Who doesn't love learning new things? Our brain floods our body with dopamine when we see, to quote the American rock band Semisonic, an F. N. T. That stands for "fascinating new thing". And although the group was singing about a girl, the reference still stands, right? A spiky tiny mushroom or a transparent octopus can be a fascinating new thing too.
The subreddit r/fascinating then is heaven for those who want to satisfy their curiosity and get a dopamine rush. It's a Reddit community with over 40k members where people post interesting pictures and facts. Check out our selection from the subreddit below!
Bored Panda also got some thoughts from an insider. One of the moderators from r/fascinating, WeirdPineapple, was kind enough to answer some questions. Check out our short interview with him below!
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Ronald Mcnair, The Boy Who Refused To Leave The Library
The r/fascinating subreddit is not the only community that Weird Pineapple is a mod on. There are 9 communities in total under his wing. r/fascinating is the third on the list in terms of member count.
Nevertheless, it still ranks in the top 5% percent of the largest communities on Reddit. And it's not only facts and pictures we can find there. Community members don't shy away from posting videos with interesting facts as well.
Perspective
The Puffer Fish Skeleton And The Way It Works Is Simply A Marvel Of Nature
We asked WeirdPineapple how he became one of the moderators for this community. "I originally became involved as I was working on a handful of projects, and /r/fascinating happened to be one of them."
The mod tells Bored Panda that the subreddit wasn't in the best state when he came on board. "It was a bit dilapidated when we originally got there, but we managed to promote some growth and better content. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s been a long process that is not done yet."
The Lesser Known 1st Starry Night Painting By Vincent Van Gogh
After some research, it seems he repainted it because he wasn't satisfied with the colors and overall mood of this one, as he felt he didn't capture the true beauty and majesty of the night sky. In fact, he didn't even like the famous repainting we all know, because he felt it was too abstract. Reminder that your art and everything you put into this world is probably much more beautiful than you think. 💙
What A Wonderful Time To Be Alive!
And imagine, even black holes will die out at some point. From that moment on, time will loose it's meaning. There will be no time anymore, there will be literally nothing. Forever.
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Even longer will be the decay of the last proton. Protons have a half-life of 1.67x10^34 years. Now that's a half-life so in that many years HALF the protons in the whole universe will have decayed. So by the time that half-life has happened enough for every last proton to decay we're talking a whole order of magnitude beyond 10^106. I think you actually need to use a second exponent to get there. Also, a good estimate as to how many protons there are in the ENTIRE universe.
there are 10^80 protons in the universe. After 265 half lives the number of protons will have decreased to 1.69x10^-80% of the current number and there will be 1.69 protons left. That's obviously a theoretical number, and once there are only a trillion protons a half life won't be a very accurate measure. Still, that works out to 1.67x10^299 years until we're theoretically down to 1 or 2. That's a little bit more than an order of magnitude greater than 10^106. Since half lives are a statistical average the last proton could theoretically last another 10^50 years.
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Actually, no one really knows what is going to happen 120 trillion years from now. Educated guesses at best.
As is true for anything in the future. I'm typing this gambling a gamma ray won't wipe us out before you read it.
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If astrophysics is correct, and our Universe is really just a Black Hole within a large Universe, then some of those Black holes are Universes expanding into the dead space of the previous Universe. Life goes on...
I’m not sure “astrophysics” as a whole agrees with this; that’s just one possibility
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In 150 years we have gone from steam engines to magic glass that gets pictures from the air and can speak to people on the other side of the world, and can understand our voices. In a few thousand years, we will be able to manipulate gravity. Stars will be simply a source of energy and resources, black holes might take a little longer, but we will not allow ourselves to freeze to death, we will mine them too.
Boy, are you going to be embarrassed when those predictions don't come true.
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What I think happens when we die is we recarnate on a different world cuz it would be Way more fun than just nothingness
Oh God you guys the comments are even worse. Why, why, WHY am I reading things like this while stoned? Why do I always end up contemplating the size of the universe or the length of eternity? Scares the s**t out of me. All of this does
I find it very spiritual, a reminder that I'm not in control.
