this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
1637 points (98.6% liked)

Science Memes

16948 readers
1944 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
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

IQ tests!

They are standardized eugenics and should be rethought entirely

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

The book Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen goes a long way to accomplish this. At least it did for me.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago (8 children)

I went through the two websites posted here for graduation year 2008. The only incorrect thing I was taught that I still believed was:

"Learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) determine how you best learn"

False. Huh.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] ghen@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago (6 children)

The fact that we thought Pluto was a planet seemed absolutely insane at the time but none of the kids could question the adult in the room when the stupid rock is literally not even staying in its own lane

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] wer2@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago

When I was in school, we were taught that vaccines work. /s

[–] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wash your chicken before cooking. Don't do this, it just spreads salmonella all over your sink.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

School experiences are too varied for such a site to exist. Examples:

Climate change was universally agreed upon to exist and be caused by people 30 years ago. For some reason it no longer appears to be.

Leif Erikson was taught to us back then but you’ll find people today that celebrate Columbus.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] lath@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Alphas.

White Jesus.

IQ.

9 out of 10 dentists.

Apple a day.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 14 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Rome didn't have special rooms for people to vomit in, then resume feasting.

Soviet blocking brigades weren't machine gun nests set up to mow down retreating soviet soldiers.

Vietnam had a regular army, it wasn't entirely a guerrilla force.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 14 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Feel like a lot of the "myths" are also just because you're not going to teach a 16-year-old about quantum mechanics to explain why table salt exists

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] Overshoot2648@lemmy.today 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fruit and vegetables being separate categories: Fruits are actually a type of vegetable. Additionally cucumbers are melons.

Cyan being a light blue: It is actually 50% green.

Simple machines are fundamental: They completely ignore compliant mechanisms and aren't atomic. Actually atomic mechanisms would be defined by the type of force, the shape, and the compliance.

The only form of Socialism is Marxism and Communism and Capitalism means markets: Look up Mutualism or Syndicalism.

Basically everything with pop psychology.

I am sure there are more, but these were just top of my head.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Most of what I learned about genetics is incorrect as when I graduated we thought DNA ran the show.

We were also wrong about why the USSR fell (not a huge surprise)

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Jhuskindle@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Ill never accept that Pluto is not a planet! JUSTICE FOR PLUTO

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

"What you were taught
"Flu shots give you the flu"

What we know now
A common misconception...

Updated understanding emerged around 2020"

Updated for whom? Anti-vaccine idiots?

load more comments (3 replies)

In the US, Trump would demand this site be “de-woke-ified” to remove “conservative bias” by having any conservative fact disproven removed from results.

[–] CubitOom 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Um...what's it say about Tylenol?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] yabai@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Oh I've got a good one. Learned in the American south. Supposedly the American Civil War was not fought over slavery, but differing railroad track widths. Slavery was a minor detail that was a scape goat for the north to force the south to use its standard railroad width.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Sure, some are still taught. Like you can catch a cold from being in the cold.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›