Science Side Of Tumblr - Blog Posts

Couldn't pass up that Avatar reference

settle this for me once and for all

is “chai” a TYPE of tea??! bc in Hindi/Urdu, the word chai just means tea

The reasoning of the theory that it will gain consciousness is discredited if you take into account that the internet is saturated with billions of people and ai resulting in basically a hive mind, like the science side of tumblr.

« [S]ome AI researchers believe machines will inevitably acquire consciousness as an emergent property when they reach some critical level of complexity. For what it’s worth (which I freely admit to be very little), I have no faith in these claims. The complexity argument seemed plausible a half century ago when computers were in their infancy. Today, consider a simple thought experiment: Which is more complex, the internet (including every computer attached to it), or the brain of a frog? The internet, I would say. And which is more likely to have some sort of inner experience, the internet or the frog? I’ll put my money on the amphibian. »

— Keith Holyoak, The Spider’s Thread: Metaphor in Mind, Brain, and Poetry

"[Character] has the brain cell."

Yes, they do have the brain cell, but unfortunately, the singular brain cell that they possess is an astrocyte, the most common type of brain cell, and not a neuron.

Astrocytes play a role in the structural support of neurons and maintaining a healthy balance of neurotransmitters, so that character's singular brain cell is simply there for support. It isn't actually there to do any thinking.

hey science side of tumblr, what the fuck is this? why is my sky cut in thirds?

it disappeared a minute later but ive never seen this before.

So, I candied some orange peel today. Naturally, as a consequence due to the law of equivalent exchange, I have created a metric fuckton of orange simple syrup, and. . . this shit tastes exactly like fruitloops??? Why????

I need a hero right now (science side of tumblr)

Started to write my essay and the first line of the serious scientific paper was about mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell.

Have the scientists become self aware? Do they know the meme? 

to all you people saying “Nb’S dOn’T eXiSt!” Go back to your middle school science class AND LOOK AT THE TABLE!!

THERE! SCIENCE SIDE OF TUMBLR PROVE ME RIGHT!!

it could be worse. i could be a sophomore in high school

bringing back the interstellar fandom one cranky science nerd at a time

Damn dude, that performance really gave me piloerection

Hey look it’s me

(From the King dinosaur episode)

thanks science side of tumblr

science side of tumblr:  please explain why people can read smut with a blank expression, but can’t read fluff without turning into a tomato

Wait, actually, WOULD Keith get acne? Since he’s half Galra and all. Be know Jack-all about Daibazzal, but you obviously have

A) scaled Galra

B) fuzzy Galra

C) hella thick skin Galra (looks kind alike whale or seal skin

While Krolia does kinda look like a cross between a fuzzy and thick-skin Galra (probably character design to make her more likeable), so would Keith even have the pores to get acne? Would it be WORSE? Sure he has human DNA but how in the world would that cross over into Galra DNA? Is this a hybrid situation where humans and Galra are similar ENOUGH to procreate and hence their offspring could have acne? They aren’t even the same species, though.

Like, you tell me Galra can have hybrid children with multiple different species of sentient life (with Lotor and his generals as an example alongside Keith), but we get no further expansion beyond:

A) Galra tech responds ENOUGH to their DNA to unlock and start things

B) Marmora blades can respond to their quintessence (or at least for Keith, but that may be because Krolia is a member still)

C) most species have dominant DNA, at least by phenotype

D) they can be clocked on sight by other Galra, but not by others in their species

E) simple DNA scans won’t flag the alien DNA (since Keith managed to make it into what’s basically a military school and probably the hospital a few times without being called out)

F) Galra DNA becomes more obvious after puberty, making them bigger, stronger, and taller (and in Keith’s case, giving him more of Krolia’s hair type than his dad’s, yellow eyes, odd pupils, etc.)

