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> Well, at least they are not using diameter of human hair as a unit of measure.

I recently heard a scientific talk mentioning that the earth is losing around three slices of mortadella in helium every second ...

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In defense of academics resorting to such comparisons, making this tangible, exciting, accessible, and generally common sense-compatible is all the rage nowadays. The attention economy certainly rules the PR-side of academia and success there can translate into cash for basic research. Not my idea, not my style, but it's a thing.

Problem is, those who might need this sort of comparisons never read such articles. (Educated people already know what a nanometer is.)

HOw many olympic size pools? Or football fields?

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