this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
966 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

15777 readers
3382 users here now

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.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 49 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] arschfidel@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Reminds me of when Beatrix von Storch, politician from the far-right German party AfD, once suggested suing the sun for damages done by climate change in an interview.

Link: https://youtu.be/IV8UzT_9bXg (englisch subs available)

[–] Zink@programming.dev 3 points 9 hours ago

Yeah it’s a funny joke, but this kind of shit actually works on people to an alarming degree.

I think it’s an extension of dunning-kruger, essentially. These dummies love “knowing” something that all those smug educated people that study it for a living somehow do not know. It’s something I see in my more conservative relatives too, the need to put others down to establish your legitimacy.

Even decades ago I remember hearing in conservative media the revelations that water vapor was a greenhouse gas, or that methane was, or that the sun goes through cycles, or that the earth’s orbit isn’t perfectly circular. Every single time it was discussed with the wonder of that brain exploding in space dude meme. Just flinging that confusion and doubt in all directions, knowing that each piece will probably be the thing that convinces part of the audience.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Why would libs put it there in the first place?

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 3 points 10 hours ago

We better destroy it just to be safe

[–] M137@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The number of times I've had to explain to adults that the sun is a star is way more than it should be. It never stops being so disappointing too that even the most basic shit, not this exclusively, is just something so many people don't know, think about, have any interest in and don't ever read more than the sparse title about that thing in the news (those titles and articles often being partly of fully false).

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

This and "humans are animals". It's shocking the amount of times I've had to argue this.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 hours ago

Also, "The experiences of non-human animals are real and matter. Their suffering is identical in nature to your own. It harms us when we take pleasure in cruelty and violence."

[–] PrincessTardigrade@lemmy.world 20 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I've explained to many adults, many with college educations, that insects are animals. Understandable for those who don't realize corals are animals, but they think bugs are plants or something? Smh

[–] xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 7 points 21 hours ago

I think for many people, when they say animal, they think vertebrate. When asked what insects are, they can't answer.

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 57 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Big if true. Maybe as much as 330,000 the mass of the earth.

[–] nuko147@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

With some rough calculations it might be 0.00001578 Light Years far.

[–] TurboHarbinger@feddit.cl 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's like... 1 sun. What a coincidence!

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago

Ya know, that does sound pretty BIG!

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I know it is a meme, but I feel this is a little too belittling of climate change being responsible for increase in temperature. Like, I can see this unironically shared on Facebook and twitter with people being "hurrdurr, fake climate change, heat comes from sun!!!".

[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago

It's one of Alex Jones and several of his "sources" main apologetic for climate change. They claim the sun is the "main driver for climate change."

[–] Signtist@bookwyr.me 12 points 23 hours ago

My conspiracy theorist mom shared stuff like this all the time. This will absolutely be shared among climate change deniers as they roll coal on their way to the funeral for their daughters who died in the Texas floods.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The solution to climate change is to blow up the sun. Obvious. ... Edit: /s

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah, someone should put an Onion watermark on this thing for safety!!

[–] loomy@lemy.lol 3 points 16 hours ago
[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Idk anything about stars or solar systems, but when my house gets too hot I just close the curtains and it helps everything cool down. Maybe we can close earth's curtains and will fix it?

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago (6 children)

This does happen and it’s an effective way to decrease the temperature:

Might be difficult to implement at scale though.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

That's literally a photo of it happening at the only scale that matters. The solution is that once the moon is there, we just need to stop it from moving away.

Problem solved forever.

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But more importantly, what color should the curtains be?

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Should they match the drapes?

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago

I just realized the saying is “Do the carpets match the drapes” but in my head I was thinking “Do the curtains match the drapes”. Even though curtains and drapes are similar. Brain fart.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A orbiting, remotely positional, moon-sized sun shade? That's crazy enough to work I think you've solved the heatwave here

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Couldn’t we do this in a more localized way for large cities? Like a big ol’ shade satellite for areas being dangerously affected by heat waves? I know it’s just a bandaid but we will need these kinds of extreme weather mitigation techniques to keep us alive so we can solve climate change or die trying.

Ps I’m not a scientist, so this is a sci-fi idea only - as in idk the maths of what this would take.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 3 points 15 hours ago

The structure you describe is called a Soleta. If you are interested, space nerds have explored the possibilities in some detail.

[–] wischi@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not really hard to implement at all but would just trade pest for cholera. We could just burn a lot of coal again, the dustier and dirtier the better. But that's pretty bad for air quality but it would seriously cool the planet.

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't filling the air with dark and absorbing gasses warm the planet?

[–] wischi@programming.dev 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Aerosols aren't gases in the classial sense and reflect sunlight. This works especially well high up in the atmosphere.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/earth-science/climate-science/aerosols-small-particles-with-big-climate-effects/

There are studies that collect data around volcano eruptions and coal power plants getting online and offline. Long story short: Climate is complicated; I'm not a climate scientist and not to be trusted; it would work great at cooling the planet; we definitely shouldn't do it (yet?) because it masks the temperature problem and could lead to us not reducing CO2 because we "wouldn't have to", but it could be a tool if we might be on the edge of a catastrophic runaway effect that causes too much water to evaporate into the atmosphere.

Update: Btw, you are right about dark particles low in the atmosphere, those typically warm the planet. It's mainly sulfur dioxide aerosols byproduct that cool the planet (also mentioned in the NASA article)

[–] BennyInc@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Simpsons did it!

1950s general with itchy trigger finger and extra nuclear bombs:

"Hold me beer!"

[–] fckreddit@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They should try to extinguish it... with water..

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Well, if you add enough water quickly enough, it should cool down.

And if you add it slowly enough, it should go out after "just" a "short" while.

[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I doubt this would work. The sun runs on hydrogen fusion. Adding water is just adding fuel to fire.

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

Yes, but more massive stars burn out faster. And even more massive stars turn into black holes and cool down rapidly.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago

Never know until you try!

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

And adding more fuel to a fire make it burn hotter and faster. Largers stars die faster, so more fuel will reduce the lifespan.

This is like some Trump logic right here

[–] Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 13 points 1 day ago

Don't Talk To Me Or My Sun Ever Again

[–] Xande@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago

I’ve been saying this for years!

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Why is Saturn bigger than the sun?

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Perspective can't be the answer.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

But it’s behind the sun, so perspective should make it even smaller! Also this is obviously to scale.

[–] Tronn4@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Can everyone not focus on the Sun? -Dotard 47