
Science is fascinating and fun. Too many of us discover that fact too late. We all need to pay attention in school far sooner. The universe and all of its secrets are a treasure trove of amazing, we need only look to understand. And finding the understanding is all the fun. Nature, chemicals, life, death, humans, inventions, the cosmos... it's all connected. Get a pencil... I'll explain.
Redditor u/jdgiabajwbdidb wanted to discuss the awe inspiring moments science has to offer by asking.... What is a science fact that not many people know that will change the way they look at life?
Dumbo's Dirt
Elephants are known to bury their dead under foliage and remain with the bodies for some time afterwards, exhibiting behavior not dissimilar to human mourning. Indeed, it is the association of apparent grief or mourning that is considered to indicate a 'burial', as opposed to simply covering up or disposing of a body.
I also read somewhere that they have buried humans.
Murderers
Most people know that the mosquito is the deadliest animal when it comes to total human deaths ever. Next to humans of course. And this is due to the malaria parasite spread by mosquitoes. It is estimated that four to five per cent of all humans that have ever lived died from malaria (rather than half as some sources state).
The treatment for malaria is quinine, which was known since the 1700's. This is often contained in tonic water, which is bitter and not that palatable. The anecdotal story is that during the days of British colonization of India, the British East India Company had of course problems with malaria.
Drinking tonic water was not popular with the British, so what'd they do? add booze, i.e. gin. And this is where you get gin and tonic.
Of course modern research has shown that the amounts of tonic water you'd need is quite large (~1 liter for a minimal effect) to make that story apocryphal at best (although I know some people who probably managed to meet the necessary quota to ward of malaria). But it is interesting to think that we managed to make the treatment for one of the worst disease humanity has known into a cocktail.
What is real though is that malaria can be used to treat syphilis. Malaria causes a high fever which kills the syphilis bacteria. In fact, Dr Julius Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for this discovery (but he later became a hardcore Nazi and eugenisist. Of course we no longer use this because the mortality rate was 15%, but this was much lower than the death rate for syphilis.
Unfortunately, many parts of the world still suffer from malaria, where it is still a major killer.
One Bite
Not a single Tarantula species is able to kill you with venom, so if you see a big hairy boy just know, it can't kill you, not yet, also link to a picture of my escaped...
52×51×50×49...
There are more ways to shuffle a deck of cards than there are atoms making up the entire earth (or atoms in the universe if you use 2 decks), thats because the potential options are 52 factorial or 52×51×50×49... etc. chances are if you've shuffled a deck of cards then you've likely made history as that sequence has statistically NEVER happened before. Even if you had a trillion planets with a trillion people all shuffling a deck if cards every second since the moment of the big bang wed only just now be repeating sequences.
Liquid Spark
Water does not innately conduct electricity, it is all the dissolved stuff that allow electricity to pass through it.
Water is fascinating stuff.
Creating Oxygen
The Amazon Rainforest isn't actually the lungs of Earth. Almost all the Oxygen generated by the Amazon is used by the life found in the Amazon. 40% of Earth's oxygen is actually produced by tiny Organisms called Diatoms.
These organisms can replicate at an incredible rate and trillions of them spread throughout the Oceans and create Oxygen through photosynthesis. When the Diotoms die they transform into underwater snowflakes that remain on the sea floor. When these seas dry up, the dead Diatoms create a salt desert, like the one in Northern Africa.
Huge sandstorms pick the Diotoms up and carry them across the Oceans and drop them down on the Amazon and are used as a fertilizer for the rainforest.
Where are Diatoms born? The rainforest, they spread to the sea, create Oxygen through photosynthesis, die, create salt deserts, get taken back to the rain forest and help create the rainforest that creates them.
That's the circle of life right there.
In the Cosmos
On average, Mercury is the nearest planet to every planet in our solar system.
fit all of the planets in the solar system between the Earth and the Moon
Had to look that up. It's true.
Part of what threw me are all the crazy and awkward analogies you hear whenever you watch a space documentary that are meant to impress upon the viewer the immensity of the universe... like, "You can fit 80 gagillion Rose Bowls inside Jupiter's giant red spot and still have room for 7000 Eiffel Towers laid end-to-end."
The Family Tree
Everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin with everyone else on Earth.