That’s it, and some of the points are more or less pure speculation. Where’s the line in cross-species children? Only humanoids? Obviously it’s not on purpose with how much shit Lotor takes even as Zarkon’s son, so it’s not preservation of their species. But, like, where does it end? Species on Earth can’t cross breed without making sterile offspring, and that’s even if they’re physically compatible enough to finish their tango. It still doesn’t explain why a 50% human and 50% Galra managed to have a kid that looks 100% human, and there’s NO WAY Keith is neurotypical with two entirely separate sets of hard-wired instincts in that brain of his, even if humans are mostly soft-wired.

So, would Keith even be able to have acne? He’s 18 in the beginning, and built like a string bean compared to his adult self (seriously, how long have these guys been out in space? With time dilation Shiro could have been with the Galra for even longer than a year, so how long has it been for people on Earth compared to the Paladins?), so it’s safe to say he was still getting growing pains, so would have had it more before puberty, when he looked far more like his dad than Krolia? Does he have the same sweat mechanisms humans do? He would have to inherit some sort of cool-down system from his parents or he would have roasted like a rotisserie chicken out in the middle of the desert.

Most unrealistic thing about Voltron is that none of them had acne. Like you cannot tell me anyone but Lance put effort into their skin care

This is mostly targeted at Keith and Pidge cause Lance does face masks and shit and Hunk just seems like one of those guys that never gets acne

Hey guys do u realise if I throw a ball standing on the equator in the West side and someone standing on the exact opposite side of the earth throws the ball in the opposite direction , technically we both are slowing down the rotation of earth.

i’d like to pitch a sitcom-

a woman chemist who grew up catholic finding her place in the world of science and all that jazz

call it atom and eve

My favourite space images from Hubble space telescope. Thank you so much for giving us the stunning visuals of galaxies, stars and nebula. Happy 35th anniversary to the Hubble space telescope 🔭

Shark 🦈 nebula

Slime Molds and Intelligence

Okay, despite going into a biology related field, I only just learned about slime molds, and hang on, because it gets WILD.

This guy in the picture is called Physarum polycephalum, one of the more commonly studied types of slime mold. It was originally thought to be a fungus, though we now know it to actually be a type of protist (a sort of catch-all group for any eukaryotic organism that isn't a plant, animal, or a fungus). As protists go, it's pretty smart. It is very good at finding the most efficient way to get to a food source, or multiple food sources. In fact, placing a slime mold on a map with food sources at all of the major cities can give a pretty good idea of an efficient transportation system. Here is a slime mold growing over a map of Tokyo compared to the actual Tokyo railway system:

Pretty good, right? Though they don't have eyes, ears, or noses, the slime molds are able to sense objects at a distance kind of like a spider using tiny differences in tension and vibrations to sense a fly caught in its web. Instead of a spiderweb, though, this organism relies on proteins called TRP channels. The slime mold can then make decisions about where it wants to grow. In one experiment, a slime mold was put in a petri dish with one glass disk on one side and 3 glass disks on the other side. Even though the disks weren't a food source, the slime mold chose to grow towards and investigate the side with 3 disks over 70% of the time.

Even more impressive is that these organisms have some sense of time. If you blow cold air on them every hour on the hour, they'll start to shrink away in anticipation when before the air hits after only 3 hours.

Now, I hear you say, this is cool and all, but like, I can do all those things too. The slime mold isn't special...

To which I would like to point out that you have a significant advantage over the slime mold, seeing as you have a brain.

Yeah, these protists can accomplish all of the things I just talked about, and they just... don't have any sort of neural architecture whatsoever? They don't even have brain cells, let alone the structures that should allow them to process sensory information and make decisions because of it. Nothing that should give them a sense of time. Scientists literally have no idea how this thing is able to "think'. But however it does, it is sure to be a form of cognition that is completely and utterly different from anything that we're familiar with.

Science side of tumblr I need someone to carbon date this meme to see how old it is pretty plz. It’s miraculous enough that such an artifact came to be so well preserved

does anyone else have like,,,, certain colors for notebooks and binders for certain subjects in school??? Like my science is always green/blue, math is always red, history is black,,,,, science side of tumblr tell me why

And God said, "Behold! I have created the fourth primordial force: the weak interaction!"

