, complete with charred face and smoking hair standing on end.
profoundly stupid
Hey, that was my favourite movie when it came out. I was sure Yahoo Serious was going to be a huge star.
I donβt equate βprofoundly stupidβ to βbadβ. I enjoy a good stupid movie. I adore Hudson Hawk. I watch Ready Player One all the time in the background.
When I was a kid, I was playing one day outside and then later I realized there is an ant nest nearby and I saw that I killed some ants by walking near it.
After that, I didn't want to kill any more bugs etc, so whenever I was walking on grass, I would always check the grass before me to see if there are any bugs in it, and only then I would make a step.
Yeah, it was very slow and inefficient, but it wasn't that bad because I was actively avoiding grass and this whole experiment didn't last very long either, maybe a couple of months.
Then I went back to stepping on the bugs.
Just tell yourself they'd kill you if they had the chance, it's a preemptive strike
New anxiety just dropped.
Its not possible to do by any metric. And besides, a chain reaction is needed. A single atom turned into pure kinetic energy wouldn't be noticeable at all.
Yes, and if I cut a mango, how many billions of atoms is that? So I'd recommend to cut the mango in increments of one angstrom to minimise the chances of a chain reaction happening.
\0. The force that keeps the nucleus together is much stronger than the force needed to break the inter-atom bonfs. (Blanking on the names right now. Strong and weak forces?)
Yeah, but what if the knife is really sharp?
The knife edge can't be smaller than an atoms width, so still no.
You say that until someone pulls the classic prank of swapping all your mango atoms with uranium-235.
Yeah and what if I squish the mango, thereby compressing the water and fusing the hydrogen into helium?
Unless you refined the mango to the point that was homoatomic, the other non-hydrogen atoms would act as moderators and prevent fusion from occurring.
Atoms lettuce break the iceberg.
Just be glad no one showed you crunching life savers in the dark.
I remember being told "Atoms are always moving", so I would cut reeeeaaaalllllyyyy fucking slow for a bit thinking that the atoms would "move out of the way."
I also just read my husband this meme and he was like "Oh yeah. I remember thinking I was risking my area for arts and crafts."
NOO BILLL
WHYYY
EVAPORATES INTO ASH
Yep was super paranoid and anxious over misunderstandings now just super paranoid and anxious over worst case unlikely scenarios.
If you did manage to do this by random chance would you even notice? A single atom is pretty small. If you somehow split a random carbon atom in lettuce wouldn't you get less than a Joule as long as it doesn't somehow chain?
This is just what I've heard a long time ago so don't quote me lol. But no, splitting a single atom shouldn't do anything of note. I believe it's the same general reason that a nuke doesn't set the entire atmosphere on fire - you need a lot of energy to split atoms. That's why nukes need enriched materials.
I also believe that even a nuclear explosion won't be triggered by a single split atom in a bomb. For example, the Manhattan Project bomb was triggered by shaped explosives that surrounded the nuclear core. The blast of the charges "compressed" the nuclear material to the point it reached a critical mass that allowed a runaway fission reaction.
Yeah it would be small to the point of not being perceptible. A single atom has an insane amount of energy for its size, but its still not enough to move a grain of sand any amount that would be perceptible to the naked eye
view more: next βΊ