Everyone has their favorite brand of humor. For those who love science, the posts you’re about to see are likely right up your alley.
We’ve collected posts from the Darker Side of Science Facebook group. While it does feature some shocking facts, we focused on the lighthearted memes about the anatomy of a giraffe, chemistry puns, and astronomy jokes worth a punchline drumroll (ba dum tss!).
Browse through this list and have a few chuckles with like-minded peers.
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The public group currently has a little over 893,000 members. According to its About page, topics mainly revolve around “bad experiments, worse scientists, studies you wish to god you could unsee, and much, much, more.”
In addition to these photos and memes, the page also shares articles from IFLScience. This website delivers information in an entertaining yet educational way.
Wow, the government really fooled you into thinking there's a moon, or even outer space. It's just a big wall paper in the sky that they move around
Since the group combines the concepts of science and humor, let’s get into what makes things funny, according to research.
University of Colorado professor Dr. Peter McGraw and his colleagues developed the benign violation theory. Simply put, it states that a comedic element exists in a tragic event only after a significant amount of time has passed.
Good thing happened with a molecule and not an atom. Things could blow out of proportion...
Of course we are better! It took a rock from space to wipe out the dinosaurs. But we can wipe *ourselves* out!
Dr. McGraw and his team conducted an experiment where participants unanimously saw humor in getting hit by a car if it happened five years ago.
“There needs to be something wrong,” McGraw said in an interview with ZME Science. “That’s what’s sort of the counterintuitive part of humor. It’s generally this good, beneficial thing, but it has its roots in potentially negative experiences.”
The arrogance to think that in the vastness of everything we are the only living planet is weird to me.
For me it is simple math. If something can happen once (life), it can happen again. If the universe is "infinite", with a "infinite" number of suns, planets and so on, of course there are lifeforms out there somewhere. I wound not be surprised if we find life within our own solar system. Not intelligent life, but simple lifeforms, bacteria and so on
Somple math is that we don't know the propability of life beeing formed on a habitable planet. By now we have an exact sample size of one
Load More Replies...Actually I think we exist in infinite realities, so there's not just other life, there's a copy of me dancing with a dinosaur somewhere.
It's not a copy - in every variation of every reality, you are the original. (According to "Space Dandy" anyway. 😁) I like to think there's a reality where I'm a pretty pink unicorn with an otter sidekick. And I'm fairly sure it's not this reality... I think...
Load More Replies...But we share a planet with 60 gazillion other life forms (that we act like don't matter) Humans carry microbes around inside us, we are literally never alone Lol the microbes are prob writing this right now
And regarding those crucial internal gut bacteria we have, has anyone considered the diet needed to keep that good bacteria healthy while traveling years to get to Mars? It requires fresh vegetables. We may be able to make a spacecraft that can travel long distances though space. But to solve the food supply problem probably will never happen.
Load More Replies...We're almost certainly not alone. Life formed fairly quickly. If we're alone in being *self-conscious*, *intelligent* life is the real debate, IMO.
And some more intelligent species posted warning signs that say "Here be dragons and idiots: run away!"
The Bible says "For God so loved the world ...." . But, it doesn't say WHAT world.
The universe is so incredibly vast and old that it is statistically impossible for intelligent life to NOT have formed somewhere else. However, it also extremely likely that life formed, evolved, and went extinct on other worlds long before life ever formed on Earth. Timing is everything, and on the time scale of the universe, our species entire existence is a barely detectible blip. That same blip could have happened billions of times on billions of other worlds and we would never know.
I believe we are definitely not alone in the universe, and I'll take it a step further and say that I think we're one of the more primitive species of lifeforms.
If we refers to the naked apes on this planet, we have never been alone. There are innumerable other life forms here with us.
The Universe is an awfully big place for us to be the only idiots here.
Humour and science? Where's the humour? Oh, was i supposed to bring that with me?
Finagle's Law: The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum
I never understood why anyone finds the idea f "we are alone in the universe" in the least bit scary. It's tantamount to feeling a need for some supreme being in order to justify our own existence. I'm as much an Alien-Atheist as much as I am a God-Atheist.