And the angels all clapped and nodded politely, and there was a long silence; and finally Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, spoke up and asked, "Er, what exactly does it do, O Fashioner?"

And God said, "What do you mean, 'what does it do?' It's the fourth fundamental force of the universe."

And Verchiel said, "You mentioned that. Um. But it's just that the other three sort of have a brand, you know? Gravity helps build large-scale structures, acts over vast cosmic distances, shapes time and space. The strong force is secret, hidden, binding together quarks and all that. Electromagnetism, very cool stuff, somewhere in between. We're all big fans of the whole magnetic monopole double bluff, very clever. But, er. What does this 'weak interaction' do?"

And God said, "It mediates radioactive decay. Sort of."

And Verchiel said, "Radioactive decay? All radioactive decay?"

And God said, "No. Just some kinds."

And Zephaniel, the Chief of the Ishim spoke, and he said, "A whole independent force just to mediate some kinds of radioactive decay?"

And God said, "Well. Not totally independent. Technically it's related to electromagnetism."

And Zephaniel said, "Wait, it's not even a real force?"

And God said, "It's totally a real force. It's just that it's one aspect of a combined electromagnetic and weak force. An electro-weak force, if you will."

And Metatron, the Celestial Scribe, scratched his head at this, but said nothing.

And Cambiel, the Angel of Transformation, said, "Maybe you can walk us through it from the top."

And God Sighed an immense Sigh, and said, "All right, fine.

"So the way it works is that all of space and time is permeated by a field that has imaginary mass."

And Cambiel said, "Imaginary mass, O Generous Provider?"

And God said, "Yes, imaginary mass. It's tachyonic, d'you see?"

And Sarathiel, the Angel of Discipline, said, "Wait a minute, I thought we agreed nothing was going to travel faster than light? All that 'c' business and the whole Lorentz transformation thing. What's happening with that?"

And God said, "Let me finish. The field is tachyonic. The particles in the field all move slower than light."

And Sarathiel had to think about this for a second.

And God said, "The point is, a field with imaginary mass has a non-zero vacuum expectation value."

And this really gave Sarathiel trouble, since he had never been very good at math.

And God, seeing this, went back to explain. "Most fields, like the electromagnetic field, have no effect when they are at their lowest energy state. It's like they're not there at all. If you give a field imaginary mass, then it vanishes only when it's at a very high energy state, and at a low energy state, it has a nonzero value everywhere."

And Sarathiel nodded, but he was confused, because he didn't understand why God would create such a thing.

But Verchiel thought he saw where God was going with this, and he was amazed.

"Truly, you are cunning beyond measure, O Only One Certainly Sound and Genuine in Truth! Only now do I understand your design! For in order to make the universe homogenous and isotropic, it is necessary that all large-scale fluctuations in temperature and mass must be evened out early in the history of the cosmos; and therefore, you have designed a field which will rapidly expand space after the Big Bang, many orders of magnitude in brief moments, and then swiftly and spontaneously decay as it gives up the energy it began with, giving rise to radiation and particles of all kinds as it does, which will condense into the material universe! It is a wonder to behold."

And God said, "What? No. I mean I did, but this isn't the inflaton field I'm talking about. This is something else."

And Verchiel said, "Wait, it's not?"

And God said, "No, I'm going to use a different field to drive cosmic inflation. The properties of this field are totally different."

And now Verchiel was also confused, and lapsed into silence.

And God said, "Like I was saying, this field is a scalar field with imaginary mass, and it does spontaneously decay to a ground state with a non-zero value. But it's not the inflaton field. Instead it combines with the W1, W2, W3, and B bosons."

And Metatron began to flip back through the pages of the Heavenly Record trying to figure out where he'd lost the thread.

And Zephaniel said, "The what bosons?"

And God said, "The W1, W2, W3, and B bosons. I'm sure I mentioned them. You know, the massless bosons?"

