30 Scary Scientific Facts Uncovered By Members Of This Online Community

Ignorance is bliss...

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• August 23, 2023

Have you ever stopped to think about the incredible, mind-boggling facts that science uncovers about the world around us? Well, there's an online group that has been on a journey of discovery, and what they've found might just make you look at things a little differently.

Ignorance might feel comfortable, but the truth is - the more we know, the more we realize how much we don't know. This group has put together a list of 30 scientific facts that will make your jaw drop.

These are the kind of facts that you probably didn't learn in school, and once you know them, you won't be able to look at the world the same way again. From the mind-bending vastness of space to the microscopic complexity of our bodies, science has a way of revealing the secrets that hide in plain sight.

It's like discovering a hidden layer of reality that's been right in front of us all along. But remember, with great knowledge comes a touch of humility. As we uncover these facts, we're reminded that there's so much more to learn.

Ignorance might feel like bliss, but knowledge is power, and it's what keeps us curious and hungry for answers. So, get ready to have your mind blown and your perspective shifted as we delve into these everyday scientific wonders.

Buckle up, because once you've read through these revelations, you'll see the world with new eyes, and you might just find that the pursuit of knowledge is the most exhilarating journey of all.

Knowledge is power. But also a burden

1. The Carrington Event.

In 1859 the sun spewed a huge amount of highly-charged plasma that brushed against the Earth's magnetosphere and caused every electronic device on Earth to receive a huge electric shock. At the time, "every electronic device on Earth" consisted of a few telegraph machines. Some simply ran even while disconnected from their power supply for a while, some melted.

If an event like this were to happen today (we're overdue for one), it would pretty much destroy every single electronic device, including all of the infrastructure used to generate and distribute electricity.

There would be widespread blackouts everywhere, and no way to contact anyone to call for help or find out what state the rest of the world is in. And no way to fix it other than re-creating centuries worth of scientific advancements by hand.

2. Alzheimer's/Dementia - anything where you lose your memory or become a burden to your family

3. The fact that we've only searched a little bit of the whole ocean.

I wouldn't even get wet from the sea on the surface, I don't wanna see whatever the f**k's down there

4. Our brain

5. Death. Just death. Blows my mind that one day we just cease to exist and people just go on with their life as if we were never there.

6. Quite a common one, but space is SO BIG. Like, bigger than the amount that we can observe. Gives me the chills.

7. Atoms are 99.99% empty space. The nature of all seemingly solid matter is an illusion.

8. naegleria fowleri (brain eating amoeba) has a 97% fatality rate and it’s immune to most antibiotics

9. The Andromeda Galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy and it is moving at us at the rate of 70 miles a second. However, we have 5 billion years to get ready.

10. Ionizing radiation. The concept feels like cosmic horror to me. Like an invisible curse, that can kill you just for stepping into a forbidden place.

11. Any AI smart enough to pass the Turing test, is smart enough to know to fail it

12. Just being alive is the most f*****g bizarre thing in the world.

13. If you get hit hard enough in that spot on the back of your head where your spine connects to your skull, you die instantly.

14. People in large groups become really bad at making decisions, planning, and making accurate judgements.

It doesn’t matter if the group is made of genuinely intelligent people, the above is always true.

15. Your brain recalls memories when you die but your brain also recalls memories wrong so you're basically lying to yourself right before you die

16. I suppose that at any moment you can have an aneurysm and bam you're dead and there's not much you can really do to prevent it or even predict it

17. That humanity has changed so drastically in the last 100 years that it scares me how different life will be in even 50 years from now

18. Antimicrobial resistance.

What's really crazy is, we owe our modern prosperity (especially in the US) to antibiotics. Each particular antibiotic only works for a short period of time, before pathogenic bacteria becomes resistant to it. We've been though numerous different antibiotics since the discovery of penicillin, and pathogenic bacteria have become resistant to almost all of them. We're running out of antibiotics that are still effective.

About 4 or 5 years ago, I learned that there were babies born in India who had infections that were resistant to all known types of antibiotics.

There's a good chance that in our lifetimes, we'll see people dying from common infections due to the lack of effective drugs to treat them.

19. When you look up at the sky you aren't really looking up. Gravity keeps you grounded, and you're really staring down into an infinite fall

20. The theory of MAD, or mutually assured destruction.

It's a great theory for helping me sleep at night, but uh... It kinda only works if everyone involved is always rational at all times, and never feels they have nothing to lose.

Thankfully no human ever acts irrationally.

And certainly if they did, we'd never let them keep control of nuclear weapons!

That'd be insane.

Ha ha. Really insane.

Like, "insane" is honestly putin it mildly.

21. It's thought our galaxy is full of rogue planets wandering free from their original star.

At any time one of these planets could wander through our solar system radically throwing off the fragile balance of our orbits. A big enough planet passing close enough could send us careening into the sun.

22. There have already been five mass extinction level events

23. That since 9/11 more soldiers [take their own lives] than die in war.

24. The teleportation theory

The teleportation theory, that teleporters don't actually move you from place to place but kills you by breaking you down to molecular level and create a exact replica of you on the other end who thinks it's you because it has your memory. And as more and more people will use it they will keep getting replaced by a different person each time.

25. There are microorganisms and bacteria crawling around your eyes.

Academically, I know that we think they are helpful and fight disease. However, I don't like the notion of stuff crawling around in/on my eyes.

26. The fact that we will never ever be able to know everything.

 like theres a limit to what we can know and theres so much out there that will we just never discover.

another one that scares me is that we are all alone on this floating rock. i doubt we are the only intelligent life in this universe but its possible that we are in a sense and that it self scares me so much.

27. Gamma blasts scare the c**p out of me they could happen at any time and nothing can stop them

28. When you get rabies and didn't get treated until the symptoms show up, you're dead.

When you experience single symptom of rabies you're already dead, there's nothing you can do about it. Also rabies symptoms can take long to show up, the incubation period for rabies can last up to years. So if you were bitten or scratched by an animal with rabies years ago, the symptoms could show up right now and you will die.

29. We’re either alone in this universe or we’re not

30. There are between 6-10 nuclear missiles that are missing. No sovereign nation has a clue where they are, or who has control of them.

Embracing knowledge is akin to opening doors to unexplored territories, unraveling the fabric of reality and revealing the intricate threads that weave our existence. Ignorance might offer a semblance of simplicity, but it's the pursuit of understanding that ignites the flames of curiosity and drives us to uncover the hidden complexities that surround us.

Damjan