this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago (6 children)

While this is funny and all, this isn't really true for a couple of reasons:

  • We know a hell of a lot about the oceans, we've studied them for hundreds years. There has been extensive mapping of the seafloor. All of the areas close to land have been thoroughly studied. And where we've spotted interesting stuff, we've investigated for sure.
  • We haven't thoroughly explored the moon. Sure we've had nice pictures for a long time. But we've only recently seen the rear side of the moon, as we more or less always see the same side from Earth. Not till recent orbiters we've had a high resolution map of the moon, comparable to maps we have of the oceans.
  • Only a dozen or so people have ever been to the moon and the amount of research they did was very low. They also haven't brought back many samples. And the amount we can do from orbit and with rovers is very limited. At this point I would say we know more about Mars than we do about the moon, depending on how to count. The moon isn't that interesting, so we haven't done much with it. It's made of the same stuff as the Earth and without an atmosphere and biosphere, it's kinda dull.
  • This is basically impossible to measure. What is knowledge? How is it quantified? We could say it's relative. But since there isn't a way to know how much total knowledge there is available to learn, I'd say that's not possible. What does it mean to "explore"? Do people need to go there? Because a hell of a lot of people have been to the seafloor than to the moon. Hell going to the seafloor is a basic tourist activity these days. I've been to the Maldives and did some crazy dives looking at life on the bottom of the sea.
  • People might argue the Moon is basically all the same, so once you've seen one spot you've seen them all. I'd argue that's not true, we've only recently learned the moon's poles are very interesting and we know very little about that. And I'd counter that argument with the fact the same goes for the deep oceans. A whole lot of it is just barren wasteland, an under water desert. We haven't explored because there is nothing to see. We select interesting locations and study them thoroughly, instead of studying a lot of it a little bit and wasting huge amounts of time.
  • Another argument often repeated is new species are discovered every day in the ocean. Whilst this is true, we are also destroying a lot of species, so the total number might actually go down instead of up. And a lot of species are variants of already known species. Only expert biologists can differentiate between the species and know what to look for. And I'd argue they don't change the big picture or understanding at all. Still interesting, but not an indication there is so much more to find out there.
  • But what about something huge living down there? Like a Kraken or dinosaurs? Well no, we don't have to have studied every square inch to know about big life. Big life is messy, requires a lot of resources and is part of a food chain. You don't need to see the dinosaur if you can see their giant mountain of crap amidst broken trees. There might be some kind of large squid or something down there, but they will probably be extremely similar to other large squid we already know about. So a new species, but not changing the overall picture. If there were any big monsters down there, we would know about them by now.

So this is one of those things that might feel true, but in reality it really isn't.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No "yo mamma" jokes about it yet?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Metal nodules on the ocean floor produce oxygen

[–] [email protected] 142 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Lobsters have urine nozzles under their eyes, and pee in each other’s faces to communicate.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Lobsters have olfactory sensory neurons, located in the aesthetasc sensilla on their antennules, which allow them to detect the pheromones in the urine of other lobsters.

A dominant male lobster will pee to signal his dominance and deter other males from his territory. Females may also pee to signal their readiness for mating, and the urine of a dominant male can attract females.

Lobsters also communicate through touch and by using their claws, but no one really gives a fuck after reading about the pee thing.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Tl;dr lobsters have a major piss fetish

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are entire levels of the ocean where ecosystem is fed on the slow sinking of dying animals.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are plenty of fish in the sea.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not a fact but a question:

How do whales keep water out of their anuses when they are deep diving?

Whales have been known to dive almost 2 miles deep and at that depth you're looking at almost 300 atmospheres of pressure and a whale's sphincter has to be strong enough to resist that.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

I had to look it up out of curiosity. The rib cage and lungs of sperm whales are adapted to collapse under pressure, squeezing all the air in the lungs into a small space and increasing internal cavity pressure.

https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/physical/ocean-depths/pressure/compare-contrast-connect-deep-divers

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They don't. That's their kink.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago
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