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Makes me want to start a holy war to bide my time in forgetful entertainment.
And then the black holes will spit out whatever is in it, and live starts again :)
...and once the extreme gravitational pull of all those black holes into a single mass, the instability of such massive forces will result in (another) big bang.
Here's another fun "what if": In order to take the most condense form possible, this single mass takes the exact same form every time, resulting in the exact same outcome every time. This would be just one of the infinite times I type this on Bored Panda.
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Thanks to AI, I was able to discover why, when I read things like this (or any description of ∞), I feel awfully panicky. In a nutshell, our brains aren’t able to comprehend numbers this big, so they can spaz out. Gonna go try to reboot it now!
i dont want to think about space today its late and i want to sleep
Thank goodness! I thought they said 120 QUADrillion years. What a relief!
It makes me feel so small...I guess I CAN have that second piece of pie.
The real gift is life itself, everything else is of no importance whatsoever. Peace.
Just had an epiphany. When they are gone and the universe is black holes condensing, wouldn't the next logical eventuality be another "big bang" and the universe "rebuilding" itself again? I suddenly feel at peace knowing as Malcom once said "life will find a way" (and yes I did just quote a fictional character from a 30yro sci-fi film)
There's a theory that that's what the Big Bang actually was, and that that's the cycle of the universe. Which is very cool, imo! (Also, HOW IS JURASSIC PARK 30 YEARS OLD??)
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It's always leaves me in awe about the universe and our existence within it. we are on the rock we just happen to be on thats going around a huge ball of fire, radiation, electricity, plasma,etc.with other rocks. While orbiting around a black hole with group of an infinate number of other huge balls of plasma. In a plane that has an infinite amount of celestial bodies doing the exact same thing with all the balls of plasma and their rocks. And the probability and appreciation of being on this planet at this exact moment with billions of others is just astounding.
This has happened many times as the expansion reaches a limit and then bursts back down to a point that starts all over. We exist with infinite parallel universes going through the same processes. Think of a bath tub filled with bubbles forming and bursting to gain the correct perspective. Humbling indeed
Except it's all really speculation. Our model of the universe will likely change.
Makes you feel grateful for what you have. I mean the planets pretty messed up. But only one universe second later none of it exists.
All this assumes things will proceed with no changes from what we currently know and theorize.
I like to think that within 120 trillion years, some intelligent life will arise far enough to stop the heat death of the universe. It won't be us but someone somewhere.
White dwarf stars, remnants of stars that have run through all their hydrogen and shrunk into a hot dense nugget roughly the mass of our sun will eventually cool and become Black dwarves approximately 10^15 years after they are formed. Even when dead cold, their density alone will cause the heaviest ones, about 1.3 solar masses, to create iron through Pycnonuclear fusion and will collapse and create runaway nuclear fusion and blow up in a supernova in about 10^1100 years. The lightest, about 1.1 solar masses, will go supernova in ~ 10^32,000 years. That's 32,000 zeros.
Nah, while the evidence does suggest this as a possibility, humans have known far too little for far too short of a time for us to know with any sort of certainty ANYTHING the universe f*****g does. Everytime we stare out further and further into the universe instead of seeing what we expect everybody collectively has to go "huh well that's weird." we literally made up dark energy and dark matter, cause we don't know what the f**k is going on, but it makes the math work. Which is a real s**t way of doing science in my opinion. We have a fundamental lack of understanding and instead of trying to understand we just waved our hands and said "must invisible stuff we just cant see."
You just stated science's position in regard to dark matter and dark energy, and acted like there's something dishonest about it. "We don't know what it is or how it works" IS the position. "Dark matter" and "dark energy" are just placeholder names. No one's pretending they know what it is.
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If you want to see what that looks like watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
No, not really. Remember we are made of "star stuff" the black holes will eventually collide and create another "big bang" and life will start again, probably has innumerable times before and will after. We live as parts of those specks reconfigured into new beings. From stardust born into stardust we are destined and from stardust we are born again. It's lovely.
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I mean I'd be more impressed if we lived, as a one planet species, in the time after stars.
