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People Explain Which Scientific Facts Never Fail To Blow Them Away

People Explain Which Scientific Facts Never Fail To Blow Them Away
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Science is fun!

You might have had a bad time in your early schooling days, learning how the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell. While that's certainly important for certain biologists to know, we want the spicy stuff. The facts and info that makes our hair stand on end and our brain cells ignite with the possibilities of the universe.

Stuff like this.


Reddit user, analyzeTimes, wanted to learn some fun stuff when they asked:

"What is a scientific fact that absolutely blows your mind?"

Let's start with some crazy numbers! Everyone likes numbers, especially when those numbers are all about making us lack any real understanding of probability and the passing of time.

Time Is Longer Than We Think

"The time period in which dinosaurs lived is so vast, there were dinosaur fossils when dinosaurs were still alive."

daric

"Yes, Tyrannosaurus Rex is closer to the iPad in timeline than it is to the Stegosaurus, by tens of millions of years."

"We are so used to seeing dinosaurs portrayed in a single timeline (children’s books, museums) that we don’t understand the vastness of time they were around."

fadevelocity

Beetles, Beetles, Everywhere

"If you put 1 of every animal in a bag and then pick one out you have a 1/5 chance in picking a beetle"

ItsStillNagy

"And 1/2 chance of picking an insect of any kind."

"To put it another way: half of all animal species are insects, and 40% of those are beetles."

“If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.”

– evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane

havron

It's A Lot Of Zeroes. Trust Us.

"You are made of 7 Octillion atoms (7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)"

Knightofthehouse

Keep Counting

"There are 8 times as many atoms in a teaspoonful of water as there are teaspoonfuls of water in the Atlantic ocean"

cafeum

"It's the same with sand!"

"There are more atoms in 1 grain of sand than there are sand grains on earth."

KvotheScamander

Try To Picture It

"If the nucleus in any atom from your body was size of a tennis ball. The electrons would be found orbiting it 2 miles away. You are mostly empty space."

ozmanmusa

It's The Greatest Game Of All Time

"There are this many atoms in the universe: There are between 10^78 to 10^82atoms"

tastey_orphans

"there are even more possible variations of chess games than there are atoms in the observable universe. This is the Shannon Number and represents all of the possible move variations in the game of chess. It is estimated there are between 10111 and 10123 positions. This includes illegal positions. The number not including illegal positions would still be stupid huge as only moves that put your king in check are illegal"

MindlessPut7675

The brain is the most fascinating thing, and we're all just walking around with one inside of our heads. Ever wondered what it was capable of doing?

Even Your Dreams Need To Be Spiced Up

"When you dream, one portion of your brain creates the story, while another part witnesses the events and is really shocked by the plot twists."

Longjumping_Owl9929

"It gets even weirder. There's 2 kinds of dreaming, the watching kind (non-REM) and the doing kind (REM). Each night, you go through 3-4 of these non-REM and REM sleep cycles. The non-REM sleep is the deeper sleep and the REM is the lighter sleep."

"So in the watching kind, it's like you're watching a movie, you're passively observing a character your subconscious created going through a situation, for example, you watch a character you created subconsciously go through their first day of high school. After observing it and drawing some conclusions, or gaining some insight, you then go into REM sleep and now you're the one going through their first day at high school. You make the decisions, you feel the emotional responses to what's going on, and your body will have physical reactions like sweating from fear, increase heart rate from excitement, dopamine release from something good happening, etc. So it's like watching a training movie and then getting a chance to do it in a practice dream scenario."

Enjoying_A_Meal

Ever Feel Like You're Talking To Yourself?

"I recently read about the Split-Brain experiments. There is a procedure for severe epilepsy that involves cutting the connecting nerves of the two brain hemispheres, resulting in the two hemispheres being unable to communicate with each other. The experiment shows that both halves can answer questions independently of each other, have seperate opinions/preferences, form memories independantly. Basically suggesting that there are two minds in the brain. That just blows my mind(s)."

Mlinch

People Afraid Of Spiders Need Not Try

"There are actually blood vessels obstructing light from reaching certain areas in your eye, effectively creating a shadow. Your brain filters this out and essentially fills in the gaps so you don’t actually see this spiderweb-like network of black lines. However, you can visualise them by shining a light at a diagonal into your eye (not directly!) and gently wiggling it about. This means your brain doesn’t have enough time to filter it out and you see this spiderweb like network of blood vessels!"

"Technical instructions to clarify the actions involved. I find it easier to see this effect in a dark environment, so the contrast of the black shadow against the light is higher. You want to be staring straight ahead and shining the light into your pupil at a 45 degree angle from the side directed at your nose at about 10-20 cm away from them. Phone light will do great and have it on the dimmest setting if possible. Then wiggle the light in gentle 1 cm movements side to side. Keep this up for about a second at least and you should see them. Hope this clears it up a bit!"

