this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 23 hours ago

So there's cyanide in the soil?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

This conversation would have been with normies.

Other scientists would be like "What type of almond? Also we need peer review!"

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fun fact: the alternative sweetener, aspartame, was also discovered to be sweet when the discoverer licked his finger after lifting the piece of paper contaminated with the substance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame?wprov=sfla1

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Ah, nothing like doing some proper lab work, then putting your fingies in your mouth.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don't know how much of this story is a legend or not but this is how a scientific (Claude Lorius) for the idea of collecting data from the air bubbles trapped in the arctic ice. (This data is now the base of climate science)

After a day of drilling on the arctic, as they were releasing in the evening they decided to use ice cubes from the ice they just drilled for their whisky. Drinking ice that is several hundred thousands years old is quite cool. While drinking the whisky the scientific noticed the air bubbles coming at the surface, then he got the idea that of he could analyze the air trapped in the ice he would get information about the atmosphere of the past.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (4 children)

decided to use ice cubes from the ice they just drilled for their whisky

And this is how you get a weird parasite that was frozen in ice for 100k years

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

Don't threaten scientists with a good time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Agents Mulder and Scully, FBI

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ooooor some freaky cool superhuman powers.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Two options means it’s a 50/50 chance, totally worth a shot!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We have seemingly reliable accounts of archeologist/explorers cooking and sampling frozen mammoth meat they excavated.

The meat was good enough to eat without them falling sick. Apparently it tasted like muddy meat and it had the texture of what you'd imagine bad elephant jerky would be like.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Isn't this how we got the moldy flesh as a delicatess trend?

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A lot of scientists sample the wares. It had to be explicitly banned at my workplace. "Organoleptic testing" was how they put it. There were several incidents, but the one with polyols was extra. (Sugar-free gummi bears will give you the gist of it. Link below) They just get bored and stupid. They'll check the LD50 (if known), then go to town if it's tasty enough.

https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonreviews/comments/11otwx0/the_horror_that_is_haribo_sugarfree_gummi_bears/

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh boy that was a good read

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Classic. A little googling will turn up gold for sugar free gummi effects

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The reviews on amazon were seriously the funniest shit I've ever read in my life. I laughed so much the first time I was in pain

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those reviews made me feel better when it eventually happened to me personally. It was a sugar-free nutella-like spread. I should have known better. At least the time on the toilet passed faster because I remembered the gummy bear reviews, they made for an appropriate reading

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What Im learning from this is that I should never try anything that is sugar free

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Well, there's a difference between "the normal version contains some sugar" and "the normal version is almost entirely made out of sugar".

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Some artificial sweeteners are also effective laxatives. If you've seen eclipse mints, they use it. 1 tin is fine, 2 is toilet time.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Scientists aren't being paid enough, that's how they found out, right?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago

From what I understand, you would probably have to pay geologists extra (and I guess archaeologists) to not lick stuff they dig out of the ground.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How many times have I told you, don't drink from the beakers.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm a chemist, and I've been gifted beaker tea-glasses and water glasses. They have been made for drinking, have never even been close to a lab, and yet drinking from a beaker makes me actually physically nauseous. It's 100% psychosomatic, I know it's fine, but my instincts scream at me not to do this, and I actually become nauseous when I drink water from a beaker.

So it's pretty easy not to

[–] [email protected] 4 points 23 hours ago

this is how I expect reasonable people to react with the type of knowledge you have, yet we have multiple well known sweeteners discovered by accident.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Your brain is being a bro for once! Good job Tar_Alcaran's brain 👍