Many of us find scientific facts fascinating, and for good reason, but like all subjects, there are aspects of scientific study that are positively disturbing and can keep us up late at night.
When asked, Reddit of course had an endless supply of factoids to haunt their fellow Redditors.
Redditor The_D1ngb4t asked:
"What scientific fact scares the absolute s**t out of you?"
The Carrington Event
"I don’t remember what it was called, but there was an event in the 1800s caused by solar activity where telegraphs operated on their own without power and I think caused minor damage."
"Should such a solar event happen again, it would destroy all of our internet network capabilities and other electrical gear. Anyone know what I’m referring to?"
"Edited to Add: The Carrington Event."
- 123eyecansee
Atomic Bomb
"When the atom bomb was being created, the leading scientists associated with the project at the time had to calculate the flammability of the Earth's atmosphere in order to ensure that detonating the bomb would not cause the atmosphere to combust."
"At the time when the first atom bomb was detonated, these scientists still had not answered this question, meaning that we legitimately just crossed our fingers and hoped we wouldn't set the f**king planet on fire. Humans are stupid."
- Otherwise-Win7936
Outer Space
"Space just in general. Or that bit about the Higgs Field not being in true equilibrium and that returning to it would break everything as we know it."
- SEND_ME_UR_TINY
Sneaky Cancer
"The fact that your body can have advancing cancer and you wouldn’t know it sometimes. My father-in-law's brother was walking through his kitchen and he fainted and hit his head on the counter. He was rushed to the hospital and they ran tests."
"He had stage four pancreatic cancer and his body was already in the endgame. He was dead within two months of diagnosis. That shit terrifies me and it can happen to anyone."
- bigpapahugetim3
"Happened to my five-year-old daughter. For a week she had a nose bleed on and off that the doctors weren't concerned about since kids get nose bleeds for various reasons."
"Then she collapsed a week later and was gone three hours after getting to the hospital. She had leukemia. I have two other children and I'm terrified something could happen to them too."
- mamadrama91
Alzheimer's Disease
"Scientific literature’s conclusion on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, in general, is that the diseases start decades before the first obvious symptoms and that we need to treat them at this stage."
"When you exhibit obvious symptoms, it’s too late, your brain is already mush."
"If you get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 65, you had the disease since your early 40s at least. And you experienced very mild symptoms but didn’t notice them. And your brain fought like hell to compensate for the deficit."
"When you get diagnosed, your brain is already very severely damaged and will never recover from the deficit."
- Alkuna
The Suddenness of It
"The fact that we can just get a blood clot and die and not realize anything was up. The human body has so many ways of just suddenly dying and it's terrifying."
- a-packet-of-noodles
A Distinct Possibility
"I'm not afraid of suddenly dying. I'm afraid of suddenly being severely disabled."
- phunkydroid
"My cousin was always riding horses. She was very lucky to have the access to them that she did. She was riding with a less experienced friend. The friend’s horse took off and she gave chase to try and save her friend."
"Whatever happened, she took a fall and was paralyzed when she was maybe 22 or 23 years old and lived in a facility for the next 12 years until she died a very early death."
"She couldn’t speak or communicate hardly. Just 12 years of hardship. She had to rediscover and grieve her father's death all over again, not to mention grieve her own life. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone."
- cranwitch
The Boogeyman of Medicine
"Prion diseases exist."
- hiboJBob
"From my understanding of CJD, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (it's the boogeyman of my career field), it's something you contract, but it takes about 10 years for any symptoms to appear, and either way it's impossible to do anything about. So eerie, honestly."
- s00perball
"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease."
"It's genetic. You won't know that you have it. When you know that you have it, there is zero recourse. It will eat holes in your brain and you'll die."
"That, and Fatal Familial Insomnia, also genetic. One of your parents woke up one day and couldn't fall back asleep until they died, having suffered rapidly progressing neural degeneration."
"And it tends to set in around mid-life, so you spend every day waking up knowing it might be the last time. You find it hard to build relationships and have a family because you know it's not a matter of if, only when. But you know you're not gonna see your golden years."
- __garlic__
No Floating Here
"You can get non-buoyant water."
"In wastewater treatment plants, they aerate the water so the bacteria breaking down the poo has plenty of oxygen. Due to the introduced air, the water density is low enough that a human body (or most any object that would normally float) will go straight to the bottom."
- MustNotSay
Poor Yeller
"Rabies. You can have it and never know until it decides it's time. And then you'll die terribly."
- PMyourTastefulN**es
A Reality
"That one day I will die. I don't know why, but sometimes at night, as I'm falling asleep, I suddenly think of this and it freaks me out. Like, start feeling super anxious."
- nastybacon
"Just know that once you die, you could either stop existing, which isnt painful, or you could discover a whole different world."
- InfernoSlayer2
Why Can't We See or Touch It? ...Or Can We?
"The metaphysical aspect of consciousness."
"Where is consciousness? What is it? When does it really end? Where does it go when we die? When we sleep? How does it occupy our entire being without being physically present?"
"We are quite literally the universe experiencing itself, in a fragile little bubble on a mote of dust in a sunbeam."
"And yet, what exactly are we?"
"That’s the sort of question that keeps me up at night. I don’t fear death, I don’t fear world annihilation, but I am deeply unsettled by the mere experience of being aware."
- Bloorajah
How Terrible
"Methanol contains very little carbon, so when it burns, it's basically invisible."
"Can you imagine death by burning alive, and no one can see the flames, so they can't put them out?"
- boxofmarshmallows
C. Difficile Infection
"Every time you use an antibiotic, even for something mild like strep throat or bronchitis or traveler’s diarrhea, you technically could get C. Difficile infection from your wiped out gut flora. And that could end up a lingering, resistant infection, that leads to colectomy or fecal transplant."
"Antibiotics are scary. And there’s a reason doctors only want to prescribe them if absolutely needed."
- TheSunscreenLife
Infinite Darkness
"Less 'scary' and more 'mind-numbingly depressing' is the Dark Era of the universe."
"When all the star fuel is gone (and it will be) and all the white dwarves have gone cold and dark (and they will) and all the black holes have evaporated away into elementary particles (and they will), the universe will be a cold, dark place..."
"Forever."
- Imissyourgirlfriend2
As fascinating as science is, there are some truly dark, troubling corners that we can linger over for too long.
While it's good to be knowledgeable of these possibilities, we need to remember the lighter aspects of life, as well.
