A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
The appointment of Elon Musk to lead the proposed department of government efficiency raises concerns, given his track record of business management.
His handling of Twitter/X after its $44 billion acquisition has resulted in a significant decline in its value, with some sources putting the valuation around $9bn.
Doesn't seem very efficient to me.
Sure, that's great but it's not even the point. Fundamental research and other type of "useless" scientific endeavors help humanity as a whole to better understand our universe but would never be privately funded because they don't have any concrete and immediate financial benefits. This is precisely what a government should finance, because no one else would do it and yet it's small stuff like that that make us collectively move forward as a species
Oh, they’ll probably publicly fund it for private profit
Musk fans don't want humanity to advance. They hate technological progress.
For OTHERS, yes. But many want the cutting edge for themselves, at no cost to themselves.
Where did Musk come from? I don't see any mention of it here
The Department of goverment efficiency was Musk's meme idea and Trump is apparently just rolling with it.
Thanks for actually explaining it instead of downvoting me. Heaven forbid I'm not aware of every micro-connotation caused by the current depressing news cycle
Musk will govern the DOGE department, won't he?
Say it with me:
No. Research. Is. Useless.
If we say that research is useless because it doesn't bring you mo ey we could stop teaching children math beyond the absolute basics because "it doesn't brinf them anything". This is stupid, because those are the fundamentals that tech children to thing logically and become useful member of society. Same with research. It teaches us the things necessary to maybe invent some of the most useful stuff ever seen
Republicans: "No. Research is useless."
That's a good one, but sadly true.
You say that but I've heard concerningly many people say that there is no point in teaching everyone stuff like basic math because chances are they won't use it
I also hear that argument often and I absolutely hate it. They always say "tech them things like insert manual labor work. Nobody needs Math."
It always depends. A lot of people will likely never use a saw outside of school. Especially in a time where a lot of people go to university the skills that complex math teaches you are basically the bare necessitys. Also school usually is teaches you the basic broad knowledge and skills required to get more specific education on a specific topic. This includes studying all different subjects and also getting training as a woodworker. It is literally impossible to focus on everything and that also isn't really the use of school. Its just the first and universal form of education.
Republicans want drones and cannon fodder, not scientists and intellectuals.
I agree no research is useless but some just goes straight into the bonkers folder.
Yeah, but just because a scientist calculated what would happen if we replaced the earth with blueberrys doesn't mean we should defund him.
If a scientist came to me asking for funding to research on bodily odor (which has happened, if memory serves me well) I would be baffled by the request but I wouldn't outright deny it.
Sweaty arm pits. Stinky feet. Bad breath. Farts.
The lab would have to be declared a bio hazard area by itself. Too good to miss out. Just the chance to see someone trying to keep a straight face while taking in some of these fine bouquet of rancid would be too good to miss.
Imagine watching the footage of a day of work.
China is going to devour the scientific world if we keep it like this
Won't happen, or at least won't be useful if it does. Lotta Chinese authors are faking data for the sake of the CCP and their studies don't replicate. If that takes over, it'll be like a global Dark Age.
Going to continue devouring the scientific world with lots of smart Westerners leaving the new SlaveTastic^tm^ USA
Republicans deserve no progress. Let them fall back into the ages they desire. No Smartphones. That's which science.
In addition, government research in the sciences is miniscule. You could cut ALL of science funding and be no where close to the 1 trillion that Musk claims he'll be able to reduce the budget by
Regardless, he'll claim he cut 500 bajillion dollars no matter what he ends up doing
My bet is that if he expects to cut 2 trillion, he will end up increasing the budget by 4 trillion.
No no, you don't understand. This is what people have actually been asking for this whole time. Nobody wanted the budget randomly cut, they wanted it distributed
Sadly we already know it will be distributed to the friends of the 1%
He actually claimed 2 trillion.
The goal's more about cutting all the science funding than reducing spending. These are people who bitch about Ukraine when they don't even plan on spending that money on something else they're just guzzling Russian propaganda.
"preventing next corn plague" with resources used being a box of soil and bunch of underpaid grads seems pretty efficient to me, but i guess that since the common clay of the new west already voted they can be safely disposed of
at USDA, they're turning beetles kinky! 😡
Welcome to the new Dark Ages, brought to you by religious fascists.
Stupidly funny, right? Like watching a movie, where something dumb is about to happen. You are watching and screaming in agony, pleading for the characters on the screen not to do the dumb thing. But you watch in horror, as all your words are without any effect, you can't reach anyone.
But now with the added bonus, that the dumb thing might affect your life. Or that of your loved ones, neighbours, friends.
Living in Australia, with China just to the north as our largest trade partner, I'm not looking forward to what is going to happen with America's allies in relation to China
Hell can we mention that the cold war era these fucks idolize was also the golden age of the government throwing money at side projects?
Goddamn, it really is impossible!
How the fuck am I gonna filter US politics out of my feed when it creeps in through Science Memes?
There's only one way to filter politics out of your time online: don't go online.
It's also helped develop advances in flight, metamaterials, physics.
But Barbie makes a good point with a meme about how she treats her cuck husband.
Welcome to a new era of weaponized ignorance
Yeah, we've been studying the sex lives of various different animals (including ourselves!) for centuries now, yet nobody bat an eye until now. 🙄
"Haha, I'm insurrection barbie, get it? Because the libs think when Donald Trump lets a massive mob of his supporters to the Capitol to disrupt the election certification process the libs thought it was an insurrection!"
I’m too stupid to understand. How does this all connect?!
reproductive habits of some insects are of critical importance in pest control in agriculture
natural product chemists (it's a subfield of organic chemistry) find and identify new weird shit in obscure organisms (esp marine organisms) all the time. because amounts are tiny, then their work is on synthesis of the same thing. some of these turn out to be useful
Its actually quite simple. Snaily often eat crops and thereby reduce the production of said crops. The more snails reproduce, the more crops will be eaten. When you know how their reproduction works you can start looking for solutions on how to reduce their reproduction (and so the production of crops).
