35 Scientists Share That “One Science Fact” They Wish The Whole World Would Know
Each and every single one of us has at least one pearl of wisdom that we feel needs to be shared with everyone else. Something that the world definitely needs to hear. A piece of information, a tiny parcel of a fact that might change everything for the better. Scientists are no different in that regard. They do, however, have access to far more interesting facts and revelations than anyone not from their field. From biology, physics and chemistry to medicine and beyond.
Today, we're bringing you a whole host of intriguing science facts and opinions about science. All those brainy and bright scientists shared their insights under the #MyOneScienceTweet hashtag, started by entomologist Dalton Ludwick, and it’s eye-opening, to say the least.
Scroll down, upvote the facts you thought were the most illuminating, and let us know in the comments what you think. We can’t wait to hear your top science facts, too, Pandas!
Bored Panda wanted to learn more about the way good scientists should approach things and why there have recently been more people mistrusting science in general, so we reached out for a chat to Steven Wooding, a member of the Institute of Physics in the UK. He is also a member of the Omni Calculator Project which hosts a lot of interesting and frankly fun tools like the Weird Units Converter.
To start things off, Steven shared with Bored Panda the most interesting science fact that he knows: "A photon created at the sun's center takes up to 100,000 years to get to the surface but then only 8 minutes to get to Earth. Due to the density of the sun, the newly created photon encounters an atom after a few millimeters; it is absorbed then re-emitted in a random direction. So most of the time, it will not be making progress towards the surface. Once in the emptiness of space, most photons make an uninterrupted journey to Earth." We're willing to bet you probably didn't know that, dear Pandas.
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Steven told Bored Panda that the fundamental basis of the scientific method involves proposing an idea of how the world works and then proving it by experiment. In short, scientists have to set their egos and feelings aside for the sake of getting a step or two closer to the truth. However, that's far easier said than done! We sometimes forget that scientists are human beings just like we are.
"To be a good scientist, you have to be open to your original notion being wrong. However, scientists are also humans, so it can be incredibly tough emotionally to accept that you are wrong. It's best to look at the bigger picture of human knowledge and progression. You being proved wrong will help focus effort on other ideas that might be correct. In this way, you play your part in building knowledge," the scientist explained.
It's impossible to argue against this and it a good explanation of why god doesn't exist. If it created us to be the master species, why did it make us so selfish and irresponsible as a whole? "I have created people to destroy this planet in a relatively short period of time. Not one of my best ideas, but I've had enough, really."
Steven agrees with the idea that there generally seems to be less trust in scientists and science itself by the public. "You have to have an open mind to accept ideas from others. A great example is the flat earthers. They what to check and verify that the Earth is round by themselves and don't trust anything anyone says on the subject," he pointed out how some people can be misguided.
"One reason for mistrust in the latest science is that the public see the scientific method playing out in real-time. As more data comes in, the scientists change what they say, which can confuse the public. They may see a scientist admit they were wrong, which raises doubts about everything scientists say. A better understanding of the scientific method would certainly help the public's trust in science," the expert shared a possible reason for all the mistrust.
A major study published this week estimated 1.2 million deaths last year from drug-resistant infections. That's more than malaria or AIDS and it's only getting worse.
Drives me nuts when people complain about scary "chemicals" or "toxins", but are completely unable to say exactly which chemical is bad or why. Or assume anything with a long scientific name is bad. Just consider the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, it causes thousands of deaths and millions in property damage, but that doesn't mean we should ban it.
One thing that many of us are likely to agree on is that the flood of information in the Digital Age can be overwhelming at times. It sometimes makes us dream of running away to an uninhabited island that doesn’t have tech or internet access. Alas! Not everyone has that luxury.
So the next best alternative is learning to navigate the choppy waters of information overload. We’ve got to learn to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources, and learn to fight back against our diminishing attention spans.
This. February 2020 to January 2022, for example. New/more data means you change conclusions. If it's science.
Entertainment and pop culture expert Mike Sington from Hollywood knows all about how info overload, especially on social media, can make it hard for some of us to distinguish between facts and fiction. Earlier, he went into detail with Bored Panda about some of the red flags we should watch out for, indicating that a fact or source isn’t trustworthy.
"Red flags to watch out for that a claim may be fake: it's outlandish, it's too good to be true, you haven't seen the claim anywhere else, you've never heard the source, the source isn't reputable, you can't find two other sources making the same claim, your gut tells you, 'this can't be true,'" Mike shared.
Just 100 corporations are responsible for 71% of global emissions. So stop blaming the population. Start with the 100 corps. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change
Less than 10 percent will ever wake up at all. If you have to do CPR and the person still dies, you didn't do anything wrong. Do not feel any guilt.
