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The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that phobias affect approximately 10% of U.S. adults each year. They typically emerge during childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood (and impact twice as many women as they do men).
So when Reddit user Aelmnnor asked everyone on the platform to share scientific facts that creep them out, they received plenty of answers, and the post eventually turned into a nightmare fuel tank. From microorganisms living on our bodies to powerful cosmic events, here are the things that people wish were a lie but, sadly, aren't.
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#1
Basically the entirety of pregnancy/childbirth. Like, this other living organism embeds itself in the lining of my uterus, feeds off my blood, makes me grow an entirely new organ (the placenta) just to feed/protect it while it grows, then it comes out while basically still gestating (other mammals babies can walk and run within minutes of birth, ours can’t even hold up their giant domes!) just because the hole I have to push it through won’t be big enough for its head if it stays in any longer.
Oh, and once I’ve done all that I get to have the longest and worst period of my life while my uterus sheds out 40 weeks of uterine lining.
I’ve had a kid and it still f***s me up.
SnowboundGem 1 year ago
Thankfully I made a good choice. No kids means none of that drama for me yay!
RELATED:
#2
The first AI that can successfully pass the Turing test would be able to pretend that it couldn't.
#3
The sudden urge to jump off of a very high height. You can be physically and mentally stable to the greatest degree and still have this feeling when at such a high height.
Sofagirrl79 replied:
I heard it's "the call of the void" and it's a normal human thought
#4
Honestly nothing is more creepy than how deep sea anglerfish mate.
The deep sea is dark, and the anglerfish are spread very thinly. Therefore, when an anglerfish meets another anglerfish, it’s incredibly important they get the chance to mate over and over again. The evolutionary strategy that deep sea anglerfish devised is extra creepy. The male latches onto the female, biting her and never letting go. That way he can inseminate the eggs she drops. Not that bad so far right? But wait, how does he eat if he’s latched on his mate?
Well, the circulatory systems fuse and the female provides nutrients for the male through this fused circulatory system. The true horror starts here. The organs of male start to wither and atrophy, being absorbed into the female. Eventually, the male is reduced to a lump of testicles the females use to fertilize their eggs. Females are often covered in bumps of several males that have melted into the female, becoming a literal body horror lump of meat on the female.
#5
Your brain literally creates your own reality and your senses and body just go along with it.
No-BrowEntertainment replied:
People think the brain sees what the eyes tell it to, but really the eyes pull up an image of blurry colors and dark spots and the brain goes “cool so that’s a tree”
#6
The mantis shrimp can see colors that our eyes aren't capable of perceiving.
Think about that.
What else are we just not capable of sensing?
SnowboundGem 1 year ago
I would like to know how someone found this out. What possible way led to this discovery
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
The cells in the backs of our eyes that detect colors contain pigments that are activated by light of a specific set of wavelengths. Scientists can isolate these cells and test their exact sensitivity, and also directly study the pigments.
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Annymoose 1 year ago
Not really...it just has separate rods per color since it's visual system is more basic. Science changes kids! They're still hella cool.
Lee F. 1 year ago
Right? We just learned they lack the brain power to blend, so they require more cones. So cool learning this recently.
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BewilderedBanana 1 year ago
Why specifically the mantis shrimp? a lot of other animals can see more of the colour spectrum than we can
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
Specifically the mantis shrimp because it has the greatest known number of different visual pigments of any animal.
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Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago
That mantis shrimp looks like a priceless Faberge jeweled brooch. It’s one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen. Please please please make them not at all edible, in fact really foul or poisonous to eat. At least it would help to save them.
Steve Behrens 1 year ago
There was a great Radio Lab podcast on this a few yrs ago. It's probably still available.
Reinaldo Fuentes 1 year ago
What else are you not capable of sensing? The whole of the electromagnetic spectrum outside the tiny sliver we call "visible light". When you realize the whole spectrum is one continuous thing, and that infrared and heat are two names for the same thing, you realize we can see with our skin (sense heat). We just use a different word for the phenomenon.
Ray Perkins 1 year ago
Humans have tools for doing that. We can convert UV and IR to visible wavelengths so that we can see them, animals can't. We know what's out there!
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Sinnsyk Jakte 1 year ago
Ghosts. Millionaires. Billionaires. Sasquatch. Actual facts in the news. Your challenge roll outcome in your TTRPG. How much gas you actually have when your measurement thingy gets screwy. Tire pressure. Pasta tenderness if you sit down and just let it go. Avocado ripeness. When a banana is going to betray you... People about to murder you.
Verena Abt 1 year ago
I would like to think the presence of loved ones who have died. Maybe this shrimp can see my grandma?
