Science Diction is a bite-sized podcast about words—and the science stories behind them. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and sign up for our newsletter. Remember that summer when the ...

Let’s be honest—complex physics theories and mind-bending math problems can leave most of us staring blankly, wondering what just happened. But one thing most of us can understand is a good meme about ...

Ateneo de Manila University researchers have found that using internet memes to teach science can significantly improve learning outcomes for senior high school students. Over 200 Filipino private ...

The majority of material surrounding scientific topics is still quite stiff and dry—void of any humor. It’s because many believe that joking about science undermines its authority and legitimacy.

Qualitative methods, plasmids and research proposals don’t seem like the subjects to joke about. For a long time, scholars have avoided humor when talking about science-related topics in fear of ...

The Trump administration hasn’t even started yet, but if there ever was a time to wave your science flag high, it’s now. He’s referred to climate change as a “Chinese hoax”, has mentioned cutting the ...

When Photoshopped images of a seated and bemittened Bernie Sanders went mega-viral on the internet last week, researchers Chen Ling and Gianluca Stringhini of Boston University weren’t the least bit ...

What causes a particular meme to take the Internet by storm, dominating image boards and inspiring hundreds of variations, while another one languishes? It’s a tantalizing question in the nascent ...

More and more of the things that set the internet on fire are of that species of charmingly moronic pairing of text and image that allows even the post-literate to feel like they have partaken of a ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American In 1997 the science agent and impresario John ...