And if you are currently dating or married to somebody who is from your own country and is of your own ethnicity, there's a one in five chance that the two of you share a common family member fewer than 10 generations ago.
From Below
Earthquakes can happen literally everywhere on Earth, however humans rarely feel anything below a 2.5 in magnitude.
Bones
Something I read earlier: Babies have around 100 more bones than adults Babies have about 300 bones at birth, with cartilage between many of them. This extra flexibility helps them pass through the birth canal and also allows for rapid growth. With age, many of the bones fuse, leaving 206 bones that make up an average adult skeleton.
Flesh Diet
That the human skin Is quite heavy Its around 16% of your body weight.
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People Confess Which Foods They Hate Based On Texture Alone
Medical research has found a number of neuro-atypical disorders—including autism and ADHD—manifest in early childhood development with food aversions frequently based on texture, not taste.
There is also an eating disorder called ARFID—avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder that can often relate to food textures or "mouth feel." ARFID is categorized as an eating disorder because the avoidance/restrictions rise to the level of impacting the person's health.
While not everyone who avoids certain foods because of texture has a neurological or eating disorder, doctors are finding "picky eaters" can often indicate other underlying conditions.
Redditor oh-fish-ial asked:
"What’s a food you hate not because of the taste but because of the texture?"
Frozen
"Weird strong aversion to the texture of frozen fruit."
"Like chunks of strawberry in ice cream, for example."
"Like nails on a chalkboard to me."
- AppropriateReason744
Mealy
"Mealy textures like watermelon when it gets overripe."
- Zolo49
"Or a mealy apple."
‐ itsOKeveryoneHatesMe
Reminders
"Cotton Candy. I used to help my dad hang fiber glass insulation… it’s the same texture. Just touching it makes my teeth hurt."
"Also those black and orange candy lumps at Halloween, candy peanuts, marshmallows, and anything else that feels like construction materials made of sugar."
- ornery_epidexipteryx
Undercooked
"Undercooked potatoes."
‐ DAR44
Gelatinous
"Quite a few people don't like the texture of Jell-O."
- gershanov6
"J-E-L-L-NO!"
‐ IAmABurdenOnSociety
Runny
"Runny egg whites."
‐ Frenk_preseren
"I feel you so freaking hard man. I can't even order eggs at a restaurant. How would you like that cooked?"
"Cook the egg white 100% I don't care about the yoke runny or hard just make sure the egg white is cooked fully. They can never get it right."
- Dabber42
Stringy
"My mother used to cut up celery and put it into casseroles and stews; stringy and spongy texture just about made me puke."
- Hunk_Studly
Chewy
"Tripe. The near cartilage level of chewiness gives me a sense of physical repulsion."
"Also Japanese fish cake, for the same reason."
- BarbicideJar
If food texture turns you off, there might be ways to enjoy those flavors while avoiding the texture.
But if it doesn't make you feel like you're missing out or impacting your health, just eat what you want to eat.
One of the most famous plot twists of all time has to be the one in The Sixth Sense, which captivated audiences when the film came out in 1999. In fact, it was probably on the strength of that plot twist alone that the film became such a smash hit, even receiving multiple Academy Award nominations.
That twist has been parodied multiple times, including in the Scary Movie series and become a pop culture phenomenon. And despite that, the film is still very much worth a watch. Too bad M. Night Shyamalan has struggled to top it since.
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor glock_baby asked the online community,
"What movie do you think has the best plot twist?"
Saw (2004)
"Saw. When Jigsaw got up off the floor blew my mind."
iamclear
This one is a pretty revolutionary twist that influenced so many horror films thereafter. Too bad the rest of the series kept introducing twists to the point where it just got silly.
The Skeleton Key (2005)
"The Skeleton Key had stuck with me as not many movies can pull the "the hero is f*cked" twist very well."
Blissfully_
This film is very underrated. A decent horror film that came out during a slew of terrible studio efforts. The ending is good stuff.
The Others (2001)
"The Others. I saw that movie a single time 20 years when I was a kid and the twist stuck with me. It was pretty great."
[deleted]
If you liked The Others, check out The Innocents (1961), from which The Others takes a lot of inspiration.
Memento (2000)
"I feel like I should have seen it coming but I genuinely didn't expect it."
Mossenpay
Good choice. Worth seeing for Guy Pearce's great performance alone.
