‘Science Memes’: 50 Of The Most Relatable Posts That Perfectly Marry Knowledge And Humor
The Facebook page 'Science Memes' is a fun and engaging online project that blends numbers and equations with pop culture references, wordplay, and relatable real-life scenarios.
From the latest scientific discoveries to lab mishaps and academic struggles, the page offers a lighthearted perspective on subjects that are often stereotypically labeled as repetitive and boring.
With over 1.3 million followers, 'Science Memes' has become a popular destination for those who enjoy learning and laughing, so let's give it a go and see what it has been posting lately.
More info: Facebook
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On the surface, memes are a just source of entertainment – a way for people to express themselves through remixed templates of text, images, and videos. Some even call them the wallpaper of our social media feeds. And rightfully so — memes are everywhere on the internet and often provide us with a few minutes of idle, amusing fodder for procrastination during our day.
But they also have a serious side, according to researchers looking at modern forms of communication. They are a language in themselves, with a capacity to transcend cultures and construct collective identities between people. These sharable visual jokes can also be powerful tools for self-expression, connection, social influence, and even political subversion.
Internet memes "are one of the clearest manifestations of the fact there is such a thing as digital culture," Paolo Gerbaudo, a reader in digital politics and director of the Centre for Digital Culture at Kings College London, told the BBC.
Gerbaudo described memes as a "sort of a ready-made language with many kinds of stereotypes, symbols, situations. A palette that people can use, much like emojis, in a way, to convey a certain content".
According to Instagram, over one million posts mentioning the word "meme" were shared every day in 2020.
But the first one to use it was evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who coined the term in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, likening discrete pieces of human culture that propagate between people to genes.
Dawkins shortened the ancient Greek word "mimeme" – with an apology to his classicist colleagues – to meme, making it rhyme with "cream". He suggested that memes were melodies, ideas, catchphrases, or bits of information that leap from brain to brain through imitation, expediting their transmission.
He used the term to highlight how human culture can replicate itself. In that sense, memes have been around probably since humans have had cultures they have shared. But we can also see the kernels of what makes modern internet memes so successful in ancient forms of pop culture.
I drove my mother home from the hospital after her double mastectomy for terminal cancer. We got the the house with all the family there for support. It was very subdued and depressing. A bird came to the feeder. I thought I'd change the subject and talk about the lovely bird, maybe lighten the mood: "Oh, look, you have Great Tits!" It lightened the mood...
The “picture” of the exoplanets is mostly just light in different wavelenghts that passed through the planet’s atmosphere. Based on the wavelenght, we can roughly tell what elements are present on the planet but not accurately guess how it looks. Planets 5 billion kilometres away (those in our solar system) have been visited by probes that have sensitive equipment and they use indivisual images to map out the whole planet. Edit: Just added a small point I forgot to mention
"We see the replication of mundane reality in many forms of art," said Idil Galip, a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh, and founder of the Meme Studies Research Network. "Even going back to, let's say, Hellenic times, you've got something like tragic theatre, that takes things that happen to you that are upsetting and real-life and makes them into comedic things, which is what memes do."
But with the arrival of the internet, memes have become a more tangible phenomenon that can be observed as they grow, spread, and mutate. Researchers at Facebook showed in a study just how widely memes posted on their platform can evolve. In one example, they found 121,605 different variants of one particular meme posted across 1.14 million status updates.
Theory (I am a mathematician, but it's a theory, so no charge.): Cutting the bread diagonally makes some bites less efficient, as in less sandwich per bite. (At four places you are eating triangular bites half the areas of your usual squarish bites.) Therefore, more bites and so the illusion of more sandwich.
For more of this good stuff, check out Bored Panda's earlier publication on the Facebook page 'Science Memes' as well as our pieces on the Facebook group titled 'The Lighter Side Of Science' and the Instagram account 'Memes Of Science.'
My mom's high school was "beating our team is as easy as pie! 3.14159!"
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For most practical purposes, you don't need that many digits of PI. The difference between 3 and 7 digits of PI when calculating the circumference of the Earth is 5km (12.7%). The difference between 4 and 7 digits is only 94m (0.24%).
I can recite PI to 58 places, but that only serves to simultaneously impress and annoy people.
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I remember 3.14159265359 which would make it "may I have a large container of coffee add cream substance"
Now, calculate the volume of the coffee cup with multivariate calculus. I really want to do it myself, but I’m procrastinating a programming assignment. I suck at programming.
container of coffee? i could get a bucket 🪣 some tuperware, 🫙 jar 🏺 vase ma man that aint clear whatsoever lol
It doesn't seem very helpful to have to count the number of letters in the words.
If it doesn't work for you, obviously don't use it. I don't actually need to know Pi, but this would be helpful for me because I'm far more keen on words than numbers.
Load More Replies... Great. Now you have to stop and count the number of letter for each word...
I wish I could remember Pi. "Eureka!" cried the great inventor. Christmas pudding Christmas pie, is the problem's very center. There you have 20 digits, at least you do if you can count the number of letters in each word.
3. 1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 (thx ASAP science)
This is freaking awesome and I hope I never forget it…what were we just talking about
I once memorized pi to the 50th digit. It's useless information except on pi day when Google has the little calculator game, and even then I don't have the patience for it. Let me type in the number as I know it and rank me against other nerds.
Pi is approximately equal to 3.1415926, not exactly. I guess they could find the "approximately equal" symbol of their keyboard, like me.
Ok new challenge, who can make the longest phrase that makes sense, but also keeps counting pi??
The blackhole scene is kind of nonsense. He would’ve been spaghettified and died but it’s not like movies depict reality so I’ll let it slide
Note: this post originally had 54 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
This is the articles we want on BP. Not I was abusive and my wife divorced me. AITA?
what would the scientific algorithm be for A.I.T.A.?
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Some of these I didn't get but I'll be damned if I'll ask for explanations. That would be as bad as reading the directions.
Some directions have pictures, reading not required
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That’s how science works. That’s what science IS. Which is why some people dislike it so much, I guess.
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If I was a symphonic super conductor the audience would be screaming mho mho mho.
BP, again with your arbitrary truncation! If you're going to shorten a thread, please do so when it's at least 65 entries long. Then you can stop at 50 and require that people click to read at least 15 more.
But the others are there if you want to read them, so why does it matter? People can stop when they've had enough anyway.
Load More Replies... This is the articles we want on BP. Not I was abusive and my wife divorced me. AITA?
what would the scientific algorithm be for A.I.T.A.?
Load More Replies... Some of these I didn't get but I'll be damned if I'll ask for explanations. That would be as bad as reading the directions.
Some directions have pictures, reading not required
Load More Replies... That’s how science works. That’s what science IS. Which is why some people dislike it so much, I guess.
Load More Replies... If I was a symphonic super conductor the audience would be screaming mho mho mho.
BP, again with your arbitrary truncation! If you're going to shorten a thread, please do so when it's at least 65 entries long. Then you can stop at 50 and require that people click to read at least 15 more.
But the others are there if you want to read them, so why does it matter? People can stop when they've had enough anyway.
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