Bryn 1 year ago
I remember reading something that said our brain will hide things from us if it perceives them as too scary or something that shouldn't be seen. How many times have you thought you'd seen something out of the corner of your eye, only to turn and see nothing there? What did our brain hide from us?
François Carré 1 year ago (edited)
It's a common bias (and a superiority complex somehow) to think that humans have one of the best set of senses among all animals. Just because we are smart and basically understand how the world works doesn't mean that we perceive things more correctly than less intelligent animals. We're just very good at interpreting our feeble perceptions in a complex way that makes sense only for us.
Liz Orreo trex ago go 1 year ago
All underwater creatures see differently than land creatures, because some of the wavelengths we see do not travel far underwater. Fish have 6 cones, see into ultraviolet.
Max Fox 1 year ago
This is also true for butterflies and bees. They see ultraviolet colors, which are invisible to us. We know that they are there, since we have cameras which can "see" these wavelength, and replace the light with a wavelength that we can see. Flowers often have patterns in these colors, to which bees are know to respond.
boone williams 1 year ago
For more information, see "true facts about the mantis shrimp" on YouTube. https://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM
Lord of the laserprinter. 1 year ago (edited)
Sixteen colors to be exact.... you.... Male can see three, your girlfriend can see four. Possibly, but don’t you girls get exited over your superpowers, a goldfish can see five. But if you remove the Lens in your eyes you could see in the Ultra violet spectrum. So there is that.
DrGirlfriend 1 year ago
Chemicals, animals and insects can smell/see chemicals from human emotions. Fear, happiness, anger ECT that we cannot. They can smell the change in our skin and heat from our heads.
DrGirlfriend 1 year ago
Sorry also in each other and other animals probably shouldn't have used just human 😞
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JMil 1 year ago
As far as "seeing colors" and "not capable of sensing" because our organs can't perceive them is silly. As far as the electromagnetic spectrum goes, we have created so many methods to detect radiation across a massive spectrum from gamma rays to long wave radio waves. That is just electromagnetic waves, never mind all the other ways we detect particle interactions. We may not sense all energetic phenomena with our organs, but humans are wizards of technology and posts like this lack merit.
Randy Volz 1 year ago
I dislike, "Think about that" almost as much as I dislike, "Let that sink in."
#7
When you go to get something from one room (or upstairs) and suddenly forget why you went in there. It’s called a boundary event. Usually, if you go back to where you started (through the boundary) you’ll remember it again.
#8
You get and cure cancer in your own body thousands of times a day.....
#9
The universe is unbelievably infinite, while simultaneously unbelievably infinitesimal.
The universe has ~10^22 stars, a rough guess. This is an unfathomably large number for humans to comprehend, but bear with me. There is roughly 100 thousand million stars in our galaxy alone, and there are roughly 125 billion galaxies.
A single drop of water contains ~10^21 H2O molecules, not too far off from the number of stars in the whole universe. A very similar number, but contained in a single drop of water!
It blows my mind that the universe can contain such mind boggling numbers of things on such wildly different scales. There is so much to reality that the human mind just isn't capable of grasping.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago
Yet the alternative to being truly infinitessimal is more bizarre, yet true: at a certain point, the law of physics break down until there's another certain point at which even space itself is quantumized. Still wilder, this means there's a finite amount of information in the universe.... and that information survives a black hole. Which means if the universe actually IS massive enough to contract back on itself, all of reality can be thought of as a projection of information from a single point in space. (I don't say space and time because time also breaks down with density.)
#10
If you believe strongly enough that you have been cursed, your brain can shut itself off entirely in severe cases. The psychological term for it is "Voodoo Death Syndrome." It's just the fact you can literally think yourself to death that unsettles me so.
Thatkamloopsguy 1 year ago
There are a lot of people who are pretty safe from thinking themselves to death.
#11
Caterpillars turn completely into goo in their cocoon, and then become a butterfly.
MarnerIsAMagicMan added:
And there is evidence they retain memories from their pre-goo days. Memories of strong positive/negative stimuli that they show preference-for/aversion-to, even after metamorphosis.
#12
That so many vegetables came from the same plant. Broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc. They are, botanically speaking, the same species. Humans have just bred them to emphasize different traits (buds, leaves, tubers...) Imagine if humans were as genetically flexible. Imagine a person walking around with GIANT toes, but otherwise normal.
Actually, plant genetics in general is a weird, weird world.
#13
Violets secrete a chemical that causes you to forget what they smell like afterwords. You’re essentially getting roofied every time you sniff one.
