this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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Science Memes

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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.



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  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
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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.



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[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I think you mean then median person. ☝️🤓

[–] TheRedSpade@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Can't speak for anyone else, but I was taught that mean, median, and mode are three different types of average.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Oh crap. Translating average to my language yields the same word as mean. But you're right.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Because mean means average. I wouldn’t consider the median or the mode to be an average. Not sure what that commenter means by different “types of average”.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

What they mean is that all three are different kinds of averaging. This is correct, but I don't think people in general think 'median' when they hear 'average'

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

Not a native English speaker here. Today I learned, too. Thank you.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Under a normal distribution/bell curve mean and median are the same.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Considering intelligence/stupidity isn't defined, it's a lot to assume that its distribution can be approximated by a Gaussian.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don’t totally disagree, I’ve never seen an actual distribution of random iq scores

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

And there's plenty of criticism of IQ tests as a proxy for intelligence, even if we did have the data.