And Zephaniel said, "I'm pretty sure we only talked about the W+, W-, and Z0 bosons. All of which you said were going to have mass, O Owner of All Sovereignty."

And God said, "Yes, but this is how they get them, you see. Once this field acquires a nonzero value everywhere, the massless bosons interact with it and get mass. Well, some of them do. They turn into the W+, W-, and Z0 boson. And the photon."

And Zephaniel said, "…and the photon, O Accepter of Invocation?"

And God said, "Well, I did say I was going to unify the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, didn't I? This is how. Above the critical temperature--right now I'm thinking 10^15 K, but I'm open to feedback on that one--electromagnetism and the weak force act as a single unifying force. Below that temperature, the field gets a nonzero value, you get three massive bosons to mediate the weak interaction, and the photon pops out seperately."

And Zephaniel said, "That seems… a bit overly complicated, doesn't it, O Reinstater Who Brings Back All?"

And God said, "No, it's exactly what we need. Look, that way the W and Z bosons have something to do, but the weak interaction still only travels short distances. Gravity is still the star of the show on cosmic scales, as it were. But now quarks and leptons can swap their flavor!"

And Zephaniel said, rather weakly, "Their… flavor, O Source of Good?"

And God said, "It's this new quantum number I'm trying out, to give the three generations of matter more unique identities."

And Cambiel said, "Three generations of matter? Now I'm really confused."

And God said, "I'm sure I mentioned this. You've got the lightest quarks and leptons, and then two heavier versions of each that can decay into the lighter versions."

And Cambiel said, "What do they do? New kinds of chemistry, is it?"

And God said, "Well, no. Mostly they just decay in a couple microseconds. Or even faster."

And Zephaniel began to rub his temples, and Cambiel sniffed.

And Cambiel said, "This all seems a bit ad hoc to me. Not really the stuff of an elegant and obviously ordered Creation. Why not have four generations of matter? Why not a trillion?"

And God began to grow irritable, and said, "Well, that's not really up to you, now is it? We're going to have three generations of matter, and the electroweak force, and that's that!"

And Zephaniel said, "As long as we are unifying fundamental forces, perhaps we could somehow also unify the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction, or even gravity."

And God hesitated saying, "Well, I haven't decided about that yet. I'm not sure I want gravity to be quantized, you know? Seems to take some of the geometric elegance out of general relativity."

And now it was Zephaniel's turn to sigh, and he bowed his head. "As you wish, O Possessor of Authority of Decisions and Judgement."

helen “trans people are perpetuating gender steriotypes” joyce is now upset that the scientific american is writing about how women were hunters too back in the day, not just mothers and caretakers. feminist win!

I was scrolling through my phone and absentmindedly scratched my face. I moved my hand away and a layer of slime went with it. The slime was too viscous to be sweat and it was all over my face. Are there any medical professionals on this site? If so, why was there slime on my face? Do I have a disease or did I just sneeze too hard and not notice?

Hey science side of tumblr, what is this growing on my waterbottle nozzle thingy

Vampires

Dear Science Side of Tumblr,

TW: Blood, Suicide

How come vampires don't suck the blood out of people's wrists? Wouldn't it be easier than sucking it out of the neck? It would be easier to convince someone to give you their hand than it would to be their neck, right? Plus, maybe they would frame the murder as a suicide by slitting the victim's wrists? Do they just do it from the neck because it looks cooler?

Sincerely, an idiot

Mermaid Meiosis Pt 2

How do mermaids have kids??? Do they make eggs like fish or are they like mammals and they just birth the baby? If they make eggs then is mermaid caviar technically a thing? If they do birth it then where is it coming out of? And do they make breast milk? With that side note, are the seashells or mermaid breasts a part of them or???

Sincerely, an idiot

Balloons are weird

Dear Science side of Tumblr,

How come some balloons deflate after 2 days but then some last for like 6 years. Is it the material? Is it the way it's tied? Is it survival of the fittest but for balloons?

Sincerely, an idiot