this post was submitted on 22 Apr 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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[–] PolarKraken@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago

So, the heart of the issue is that each object's path changes continuously, and the forces involved change in kind. Even worse, the objects interact with each other, again continuously - it's not one-sided.

If you imagine trying to do it pre-Calculus, some kind of "just map it all out into a grid, etc.", you can see the problems this continuous change imposes (exercise left for the reader).

By involving the Stravinsky Interpretation, it quickly becomes clear that the dimorphic superposition destabilizes. The clever reader might object "but what if you fold in all the noodly surfaces to recohere the manifold?"

And that clever reader would be right! But we didn't know that until old Dr. Isaac "Zeke" Newton came along and made it that way.

Some say the devil himself taught him how it's done, because no one else can read his notes! So keep your eye on old Zeke when you run into him.