ANonWhoMouse

"Hey, We Should Be Keeping All This Blood In Our Body, Right?" - Your Body

"Blood is able to turn from liquid to a gel in order to stop bleeding. Basically, when God created us humans, he made our cells (and our bodies themselves) smarter than us. Now obviously it sounds like basic knowledge for blood to clot and stop bleeding. It may sound simple and basic for tissue to do such a thing, but even the most basic things our bodies do can impress us."

TheBBWLoverGUNNUT

Space. The final frontier.

And one we'll never fully comprehend, at least not in our lifetime.

We're Never Going To Get To Trek The Stars, Are We?

"Voyager 1 has been traveling >30,000 mph for 43 years and it's only 20 light hours away."

ruined-on-the-day

"And the closest star is about 4.3 light year away, so it would only take 80,000 years"

SluggishPrey

"light-years alone are difficult for me to wrap my head around. This is the first I'm hearing of light hours and my brain just imploded."

ThrowRARAw

Being The Right Distance Away Helps A Lot

"To me... The amount of energy that is produced in the sun, and only an infinitesimal fraction is all we need to survive."

TwistLocal4739

Squeeze It On In

"You can fit all the planets (Pluto included) between the Earth & Moon"

AnxiousIndicator

"For reference, the moon is about 30 Earth's away"

abramcpg

Breathe Past The Existential Dread

"Approximately 99.85% of all the mass in the solar system is concentrated in The Sun."

Public_Breath6890

"The mass in our solar system is contained within the sun, Jupiter, and a rounding error."

Past_Ad9675

"Very true, but even jupiter could be a rounding error lol. It's only 0.095330% of the solar system's mass."

_alright_then_

Yeesh, We Know Nothing

"In normal space-time we can freely move about in space, but not time. You are free to travel to the north pole if you so wished, but you can't not go to tomorrow."

"However once you cross the event horizon of a black hole this gets inverted. You can freely move about in time but not space. All possible trajectories will lead you towards the centre of the black hole."

nova_outis

The Doctor And His T.A.R.D.I.S. Would Like A Word

"Dinosaurs lived on the other side of the galaxy from where we are now"

nolesein

"This is what I think about with time travel, if it's not relatively bound to the Earth, you'd travel back in time and 99.999% end up in the vacuum of space"

BrokenRatingScheme

Take a deep breath. Your space in this universe is important, but always remember how amazing the universe you're a part of actually is.

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People Break Down The Most WTF Things They've Ever Seen At A Wedding

Reddit user Professional-Owl-341 asked: 'What’s the most WTF thing you’ve ever seen happen at a wedding?'

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When Mum sold her house and downsized, she decided to get new small appliances that matched. The old but still functioning ones were avocado green, stainless and harvest gold.

Since then I've gone through countless electric can openers, toasters and hand mixers and none worked as well or as long as those ones from the 1960s.

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My complaints about small appliances are mirrored by many.

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Double standards are an unfortunate part of society.

A double standard is when two or more individuals or sets of people are treated differently when they should be treated the same.

A good example is the difference in the way my brother and I are treated when we cook. I'm big on baking and have a natural talent for it. Whenever I bake anything, even something complicated, like cheesecake, I'm given minimal praise, if any at all. This is because I'm a woman, and in my family culture, women are expected to be able to bake.

My brother isn't as good a baker as me and rarely does it, but when he does, he is praised for subpar brownies because he's a man and it's amazing he can even cook as well as he does.

I'm not the only one who has experience with this.

Redditors have identified many double standards in society and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor Extreme-Minute-4746 asked:

"What double standards make you angry?"

Civil Service

"As a federal government employee, why do I have to follow all kinds of ethics rules, but politicians and judges don’t?"

– mittychix

"F**k, right? I have to spend six weeks reviewing documentation and hearing out dozens of random companies to award a £100k contract but the minister who runs my department can give his mate's company a multi-million£ contract to run ferries without even getting quotes - DESPITE THAT COMPANY NOT HAVING AND FERRIES AND THE PORT IN QUESTION NOT HAVING CAPACITY FOR THEM."

"I left the civil service after that one."

– Disco_is_Death

"This. Yeah I could get in trouble for accepting a gift over $50 (like I have that much influence anyway) but politicians and judges get lobbied millions..it's infuriating."

– gtbeam3r

"Yes. And they get to keep their jobs for being completely dysfunctional, but if I pulled a fraction that garbage, I’d be fired."

– TrekJaneway

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

"That some people expect you to respect their no, whilst they will most definitely not respect yours."

– IvyBloodroot

"On that note, respecting someone as an authority is often equated to respecting someone as an individual."

"Eg. Teachers who say if you don't respect me (as a superior), I won't respect you (as a person), when they're really not the same thing."

– Paperonia

The Bullied

"School bullying."

"The kid getting picked on has essentially no power. Go to a teacher? Get labeled a snitch and tattle tale. Don't do anything? You're just made an easier target. The moment they fight back, they're the ones who end up dealing with detention, suspension, expulsion, etc. You have more power as a bully in the schools than the victim."