H M 1 year ago
No, incorrect. Violets get their scent from ionone. It's an extremely sweet scent that many people describe as also being dry. "Powdery" is the word that's usually used. Another word is "ethereal," or "ephemeral." After stimulating scent receptors, ionone binds to them and temporarily shuts them off completely. This substance cannot be smelled for more than a few moments at a time. After that, people go anosmic to it. Then, after a few breaths, the scent pops up again. Because the brain hasn't registered it in the preceding few moments, it registers as a new stimulus. Although plenty of people don't like the scent of violets, they don't constantly overpower people, and they don't fade out.
#14
When the Titanic sank non of the shoes decomposed so there’s tone of shoes at the bottom of the ocean.
#15
A gamma ray burst could wipe out all life on earth instantly with no warning.
MedusaWasBeautiful 1 year ago
Not all life unless it blows the planet apart. There are fungi living miles/kilometers below the surface of the Earth to hat would be unaffected.
#16
That as the permafrost melts, a lot of locked up methane will be released, and microorganisms there will "wake up" and do their jobs, breaking down organic matter, and release more methane and greenhouse gases.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
Not to mention any viruses that were long dormant so our bodies won't know how to fight them.
#17
Your brain is making decisions before you are even aware of the decisions it has made. It also makes decisions based off of learned behavior and you just go along with it.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
This one shocks most people. Our brains do most of our decision making for us, and then let us know about it once we're already committed. If we "ask" it why we're doing something it will come up with a reason, but this reason is often nonsense that doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. Oliver Sacks covered a lot of this in his excellent and very readable books.
#18
Humans are bioluminescent (nothing to do with body temperature). We emit visible light that can be photographed in specific conditions. But, this light isn't visible to us. Which makes it a strange thing to have evolved, and begs the question
"what organisms is this light visible to, and why?"
Edit: Adding an edit for all the comments explaining evolution... Please read the thread before commenting. I find this a creepy fact due to implications on interspecific relationships, NOT because I think prehistoric humans went shopping for a bioluminescent hat with a specific motive in mind.
JoJo Anisko 1 year ago
I get OP'S point. We breed plants and animals for characteristics that please us (often involving flavor). So shouldn't we wonder if the same has been done...to us?
#19
The brain can play tricks on you:
When you look at a clock and the second hand seems to freeze for a moment, your brain is actually generating a false memory - and your perception of time stretches slightly backward.
This effect is called chronostasis.
Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago
Is this why that last second on the five second timer before skipping a YouTube ad seems to feel so long?
#20
Parasites can live anywhere inside of you, for years unnoticed. A simple migraine could be a tapeworm crawling in your brain, causing damage.
Your eyes begin to blur frequently and you don't know why and it's not getting better.
Losing weight and having diarrhea but it's not a stomach bug. Well, I guess it is...
You are having a difficult time catching your breath and your chest doesn't feel right.
It could just be some parasite hanging out, using you.
thepinkrobot 1 year ago
As someone who suffers from migraines often, I am choosing to pretend this is false information lol
#21
That 99% of all life that has ever existed has gone extinct.
#22
When a president declares a national state of emergency the law prohibiting medical experiments on unwilling human subjects is suspended.
#23
your digestive tract is an unbroken tube from mouth to a**s...your lips are basically the other end of your b******e.
#24
Not exactly scientific or creepy but, it's close enough and I want to contribute.
Mouth pipetting was a thing in labs in the 1980s. A pipette is, for simplicity sake, a glass straw that lab staff would use to transfer liquids. Now a days we use special bulbs, that when squeezed, would suck up the liquid for us. Kinda like a turkey baster or eye dropper.
Before we had these bulbs lab workers had to use their mouths to suck up the liquid. Which meant if they weren't careful they'd get whatever they were sucking up in their mouth. I'm currently training to be MLAT and those fluids would usually be urine, liquid stool, sputum and so on.
Edit: So mouth pipetting is still a thing. I'm Canadian and I've been told that it is rare or none existent in our labs.
Tushar Roy Mukherjee 1 year ago
It's still a thing in my School. I hated it. Thankfully I just passed out from School.
#25
Sea stars eject their stomachs to cover edible parts of their prey, begin digesting it externally, and then pull the partially digested prey into digestive glands to finish the job.
Mystery Egg 1 year ago
We call them starfish where I come from but I think Sea Stars sounds much cuter
#26
Obligate siblicide. In some species of animals, multiple offspring are born but only one is actually raised by the mother. The others are born only as backup in case the first-born doesn't survive. When the first-born is fine, which is the typical case, it kills the others.
#27
We know more about the moon than we do our own oceans.
marianne eliza 1 year ago
The moon was easier to get to. And with no life, there's not many surprises up there.
#28
Years ago I saw an episode of *Monsters Inside Me* where this guy was doing something outside and a fly flew into his eye. It only made contact for about a microsecond, but it was enough time for it to lay eggs. After they hatched they started eating his eye from the inside and he was starting to go blind until a doctor figured out what was wrong.
