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| Alt text: The best hugs are probably from hagfish, which can extrude microscopic filaments that convert a huge volume of water around them to slime in seconds. Instant cozy blanket! |
My initial reaction to this comic was twofold – the first was regarding that ‘science takes the beauty out of life’ argument. I hear it a lot from atheists disparaging the religious, but I can’t think of an example of an actual religious person saying that. Maybe examples abound, but it’s always come across as a strawman argument to me. A quick google search sides this possibility, and I can’t be bothered to check any further. So I was rolling my eyes at this old religious ‘argument’, but then he subverted the normal reply of finding something generally regarded as beautiful to fling in the believer’s face. He still comes off as a bit pompous, but not nearly as badly as I thought he would given the first panel.
The second reaction was to the information about the mould itself. It struck me as something vaguely interesting, but closer inspection makes that interest turn into annoyance as you realise Randall is again talking about things he doesn’t really understand. Why is Megan running around with a microscope? Who does that? Is she holding the mould directly, or is it in a Petri dish? I can’t tell from the shitty artwork. Where are the slides she is talking about? Why mention the zinc-resistance? Why does he think that blonde girl will see it move? I was highly skeptical about that, and Wiki suggests that you would have to watch for about 50 seconds to see it move. There is no way she has sat and watched it for that long, and there is no way that the movement lines around the mould are meant to signify such slow undulation.
In fact, a trip to a certain Wiki page clears all this up. It becomes horribly clear that Randall has read that one page and lifted all the information he thought he understood out of it. That certainly explains his odd belief that the mould would quiver like a jelly. His research consisted of a look at one goddamn Wiki page.
So the bit I thought would annoy me didn't, and the bit I thought was quite interesting turned out to annoy me. Spectacular work there, Randy.
I can't bring myself to check where he got the alt-text. It's probably Wiki as well.
If you would like to learn a bit more about dog vomit slime moulds than Randall could be fucked to do, try this page. It’s all pretty damn interesting.
REDDIT WATCH: Searching for ‘mold’ in Reddit turned up this. That is an astonishing coincidence, is it not? If this had a higher profile or any comments, I would put this much higher on the ‘inspiration’ scale, but I can’t really rule out a bias in my search. ‘Inspiration’ rate: 50%
BINGO TIME!
Hmmm.
Bingo is in definite need of an update in the absence of Rob's fanfics.
BINGO TIME!
Hmmm.
Bingo is in definite need of an update in the absence of Rob's fanfics.
You know what argument I DO read quite often? That over analyzing humor takes the fun out of it. If only we could just chuckle at XKCD and walk away, all would be well. But no, we ruin it by actually analyzing and discussing it. How dare we.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a straw man argument though, no doubt about that. As if it would still be funny if we just didn't actually try to think about it... Apparently Cuddlefish think XKCD is a quantum comic. It could still be funny if we just didn't observe it!
I suppose it's the same argument really, with humour replacing beauty.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just to be fair to Randy, the whole Romantic movement made the same argument blonde Megan is making. He's just a couple of centuries late is all.
The premise of this comic is not too bad i think. It's poorly executed though (as usual).
ReplyDeleteI think he should have made the punchline be the slides. And then have the slides be completely mundane pictures of various yellow blobs.
Removing the completely vestigial male character and cleaning up the unnatural dialog would also help.
I think he and every single aspiring scientist read that one Richard Feynman book where he related a story of someone saying that and his thoughts on the matter.
ReplyDeleteI will say though, I didn't get a 'religious' idea from the blonde, just an anti-science one. The two aren't synonymous. Most scientists believe in god, most religious people accept that science describes physical reality.
Would any biologist actually claim that a slime mold wants to hug someone? That seems... awfully anthropomorphic.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, despite his protestations to the contrary, Randall actually does believe that scientific inquiry takes the wonder out of life. That could be why his research is so shallow. More likely, though, he's just lazy.
Well, we can add anthropomorphic to our list of Randy fetishes then. I'll put it in the "maybe" column for now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I doubt he actually believes scientific inquiry takes the wonder out of life. He's too proud of his "hard science" background to think that way. If anything, I'd wager he believes that the only true beauty is found through science. He's just bad at it is all.
I find it hilarious that Randall just uses reddit to write his comics for him.
ReplyDelete*Randy* ooh! Dog vomit mold? This is HI-larious, the world must be informed of this, now to build a comic around it!
@Bret - Fair point. Most anti-science arguments I get are from religious people, and I tend to make the connection a bit too quickly.
ReplyDelete@Emily - I have heard biologists talking about their E. Coli as if it were a particularly unruly child. It definitely happens. Hell, I treat my computer like it's a lazy retard, and it does the same to me. Only one of us is right.
Bingo should include "discussion of the next comic"…
ReplyDeletealso yeah the cheater was pretty pathetic.
Captcha: untivi. Untiō, untīre, untivī, untitus. I just thought that was pretty cool.
You're slipping kitten, I've already had my coffee and about to go get lunch without my Monday morning dose of hate.
ReplyDeleteFeeling the pressure of the countdown, eh?
Merely a combination of flu and British Summer Time, Capn. Don't you get cocky now :-)
ReplyDeleteRandall didn't really read the Wiki article on Fuligo septica (or he did read it without understanding it).
ReplyDeletePlasmodial slime molds, IN THE PLASMODIAL PHASE, do move. With a microscope, cytoplasmic streaming is pretty obvious (the 50 second figure apparently refers to a "cycle"; streaming is visible immediately). Wikipedia says the plasmodia are "white to yellow gray" However, when Fuligo septica looks like bright yellow dog barf, it is in the aethelial (dispersive/reproductive) phase, and it no longer moves.
I look for slime molds regularly, and hardly ever find them in the plasmodial phase. The plasmodium likes to hide under leaves. Fruiting bodies (aethelia et al.) are fairly obvious if you're looking for them.
I brought a plasmodium on a leaf home once. It ran away, but it took HOURS. I had the leaf on a wooden bench on the deck. After an hour or so, the plasmodium had moved off the leaf onto the bench. Another hour and it had moved to the gap between the slats in the bench. Another hour and it had dropped through the bench onto the deck. Another couple hours, and it had moved to a gap in the deck boards and dropped down under the deck. Total horizontal movement was a maybe couple inches over 4 hours or so.
@17:09 - That is pretty awesome, to find some and watch it escape. Or is it still under the decking?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I found this time lapse video:
http://vimeo.com/371660
And this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkVhLJLG7ug
I bet this one doesn't have a bingo :(
ReplyDelete