as a science student

When your dad is raging because you can't fix something yet you are studying science at university. Can also be said as "as a shtienshe shtudent"

Beta, as a science student, you should know: Insert text here

by Figusmethat April 12, 2023

Petrie Willink as Dutch Student

Petrie's the Dutch Student, learning the ropes of the atomic age, a fresh face in a world of giants.

Example of how it's used in a sentence:

Person 1: Who's that Dutch Student in Oppenheimer?

Person 2: Petrie Willink as Dutch Student in Oppenheimer, fresh on the atomic scene dude!

by courtofowls September 5, 2023

Ichs_teachers_and_students

The best ICHS Instagram page

My favorite Instagram page is ichs_teachers_and_students

by Ichs_t&s November 20, 2023

Hard Problem of Controlled Studies

The inherent and often crippling limitation of the gold-standard scientific method—the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial—when applied to phenomena that are deeply subjective, context-dependent, or allegedly non-physical. The "hard problem" is that the very act of imposing strict laboratory controls can destroy or mask the effect being studied. For instance, the healing intention in energy work may require practitioner-patient rapport, or a psychic's ability might rely on a specific, non-reproducible emotional state. Insisting on sterile, repeatable conditions for everything creates a methodological catch-22: if it can't be measured under our controls, we declare it doesn't exist, but the controls themselves may be the reason it vanishes. This problem exposes the boundary of where the scientific method, brilliant for studying objective, repeatable processes, may become a Procrustean bed for studying consciousness, meaning, or anomalous human experience.

Example: "The university's parapsychology lab kept getting null results for remote viewing. The Hard Problem of Controlled Studies hit when a gifted subject quit, saying, 'You've turned a spiritual connection into a boring spreadsheet task. My 'talent' requires mystery and meaning, not you staring at a clock in a beige room.' The control was the killer."

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Spectral Variables (Scientific Studies)

The specific, often invisible factors that influence the results of published research but rarely appear in the final paper. These include the graduate student who actually ran the experiment (and their level of sleep deprivation), the one outlier the researchers quietly dropped, the subjective judgment calls in data coding, the peer reviewers' ideological commitments, and the pressure to produce statistically significant results. Spectral variables explain the replication crisis: studies that seemed solid were haunted by ghosts that only appeared when someone else tried to run the same experiment in a different lab with different hauntings.

Spectral Variables (Scientific Studies) "That famous psychology study from the 90s? It's haunted by Spectral Variables we can never recover: the specific way the research assistant smiled at participants, the cultural moment just before things changed, the grad student who fudged ten data points. The finding might be real, but the ghosts make us guess."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 23, 2026

Critical Theory of Controlled Studies

The application of Critical Theory to the design, interpretation, and authority of controlled studies—examining how this gold standard of evidence is shaped by assumptions, context, and power. Critical Theory of Controlled Studies asks: What counts as a "good" control? How do the conditions of controlled studies differ from real-world contexts? Whose bodies are studied, whose excluded? How does the authority of RCTs (randomized controlled trials) marginalize other forms of evidence? It doesn't reject controlled studies but insists they are not the only source of knowledge, and that their results must be interpreted with attention to context, power, and the limits of the method.

"It's not RCT, so it's not evidence. Critical Theory of Controlled Studies asks: says who? RCTs work for some questions, not others. They require populations, settings, interventions that may not reflect real life. Treating them as the only evidence ignores whole domains of knowledge—patient experience, clinical wisdom, qualitative research. Controlled studies are powerful, but they're not the only power. Critical theory insists on asking: what gets left out when only RCTs count?"

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 4, 2026

Social Media Studies

An interdisciplinary field that examines social media platforms as objects of serious scholarly inquiry—analyzing their architecture, algorithms, user practices, economic models, and social effects. Social media studies draws on sociology, anthropology, communication, media studies, and computer science to understand how platforms shape identity, community, politics, and culture. It investigates phenomena like algorithmic curation, influencer economies, digital activism, online harassment, and the transformation of public discourse. The field moves beyond “good or bad” debates to ask how social media actually operates and what it is doing to human interaction.

Example: “Her social media studies research traced how TikTok’s recommendation algorithm created transnational youth subcultures that operated independently of traditional geographic or linguistic boundaries.”

by Dumu The Void March 30, 2026