this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
628 points (98.0% liked)

Science Memes

20399 readers
2190 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 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

What are the stars? They are bits of fire a few kilometres away.

We could reach them if we wanted to. Or we could blot them out.

The earth is the centre of the universe. The sun and the stars go round it.

For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometres away.

But what of it?

Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy?

The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them.

Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that?

Have you forgotten doublethink?