this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

All basically being bubbles of probability where a field of energy exists, in a seething universe of virtual particles (fields) coming into existence and getting annihilated by it's anti-part again.

The "universe of whirling chaos, birthing existence" i've seen in some Manga as origin story of gods, doesn't seem so far fetched now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Every coin has two side, uh....

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

For those in the unknowing state: https://existentialcomics.com/

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

its funny to me, the existence of science being something as mundane as "rubbing three moderately flat surfaces against each other in succession will inevitably produce a flat plane as it is the only functional outcome for that problem"

opposed to the incredibly complex and intricate technicalities of steel smelting, and even beyond that, casting properly.

and then also, we know why cicadas make so much noise, it's really simple. Just a little bit (ok well a lot of bit) of constructive interference. But actually, we also have no fucking clue how they manage to count such long periods of prime duration reliably and consistently.

There's also the technicality of being able to explain how molecule level physics works, but then not being able to comprehend molecule scale physics in something like biology until recently.

I'm convinced that science is just reverse engineering the universe. Eventually, one day, we will figure out how to create an entire universe, and we will.

Science is the ultimate version of philosophy.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

Science shows us why the world is excting and lets us find even more exciting things. That beings said, it's still a funny joke.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Quantum mechanics is not magic. Magic specifies the outcome, but not how a system evolves to reach that outcome. Quantum mechanics has precise equations describing how a system will evolve over time, but is famously bad at describing the outcome.

By the same token, we can see that thermodynamics and conservation laws, while widely accepted, are magic. I have heard legend of a deeper magic known as "Lagragians", although knowledge of that lost art remains confines to the warlocks' ivory tower.

https://xkcd.com/2904/

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

Thats not what quantum mechanics shows at all.

What is being described is the pop-sci version quantum mechanics.

That version has people believing in multiverses and wormholes and other nonsense that is not falsifiable like magic and has no evidence like magic but people believe in it because people desperately want magic to be real.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Quantum tunneling effect is very much magic, on the same way that relativistic time is magic.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The woo doctor says there's fairies in the garden and unicorns in the forest, and never shows them to me. The biologist says there's birds the size of your thumb that flap their wings so fast they become a buzzy blur, and there's huge winged creatures that fly through the ocean called "Manta rays." He shows me pictures and specimens of both.

The woo doctor says my fever is caused by a lack of yellow bile, eat this dandelion it's yellow. The physician says my fever is caused by an infection of tiny creatures inside my body, look you can see them if you look at this snot sample under a microscope. We have a chemical that kills these organisms called antibiotics, eat those and you'll get better.

The woo doctor says the dot in the sky he thinks of as the god of time has traveled into the crab part of the sky so I probably shouldn't make any big decisions this week. The astronomer looked through a bunch of old records, noticed a pattern, and predicted the next appearance of a comet down to the finest detail, years in advance.

The woo doctor says things that can burn are full of a substance called phlogiston, which is released by fire into the air, which can only hold so much phlogiston. The chemist says it's hydrocarbons or carbohydrates combusting into carbon dioxide and water vapor, and proves it by burning a variety of things and condensing water from the vapors that emerge. He's built way better lamps and is starting to build these powerful engines based on his techniques.

The woo doctor tells fun stories sometimes I guess. The scientist has all the actual cool stuff.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The woo doctor says there's fairies in the garden and unicorns in the forest, and never shows them to me. The biologist says there's birds the size of your thumb that flap their wings so fast they become a buzzy blur, and there's huge winged creatures that fly through the ocean called "Manta rays." He shows me pictures and specimens of both.

This sounds so much like a writing prompt.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Joe wonder why great sky fire rise from mountain every morning, you will explain this to joe.

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

Does it? Because it sounds like history to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

"Tell me the history of the world using a woo doctor and a scientist as actors."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Wow, this is the first time I've disagreed with an Existential Comics take

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