Science Memes
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.
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- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
If you are here asking: "Is this a science meme?"
Probably, yes. We use the Dawkins definition of meme: a replicating idea, not just an image macro with a fact on it. A good post here doesn't need to teach you something. It needs to make you ask something: who, what, where, when, and especially why or how.
Science isn't a filing cabinet of facts, it's a conversation. For example, a photo of an eel or other localized wildlife counts because most people never see one, and wonder is the first step of inquiry. A car meme counts if it makes you curious about what's under the bonnet. If you want to talk about something you noticed in the world, chances are someone else wants to talk about it too.
We moderate for vibe, not category. Pruning is light, especially where a post creates interesting discussion. Experimenting is encouraged.
See the pinned paper on Shitposting as Public Pedagogy if you want the academic case for why this works.
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Memes
Miscellaneous
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I once decided to see what would happen if I connected the terminals of a 6v lantern battery with an unbent paperclip. Turns out it glows red hot and hurts like a motherfucker when you grab it in a panic to disconnect it.
My dad had a power cable that had frayed, so he cut the exposed copper and threw away the appliance but not the plug???
So anyway, I found the plug with exposed copper mess. I plugged it into the wall and he came FLYING into the room telling me to unplug it. Beautiful sparks and light show
Oh wow, that reminds me of another incident. In my early teens my dad was doing some home renovations, and had a bunch of power tools lying around. He had an electric drill with a three-pronged plug but only had an extension cable which accepted two prongs. So of course he just crammed the drill's plug into the extension cable as best it would fit. It worked, but left a good part of the prongs exposed. Upon seeing this I figured I could get the plug further in so I grabbed it and started pushing on both sides as hard as I could. Perhaps unsurprisingly this did not seat the plug any better but did cause my fingers to slip and contact the exposed prongs. This caused my entire arm to feel like it was numb and vibrating like crazy at the same time. It was such a weird sensation that I just had to grab the plug again to feel it a second time.. Reflecting upon this incident later I realized I probably could have been killed.
I think my grandpa once told me you could first touch ground, then load (or whatever it's called in English) with the same hand and would be fine. Just make sure to let go of load first or you'll ground it through your body and that would be no fun.
I never did try it. His confidence in some things bordered on recklessness, much to his wife's horror at times. He was fairly healthy up until a stroke at 85, so maybe he knew what he was doing. Or maybe he just got lucky so often it becomes indistinguishable from skill.
I think in theory he was correct, but you had better be confident in that ground wire's actual connection to ground.
Well, with his house, he will have been very confident. With my current apartment, I'm glad at least three of the four light switches correspond to actual lights. No clue what the fourth one is supposed to toggle. No way in hell am I trusting the ground wire.
I've touched 110vac several times. It's not smart, but most cases aren't deadly.
I've done it numerous times with 220VAC as a child in Europe. Might just have been the youth that saved me, tho.
Same, I wasn't that young though, late 20s early 30s.
One time I was wiring a live plug (I know) and I got shocked though both arms and shoulders.
That was quite the lesson
Did you know an American 10¢ coin is the perfect size to drop behind a plug-in night light, such that it gets stuck between the power plug prongs? You can then unplug the night light and the dime drops to the floor, with two impressive marks taken out of it.
A kid at my middle school plugged two pieces of pencil graphite into a socket during his first period class. Melted his fingers