this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
734 points (98.4% liked)

Science Memes

20623 readers
2608 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.

Meta Post Tags

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.

If you are here asking: "Is this a science meme?"

Probably, yes. We use the Dawkins definition of meme: a replicating idea, not just an image macro with a fact on it. A good post here doesn't need to teach you something. It needs to make you ask something: who, what, where, when, and especially why or how.

Science isn't a filing cabinet of facts, it's a conversation. For example, a photo of an eel or other localized wildlife counts because most people never see one, and wonder is the first step of inquiry. A car meme counts if it makes you curious about what's under the bonnet. If you want to talk about something you noticed in the world, chances are someone else wants to talk about it too.

We moderate for vibe, not category. Pruning is light, especially where a post creates interesting discussion. Experimenting is encouraged.

See the pinned paper on Shitposting as Public Pedagogy if you want the academic case for why this works.

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
Sal@mander.xyz
fossilesque@mander.xyz
SciBot@mander.xyz
fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com
734
Mary E. Brunkow, one of this year's Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, has only 34 published papers and an H-index of 21. (mander.xyz)
submitted 8 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
77 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] zlatiah@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Important additional context on this... TLDR is that the post is only a "feel-good" post and misrepresented reality; real life is a lot more nuanced and fucked up

Mary E Brunkow solely worked in industry (a.k.a. the scientific slang for working in something like a pharmaceuticals cpmpany) after her PhD, instead of in academia like most Nobel Prize laureates. Industry researchers rarely publish. And 34 published papers may seem low by Nobel standards but is a lot. I don't think I personally know any industry researchers that are this prolific; some full professors even don't have this many papers

The bigger takeaway from this story is not "anyone can make it" if they have a good idea... Brunkow was extremely prolific as a researcher. A better takeaway may be instead of focusing on an individual solution, systematically why academia has such an excessive focus on publication metrics; people are trying to move away from it which is good. Another thing: her old company (Celltech) went defunct in 2004 and Brunkow was allegedly laid off (and no one at the time realized the importance of her discovery) which is probably a better take home message

Her Wikipedia page as reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_E._Brunkow.

Also some discussion about this on r/labrats if anyone wants to go over to the forbidden site: https://reddit.com/r/labrats/comments/1o1pgo1/mary_e_brunkow_one_of_this_years_nobel_prize

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

Also some discussion about this on r/labrats if anyone wants to go over to the forbidden site:

I went. It was a mistake. Most comments were about how this post was written by ChatGPT followby how they'd love to have 34 publications. There were a couple taking about what you wrote, but I think your comment captures the best of it.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Hah wow. Thanks for putting that into context.