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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Rules
- 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
Hey if it works in nature.
The winglets on the end of airplane wings were added after watching hawk wing feathers with slow motion cameras.
One mark of a truly visionary designer is their ability to see in Nature what others did not, and turn it to human advantage
yeah i just realized, this isn't even accurate. we can't leech off another's metabolism. there's no one out there (within reach) .
Nah we'll just go out there harvest the resources and make more of ourselves wait
actually, what if viruses (free-swimming RNA) were the original form of life and proteins only developed later? then viruses would be the simplest possible organisms.
That idea resembles the RNA world hypothesis, which proposes that early life may have consisted of self-replicating RNA molecules before DNA and proteins became dominant. RNA is remarkable because it can both store genetic information and catalyze some chemical reactions.
The difficulty is with calling viruses the original life…
Modern viruses are not just “free-swimming RNA.” They depend completely on living cells to reproduce. Even the simplest RNA viruses require a host cell’s ribosomes, enzymes, energy, and raw materials. Outside a cell, a virus is essentially inert. That makes it hard to imagine viruses existing before cells did.
yeah i know about the RNA world hypothesis.
by the way, has anyone ever built an artificial organism that only uses RNA with no proteins that is actually able to live (reproduce) in an inorganic environment?
No, as far as I’m aware.
We're leeching knowledge.
im14andthisisdeep
Hi 14 and deep! I'm jestho!
maybe we lose the ability to be profound and honest as we age into becoming productive employees
> profound
> "Wow, this lunar lander and this bacteriophage sure look vaguely alike. Also, have you seen how one is a sphere and we've built spherical probes before? And another is a cylinder and we have cylindrical rockets? Wow, fucking crazy, man. Humans are viruses; I'm soooo deep."
Wish I could be 14 again
Why do the viruses look so tasty?
Is it because you're a macrophage?
hey don't call me that. i studied micro
Butterscotch or chedder flavor.
Witches and mysticists say "as above, so below".
So, according to this pic, in practical reality, it's actually "as in tiny, so in big"
Agent smith was right?
Convergent evolution, baby!
I'm imagining the lander just pooping out the humans from its thrusters onto the surface.
Life, uhh... Finds a way.