this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
716 points (97.1% liked)

Science Memes

10322 readers
2164 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.


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
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 96 points 10 months ago

I've been a fan of the Godzilla franchise for a long time. I'm absolutely stunned to learn that the films don't hold up to scientific scrutiny. I feel lied to, and betrayed. How could they do this‽ Everything is ruined.

[–] money_loo 93 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I mean it’s pretty well explained in the movie that there is actually an entire ecosystem of giant life forms living in the center of the planet, and that they sometimes accidentally find tunnels out into our world, duh! -pushes up glasses on face-

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

And they're all nuclear powered.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I can't fucking believe they leaned into that.... Like out of nowhere considering Kong island. And still haven't brought it back up to do anything with it instead of immediately doing a journey to the center of the earth's sun monster mash.

[–] chiliedogg 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

But being that deep would compound the square-cube problem.

[–] money_loo 3 points 10 months ago

You would think so intuitively, but once you pass Max q it actually reverses polarity and you become lighter!

Like putting too much air in a balloon!

[–] [email protected] 69 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Godzila for one is powered by ✨nuclear energy ✨

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Does he eat nuclear energy? Or does he like chow down on some humpbacks every day?

Is Godzilla the real reason the Japanese whaling fleet won't stop?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

Their whaling fleet is a cover for his late night snacks. As near apex predators they have the highest concentration of radiation from Fukushima Daichi. Kinda like DDT and bald eagles.

But luckily we have Gojiro which is a natural sink for radiation 🥳👌🏽✨

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

He does neutrosynthesis kinda like plants do photosynthesis but different.

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

He drinks water and fuses the hydrogen into helium. This needs some deuterium to start off, which is why godzillas only occur in nuclear testing sites.

[–] LazaroFilm 39 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

The oxygen concentration in today’s admoaphere would not be enough. That’s why bringing dinos backs wouldn’t work. That and Nedry.

[–] Num10ck 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

um what/who is Nedrid? google didn't help

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think he means Nedry, a character in Jurassic Park.

[–] LazaroFilm 3 points 10 months ago

Yes. Edited.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But what if we gave each dinosaur an oxygen mask?

[–] LazaroFilm 3 points 10 months ago

Now there’s an idea…

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Strength squares as you scale up but mass cubes; creatures this large wouldn't be able to move their own body weight.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If you stop just before immobility, you'd have gargantuan fights at a glacial pace. Would be a terrible movie, but maybe a cool story or book.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This must be the real reason we have earthquakes.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

A quick search suggests scientists haven't definitively proven it isn't the cause.

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

I accept this new theory without any further consideration.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

First one to fall on top of their opponent wins.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Godzilla is nuclear powered so he's not limited by biological energy sources. There's still the entire issue of the form factor, but for that I like John Scalzy's take on the Kaiju Preservation Society.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They literally show the ecosystem in the movie... This meme sucks.

[–] roboticide 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, kind of.

They showed the interior of the earth with other megafauna, but how exactly Godzilla or Kong are getting their caloric intake satisfied on a regular basis is somewhat of a question regardless.

Godzilla especially... feeds on radiation? But not just like, consuming uranium ore. He can take a full thermonuclear blast to the face and seemingly heals bodily injury. Maybe makes him feel really full too?

It's handwaved at best, which is fine. Trying to figure out how Kaiju work is like trying to explain The Force with physics. It's just magic, don't worry about it.

[–] CheeseNoodle 3 points 10 months ago

There are some real life fungi that are radiotrophic (like photosynthesis but with radiation [ok light is also a kind of radiation but you know what I mean]) So at least part of that makes sense but not the adsorbing a nuclear blast bit.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You also can't just scale things up and have them work the same way. I forget if there's a proper name for this but weight is related to volume which is the cube of the dimension, but pressure is related to area which is the square of the dimension. So giant king kongs ankles aren't looking so great right now as the pressure will increase with scale.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Fittingly enough, this is called the Square-Cube law

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

Why can’t we just petition to amend the law?

Come on scientists.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Thank you! I was sure it had a name.

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

Ideally you aren't slamming all of your weight on your ankles with every step though. If you do that at human scale with normal human weight, there won't be much of your ankles left either. Your muscles work as a spring to catch most of the force and they also grow cubicly. So i think the law cannot be applied this directly to biological systems. Of course you are right, that King Kong would probably not just be a scaled up Gorilla, but also altered in his shape.

[–] Nobody 16 points 10 months ago

Massive flocks of meaty birds. Like Godzilla-sized plankton that can fly.

[–] SuperJetShoes 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I hate that this is even a thing.

  • Godzilla is a metaphor (either intended or simply ingrained in the Japanese psyche) for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • King Kong is a "Beauty and the Beast" love story

They are from different eras and are important films in their own way.

But we end up getting this shite because monsters must fight monsters, apparently.

It's all a load of fucking shit and devalues the importance of each movies. It should never have been made.

Anyway, I haven't seen the movie but Godzilla would win. Atomic breath. Come on guys, the monkey's dead meat that you can't touch for a hundred thousand years.

[–] Iron_Lynx 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
  • Godzilla is a metaphor (either intended or simply ingrained in the Japanese psyche) for Hiroshima and Nagasaki

From what I've gathered, not quite. The film showed up around the time of the Castle Bravo tests at the Bikini Atoll. The bomb tested there turned out to be dirtier than predicted, and fallout made it to some Japanese fishing vessels. It became a bit of an international incident.

And then the original Gojira film launched. And one early scene showed a fishing boat, which went under in a bright flash of light.

Gojira, or Godzilla as he was westernised, was not just the personification of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was the personification of the fact that this could happen again.

One take on it that I'm copying

[–] SuperJetShoes 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, you're absolutely right, I'd forgotten about that.

I think my main point is still valid though - Godzilla is a physical manifestation of the destruction that nuclear activity can cause.

As I read on another post somewhere: "Ask a Japanese, and radiation creates monsters. Ask an American, and radiation creates superheros."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TrousersMcPants 3 points 10 months ago

Shin Godzilla was great for following the original idea behind the first movie. Also that version of Godzilla would kick King Kongs monkey ass every day of the week.

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

The most "scientifically feasable" of all Godzillas, in my opinion, was from the 1998 film.

One single individual, born out of the radion from nuclear tests. This implies it took decades to fully grow and mature.

Although gigantic, one animal would be sustainable by the ocean.

The film ends with the animal being killed, so, for a change, humans eliminated a bigger global ecological threat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I thought it ended with at least one egg intact?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] makeshiftreaper 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The book Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi actually explains this for the megafauna in its universe. It's not a perfect explanation but it does well enough

[–] roboticide 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh shit, have not heard about this book and need one for my upcoming vacation. Gonna look into this!

[–] makeshiftreaper 2 points 10 months ago

It's a great vacation read! It's pretty light and fun, I'd recommend it for that

[–] Bunnylux 6 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

More like Earth's gravity prevents living creatures of their size without serious changes to their skeletal structure.

Also, how the fuck do they eat enough to live?

[–] Madison420 5 points 10 months ago

Godzilla is radiosynthetic isn't he, wasn't that like a big part of the cartoons? Like dude absorbs radiation to survive in most cases the sun but if there's a nuclear accident homie gets a buffet.

load more comments
view more: next ›