If you have no idea what a research paper titled "Authority and the production of knowledge in archaeology" is about, then maybe this alternate take will be easier to understand: "Fake science sounds an awful lot like real science, except it’s fake."
That's the genius behind a blog called "LOL My Thesis," started by Harvard University senior Angela Frankel. The Tumblr-based blog allows for submissions about thesis projects that are either completed or in the works, with notes or quick takeaways about what students' research discovered.
Frankel started it off with her own post on Dec. 9: "I have killed so many fish." It was a progress report on her own senior thesis she's working on, which USA Today describes as "exploring zebrafish embryonic cardiogenesis as a way to assess how a particular gene regulates a group of progenitor cells that exist in normal heart development."
The blog is now generating around 500 new submissions every day, Frankel told Mashable, and she tries to add 30 to 40 daily.
Although it's the creation of a student in the Ivy League, it's attracting submissions from all sorts of lesser-known public colleges and schools overseas. It even attracted a submission from Jon Steinberg, president and chief operating officer of BuzzFeed.
Frankel explained on her blog that "LOL My Thesis" was initially intended as procrastination of her own project, yet it has now "documented some of the stress, hilarity, and chaos associated with undergraduate (and some post-graduate) theses."
Frankel further told USA Today she believes the blog caught on because it provides reassurance.
"The thesis writing process can be extremely isolating and produce a lot of self-doubt along the way," Frankel said. "You work on one project for so long and oftentimes people speak with their advisers fairly infrequently. You may feel you're behind or that your project is not living up to others. On the blog, you see other people are experiencing similar challenges or having similar doubts."
HuffPost went through the blog and picked some of our favorites, and with Frankel's permission, posted them below. But this only scratches the surface, so feel free to head over to "LOL My Thesis" and find the ones you like the best.
Turns out you can’t cure cancer in a physics lab. Not even a little.
-- Physics, University of Innsbruck
Monkeys don’t like eagles
-- Anthropology, Durham University UK
Turns out, people don’t like it when you sleep with their girlfriend.
-- Psychology, Duke University
Harry Potter is Jesus. Boom.
-- Religion and Literature, Claremont Graduate University
It is hard to eliminate evidence of your porn viewing from your computer.
-- Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin
Oscar Wilde was gay. So was his boyfriend.
-- English, Washington University - St Louis
Poop is poop, even if it is diluted to 1:100
-- Molecular Protozoology, University of the Philippines
Insects will die for love. Or sex, anyway.
-- Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota.
I have no job, but you spelled “you’re” wrong, so I mock you.
-- English, Northeastern University
Drugs are bad, but look pretty under a microscope.
-- Forensic Science, London South Bank University
Humans have lots of ways of talking about making other humans do stuff.
-- PhD Linguistics, UC Berkeley
No matter what you post, trolls be trollin’.
-- Communications and Media Science, Kodolányi János University College
If you come from far away, people will be surprised at the way you speak.
-- Linguistics, University of Freiburg
People like spaceships and sex
-- screenwriting and film, University of Southern California
Similarity between people and rats: Sleep deprivation makes them angry.
-- Neuroscience, Washington State University
Wolves + humans, the ultimate frenemies.
-- Science Writing, M.I.T.
It turns out, an only child never fights with its siblings.
-- Sociology, University of Vienna
I procrastinated for two years then wrote this in a week, please give me a C
-- Social Studies, Harvard
Oops: Turns out self-published poetry didn’t actually affect Indian politics but I’m 60 pages in, so.
-- Political Science, Vassar College
Two molecules, one molecular cup
-- Organic Chemistry, North Dakota State University
Blogs are almost definitely gonna be a thing.
-- Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University.
Minimalism: still a thing.
-- Music Composition, College of the Holy Cross