Primal Fear (1996)
"Primal Fear. This is one solid movie. And when he starts clapping at the end I couldn't believe all this time he had the wool pulled over all our eyes."
HighJumper81
This is also the movie that put Edward Norton on the map, and we should be grateful.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
"The Usual Suspects. Favorite thing about that movie is you have no idea what was true and what was made up."
FlickFreak
This one is very satisfying and has been mimicked multiple times since!
The Prestige (2006)
"I'm convinced that Chris Nolan is obsessed with plots that make the viewer watch multiple times. Sometimes it works like Prestige and sometimes it doesn't like Tenet, but it's always a unique take to filmmaking."
jm2010
This one is definitely worth revisiting. For those of you who are interested, you can rent it on Apple TV for just a few bucks!
Orphan (2009)
"Orphan. Never in a million years would I have guessed THAT plot twist."
StarWarsChristian
Too bad the trailers kept insisting that no one would guess the ending. Still worth a watch, though, with some great acting!
Frailty (2001)
"Frailty. I started to get suspicious near the end but it still took me a bit by surprise."
[deleted]
I saw this again after I realized it was on HBO Max and it was well worth revisiting.
Se7en (1995)
"Se7en. Kevin Spacey plays such an incredible creep. Turns out he wasn’t necessarily acting."
Rouguespiffy
That he does. Unnerving to think about and realize after the fact, huh?
Hopefully you don't mind reading spoilers–or the suggestion of spoilers–for films that are in some cases more than 20 years old.
Regardless, these are worth seeing, so you can appreciate these films for what they are.
Have some suggestions of your own? Tell us more in the comments below!
I love ham and pineapple on pizza.
I stand by it. It's not my favorite, but I love it.
Who wants to fight me?
Food is a serious issue.
And people are willing to squabble about all of it.
Some food mixing is a problem to many.
Redditor fizzyoranges287wanted to discuss aspects of food that some love yet haunts others. They asked:
"What’s your most controversial food opinion?"
People love their food. And they love all sorts of ingredients. Some are nonsense.
By the spoonful...
"Brown sugar is quite scrumptious on its own. I'm gonna get heart disease."
spine-apple
"When I make cookies it takes a lot of self control to not straight out eat right out of the brown sugar bag."
Woofles85
"recommended serving"
"Orange tic-tacs are not breath mints. They are candy."
GitaCote
"Fun fact, tic-tacs are mostly sugar but they get away with being called sugar free listing 0g of sugar in the nutritional facts because there's less than 1g per 'recommended serving.' Recommended serving size is set by the company and each tic-tac weighs less than 1g."
windermere_peaks
culinary creations...
"I want to expose the derps that think a macaroon and a macaron are the same thing and that it's 'a matter of pronunciation.' It's not, it's really not they are two vastly different culinary creations."
Theherringphish
"I'm Jewish and was very confused when macarons first became popular. I wondered why the go-to Passover cookie was suddenly being pronounced differently and everyone was going nuts over them. There's a great little macaron bakery near me, so I now have a tradition of bringing macarons to my family's annual Thanksgiving gatherings and macaroons to our Passover seders."
KayakerMel
Love it More
"Cabbage is criminally underrated."
52hrz
"We have cabbage salad at least once a week. Cut up a half a head of red cabbage. Mix red wine vinegarette together with dijon mustard, some lemon juice, then use a veggie peeler and top the salad with a bunch of thin strips of parmesan to your taste. Mix and add some black pepper. Easy salad that is filling and cheap, and makes a great side for savory dishes."
jarockinights
The Best "Non" Soup
"The best way to eat chili is using tortilla chips as scoops."
blamethepunx
"Depending on the type of chili. Chunky Western-style steak chili is some of the best soup in the entire world imho, but stuff like Cincinnati chili is made to be eaten on things, not by itself."
Nazgul417
I love chili in all possible ways, Just give me...
Keep it Cold
"I keep sour jellies in the freezer."
Deadbear4Lyf
"This sounds like a great idea actually."
fizzyoranges287
Green Issues
"Avocado sucks."
eddmario
"This is controversial, but I agree with you. I’m extremely picky, but I at least try the food unlike some people. I’ve tried cilantro, onions, salsa, etc. But avocado is what gets to me most of the time with taco ingredients. The texture and taste are a bit too strong when it comes to taco ingredients. I always end up tasting the Avocado only when eating tacos."
pichusine
"Nuggets"
"Boneless wings are just chicken nuggets!"
