this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

They just found rocks that are naturally hot and boiled water with it... Engineering is a scam.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Sometimes we take the hot rocks and ship them to other planets too.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

We have rocks that do math, transmit electricity, and fly us through the sky.

When you get reductive about the natural sciences it all just boils down to applied physics which is applied mathematics.

But engineering and technology? Applied geology.

(/s because I’m not going to acknowledge that geology is applied chemistry and so on)

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

The nuclear batteries small enough for handheld devices that we've been reading about recently don't use any water.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Those have been researched and tested for decades and the tech still hasn't caught on. They just don't put out enough power to be useful for much more than a clock circuit (not even enough to power a full watch, just keep the time).

I have serious doubts they're going to suddenly become viable anytime soon.

Any useful energy production from nuclear is basically just making steam to run turbines. Same with coal but you know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I believe they have been used in pacemakers, for example. They are becoming practical for more applications over time and are seemingly on the verge of appearing in consumer electronics. We shall see.

RTGs also do not use water. I suppose the watch batteries are essentially just tiny RTGs.

Conceivably you could use bimetallic strips to produce mechanical energy from the heat generation.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

This is reminds me of a quote from one of the Encased loading screens.

To paraphrase it "Power generation before was about turning a turbine with steam. Under the Dome we have this fancy technology that we use to.....turn a turbine with steam."

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

[Encased mentioned] I love that game

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

I have a play through of being a certified idiot. I have never laughed harder at things my character has done.

[–] [email protected] 93 points 20 hours ago (11 children)

Reminds me of the meme using the Donnie Darko psychologist template.

Donnie: I made a new form of power generation.

Psychologist: New or steam?

Donnie: Steam...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The only truly new method of power generation we've made in the last 100 years has been photovoltaic cells. Everything else is just finding new ways to make turbines spin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

I've actually seen this same meme used in the opposite way where they did discover a new way but I don't remember enough information to find it. And I don't think it was talking about solar.

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[–] [email protected] 124 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

So a nucler reactor is just a kettle with an extra spicy heating element?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Most power generation is just steam spinning turbines. Solar’s just weird. Wind cuts out the steam loop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What about hydro electric? It uses cold steam

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

Ooh, cold steam burns are the worst!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Reflective solar is normal at least. But photovoltaics are weird. Even weirder is that they’re LEDs backwards, and the fact that transistors just are like that is why they’re encased in black plastic

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

Unless you WANT your transistor to be this way and use it so you put an actual led inside the plastic as well to mess with (i.e. turn on and off) the transistor!

Also I would argue that wind could also be considered 'steam' turning a turbine. It's just vapour pressure 'steam' with a LOT of other pollutants which somehow increase the efficiency!

[–] [email protected] 67 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

Yes. Water + spicy rocks. Everything else is solar power, which is also nuclear power, but with the spiciness in the sky instead.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 16 hours ago (2 children)
  • Solar panels: Direct sky-spiciness to electricity conversion
  • Wind: Sky-spiciness made the air move
  • Hydroelectric: Sky-spiciness lifted the water up, gravity brings it down
  • Fossil fuels: Really old stored sky-spiciness from ancient plants
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

Nuclear: the sky spiciness got too spicy and turned into spicy rocks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

A lot of that heat comes from decay of radioactive isotopes deep in the Earth. Still spicy rocks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Geothermal: Incredibly old sky-spiciness from far, far away that Earth collected to slowly release.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

And ultimately just used to heat water.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Fun fact. Coal plants release more radioactive materials than nuclear plants.]

Except the ones that blew up. Those ones were extra spicy.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Except, even then, an average coal plant will release more radioactive material over its lifetime than Fukushima did.

It's just Chernobyl that you have to top. And even then there are coal plants that come close.

Now, it's not apples to apples. Coal plants release uranium and thorium. Not ceasium and strontium.

But yeah, never go swimming in a coal plant ash pit. For more than the obvious reasons.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago

How many average coal plants per Chernobyl though. I suspect that number is surprising lower than the total number of coal plants.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 23 hours ago (9 children)

Not spicy. Everyone knows nuclear power is lemon-lime flavored.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 18 hours ago

Nuclear power is just steampunk with magic rocks.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (5 children)

It was interesting realizing that a lot of our power is still, at its core, a steam engine

[–] [email protected] 38 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (7 children)

We discovered a banger like 400 years ago and have held on tight until right about now with wind/solar/hydro.

Still going to be using them geothermal/fission/fusion for at least another 100 years though.

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