this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026
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The Far Side

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Hello fellow Far Side fans!

About this community and how I post the comic strip… Many moons ago, I would ask my Dad to save the newspaper for me everyday so I could read my favorite comic strips and one of those was The Far Side. These days of course you find just about anything online including www.thefarside.com where they post several comics a day and I repost them here. Just to note, the date you see in my posts is not the initial release date, but the date they were posted on the website.

The Far Side is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, (often twisted) references to proverbs, or the search for meaning in life… Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side

Hope you enjoy and feel free to contribute to the community with art, cool stuff about the author, tattoos, toys and anything else, as long it’s The Far Side!

Ps. Sub to all my comic strip communities:

Bello Bear !BelloBear@lemmy.world https://lemmy.world/c/bellobearofficial

Bloom County !bloomcounty@lemm.ee https://lemm.ee/c/bloomcounty

Calvin and Hobbes !calvinandhobbes@lemmy.world https://lemmy.world/c/calvinandhobbes

Cyanide and Happiness !cyanideandhappiness https://lemm.ee/c/cyanideandhappiness

Garfield !garfield@lemmy.world https://lemmy.world/c/garfield

The Far Side !thefarside@sh.itjust.works https://lemmy.world/c/thefarside@sh.itjust.works

Fine print: All comics I post are freely available online. In no way am I claiming ownership, copyright or anything else. This is a not for profit community, we just want to enjoy our comics, thank you.

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https://www.thefarside.com/2026/10/12/0

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Alt text:

ELECTRON MICROSCOPE LAB

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[–] kayzeekayzee@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This isn't something you can do with an electron microscope, but I do stuff like this with optical microscopes all the time

[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Electron microscopy is usually used for kidney specimens right? I don't get the joke intended with the picture though

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's just the janitor fucking around with the equipment after hours.

[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Guess I just missed the joke. I have a lab background so I probably am looking at this whole thing too literal

[–] modus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Hey if someone is using the equipment for pleasure and raw curiosity, I see no issue here. Just because he's the janitor doesn't mean he's not entitled to discovery.

[–] kayzeekayzee@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

electron microscopes usually operate in a vacuum. If you put organic stuff in there without properly treating the sample, it will damage the equipment

[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh wow. Didn't know that. I saw a kidney biopsy in an electron microscope before but I never really learned how they worked because I figured I'd never work with one.

[–] kayzeekayzee@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They're super cool! The reason for the vacuum is that electrons are much more likely to scatter in atmosphere than photons, so you want as little air present in the chamber as possible. Also many microscopes generate their electron beams with a heated tungsten filament (which is soo expensive), so iirc the vacuum prevents it from burning up quickly.

Electron miscroscopes often have a "low vacuum" setting for when samples can't be subjected to such a high vacuum. Usually you need some training before anyone will let you use their electron microscopes.

[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wow thanks for the information. An electron microscope has to be the coolest microscope. The images I've seen were always interesting

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

If they're in vacuum, they probably are pretty cool! Other than that tungsten filament that other commenter mentioned, apparently.

[–] mote@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

!subscribe #electronmicroscopefacts

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I used to do stuff like that all the time with the CT scanners and x-ray machines at work. I still have an old pic of my wrist watch's scan somewhere.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I used to work at a research facility ... Back before 3d printers were common or particularly good, one of the researchers showed me that they'd done a detailed scan of their brain, then 3d printed a miniature version of it.

[–] tyranny@crazypeople.online 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i don't get the joke. this seems very reasonable

[–] uservoid1@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The janitor use the expensive/complex equipment to look at his lunch leftovers like a curious child with his toy microscope. The panel shows some kind of optical microscope and not an electron microscope.

[–] tyranny@crazypeople.online 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

seems very reasonable to me. who wouldn't want to look at lunch leftovers magnified?