this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
1434 points (97.7% liked)

Science Memes

14414 readers
1169 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

  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.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

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 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1434
[Partially incorrect, see comments.] Pens in Space (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
140 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

“Do me a personal favour. Take the pen!”

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

For decades these pens have been brought up to criticize wasteful spending, inaccurately. Fisher Price didn't even develop the pens for NASA, they were just a sales gimmick, and NASA didn't spend thousands of dollars each on them, they just bought them. Space flight was getting a lot of publicity back then, so products that related themselves to space were popular, like Space Food Sticks - tootsie-rollish snacks supposedly full of protein and nourishment. To me they tasted too much like raw flour. "Energy" of course was a euphemism for sugar.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also you DON'T FUCKING WANT GRAPHITE DUST FLOATING AROUND IN ZERO G

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Why not? I'm not well versed in the theme. Would it be flammable?

edit: just saw another post mentioning this: lack of gravity, enter floating in the electronic, causing short circuits as main risk.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The theme is to pretend recently-learned information was available half a century ago, and also to ignorantly inflate its importance. It turns out exposure to graphite dust in large concentrations can cause respiratory problems (like any kind of dust), but the amount of graphite emitted into the air by pencil use is insignificant, even in zero gravity.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also your body doesn't do a good job of breaking it down either. Id imagine that in your lungs would suck.

I have a piece of graphite in my leg from 7th grade still. I'm 33.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I have a graphite stain in my palm from 8th grade and I'm 40.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Left handed or did you get stabbed too?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Got stabbed by a friend at lunch.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Think of how revolutionary crayola twistables would have been for NASA?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So they could have infinite chunks of broken crayan floating around them. I can never not break those no matter how lite I use rhem

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

The air filters would capture it eventually. It's not like the ISS has dead air.

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

You're assuming I wouldn't try to eat them all like floating packman

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

Well, then the problem would be solved anyways!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Fair enough. But I just needed someone else to have the imagery I had.

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

You're the kid I stopped sharing my colours with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Oh shit wassup

load more comments
view more: next ›