It's scary because if we f up earth, life is gone.
Load More Replies...Many people find a reason to laugh at supposedly inappropriate scenarios. According to Dr. McGraw, dark humor works because of psychological distance. He used the story about the Indonesian baby who smoked 40 cigarettes a day as an example.
“When I was first told about that, I laughed, because it seems unreal — what parent would let their kids smoke cigarettes?” McGraw said. “The fact that the situation seemed unbelievable made it benign. Then when I saw the video of this kid smoking, it was no longer possible to laugh about it.”
Humor has been deemed an effective method of delivering scientific information. A 2013 study featured a stand-up comedy project in Portugal that involved a group of scientists.
Researchers said tackling serious matters like climate change became easier because “laughter disarms people.”
Apparantly that's what the sanitation companies are already doing with all our trash. What am I even sorting for!?
The entertainment industry has also successfully blended science and humor through content dedicated to kids.
A research paper published by science education consultant Dr. Sai Pathmanathan mentioned popular cartoons like Spongebob SquarePants and Phineas and Ferb as examples of how they helped U.K. children learn general knowledge.
Almost certainly multiple people tried to domesticate bears. This is how natural selection works.
Hey, at least you can stare directly at the apocalypse all you want. It won't matter if you fry your retinas
Neuroscientist, comedian, and former columnist Dean Burnett advocates for learning science through humor. Here’s his explanation in an interview with From the Lab Bench.
“If people can laugh with/about science, then they won’t be as intimidated by it, and will perceive that science is a very human endeavor,” he said. “Not some monolithic process hiding behind the walls of academia and curated by emotionless intellectuals.”
However, Burnett is against forcing people to create humor, especially if it doesn’t come naturally.
“Humor being so subjective and emotive, a person to whom it isn’t ‘natural’ trying to do funny in a half-assed way can be much more grating or off-putting than them just presenting their info straight,” he said. “[It] should be seen as a useful tool, rather than a requirement.”
Oh chemistree, oh chemistree! You truly make up everything...
Burnett offers one piece of advice on using humor effectively to deliver scientific information: make it relatable.
“Assume the audience is at least as smart as you are, but doesn’t know what you know. This is a useful rule for making sure you are informative but not preachy, and not condescending.”
You should be glad they didn't make you choose the pictures that show red traffic lights. IN BLACK AND WHITE!
I like to think they just keep walking and then look around and go…woohhh how did I get up here???
Try putting the accent on "u", or say "Ouranόs" which is the greek pronunciation
Doesn't believe in laser pointers? Nah, I think he's just part cat and can't deal with the red dot without losing his mind.
Fun Fact: The vikings used to put the bones of their enemies into the smelting pot for crafting their weapons, believing their souls would make the weapons stronger. In reality, the minerals in the bones would mix with the iron to create....steel so did indeed make their weapons stronger, just not in the way they thought
So, when someone says that they are uncomfortable in their own skin, THIS is what they are talking about!
Jessica, I love your ring but isn't the relationship kind of over?
Is it pedantic and/or incorrect to think both cats should have the same face?
I'm going to assume this is about some science that is waayyy over my head
The X and Y graphics are switched in this meme. The “Xmas Tree” is actually centered at the Y=0 position. And the “Ymas Tree” is actually centered at the X=0 position.
Mushrooms! Edit: I know not technically. But almost mushrooms!
Everyone in the universe loves cats! Except those 267 people who don't.
This is wonderful! I have forwarded it to my computational chemist daughter, my physicist mechanical engineer son and my electronic/electrical engineer husband. I hope it will distract them from their poverty and life insecurity!
But you're the only one who can cook and balance a checkbook.
Load More Replies...I understood some of them from reading science fiction..that last one about one particle being in two places at once....I think...
This is wonderful! I have forwarded it to my computational chemist daughter, my physicist mechanical engineer son and my electronic/electrical engineer husband. I hope it will distract them from their poverty and life insecurity!
But you're the only one who can cook and balance a checkbook.
Load More Replies...I understood some of them from reading science fiction..that last one about one particle being in two places at once....I think...
