this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
744 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

15817 readers
2169 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 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

See, absolutely no order to the periodic table. Utterly useless.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

Flourine should be the darkest purple. Injesting or inhaling any amount is serious bad news.

[–] ExploitedAmerican@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

Are you sure this isnt just a seasonal calendar of my wife?

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So what I get from this: You can probably just lick it. Odds are in your favor

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] ExploitedAmerican@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

I follow the same rule with my wife.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

When a problem comes along, you must lick it

Before the cream sets out too long, you must lick it

When something's going wrong, you must lick it

[–] whome@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm slightly infuriated that green doesn't say: yes, you can!

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Rev3rze@feddit.nl 8 points 23 hours ago

Sure, go for it.

[–] pankuleczkapl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This diagram is way way way too conservative with the "see you on the other side" classification. To name a few: fluorine will literally make you catch fire instantly (if there's more of it, you will basically get burned to a crisp before you can even blink), caesium will violently react with water in your mouth and produce so much hydrogen and heat, the whole mixture will instantly explode (in fact, this will not only be a usual, fire-like explosion, it will in addition to that be a so-called Coulomb explosion, which makes the situation even worse)

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago

I wish to subscribe to more fun chemistry reaction facts!

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

OH BOI, HERE I GO LICKING RADIOACTIVE CARBON ISOTOPES AGAIN!

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 83 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I have to admit that I absolutely love how licking sodium or chloride individually is very bad for you, but when you put them together, you can lick, eat, and even swim in it all day with minimal ill health effects.

Science. 💙

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 62 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Sodium reacts violently in water
Chlorine was used in mustard gas
Sodium chloride : I make the soup too salty (yuckyCat.jpg)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

swim in it all day

If you submerged your body in table salt in a swimming pool for an entire day, would you come out dehydrated and start to turn cured like beef jerky?

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] underscores@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'll take a pint of the purple stuff to go, please

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Jokes on you, it'll decay before you reach the car.

[–] underscores@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

thanks, I'll take it all to stay then

[–] PaulBunyan@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 17 hours ago

I love that the colour blind compatible version to just incompetentible to everyone else.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Don't let a stupid chart tell you what you can and can't lick.

[–] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It just means you can lick them all

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Exactly.

They could very easily just keep the color for color seeing people, and then add a simple pattern in the background.

Like maybe diagonal lines on one, wavy horizontal lines in another, small dots in another, etc.

Just pretend you are taking a black and white picture or making a black and white copy on an old copy machine. Can you still interpret the data afterwards? If yes, then you did it right.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 17 hours ago

What you're supposed to do with this stuff is design it in grayscale first, conveying information through shading, and then just add colour afterwards while maintaining the shade.

[–] RandomStickman@fedia.io 53 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It's never occurred to me that I can lick neon

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can you lick a gas? Licking liquid neon is very unwise.

[–] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 day ago

Then lick solid neon, duh

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Licking most of the transuranium elements would entale sticking your tongue in a particle collider. Which I think is a fun Friday night 🤪

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Collider? I barely know her!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] teft@piefed.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago

You have activated my trap card!

You see, I was waiting for someone to bring up head-in-particle-collider-soviet-man only to raise you a different less known Vietnamese physicist who stuck his hands there instead!

there's an ok Kyle Hill video about it if you're interested (:

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] grumpusbumpus@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Licking Lead is only "not a great idea?" I think it's squarely in the "Please don't do that" territory.

[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can absolutely lick lead once without any noticeable consequences. You need to be living in constant interaction with lead to get poisoning.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The best part is that if you do it enough you will forget what the problem is and an continue to lick lead.

[–] petersr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Would you rather lick Uranium?

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Damn, so close, put "us" in there and I'd be licking Uranus.

[–] BeNotAfraid@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Why isn't one of those responses

"Yes, you can!" ?

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

* Under standard conditions for temperature and pressure

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, if it's possible to have a normal licking experience with something that's gaseous at room temperature, it's not going to go well if you do lick it.

load more comments
view more: next ›