this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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top 22 comments
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[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 46 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I have the solution for you.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

> Looks inside

> Becomes putrescent

[–] PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

And I have a solution for you, too uprKaDGRhfc0aG1.jpg

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Remember: If you're not part of the solution you're part of the precipitate.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 points 2 days ago

But I already have spicy water, as pictured above.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago

Cherenkov radiation

You know sonic booms? This is basically like 'optical booms' from radiation in water that's traveling faster than the speed-of-light-in-water (which is less than the speed of light in a vacuum)

[–] lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think it is a nuclear reactor

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What do all of those different doohickeys do?

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This particular image is from a university research reactor. I'd assume most of those doohickeys are various measurement probes, measuring things like temperature and the levels of different types of radiation.

[–] call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Shout-out to Subnautica: Below Zero for alerting me to the existence of bioflourescence (much less well-known than bioluminescence).

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

An option is tritium vials. They’re pretty cheap on eBay and last something like 7 or 8 years.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Dang, that's dope. Any cool projects using those you'd know of / wanna share?

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

They're typically used in gun sights to make them luminous and visible at night.

Not a whole lot of other uses where a small, relatively expensive glowing dot is particularly useful. In most other applications, you'd rather just include an LED and a battery or wiring to power it.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My girlfriend got herself a pair and taped them to corners of her desk. She doesn't want to turn on the light when she gets up at night but she also doesn't want to bump into the desk. Tritium vials fit that use case well.

Could we have gone with dimmable lights or something homebrewed with low-power LEDs? Sure, but tritium vials are affordable and don't need a power supply, a remote, or much in the way of setup; they'll just keep doing their thing for about a decade before you have to even think about their light output.

They're a solid choice if you have the specific use case of wanting something to be easily located in (near-)complete darkness but you don't want to use electricity for some reason.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I have some of those already 😅. Was hoping for some weird nixie tube type clock or something, idk.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 points 2 days ago

Well, I suppose they're sometimes also used in watch dials, to make the watch readable at night?

[–] lime@feddit.nu 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

you can melt your jaw off with'em, if that's your jam

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Hell yeah, is there a good guide you can link?

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

crikey, d'ya hear that?! That's the unmistakeable sound of an aspiring young content creator - they've just spotted their elusive prey - an unfilled niche! Let's go poke em with a stick, see what happens!


(RIP Steve Irwin, zero shade meant to a real one)

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just about every gadget on Kickstarter these days has the option to add tritium vials. "Find your tool anywhere any time" -kinda thing

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Oh neat, idk I could see lil glowy + magnet or Velcro for camping gear or something being useful.