Emotional Memes

The meme contrasts stereotypical emotional responses with a scientist's genuine grief over NASA's Perseverance rover losing its "pet rock." While society debates whether men have feelings, planetary scientists are quietly devastated by a small Martian hitchhiker being left behind after a year-long journey together. The stoic bearded man represents the scientific community's unexpected emotional attachment to inanimate research objects - proving that field researchers form bonds with their subjects, even if those subjects happen to be literal rocks on another planet.