Lars Fischer's Avatar

Lars Fischer

@fischblog.bsky.social

Chemist, blogger and science journalist. Physical sciences editor for Spektrum der Wissenschaft. Writes about chemistry, infectious diseases, earth sciences, disasters and quokkas. Posts in english and german.

28,933 Followers  |  3,114 Following  |  4,549 Posts  |  Joined: 14.08.2023  |  1.7529

Latest posts by fischblog.bsky.social on Bluesky

Ich mein, die Beine sid eh ne Grâßenordnung zu dünn. Aber mit den Windlasten wirds auch spaßig. 🀭

04.08.2025 12:55 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I like the way you think!

03.08.2025 09:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

πŸ€”
So if we can simplify a problem by treating its components as spherical and in a vacuum...

...why is astrophysics so complicated?

03.08.2025 08:24 β€” πŸ‘ 70    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 1

*trying to find a supplier of Actinium hydroxide*

03.08.2025 06:51 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Photo of instructions for an egg cooker. In the first panel, you are instructed to pour 30ml of β€œ4% AcOH” and 30ml of an unspecified liquid (assumed to be water) into the device.

Photo of instructions for an egg cooker. In the first panel, you are instructed to pour 30ml of β€œ4% AcOH” and 30ml of an unspecified liquid (assumed to be water) into the device.

Our new Philips egg cooker came with no textual instructions, only pictorial ones. How many people without a chemistry degree are likely to figure out what β€œ4% AcOH” means?

(Spoiler: it means β€œvinegar”)

02.08.2025 08:29 β€” πŸ‘ 152    πŸ” 20    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 4
Preview
Regret, resentment and Reform UK: jailed Rotherham rioters one year on Men sentenced to prison time for role in violent protests after the Southport murders describe their feelings of injustice

The remarkable thing here is, from a german point of view, how similar many statements sound to interviews with 'ordinary germans' post-1945.

They never really did anything, and whatever they did was for noble reasons and honestly, they are the real victims here.

03.08.2025 06:09 β€” πŸ‘ 94    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Nur konsequent! πŸ˜„

02.08.2025 19:16 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Vibe nuclear engineering!

02.08.2025 19:14 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Ooooh, ich freu mich schon auf vibe chemistry.

02.08.2025 19:09 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Most people will react to criticism with doubling down and ranting.

Maybe we already created human-like intelligence. We just dont want to face the fact that it just repeats what it once read, understands nothing and instead tries to always tell you what you want to hear.

02.08.2025 17:27 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Fair point. Happens all the time. πŸ˜„

02.08.2025 16:42 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

That this happens is not really surprising, since both texts will likely match the query well and the minor problem that they are about different things will not habe much impact.

So this is actual real information, but mislabeled to match your query. Most people will likely fall for it.
3/3

02.08.2025 16:05 β€” πŸ‘ 82    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

To give an example:
I recently searched articles about marine dinoflagellate blooms (known as red tides). I don't use the AI summary, but I noticed that the AI preferentially went for blue-green algae blooms in pools and lakes and sourced the summary from that.
2/3

02.08.2025 16:05 β€” πŸ‘ 67    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

If you use the AI summaries of search results, be aware that they have an insidious problem:

LLMs apparently cannot distinguish between similar texts about different topics. This means it may not answer your question, but a different one that is superficially similar, but more common.
1/3

02.08.2025 16:05 β€” πŸ‘ 133    πŸ” 42    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 3

Silica-Aerogel? Cool! 😍

02.08.2025 07:18 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Die wΓΌrden kollabieren, sorry.

01.08.2025 12:44 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

🀣

01.08.2025 12:25 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Ja, aber welche HΓ€lfte?

01.08.2025 12:13 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Extra für dich: Magnesiumaluminiumchrommanganeisenkobaltnickelkupferstrontiumyttriumindiumoxid 😁

01.08.2025 12:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Aerogele: Elastischer Keramikschaum ist leichter als Luft Eigentlich sollte dieser Schaum aus Keramik extrem brΓΌchig sein - ist er aber nicht

So, ihr sagt jetzt alle drei mal schnell hintereinander

"Yttriumtitanlanthancerneodymsamariumgadoliniumdysprosiumeuropiumhafniumoxid"

und dann lest ihr den Artikel.
Biddedanke.

01.08.2025 11:44 β€” πŸ‘ 177    πŸ” 38    πŸ’¬ 34    πŸ“Œ 0

Cats like to sputter out in a comfortable place after they wrecked something, so that's not wrong.

01.08.2025 10:26 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Variations of plus/minus a few decades or centuries are completely normal for the intervals between recurring earthquakes. So no surprise there.

01.08.2025 10:24 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Back in the days a friend of mine had a very old and battered car, and the motor tended to sputter out when the car had to stop. So at every traffic light he had to re-start the engine.

That's what my brain currently feels like.

01.08.2025 10:22 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0
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Massive Earthquake Could Strike Canada as Ancient Fault Line Wakes The Tintina fault stretches 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across northern Canada, crossing the Yukon and ending in Alaska.

So a pretty large earthquake could be imminent on a faultline presumed dormant.

It's worth remembering, though, that in geosciences "imminent" may well mean within the next few centuries or even longer.

01.08.2025 10:11 β€” πŸ‘ 47    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

Nee, stopp, nur 65000-fach. Aber trotzdem.

31.07.2025 19:56 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Das Hauptbeben war 130000-fach stΓ€rker als das stΓ€rkste in der Liste.

31.07.2025 19:55 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Neee. πŸ˜…

31.07.2025 19:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Das sind alles schwache Nachbeben. :-)

31.07.2025 13:46 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Es kΓΆnnte Einzelsocken erklΓ€ren.

31.07.2025 09:11 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If you extrapolate this trend far into the future, eventually even ants will evolve into anteaters. Or crabs.

31.07.2025 08:09 β€” πŸ‘ 48    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 1

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