I’d be impressed if there’s still anything resembling civilization in 200 years. The onrushing environmental collapse is going to be brutal, and industrialization is unlikely to endure through it.
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Rare Octopus With Completely Transparent Head
The Redditor tells us why he holds this particular community dear to his heart. "This subreddit was a passion project I had alongside a tremendous team, who also helped build some of the biggest communities you still see on Reddit today. It had a solid foundation and just needed a push and some cleaning up.
The Moon During A Total Solar Eclipse Revealing A Vast Solar Corona
Chinese Explorer Zheng He's Ship Compared To Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria. Both Lived And Sailed At The Same Time (Repost /R/Pics)
This Is How Mt. Fuji Cuts Through The Clouds
This mod has extensive experience, yet the beginning of the subreddit was still a challenge. He says he used to spend a lot of time moderating the community. "But communities become more established and you incorporate a decent auto-mod system, you end up with a mostly autonomous community," WeirdPineapple explains. "Manual spam-removal is still essential, however," he adds.
This Couple Met In Wwii, Then Got Married In Germany. The Wife Traded A Soldier Two Cartons Of Cigarettes For A Parachute To Make Her Wedding Dress
The Canadian Rockies By Dan Schyk
As some who has only ever lived in flats lands, this is haunting in a way I don't have words for.
Fairy Pools, The Isle Of Skye, Scotland By Nikola Niki
The Redditor says the most challenging part is monitoring trolls. "It’s mainly a battle of fighting paid spam and misinformation posts, as with many subreddits with any traction. I understand making a name for yourself or your community, it just needs to be done within the proper channels."
Oldest Living Thing On Earth. Methuselah, A Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, Is 4,853 Years Old
Well, not quite. It's the oldest known living, non-clonal tree. There are a number of things older though. Expessially if you count clonal colonies, which can be in the 10s of thousands, and doubly so if you get into microorganisms that are potentially revivable, with at least one successful revival of a million year old organism and candidates for revival over 100 million years old.
This Tiny Mushroom (Possibly Mycena Subcyanocephala)
Big Old Snail
There's a somewhat fascinating fact about WeirdPineapple himself. He says working as a Reddit mod led to him starting a career as a professional racer. In fact, one of the communities he oversees, r/capps, is a place where he can document his achievements.
What Lightning Does To Sand
This is after polishing. Straight after the lightning strike it looks like opaque branching coral because it's coated in sand grains that have stuck to the surface.
Monument Valley, Arizona By Paul B. Moore
"I never expected where I’d end up when I started working with/on Reddit over a decade ago," the mod confesses. "But professional racing was not in the top five that I saw coming if I even had a top-five back then."
Gerrymandering Explained: How Elections Are Stolen By Redistricting
i didn’t really realize this was a thing in the US until i read an article a while ago about it and it really made me wonder how you guys consider this to be “fair”, like i’m genuinely really curious.
Inside The Mouth Of A Leatherback Turtle
Allegheny National Forest By Zack Frank
The Reddit user also feels a lot of gratitude towards the platform and its other users. "I’m extremely thankful for what Reddit has been able to do for both me and the communities I oversee," WeirdPineapple says.
Researchers Studied The Effects Of A 20-Minute Walk On The Cognitive Performance Of A Group Of Children. This Is Fascinating
Need more info. For example, the measurement you're taking is probably blood flow, in which case obviously exercise increases blood flow. Also, without further information we don't know if this extra activity is due to damage repair, cleaning out the lactic acid toxins produced by the exercise.
This Is A Human Nervous System That Took Over 4000 Hours To Dissect. There Is Only 4 In The World
Mt. St Helens The 17th Of May, 1980 vs. 4 Months Later
We throw the word 'fascinating' around quite a bit here on this post. Oxford Learner's Dictionary describes it as being 'very interested.' But that doesn't really do it justice, does it? When we say that we're fascinated, it's not just that we find it very interesting. There's something stronger – it captivates our attention.