TheSarcasticClam
"Nah, there's usually a big difference in the quality of the chicken inside the breading. 'Nuggets' are often 'formed' ground chicken paste made into nugget shapes. Proper 'boneless wings' are actual pieces of chicken, just with the bones removed, which are then breaded and fried. They taste very different, IMO. Nothing wrong with nuggets, if you like that, but they're different foods."
Anxious_Tune55
It's Disgusting!
"Okay this is a pretty universal opinion outside of my country, but here it's very controversial. I hate liquorice. It's disgusting honestly and i can't understand how people can eat it."
benjamindufa
"You don't know the half of it, though. You see, I'm from the US. I moved to Norway. I hate licorice, but folks here definitely do not. I've seen licorice flavor in sausages. Freaking sausages."
"Did you know Extra sells salted licorice gum? And that licorice ice cream sauce is a thing? Do you realize how much I really want to like licorice ice cream because it looks cool? Alas, I do not. Licorice is hiding in the corners, waiting to assault my mouth with its vile flavor."
Little_Peon
I love food. But some food is just a NO!
We are a quote heavy, self-help speeching society.
We thirst for leadership because honestly... life is dark and depressing.
How many books, speeches, essays and small "on the daily" quotes do we follow and take to heart?
Do you research every author of every quote?
You should. Or maybe you shouldn't.
Redditorcow780wanted to hear some inspiration from the worst people possible. They asked:
"Reddit, what are some great quotes by terrible people?"
Just because someone has wisdom, insight and charm doesn't mean they're kind. Evil comes in all packages.
Evil
“'Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.'”
"-Adolf Hitler"
KornilovCoup
"'Believe in yourself, and you can accomplish anything your heart desires.'"
"- Adolf Hitler"
Alexis Carrel
"'To progress again, man must remake himself. And he cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor. In order to uncover his true visage he must shatter his own substance with heavy blows of his hammer.'"
"In the context of self-improvement it's a great quote about pushing limits and enduring pain or discomfort in order to grow. However the author of the quote Alexis Carrel was not speaking about improvement of the individual, but of humanity as a whole through eugenics and forced sterilisation of criminals, disabled people, and other 'undesirables.'"
ARXXBA
Gross
“'Decide that you want it more than you’re afraid of it.'- Bill Cosby"
vir804
"Man Bill Cosby is so frustrating. I feel like he did so much good while secretly being a slimy piece of garbage."
1CEninja
"Great quote until you realize that with modern context it's kinda disturbing."
Dracos002
Wisdom
“'Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place.' - Joseph Goebbels"
227743
"The dude has SO many good quotes. Joseph Goebbels is what happens at the intersection of wisdom and evil."
kingfrito_5005
Smile
"'You can get far with a smile. You will get further with a smile and a gun' - Al Capone"
Bombilillion
The villains always get the best lines.
To the Followers
"'My whole life I have suffered from poverty and have faced many disappointments and pain, like a man is used to. That is why I want to make other people happy and want them to feel at home.' - Jim Jones"
SuvenPan
Murderer
"'Women hold up half the sky' - Mao Zedong"
maleorderbride
"My dad used to play that song when I was little. I always thought the line was, 'if you go carrying pictures of Trem and Mao.' I always thought there was some other guy named trem that I had just not learned about in school yet."
444unsure
"Mao killed 80 million of his own people and there are statues of him all over China."
bernahardbanger69
Statistics
"Stalin- 'A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.'"
jdownes316
"Another one by Stalin, often paraphrased as 'It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes.'"
"'I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.'"
_Steven_Seagal_
Ruin
"'Expectations ruin relationships' - Michelle Duggar"
"This one stuck with me and then I started to notice the most unhappy people I know are the ones with the most or highest expectations of others."
Beneficial-Cow-2544
"American hero worship is the worst thing. We have to lie about all, of amerikan history because our little snowflakes would melt learning the truth in school. Once you acknowledge that everyone is flawed, it's easier to accept reality."
Unlikely-Anteater-52
Gemini
"'You gotta remember, if we're all God then we're all the Devil too.' -Charles Manson"
KwikTrist
Even the worst and most of us is can be brilliant. That's why evil can be hard to catch and easy to follow.