"The rise of social media has decreased the reliability of information because misinformation can spread so quickly before it can be corrected," the entertainment industry expert shared.
Even a simple Google check can help fight back against the spread of misinformation. If you take the time to double-check something that sounds iffy, you’re better off than you’d be if you just straight-up believed it. If you can’t find any reliable sources backing up the ‘fact,’ odds are that it’s fake.
Yes! It's just a few people every year that gets killed by a shark, humans on the other hand kill lots of sharks all the time. They are of utterly importance to the oceans!
And usually when someone is killed by a shark, it's because the shark mistook them for prey.
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No one needs to eat shark-fin soup... so let's leave the fins on the sharks and just allow them to keep swimming.
Tell this to the Chinese who have millions of sharks mutilated just to harvest the fins for soup. The rest of the shark is thrown back to die slowly and painfully.
Sharks: Yeah, we’re sorry about all this guys, but we’ve looked, acted and hunted exactly the same since before the dinosaurs and we don’t see very well. You guys looks exactly like seals to us when you splash on the surface. And I mean, it’s not as if you’re unaware of where we live or why we attack, so maybe if you could kind of, you know… not splash around a lot where you know there are sharks? I mean we don’t hang around in shallow waters much and not many of us are big enough to cause lethal damage. So if you could perhaps just avoid acting exactly like prey specifically where we live at certain times of the day…? Human: No.
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Humans are a threat to life on earth, but we don't go around chopping off parts of them to put in soup... Well, mostly not
When I was SCUBA diving, I kept hearing that there were a lot more shark attacks than were officially reported. Supposedly there are large swaths of the world where the authorities care more about attracting tourist money to their region, than in accurately reporting the deaths of the poor. And knowing what I know about how "authorities" operate, I'm not willing to dismiss this as rumor. Do you think we have an accurate worldwide COVID death count? Do you think countries like China, India, and Russia are reporting accurate totals?
You're more likely to slip and fall in the shower, or get into a car accident.
I saw JAWS when I was four. They still scare the living shite out of me!
This should be #1. The biggest problem in science is biases because it cripples growth. The Earth remained the center of the universe for 1000s of years longer than it should because we knew that it was true. Millions of women die unnecessarily every year from heart attacks because the entire detection and treatment regime was developed on men. Contextual biases like racial profiling have dramatically affected the African American community's treatment options for chronic diseases. Way too much psychological theory is all based on first world1 8-22 year old college students who, unsurprisingly, do not reflect the overall psychological spectrum of our planet. How many of us can say our own psyche worked the same at 8, 18, 38, and 88? Outright racism gave Hitler proof the Jews were inferior.
Mike suggests that everyone should remain skeptical and try to find additional evidence and supporting sourcing before reposting any bit of info. Otherwise, they might be contributing to the problem. “Amplification doesn’t make a claim true or accurate," he said that just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t make it true.
The expert pointed out that the personally trusts the Associated Press, Reuters, and The New York Times the most. "They employ fact-checkers and editors that ensure the information they post is correct. They’re basically doing the research and homework for you," he told Bored Panda.
100%. I don't know a single domestic cat who's ever been responsible for a wind farm.
"There are literally too many online sources to list that can’t be trusted and should be avoided. Anyone can basically post anything they want… proceed with caution.”
Mike noted that our attention spans have been “reduced to mere seconds at a time.” That’s because this is the way that information and entertainment are fed to us right now.
“People get tiny bite-sized bits of news by scrolling a Twitter feed, they entertain themselves by scrolling quickly through Instagram and TikTok. It’s creating a habit that doesn’t have to be," he warned.
"The good news is there’s plenty of long-form entertainment and news available, you just have to seek it out. I believe the benefit is worth it. I’ve discovered it improves your ability to focus, it’s more calming, you retain more information, and it gives you a more balanced and nuanced view of the world."
Again . . . birth control would reverse this cycle. Human answer to just about everything is MORE MORE MORE, and supply will NEVER keep up . . .
I work in a hospital lab, we run 24/7 to get results for patients. We get almost no recognition despite how qualified and hard we all work. Hospitals would not be able to operate without us, unless you just want to guess how sick people actually are. Same goes for pharmacy
This is why the US practice of 8 weeks of maternity leave is so damaging. I firmly believe that one parent needs to stay with kids until they're old enough for school, and it doesn't matter which parent. The fact that families now need two full-time incomes to survive is proof that capitalism is deadly to a healthy society.
There is a whole industry about this for years. From how we can learn how to compute like a cell to collecting water like a beetle
From all of the light thrown out by the sun, a miniscule amount of it reaches the earth, but it's enough to keep the planet alive and it will do this for billions of years.
