Aaron Santos, an author and physicist at Simpson College in Iowa, went on Reddit two years ago when he was promoting his book. He had such a good time that this week he was back with no book to promote. (Though he did mention the availability of a $15,000 scholarship and research position at Simpson, working with Santos himself.)
Santos found his AMA placed on Reddit’s front page, which delighted him. “Wow! Front page. And I didn’t even have naked pictures of famous people. Thanks, Reddit!” he wrote. The comment thread, just like last time Santos was on Reddit, topped 1,000. The scientist answered question like this: “if the pacific ocean was a bathtub, how long would it take to be empty after the plug is pulled?” (10 billion years assuming constant velocity, btw.) Science, curiosity and numeracy are alive and well at Reddit, even if the hackers get all the attention.