this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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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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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.

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[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 39 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

It's not just fertilizer:

it takes about 7.3 units of (primarily) fossil energy to produce one unit of food energy

Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: a life cycle perspective

With all the fertilizer, heavy equipment and agricultural practices the food production today is very inefficient from an energy perspective.

Without cheap, abundant energy available the whole food production system is not sustainable

[–] kungen@feddit.nu 21 points 3 months ago

Exactly. The Swedish government or something did some study recently to determine if we'd be able to be self-sufficient under a longer time if we needed to be, as we currently have a lot of food imports. The conclusion was "yes, but there won't be as much food diversity".

However, they completely ignored the fact that we only have a ~90 days strategic reserve of oil, and that basically all the machining used for farming runs on diesel. And there's currently no goals to change that.

If we can't import or refine diesel anymore, we will starve.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago

plug myself into the power socket for more efficient energy usage.

got it.

brb

[–] Naz@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago

I'm surprised to see this truth known on the Internet, I guess Lemmy actually is smarter than most other social media out there :o