N S F W !

[Old_Geezer]

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-3

[Buenchico]

I enjoyed that, O_G, but I'll have to consult my moderator's handbook to see if such content can really be allowed before the watershed ;-)

Merry Christmas, BTW!

http://tinyurl.com/jesb6dc

[TheChair]

Both very funny. :-)

[jim360]

Also rather accurate. Quantum Mechanics enthusiasts of the world, take note.

[Old_Geezer]

I might have guessed that I'd been fed "lies to children". Darned popular science magazines.

[jim360]

It is, to be fair, very difficult to communicate certain very hard parts of science without saying something like "look at the mathematical equations that you probably can't really follow which is why you were asking me to explain this to you in words." So people draw analogies, as best they can. And then casually forget that these were analogies that aren't meant to be taken too seriously, instead taking them a little too literally. Which is where all of the utter nonsense said about quantum mechanics comes in.

It's mind-blowing because we try to capture it in terms we can understand, that also happen to be in some sense the wrong terms, or just unfortunately (but inevitably) misleading. The biggest problem is clearly the use of the word "and", that just doesn't at all capture what's going on, but what the hell other word is there?

But anyway. As long as people remember that popular science is also wrong science, as in not the whole picture, or just a little too vague, then it's great to share science as much as possible. Especially the cool bits.