this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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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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[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Both. There is a perception that's 100% biological for sure. But lumping all the blue tones together, that's social. Some languages (including Russian and Greek) have different words for light and dark blue, other languages have one word blue and green (sometimes translated as "grue"). Sure they can see the difference and name it (leave grue vs ocean grue for example) but socially, they perceive it as the same "color category".

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Some languages (including Russian and Greek) have different words for light and dark blue

In Turkish it is "mavi" and "lacivert". They are seen as different as yellow and orange.

[–] xuxxun@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Yea yea yea. Technically speaking they are a bio psycho social construct. they are a sensory experience filtered through an individuals physical, mental and cultural factors. But it does not roll of the tongue so well.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

what i always find unsatisfying about this is that many languages say stuff like "lightblue", it's like 80% a separate word, but no one ever talks about how that affects perception.

I very much think of a different and fairly precise colour when someone says "ljusblå"