A 3300 Year Old Wig
Yes you read that right! This is the wig of Merit, wife of Kha, found in the tomb of the couple (TT8) in Thebes, present-day Luxor, Egypt. The wig was beautifully constructed of human hair. The wig can now be seen in the Museo Egizio, Torino, Italy.
This Is My Left Hand, I Was Born With It And I Can Still Do Plenty Of Stuff
I saw an old lady the other day who had just one finger and a thumb on each hand, and she was *amazingly* dextrous with them. Us humans are so adaptable!
This Is What All The Nerves For Your Teeth Look Like
Simone Redaelli Ph.D. links fascination to mystery. "Fascination occurs when our attention is involuntarily captured by a given environment. Being a potential source of unprecedented knowledge, a mysterious setting easily attracts us and it is therefore a source of fascination."
Taughannock Falls In Upstate New York By Paul Massie Photography
Two Baby Geese Touching Beaks
Comparison Of Actual Distances On The Mercator Projection Map
i can’t remember the name of the map that is more accurately projected, but y’all, africa is HUGE. the whole continent can fit an insane amount of other countries in it (i think it’s like six chinas or something?) and this is coming from a russian. WE NEED MORE ACCURATE MAPS
We can say something similar about the entries on this list from /fascinating. The creators of the subreddit chose the name very aptly. Let us know which pictures captured your attention involuntarily. Upvote your favorites and let us know what you liked in the comments!
Mathematical Analysis Of The Electrical Signals Fungi Seemingly Send To One Another Has Identified Patterns That Bear A Striking Structural Similarity To Human Speech
A Man Standing In The Lumberyard Of Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing. 1939
Crystal River - The Most Beautiful River On Earth
Detailed Color Theory Infographic
Baby Pacific Pomfret Hitching A Ride On A Baby Jellyfish (Three Angles)
Donut Graph Visualizing Composition Of Earth's Surface
Lifespan Of Animals
Glacier National Park, Montana By Galyna Andrushko
The Canadian side (Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park) is beautiful too!
Chart Showing Mouth Locations Used For Phonetics In The International Phonetic Alphabet (Ipa) Along With English Examples
You can physically feel the words move front to back as you say them!
Picture Of Comet 67p/Churyumov–gerasimenko With A City For Scale
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore In Wisconsin By Bryan Neuswanger
Alexander The Great, Based On His Busts And Ancient Accounts Of Him
But how did they know what color his eyes were? Edit: kind of looks like Gerard Butler when he was younger.
Fascinating Facts
I assumed this was one of us Americans. It's sad that I'm actually pleasantly surprised it wasn't us this time.
Wendy The Whippet With Myostatin Gene Mutation
The Way You Can See The Truck Through These Pipes
Stereoscopy - The Optical Illusion Of Seeing A Picture In 3D Without Equipment. Cross Your Eyes Until The Images Overlap To See The Effect
Age Of Bands!
Theodore Roosevelt National Park In North Dakota By Zak Zeinert
Thank you Theodore Roosevelt for the establishment of the concept of National Parks.
This Was The Scene When Driving Through Paradise, California During The Fires On The 8th November.... Photo; Oakland Firefighters Local 55
Full Contact National Lightsaber League And Tournament
Note: this post originally had 60 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Why is the stupid video ad at the top of the screen not going away? Even tho I keep touching the X! So f#*king annoying.
Also, the share icon covers the bottom right of the text/photo. How do i get rid of it? 🤷♀️
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This was the wrong post to scroll through right before going to sleep
The other evening I ran my finger through my crotch and then my finger smelled like lasagna. I was baking lasagna at the time! Fascinating!
I make over $100 an hour shoplifting bras at plus size stores.
Load More Replies... Why is the stupid video ad at the top of the screen not going away? Even tho I keep touching the X! So f#*king annoying.
Also, the share icon covers the bottom right of the text/photo. How do i get rid of it? 🤷♀️
Load More Replies... This was the wrong post to scroll through right before going to sleep
The other evening I ran my finger through my crotch and then my finger smelled like lasagna. I was baking lasagna at the time! Fascinating!
I make over $100 an hour shoplifting bras at plus size stores.
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