this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 month ago (9 children)

What other lies have we been told? Does time not fly like an arrow?

[–] [email protected] 124 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Emperor penguins and king penguins are not descendants of any royal bloodlines and do not have an understanding of monarchical governments.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gray Knights have been dispatched to your location, please stand by.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Awesome, this daemon infestation on my computer (Gentoo of course) is really starting to annoy me.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Better yet, they aren't actually penguins - they were just called that because they resembled real penguins.

Which are literally dead today, because they dared live close to humans.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

because they dared live close to humans.

Poor dumb bastards.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don't even mention macaroni penguins...so disappointing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Are you suggesting they're not good with cheese?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

Not only that, they are completely and entirely noodleless.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

You sound like a conspiracy wonk.

They are the only true emperors & kings recognized by the flightless aristocracy.

Tis the human "royals" who are living lies!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Someone tell this guy about Jeremy bearimy and timey wimey space stuff

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A man in a very tight suit with a blue box once told me it's more wibbly-wobbly.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Was he gender, species, and time fluid?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

All the fluids. Except water on Mars, he didn't like that one bit.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nah, it just trips into the future

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Trippin', trippin', trippin'

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Mosquito hawks do not, in fact, eat mosquitos.

I no longer respect those annoying fuckers.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Earthlings don't eat Earth either. They're still Earthlings.

Sperm whales don't eat sperm.

Mayflies don't eat May or any other month.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

W wait a s second! What do sperm wales eat? Have I been pointlessly jacking off into the ocean for decades??

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dobsonflies don't even eat Dobson!

What a world

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Earthlings don't eat earth because "earth" isn't something to be eaten. Sperm whales don't eat sperm because sperm is (usually) not something to be eaten.

Fruit, however, is supposed to be eaten, and by many, many animals. By calling something a fruit fly, the expectation for most people would be that its diet consists mainly of fruit

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Or ya know, that they're usually found hanging around near fruit.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Speak for yourself, I rather like potatoes, or as the French call them 'pomme de terre' which if I recall would literally translate as 'apple of earth'.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I wish I had the time and money to create crimes against nature.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

It's not like they built the car, though.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago

time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Are horseflies a lie because they don't eat horses?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Without a lie they'd just be horsefs

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago
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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

No it's because they take a horse sized chunk out of you when they bite you

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But they do? Along with any other animal that happens to be nearby.

That is the one insect I will go out of my way to kill.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ok let me introduce you to the barn owl

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

You already know what you call a fly with no wings

A walk

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I always felt bad for em, we either drowned them in alcohol or froze them. I also felt guilt boiling the ecoli I spent time genetically engineering (in a genetics uni lab)

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Reminds me of the old joke, what do you call a fly with no wings?

A walk.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

They’re called fruit flies because they gather around rotting fruit.

But there are also “true fruit flies” which do eat fruit.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Can somebody explain the fruit thing? I've seen fruit flies demolish fresh fruit. The amount of yeast biomass on them must be negligible at that point. Do the eggs/larvae spread the yeast before they start eating?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The fruit flies you've seen eating fresh fruit are probably Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing fruit fly). Most (all?) other Drosophila species (including the model organism Drosophila melanogaster) only feed on rotting fruit. Though they'll consume the sugars too, not just the microorganisms. So standard lab diets include sugar along with yeast and often cornmeal.

There are also some more distantly related flies that feed on fresh fruit and are commonly called fruit flies, eg Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

I’m sure the meme is apocryphal, and it’s not entirely correct. Fruit flies do eat yeast, yes…but they also eat the sugars in the fermenting fruit, not just the microorganisms causing fruit decay. I don’t know about the larvae at all, though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There's even the old Marx brothers joke "time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana"

The fruit fly trap taught to me by an entomologist friend is baited with wine, suggesting the fruit flies want fermenting fruit

The trap: get a plastic fizzy drink bottle; bigger is better

Cut off the top. The cut piece is a cone

Place the cone (the top piece) upside down on the rest of the bottle

Sticky tape the joint

Bait with cheap wine or leftover wine or beer. The bait is poured down the funnel into the trap

Her tastes were revealed in the description of baiting the trap — she specified red wine, but I have tested with various booze and fruit flies have no taste, they'll go for anything. You could probably extract bait from the sourdough starter you made in lockdown and kept alive despite never making bread after that first try

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Doesn't even have to be actual booze. Apple cider vinegar + a drop of dawn dish soap works a treat.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Oh yeah, that brings up memories. We had to do the same experiments in genetics lab, too. I'll never forget the smell of fruit flies :/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Drosophila are awesome! Been working on them for a long time:)

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