– FriskeCrisps

"It's because bullied people are usually rule followers, and the school wants the problem dealt with as quickly as possible. Best way to do that is to expect the rule follower to follow rules, rather than the rule breaker to suddenly change their ways."

"Fairness ends up on the chopping block."

– darsynia

Services Cliff

"I'm 41 years old and have Cerebral Palsy. If I try to find anything related to the disease - how to deal with it, any kind of ongoing care - it is virtually impossible because all the care is just for children with CP. It's like once you turn 18 the world just doesn't care anymore."

– Zechnophobe

"I’m autistic and in the same boat. “How to deal with a child who…” I'M ASKING FOR ME."

– aroaceautistic

A Two-Way Street

"People who are obsessed with the idea of kids being respectful towards adults, but don't treat kids with respect in turn."

"Edit for example: I went to a very old-fashioned school where the rule was that when an adult entered the room, even in the library and break/lunch, every student in the room had to immediately fall silent - mid sentence, mid word, didn't matter - and stand up until we were given permission to sit back down again. If we didn't, we were chewed out and sometimes even given detentions. The argument was that it trained us into respect, but I was also brought up to believe it's rude to interrupt, and it felt like the teachers were constantly interrupting us."

– MerylSquirrel

"My father in law is like that. He’s “kids should be seen and not heard” type of old school."

"But then he wonders why the children in the family all steer clear of him and why they disregard most things he says."

– Macintosh0211

Doctor, Doctor

"This might be a bit controversial, but I’ve come across a couple of doctors who demand special treatment away from work but preach and practice treating all their patients equally."

– kimchi-pancake

"They charge you a fee or cancel if you’re 5 minutes late but have no problem leaving you waiting for hours. I’ve waited an hour in the lobby and another in the actual examination room."

– SadComfort8692

"Same! i can understand if it’s out of their control but i could hear her, clear as day, giggling with her coworkers about her weekend. i waited 20 in the lobby and 20 in the exam room. i love a good gab but, for f**k’s sake, do it later! if i yapped outside for 20 minutes, it would be a $50 fee and another 4 month long wait to be seen again."

"I suddenly had a $50 i-can-hear-you-nattering-through-the-wall fee. she laughed but it’s been collecting interest ever since…"

– manyfeetball

Alcohol Is Alcohol

"Beer drinkers act like they aren’t alcoholics because they don’t drink hard liquor. Ok sir you just drank 25 beers and then looked at me sideways for drinking a g&t at the family reunion."

– Brainfog_shishkabob

"Same goes for the “sophisticated” wine drinkers..."

"Stop judging me for enjoying a drink on the terrace a few times a year, when you empty 1-2 bottles each evening..."

– 2Madam_Mimmm

"That’s definitely the way it is. I’ve got a snotty alcoholic family member, that THINKS she’s sophisticated, because she drinks high dollar wine, out of very expensive glasses."

"Yeah, pissing yourself and passing out, in front of the mailbox, are definitely the traits of a sophisticated person."

– sweathogbrooklyn

Mr. Mom

"Fathers taking care of their kids."

"I take my kids to doctor appointments, dentist appointments, take them to school, and pick them up. I do all that stuff."

"Every single f**king time, it's, “Dad’s babysitting today?” Or some stupid comment like that. No, I’m not babysitting. I’m being a f**king parent!"

"I hate the double standard that dads can’t do stuff like that with their kids."

"I can’t take my daughter to the park without being questioned or looked at funny either."

"People need to give dads more respect. A lot of us bust our a**es too. I work hard. I take care of my kids, I play with my kids. I clean the house. I do laundry. I don’t stop. I don’t rest, I don’t relax."

– moms-sphaghetti

"Give us changing tables in the men's room!"

– Da1UHideFrom

"Nothing bugs me more than when a place only has changing tables in the women's bathroom."

"It's 2023, I take my son to the aquarium by myself sometimes... Looking at you London SeaLife centre 🤨"

– AstonVanilla

Household Split

"The laundry is always a wierd one. My wife is a much better cook than me. And she hates me cooking when she's in the house. So to compensate I do all the laundry, including ironing before someone mentions it, and all the washing of dishes."

"But even at work, this doesn't seem to be understood as possible. I complained my washing machine had broken and the comment was 'Oh no, what's wife's name going to do?'"

"To which the answer was 'Wonder why I haven't done the washing this week.'"

"But it's infuriating."

– RelativeStranger

Justice Is Bought

"The American justice system. You can afford the best and many more lawyers when you have money."

– TooAfraidToAsk814

"Justice is blind, but the b*tch sure can smell money."

– burgher89

Worship

"I am supposed to respect people's religion, but people aren't supposed to respect my non-religion."

"Particularly when their religion instructs them to not respect my non-religion."

– GeebusNZ

"It kinda makes my head spin that there are people who I get along well with who, per their religion, think I deserve to be tortured in agony for all eternity."

Daztur

Yup, me and my non-religious self have personal experience with that last one!

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