Just imagine that, getting your eye eaten from the inside and losing your sight all because a fly *very* briefly made contact with you. Ever since I learned about this I get really paranoid when there is a fly around my face because of the fact that this could possibly happen to me.
#29
With a lethal dose of radiation, victims of acute radiation sickness will, after hours of vomiting and feeling horrible, start to feel much better. Then, they will descend into a hell of a painful death.
#30
It’s rare, but you can die at any moment for literally no reason at all. Your body just stops working.
#31
I could be drinking the same water that my extremely far relative drank back in like the 1800s
Lord of the laserprinter. 1 year ago
I drank some water out of a bottle with the sticker: „passed by the water authorities“ I really, really hope not.
#32
- Out of all our DNA, only 2% codes for our genes.
The 98% leftover is called "junk DNA". I'm not specialised in genetic, but it was long thought to be useless but it's apparently essential for DNA expression regulation and protein formation.
- There are familial forms of alzheimer's disease. They are very rare but they exist, it doesn't skip a generation and one of the form makes you have the disease as early as your late 20's/early 30's.
- In Auschwitz, Joseph Mengele, a nazi doctor who conducted experiment on twins, sewed up 2 twins together for sh**s and giggles and let them die after the surgery of infections. They apparently screamed of pain for days until dying.
- You can live "normaly" with half your brain removed. It's usually done on young children suffering from terrifying epilepsy and the surgery is the last resort. It works quite well and if done early enough, with reeducation, the children develop normally without cognitive deficit, they "just" are blind from one eye, have one very weak arm/leg but they are not cognitively affected : some go to college, get married, have children and live completely normal lives.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
A family friend’s younger brother had to have half his brain removed as a kid because he had strokes. He’s a teenager now and doing well!
#33
After being decapitated there’s still few seconds of brain activity that happen before you snuff out.
#34
There is more microorganisms on your body than people on earth.
#35
Literally everything that you know or feel or experience in total is just a series of electric impulses and nothing else.
Mim“the Swede”Sorensson 1 year ago
That’s not scary to me at all. My world doesn’t change because I’m aware my soul consists of biochemistry and electrical impulses, I’m all good.
#36
There is something called "the squeeze," where when people had old scuba suits with tubes, you could actually get sucked into that tube if the pressure was off. You are literally shredded through your own breathing tube.
#37
If you rub garlic on your feet you can taste it.
Heather Menard 1 year ago
Does it work if we run it on our butt too. See comments about lips and butts.
#38
In the United States, approximately 1 in every 50 people have an unruptured aneurysm. Most will never rupture, but will just sit there in your brain, silently waiting...
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
And holding in a sneeze can cause it to rupture! It’s rare, but possible!
#39
Here's a good one: your eyes are an exposed extension of your brain.
In other words, and apologies if it sounds a little sociopathic, but if you take apart your head piece by piece with just the brain in tact your eyes would be dangling from the brain. Or, you can just google "eyes and the brain" to see what I mean.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago
Oh, it's worse than that! You know that headache behind the eyes that you get when you get a fever? That's the brain having expanded too much to fit into your skull, so it's pushing out your eyesockets.
#40
Rogue black holes. There are black holes that just are floating around in space and potentially f*****g up solar system just by passing through it.
What do you think ?
Joe Publique 1 year ago
Hmm., How about the fact that Cleopatra lived closer to the release of the first iPhone than she did to the building of the pyramids of Giza?
Daycare Attendant Sun 1 year ago
Half of these aren't even legitimate. Or they're half-truths. And I hate half-truths more than I hate flat-out lies.
Samantha Kalitzki 9 months ago
Wäre schön gewesen auch etwas über Schlafparalyse zu sehen, das Gefühl mental wach zu sein sich aber nicht bewegen zu können, ich finde es ziemlich gruselig auch zu wissen das jeder Mensch sie hat wenn auch nicht mit Bewusstsein. Ansonsten wären viele gute Beispiele dabei und ich habe einiges neues gelernt 😉
Joe Publique 1 year ago
Hmm., How about the fact that Cleopatra lived closer to the release of the first iPhone than she did to the building of the pyramids of Giza?
Daycare Attendant Sun 1 year ago
Half of these aren't even legitimate. Or they're half-truths. And I hate half-truths more than I hate flat-out lies.
Samantha Kalitzki 9 months ago
Wäre schön gewesen auch etwas über Schlafparalyse zu sehen, das Gefühl mental wach zu sein sich aber nicht bewegen zu können, ich finde es ziemlich gruselig auch zu wissen das jeder Mensch sie hat wenn auch nicht mit Bewusstsein. Ansonsten wären viele gute Beispiele dabei und ich habe einiges neues gelernt 😉
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