• lledrtx@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Is that joke that on a cosmic level, it’s mostly hydrogen and helium (?) so others get ignored, like how genders other than the usual 2 get ignored? If so, that’s so smart and funny, wow.

        Or is it something else that I’m not getting?

        • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Yep. Cosmologists work at the largest scale and often simplify regular matter down to hydrogen (“gas”) and everything else (“metal”).

          So if you ever see a reference to the “metallicity” of a star, that can include the presence of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc… which chemists of course would never refer to as metals.

    • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      No, there are more elements. But there are only two elements there is an infinite supply of in the universe, Hydrogen and Stupidity, and we’re not sure about Hydrogen. /forgot whose joke this was

      • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The internet says it is an Einstein quote.

        Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

        I am betting like most quotes attributed to him that it is made up though.