A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
There is overwhelming evidence that this didn't happen in the Jurassic era: Stegosaurs had been extinct for tens of millions of years at that point.
The theropods ("possibly") electrocuted contemporary dinosaurs, not dinosaurs that had gone extinct 100 million years earlier.
Yes, but there's zero evidence the dinosaurs didn't have time machines.
There will be if they decide to invade our era tomorrow
You were't there man, you didn't see what I saw!
Is there actually any biologic mechanism to generat and conduct electricity at a high enough voltage and current that it can ionize air over a distance as large as that (looks like at least 1/2m) without damaging the actual animal doing it?
Looking around, electric eels can do 860V, which is well short from the 15kV needed to gap 0.5m of air at sea level, plus that animal's skin would need to be crazy insulating for all that power to not just go down the most highly conductive way possible (all the nice conductive water all the way down to the ground contained in the animal itself) instead of having to ionize 0.5m or air.
I mean, we can always claim it was possible but lost, but then again we can also claim that for magic or animal teleportation.
Is there actually any biologic mechanism to generat and conduct electricity at a high enough voltage and current that it can ionize air over a distance as large as that (looks like at least 1/2m) without damaging the actual animal doing it?
Midichlorians. The ability to cause an extinction level event is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Itβs actually not ionizing the air. Itβs spraying a conductive gel that the electricity rides to the prey. Thatβs why itβs important to hold it down to the ground to make sure it has good contact with the earth.
Uuh, nice - that sounds like it would work.
Is there actually any biologic mechanism to generat and conduct electricity at a high enough voltage and current that it can ionize air over a distance as large as that (looks like at least 1/2m) without damaging the actual animal doing it?
The force dude. Its pretty obvious the t-rex is a sith lord.
T-Sidious Rex!
Darth Tyrannosaurus.
Thereβs no evidence that thereβs not
Just out of pedantry: Water has terrible conductivity. Blood is less terrible though and in any case air is far worse than either, so point stands.
We can get past that particular issue if the electric dinosaur was jumping such that its victim has the shortest air gap
Pure water is a terrible conductor, but water with dissolved ions is a pretty good conductor, and that's mostly (maybe always, since things like Sodium an Potassium ions tend to be pretty important in various processes, though IANAB so maybe there are exceptions) the water inside living beings.
More like an ok conductor, but yea that's what I meant with the blood (and whatever other ways water exists in our body). Though even pure water is more conductive than air by orders or magnitude.
Well, once you ionize it air is a great conductor ;)
yes, but it's extremely complicated and bulky. first, you have to have a naked ape. then that ape has to invent science and modern technology. then it has to build an electric grid, and then eventually this becomes possible...
Well, it's not actually a "biological" mechanism, though by some definitions of the word one might call it a "natural" mechanism ;)
it's just a new kind of biology
Or a new kind of Physics.
Jurassic Sith
This is why stegosaurus should have waited for backup from the council before trying to arrest T. Rex.
Why didn't the stegosaurus fire when it feared for its life??
It is very pleasing to know I wasn't alone in this thought.
Creationism be like:
Is this slop or just sloppy? What's with the little green arm behind the lightning and the weird meaty stego neck?
Uhh, about 83 million years separated these two species.
T-Rex had only 2 fingers. This shows three, so this is likely a really fat Allosaurus
Itβs a lesser known relative Datassosaurus which was a thicker allosaur
I love learning about new dinosaurs!!
That's a helluva grudge
Best comment on lemmy today.
Are you suggesting that time magic is real? The thought had crossed my mind too, but I dared not to speak of it.
" Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence"
But honestly, I think this is intuitive and reasonable so I accept it as factual.
That checks out.
βWhen you donβt have any data you have to use reason.β - Richard Feynman, some guy who watch science shows a lot
"Door donot" - Yoda, talking fast
Technically incorrect. There are no feathers.
"There is no evidence that this didn't happen."
This line of reasoning is the same way religions "argue".
There is also no evidence that this did happen.
So I assume that it's wrong until undeniably proven otherwise by the scientific method.
I believe you have explained the joke.
Somebody find a grand jury to indict this sandwich!
On the one hand you are right, on the other hand, especially paleontology is basing their facts on very, very shaky evidence and a massive amount of extrapolation.
So I assume that itβs wrong until undeniably proven otherwise by the scientific method.
So you assume everything is wrong? Because in fact, that's not how the scientific method works at all.
Outside of the very few fields that are pure and untouched by reality, like e.g. maths, there are no proofs, and certainly no undeniable proofs in science. Everything is "just" a theory and is used until proven wrong or otherwise refined. Usually a theory with a decent amount of evidence, but nothing is proven beyond deniability in science. That's religion you are thinking about.
Doesn't this also result in archaeologists saying everything was for spiritual reasons or that we don't know what it was for? Like sure, I don't know exactly how it was used but I can take a pretty good guess! This isn't even limited to dildos either.
One of my favorite stories about this was from an archeological investigation in housing where they found several homes where knives had been stored in the rafters of the house and all of the men in charge we debating on the religious explanations about how weapons and knives would have had to have been reveared to have been stored so high in the home. One of the female grad students walked in and looked at them all like they were idiots and said it was to keep them away from the children. There are no records of what the men had said in reaction.
Huh. I don't quite remember this Nasreddin Hoca story growing up, but I'm sure the snake says something really clever
We donβt know that they developed space travel and left Earth either.
But we aren't completely sure