Aqueous Memes

When your lab instructor said "aqueous medium" but you took it way too literally! This chemist is performing a titration experiment underwater – talk about taking laboratory safety to absurd depths. The burette stand is mounted on what appears to be a submerged platform while our intrepid scientist performs their acid-base neutralization with fish potentially swimming by. The journal citation at the bottom ("The Journal of Immaterial Science") is the perfect punchline – because this research definitely won't hold water in peer review! Next up: conducting flame tests on a rocket to space because "elevated temperatures" wasn't specific enough.

The four phases of water? Boring. But aqueous water ? Now that's where chemistry gets ridiculous. H 2 O(aq) literally means "water dissolved in water" - it's like saying "wet wetness" or "liquid liquidness." First-year chem students everywhere are having existential crises over this redundant notation. It's the chemical equivalent of saying ATM machine or PIN number. The face in the last panel perfectly captures that moment when you realize your professor wasn't joking about "aqueous water" being a legitimate term in your textbook. Chemistry: where we make simple things needlessly confusing since 1754.