Your research, in one sentence?

[mandarin.orange]

Anyone else following @lolmythesis? Seems to have taken off over the holiday break. 

 

I submitted mine. This just may be my latest favorite distraction. WhatShouldWeCallGradSchool still holds a special place in my heart, but then again, those .gifs just take so long to load...

Edited December 31, 2013 by mandarin.orange

[Queen of Kale]

Several department buddies and I have been lolling over lolmythesis the past week or two.  Pretty on the nose in my field.  I haven't submitted mine yet as I'm too early in my program.  I could submit if there were a lolmyNSFproposal….

[spectastic]

I submitted mine even though I hadn't even started grad school yet. I just explained my undergrad research.

 

btw, did you know that babies shouldn't eat poop? And that fishes that look different are in fact different species?? woah!

[Usmivka]

This one is my favorite:

 

Tyrannosaurs ate lots of bones, pooped them out, and then lots of things slapped onto the impressionable poop.

Museum Studies, University of Colorado

[mandarin.orange]

So I submitted mine and it's not posted yet; I'm confused because I thought it was the funniest ever. I don't know how this works, if they are actually moderating/approving these things, or doling them out in carefully-spaced intervals, but great, one more site for me to constantly refresh and be obsessed with.

[spectastic]

"You might be surprised about how many things you can do with an aquarium."

 

Indeed. I believe I saw on Jackass Jonny Knoxville or whoever putting a sock puppet over his dick and playing gloryhole with a venomous snake in an aquarium.

 

 

 

btw orange, what was yours?

Edited December 31, 2013 by spectastic

[mandarin.orange]

btw orange, what was yours?

 

"There's some old-ass lake sediment in them thar hills."

[TakeruK]

One summary of what I'm working on could be: "Some big puffy planets might have bang buddies"

[VioletAyame]

Thank you so much for that orange, I've been giggling at work like an idiot for 2 days now. I don't really use Twitter so I just go to the website and it's fantastic. My favorite right now is "Unfortunately, French is the national language of France."

 

 

One summary of what I'm working on could be: "Some big puffy planets might have bang buddies"

 

Would you care to elaborate? That sounds really interesting, or maybe it's just reminding me of Loric's parody thread.

[mandarin.orange]

That sounds really interesting, or maybe it's just reminding me of Loric's parody thread.

 

I too was trying to think of a clever way to reference that thread... 

[TakeruK]

Would you care to elaborate? That sounds really interesting, or maybe it's just reminding me of Loric's parody thread.

 

Haha, I am glad you find it interesting! I admit it is a little bit of a stretch to make it reference Loric's thread, but here goes:

 

Over the past decade, we have found a lot of big puffy gas giant planets (like Jupiter) around other stars in our Galaxy. But there is one big difference between these "exoplanets" and our Jupiter: the exoplanets are much closer to their star than Jupiter is to our Sun! They are between 10 to 100 times closer, such that one "year" on this planet is only a few Earth days.

 

This separation is so small that there is no way they could have formed where we see them today. Some people, including me, think that these planets formed much further away (like our own Jupiter did) and then through interactions with an extra object (a "buddy" such as another planet or even another star), these planets might have their orbit "banged around" by this buddy and end up much closer to their star than they originally started!

 

Hope that make sense! An interesting postscript is that when these big puffy planets were first found, they were always found alone, so people made the comment that they were "lonely". So I thought it might not be too far of a metaphor/analogy stretch to say that these planets might have some "buddies" after all. Also this research topic is not my idea, I'm just one of the various people working on it!

[VioletAyame]

Haha, I am glad you find it interesting! I admit it is a little bit of a stretch to make it reference Loric's thread, but here goes:

 

Over the past decade, we have found a lot of big puffy gas giant planets (like Jupiter) around other stars in our Galaxy. But there is one big difference between these "exoplanets" and our Jupiter: the exoplanets are much closer to their star than Jupiter is to our Sun! They are between 10 to 100 times closer, such that one "year" on this planet is only a few Earth days.

 

This separation is so small that there is no way they could have formed where we see them today. Some people, including me, think that these planets formed much further away (like our own Jupiter did) and then through interactions with an extra object (a "buddy" such as another planet or even another star), these planets might have their orbit "banged around" by this buddy and end up much closer to their star than they originally started!

 

Hope that make sense! An interesting postscript is that when these big puffy planets were first found, they were always found alone, so people made the comment that they were "lonely". So I thought it might not be too far of a metaphor/analogy stretch to say that these planets might have some "buddies" after all. Also this research topic is not my idea, I'm just one of the various people working on it!

 

It is interesting. Coincidentally I just rewatched this video today on Youtube and it mentions the concept of "gravity assist". It sounds similar to what you just described - am I kind of correct or wrong off the bat here? I have to admit, I love fun, educational Youtube videos like this and then take pride in knowing just a little bit more than the people around me

 

http://youtu.be/YHin6lk4KqU?t=49s

[AdjunctOverload]

Hilarious!

 

These two are my favorites of the older ones I've scrolled through:

 

"I checked to see if our galaxy’s chemistry could protect humankind from being nuked by an enormous stellar explosion. Bad news, everyone…"
~Astrophysics, University of Hawaii

 

 

"Someone, please, for the love of God, hire me."

~Historic Preservation, University of Oregon

[TakeruK]

It is interesting. Coincidentally I just rewatched this video today on Youtube and it mentions the concept of "gravity assist". It sounds similar to what you just described - am I kind of correct or wrong off the bat here? I have to admit, I love fun, educational Youtube videos like this and then take pride in knowing just a little bit more than the people around me

 

http://youtu.be/YHin6lk4KqU?t=49s

 

Yes, that is more or less the fundamentals of physics being used in this idea, but applied in a different way. That is, it's not exactly the "playing catch" scenario depicted, but there are other ways to use gravity between more than 2 objects to cause changes in orbits!

 

We actually do not (yet) know precisely how the "bang buddy" actually changes the "big puffy planet" orbit to be so close to the star. There are a ton of ideas so far, but no conclusions yet. I am working on looking for these "buddies" in hopes that if we determine when we see them vs. when we do not (i.e for different types of planets and stars etc.) we can maybe narrow down which mechanisms are important. Other people, theorists, are thinking up new and complex ideas involving very subtle effects all the time. I love puzzles like this, and this is super exciting to me because in the 90s, we didn't even know this would be a problem we had to solve! 

 

Anyways, I digress! One of my favourites so far is: "All I care about is food and I found a way to make it vaguely sociological"

[NatureGurl]

Gosh, I can't think of a clever way to write about my research... but I'm so glad you brought up this website. It's fun to see how other people phrase their research. Sometimes I wonder if research is "worth it" (especially to non-researchers, who could probably care less which theoretical framework I use in my work) but then I just love the process of doing research so much!

[pears]

"Dead people, old things, dirt, social theory, and a sneaking suspicion about why my family doesn't ask me about school anymore at the dinner table."