this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 seconds ago

Gawd I love this meme.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

You'd think with all the mice and rats used for labratory testing, we'd have power generated by rodents running on wheels.

[–] xep@discuss.online 9 points 4 hours ago

Still kinda using water to turn a turbine, if you squint really hard.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 6 hours ago

most FTL in scifi surpassed the use of fusion to power thier ships and only used a supplemental power, they went with anti-matter, and vacumn energy

[–] call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 65 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

Pssh, you guys are still on gravity-fusion? My ship has magnetically-bottled antihydrogen, which is carefully fed into a specialized reaction vessel that annihilates it with ordinary hydrogen to produce unbelievable amounts of heat...

...which is then used to boil water and force the steam through a turbine.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 29 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I just put some saddles on this bacteria that eats photons.

[–] Kellenved@sh.itjust.works 12 points 15 hours ago

Discworld ftl tech right here

[–] Chakravanti@monero.town 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)
[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 51 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I invented a new power generation method!

Amazing, is it actually new, or is it steam again

... it's steam again.

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 30 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

"It's a good power generation method, sir"

looks inside

boiling water

[–] lime@feddit.nu 21 points 13 hours ago

> ask if new generator is spooky or wet
> they don't understand > show the diagram > "it's a good generator mx"
> go inside
> it's wet

[–] Blackout@fedia.io 40 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's like how evolution's perfect form is a crab. Energy's perfect form is spicy water bois

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 22 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Fun fact: crabs are only the underwater peak of evolution. Land mammals seem to converge into anteaters, and plants into trees.

[–] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I mean theres been like 15 things that are dolphin shaped throughout history.

[–] Chakravanti@monero.town 1 points 10 hours ago

You're looking in the wrong direction to count and I'm not talking about time.

Points up

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If mammals want to survive the next 100 million years we need to see the writing on the wall and evolve into crabeaters

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[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (3 children)

ok i can see the steam turbine powering onboard electrical but explain me how the fuck you're doing space propulsion and/or warp travel with steam

unless you mean literally just blasting steam like a propellant, Wall-E With the Fire Extinguisher style. in which case you're gonna run outta steam pretty fast

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 14 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Ion thrusters are an example of electricity used for space propulsion.

In ion thrusters electricity is used to create a magnetic field that accelerate the propellant particles at very high speed. This way the propellant of used much more efficiently.

Edit: I forgot to mention that it's not a concept, it's actively used in a lot of satellites

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 2 points 2 hours ago

So skimming through the wiki article, it sounds like it it's still "throw something out the back" to generate thrust, which is largely the same problem as the Wall-E with a fire extinguisher problem another commenter made.

Ion Thrusters sound significantly more efficient (in terms of velocity change vs fuel), but do I have the right idea on that?

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 6 points 7 hours ago

ooooooh

well that's pretty neat.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago

you use the steam to turn a spacetime-fabric-propeller which can gain traction on vacuum itself and propel the ship. simple stuff.

[–] BaroqueInMind@piefed.social 4 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

At some point in the future, it will be trivial to fold spacetime and tunnel through, which needs electricity to charge capacitors and shit because the fuel is energy. You think space travel will be done with gasoline engines?

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 hours ago

I sure hope not, the USA has already done enough damage for terrestrial use gasoline 💀

[–] one5low7@lemmy.org 1 points 10 hours ago

even submarines are runing nuclear reactors

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 15 hours ago (13 children)

Do solar panels operate in this way?

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 1 points 5 hours ago

technically pv panels are also heat engines. this is why they need cooling

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 43 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

Yes, inside of every solar panel is water and tiny turbines. The sun heats the water, when it turns to steam it spins the turbines to generate electricity.

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 15 hours ago

It's always a relief when someone doesn't take everything so literally

[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 9 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

minas tirith lacks power! sound the turbines!

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[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

just like wind turbine right?

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 15 hours ago

You’ll never believe where wind comes from…

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 6 points 14 hours ago

Wind turbines use whales and birds, I think it is like in Norse mythology where the wolves Sköll and Hati chase the Sun and moon. But with wind you have whales chasing birds while they are strapped to the blades, this causes them to spin and that generates wind, which fans the flames of fires to boil water and that creates steam.

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 7 points 14 hours ago

Depends on the type of solar panel. PV, no. Otherwise, yes.

[–] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 5 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Solar, wind, tidal, RTG, DEC fusion are all options without steam

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Does hydropower count as cold steam?

Well I guess all wind power is also steam at a very low concentration heated by a fusion reaction.

[–] sudoMakeUser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 minutes ago

Hydropower gets its energy from evaporated water rising to the big steam in the sky.

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 4 points 5 hours ago

the steam part is in the rest of hydrological cycle

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Wind and tidal is still just turbines.

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah. One uses the passage of a gas over rotating blades. The other uses water as it flows.

Neither use the passage of gaseous water, so theyre totally different!

/s

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 hours ago

We never moved away from windmills basically. Only solar is completely different, besides niche impractical things like piezo crystals

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[–] ikilledtheradiostar@hexbear.net 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

With the take off of co2 turbines how is this still a meme?

[–] culpritus@hexbear.net 6 points 15 hours ago

Super Critical Support for our compressed CO2 turbine comrades.

[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

2026 we put a helicopter on mars and still no power crystals

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