the-planet-mercury

[the-planet-mercury]

so you see, humans evolved to be bipedal on account of how our ancestors transitioned from the forest environment to the savannah environment, and in the savannah environment bipedalism was more adaptive because it provides better thermoregulation and allows you to carry things, but most of all because bipedal locomotion is highly energy efficient and energy efficient locomotion would have been very strongly selected for on account of how time budgets are a limiting factor on home range which is a limiting factor on diet quality and breadth which is really quite important

my lecturers have been very clear and very insistent that bipedalism evolved first and then allowed tool use, tool use did not spur a transition to bipedalism, the fossil record is Clear On This Point

and what I do not understand is: if bipedalism is so completely wonderfully energy-efficient and optimal, why are there so few bipedal things? How come lions and gazelles and giraffes and buffalo aren’t bipedal? Why aren’t other savannah species selected for energy-efficient locomotion too?

I am sure there is a good explanation for this but my lecturers have still not provided it and I must know please god just somebody explain this to me or I will die of curiosity

[the-planet-mercury]

Nondeterministic Memes For Subatomic Teens

[the-planet-mercury]

one of these days I'm going to open this app and see you posting "actually, gluons are a type of maid locked in a black rom mediation between two topgirls and one bottom girl, and there is only one bed!"

[the-planet-mercury]

Knuckle tattoos that say ARTF IGHT

[the-planet-mercury]

does anyone else listen to filk music or is that just me

[the-planet-mercury]

County roads

Full of holes

On the route

I need to go

Road construction

Lane obstruction

Let me go

County roads

[the-planet-mercury]

hello deltarune tumblr poster. in front of you is a post about romantically shipping ralsusie. if you call them 'gay' or 'lesbian' for this ship, you will get mild tinnitus for a few days. good luck

[the-planet-mercury]

My mars gremlins,,,

[the-planet-mercury]

The Martian is one of my favorite books of all time, but I will never forgive Andy Weir for failing to explain whatever happened to Sojourner.

Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars with no way of communicating with Earth, so he ventures hundreds of miles away from his base camp to find the old Pathfinder lander and jerry-rig it back to life; he takes the probe back to camp along with the diminutive Sojourner rover in the hopes that he can use its many moving parts to communicate with NASA once he gets the probe’s camera up and running.  He fixes Pathfinder easily enough by plugging it into the hab’s power source, but Sojourner battery is completely dead and he can’t use it.  After that, we never know what he does with the rover!

Does he keep it in the hab?  I would expect Sojoruner to become his Wilson volleyball, but we’re never told!  Does he take it outside and “set it free” back on the surface?  Does he leave it with Pathfinder when he finally departs from the hab?  Does he bury it like a lost pet?  I would become emotionally attached to it, it’s so small and historically significant, I couldn’t just chuck it out like a broken microwave.

What happens to Sojourner?!?

[the-planet-mercury]

Here we are with another

International Faceoff!

This time featuring Andy Weir's debut novel The Martian, beloved wherever botanists gather together to shout, "I told you we were cool!"

Apologies for the delay in getting this one up! Covers are below the cut.

No, I haven't included the original 2011 cover, as in all honesty I doubt it would place.

[the-planet-mercury]

headcanons about dating Eva Stratt !!

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪

- she drugs you and sends you to tau ceti

[the-planet-mercury]

[the-planet-mercury]

My dealer: got some straight gas 🔥 this strain is called the “Astrophage” 😳 You’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: yeah whatever. I don’t feel shit.

5 minutes later: Dude I swear I saw the Petrova Line emitting some light

My buddy Ryland pacing: the sun is dying

[the-planet-mercury]

as someone who jumped from the Martian straight into project Hail Mary I was really not expecting how much more absurd project hail mary is.

like. The Martian is fairly grounded? Its sci fi and had some elements that couldn’t really happen but ultimately it was a survival story. And since the two are so closely associated ig I expected something similar?

But every chapter of project Hail Mary is like ‘algae are eating the sun’ ‘they nuked antarctica’ ‘aliens and humans have a common ancester’ etc. It’s amazing.

[the-planet-mercury]

give the guy a break he almost exploded

[the-planet-mercury]

WAKE UP BABE!! NEW ACTUAL PROJECT HAIL MARY CANON LORE JUST DROPPED!!! (From Andy Weir in the PHM Discord)

Eridians are immune to cancer

Grace had a little crush on Dr. Lokken

Eridian book pages are thick, and they read by punching holes in the page

Eridians come in different sizes and colours

Eridians can have multiple conversations with multiple people at the same time

Eridians have instruments and can sing

Eridians CHISEL tattoos into their carapaces

Eridian worker cells are different species!

[the-planet-mercury]

i love that andy weir never kills his protagonists. it would be so easy to. at so many points. by all means they Should be dead. mark gets stranded on mars and the planet works against him at every turn. jazz's suit fails on the surface of the moon and she feels herself begin to die. ryland is sent on a suicide mission then gives up his chance at return for his friend. they should all have died. multiple times in some cases. but they don't!!! because weir isn't writing tragedies, he's writing stories of hope and humanity. they survive even when it should be impossible for them to because of connection. simple as that.