this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
604 points (99.5% liked)

Science Memes

14139 readers
2847 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.

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.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

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 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
604
Rock Identification (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

'Is it worth anything?' 'I dunno, is the answer to that question worth another $5?'

https://xkcd.com/3068/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 46 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I usually just say something like "look over there!" and sneakily replace the rock they were tasting to the one I want identified

[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

...tasting? ๐Ÿค”

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

h-hey you're a geologist right? can you uh, identify this c- i mean.. rock? for me?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Believe it or not, this is a legit thing. I haven't done anything much with rocks*, but here's a good example for soil. If it's fine grained (smaller than sand) and you can't see the particles by eye, you can rub some on your teeth:

Buttery texture --> clay Gritty on the teeth --> silt

Not approved for use on contaminated ground!

  • I'm a structural engineer, but I work closely with geotechnical engineers and do my best to understand it as well
[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I bet you warn about Land Wars in Asia, don't you?

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've spent the last two years building up an immunity to garnets in a mica schist.