# I Don't Get This Science Joke **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694 "2018-01-15T15:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/1 "2018-01-15T15:39:55Z")
[This](https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience/photos/a.456449604376056.98921.367116489976035/2056313247723009/?type=3) was in my Facebook news feed this morning, from I Fucking Love Science. I don’t get it (science isn’t my strong suit). If you can’t see it, it’s a drawing of microcentrifuge tube, cap open, about 1/8 full of liquid of some kind. The caption says “Touch this microcentrifuge tube.” What’s the joke here? ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/2 "2018-01-15T15:43:43Z")
The joke occurs when you touch it (or click it, if you’re not on the phone). Facebook then shows you the bottom of the image. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/3 "2018-01-15T15:44:03Z")
Place your mouse on the picture. Another picture pops up, saying “you degraded the sample”. The type of tube shown is used to prep samples for proteinograms: anybody touching the tube with their ungloved finger will be introducing his own proteins into the sample. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/4 "2018-01-15T15:48:21Z")
Oh. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/5 "2018-01-15T18:40:09Z")
It’s a knee-slapper, all right.😃 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/6 "2018-01-15T19:06:25Z")
I can’t understand why more scientists don’t find success as comedians. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/7 "2018-01-16T08:01:43Z")
I haven’t seen this example (and can’t get to it from here), but I’m guessing the joke is that you’re expecting to click on something and it changes when you only mouse over it, and you chortle, knowing that it really is that easy to degrade the sample IRL? Sort of like the Interrupting Cow joke, only not as funny. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/8 "2018-01-16T10:44:37Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I can’t understand why more scientists don’t find success as comedians. And there’s a reason we never saw George Carlin attempting partition chromatography. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/9 "2018-01-16T17:44:01Z")
Hold on. I have to get back on the chair I fell off of laughing at this… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/10 "2018-01-16T18:50:58Z")
> [@mangetout](#): > > sort of like the interrupting cow jo moooooo!!! ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/11 "2018-01-17T04:14:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Place your mouse on the picture. Another picture pops up, saying “you degraded the sample”. > > The type of tube shown is used to prep samples for proteinograms: anybody touching the tube with their ungloved finger will be introducing his own proteins into the sample. The “degraded” image is of DNA, extracted and run on agarose gel, stained with ethidium bromide, fluorescing under ultraviolet light. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/12 "2018-01-17T04:46:26Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The type of tube shown is used to prep samples for proteinograms: anybody touching the tube with their ungloved finger will be introducing his own proteins into the sample. These tubes are also used for DNA samples, and the lower image is of DNA stained with ethidium bromide on an agarose gel. The DNA samples on that gel might indeed be degraded - depending on what the samples were _supposed_ to be like in the first place. The agarose gel separates the samples loaded into the wells at the top by size, with smaller fragments migrating further down the gel. So we see “smears” of smaller fragments with a wide distribution of sizes. But sheared genomic DNA would look like this anyway, depending what fragment size was targeted in the shearing process. However, if the sample was supposed to be a specific PCR-amplified fragment, which should look like a single well-defined band (see the link below), this gel would indeed indicate degradation. Unfortunately, the joke is wrong. You can’t degrade a DNA sample like this by touching it (unless you have something unusual on your fingers). You can _contaminate_ it by touching it, leading to spurious subsequent amplification by PCR, but that isn’t what the gel shows. > **[Your DNA may be degraded | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US](https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/life-science/pcr/real-time-pcr/real-time-pcr-learning-center/real-time-pcr-basics/real-time-pcr-troubleshooting-tool/snp-genotyping-troubleshooting/trailing-clusters/dna-may-be-degraded.html)** > > Your DNA may be degraded ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/13 "2018-01-17T19:12:27Z")
I think is the science version of “pull my finger.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/14 "2018-01-17T20:58:06Z")
Geez, you guys sure know how to kill a room. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/15 "2018-01-17T21:08:16Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Geez, you guys sure know how to kill a room. > > Regards, > Shodan If you’re going to make nerdy jokes, you’d better have impeccable nerd credentials, or the true nerds will fall on you like a pack of… well, [I don’t know](https://www.google.com/search?q=animals+wearing+glasses&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmvY_i89_YAhVHjK0KHUBeCWEQsAQIJg&biw=1092&bih=727). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-science-joke/806694/16 "2018-01-17T21:12:52Z")
Don’t forget to tip your lab assistant. Regards, Shodan PS - take my DNA - please!