In his essay “To Tell a Chemist” (1965), Asimov proposed a simple shibboleth for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word “unionized”. Chemists, he noted, will read un-ionized (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read union-ized (belonging to a trade union).
Unionized
Submitted 1 month ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/df21de2d-8d74-42a0-b52e-f5232a372cea.jpeg
Comments
LordTrychon@startrek.website 1 month ago
waz@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Or some will say it’s spelled incorrectly
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 1 month ago
If you don’t think about it very hard, solidarity is basically macro ionization
djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Onionized
BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Ah, because of the ions.
Took me eons.
AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Good luck finding the chemistry teacher, though.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
As a leftist chemistry teacher, I read it as “having attained union”, rather than “not ionized”, so YMMV with this heuristic
Vanth@reddthat.com 1 month ago
My initial thought was “would chemists theoretically be less into labor protections than plumbers”?
I guess that puts me in a third bucket.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Am a chemist in your group. I read it the plumber way too. Took me five seconds to get it.
ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 1 month ago
What about ChemE then? They’re both.
General_Effort@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Perfectly balances, as all things should be.
smeg@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Here’s a version without the bad crop, comedy homicide, pointless circle around the punchline, and puritanical censoring
Image
SwordInStone@lemmy.world 1 month ago
thanks