Note: this post originally had 100 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Wildfires are not "bad". They have been around millions of years longer than we have. Many ecosystems ans species depend on them.
They are very bad in Australia when they have become unprecedented in size, the air quality becomes dangerous and millions of animals are lost to the flames
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Just 222 (including mine) up - vote clicks??????????????? What does it tell you about people?
So cool to come on here to relax and see people arguing that cats have done nothing wrong and in fact dogs are the real monsters, and we shouldn’t do anything to keep cats in check but also it’s entirely your fault that pollution exists and corporations are not responsible at all.
Actually humans population need to be kept in check, they destroy everything thousands of species extinct thanks to humans
Load More Replies... From medicine: No, WebMD is not more accurate than "real doctors". You get a few dunces in any field, but some diseases are harder to pin down than you think, b/c they all start with "aches and fatigue" or such.
I need to disagree in that one. It is important to take what you read online with skepticism. And to use trustworthy sources (like PubMed). But doctors are very very uneducated when it comes to non basic illneses (flu, cold...). And are very often dismissive of their patients. So for many, the only chance of diagnosis and improvement is to do their own research and then find a specialist in that area. Believe me, it took me 10 years to get diagnosed with endometriosis with textbook symptoms just because nobody listened to me. And thats the case for most chronic or not obvious diseases. Most doctors prefer to lie and say that you are healthy than to admit that they dont know something.
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#3 You're talking about hybridization, NOT genetically engineering, which is what GMO products are. GMO soy and corn have been genetically engineered to accept glyphosate aka herbicide ROUNDUP and not whither and die. And these GMO crops ABSORB that herbicide! And WE ingest it. GMO foods are not innocuous. They are NOT natural. They are genetically engineered by man and are no longer 'natural'. No longer 'normal'. They've been tinkered with and have had genes inserted that don't belong and were never there naturally. So stop saying GMO is natural. It isn't. Hybridization is natural. Genetically engineering is not.
If you actually support data based policies and personal experience in regards to prostitution, you wouldn't be supportive of it. 9 out of 10 women want to leave the industry, the average age of entry is 13, prostituted women have higher rates of PTSD than veterans, many of them are murdered at the hands of pimps and John's, the younger the girl, they higher price they fetch. THOSE ARE FACTS.
Its funny how conservatives find so much "anger" in people disagreeing with them but mock others for being "emotional"
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Wildfires are not "bad". They have been around millions of years longer than we have. Many ecosystems ans species depend on them.
They are very bad in Australia when they have become unprecedented in size, the air quality becomes dangerous and millions of animals are lost to the flames
Load More Replies... Just 222 (including mine) up - vote clicks??????????????? What does it tell you about people?
So cool to come on here to relax and see people arguing that cats have done nothing wrong and in fact dogs are the real monsters, and we shouldn’t do anything to keep cats in check but also it’s entirely your fault that pollution exists and corporations are not responsible at all.
Actually humans population need to be kept in check, they destroy everything thousands of species extinct thanks to humans
Load More Replies... From medicine: No, WebMD is not more accurate than "real doctors". You get a few dunces in any field, but some diseases are harder to pin down than you think, b/c they all start with "aches and fatigue" or such.
I need to disagree in that one. It is important to take what you read online with skepticism. And to use trustworthy sources (like PubMed). But doctors are very very uneducated when it comes to non basic illneses (flu, cold...). And are very often dismissive of their patients. So for many, the only chance of diagnosis and improvement is to do their own research and then find a specialist in that area. Believe me, it took me 10 years to get diagnosed with endometriosis with textbook symptoms just because nobody listened to me. And thats the case for most chronic or not obvious diseases. Most doctors prefer to lie and say that you are healthy than to admit that they dont know something.
Load More Replies... #3 You're talking about hybridization, NOT genetically engineering, which is what GMO products are. GMO soy and corn have been genetically engineered to accept glyphosate aka herbicide ROUNDUP and not whither and die. And these GMO crops ABSORB that herbicide! And WE ingest it. GMO foods are not innocuous. They are NOT natural. They are genetically engineered by man and are no longer 'natural'. No longer 'normal'. They've been tinkered with and have had genes inserted that don't belong and were never there naturally. So stop saying GMO is natural. It isn't. Hybridization is natural. Genetically engineering is not.
If you actually support data based policies and personal experience in regards to prostitution, you wouldn't be supportive of it. 9 out of 10 women want to leave the industry, the average age of entry is 13, prostituted women have higher rates of PTSD than veterans, many of them are murdered at the hands of pimps and John's, the younger the girl, they higher price they fetch. THOSE ARE FACTS.
Its funny how conservatives find so much "anger" in people disagreeing with them but mock others for being "emotional"
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