this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The ocean has killed more billionaires than the Moon has.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Scoreboard, scoreboard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Whales suffocate to death; they don’t drown.

Human breathing is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. We have to hold our breath on purpose to stop ourselves from automatically breathing. This makes us passive breathers. Whales, however, are active breathers. They must choose to inhale which is why they can sleep without sucking in air. When they get too old, sick, or weak to surface, they suffocate.

Bonus fact: whales can’t breathe through their mouths; it goes straight to the stomach. The blowhole is the only respiratory tract.

Bonus bonus: a blue whale’s throat is so small it could choke to death on a grapefruit.

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

Bonus bonus: a blue whale’s throat is so small it could choke to death on a grapefruit.

I'm sure their throat can be blocked that way; but if they can't breathe through their mouth anyway, is it actually choking? Or just terminally blocked?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Fair point. I didn’t even consider the ramifications of wording it like that instead of just saying it has a small throat. I tend to use analogies a lot

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

Nah, it makes sense, and ice heard this phrasing before - just always wondered if they meant the poor whale couldn't breathe, or basically just had indigestion!

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

4" / 10cm throat

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

The Blue Whale is so large, that if you laid one out on a standard NBA basketball court, the game would be postponed.

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

Billy Ocean has an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Westminster.

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

Did you know fish fuck in the ocean? Remember that, when you go for a swim.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Assert dominance: Fuck the fish.

[–] [email protected] 141 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Lobsters have urine nozzles under their eyes, and pee in each other’s faces to communicate.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (9 children)

Lobsters have olfactory sensory neurons, located in the aesthetasc sensilla on their antennules, which allow them to detect the pheromones in the urine of other lobsters.

A dominant male lobster will pee to signal his dominance and deter other males from his territory. Females may also pee to signal their readiness for mating, and the urine of a dominant male can attract females.

Lobsters also communicate through touch and by using their claws, but no one really gives a fuck after reading about the pee thing.

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 week ago (7 children)

When a whale dies and its corpse falls to the bottom of the ocean, entire ecosystems rapidly develop around eating every part of it due to how scarce resources are in the deep ocean. This phenomenon is called a "whale fall" and it's a major source of energy for deep ocean ecosystems.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 week ago (5 children)

There are lakes in the ocean called brine lakes/pools. Brine is essentially concentrated saltwater; its high salinity means it's denser than water. On rare occasions, brine doesn't mix enough with the existing saltwater around it, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and forming these lakes. The lake itself is usually devoid of life; brine itself is so salty that animals go into toxic shock if exposed for too long. However, the edges usually are full of life, where usually things like mussels and other extremophile organisms thrive.

Side note, subnautica's lost river is based off of this. No big leviathans in real life though, at least none observed yet...

Video for fun: https://youtu.be/ZwuVpNYrKPY

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Wow, I had no idea these were a thing... and it's so funky how the surface of the brine pool interacts with the surrounding seawater!

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are entire levels of the ocean where ecosystem is fed on the slow sinking of dying animals.

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