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Life can be scary, and a lot of times we push certain fears aside just to get through the day. But when those fears show up as undeniable facts, they hit a bit differently. Just like a small fall on the ice can remind you how fragile the human body is, a quiet moment under a sky full of stars can make you suddenly aware of how tiny we are in the universe.
A Reddit user recently opened a discussion on facts that genuinely scare people, and the answers spanned the cosmos, the body and even everyday routines.
We picked the ones that really stood out… see if they get you thinking too.
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#1
Corpses rot and decay as they get eaten by microbes. These microbes are constantly trying to eat you too, but your immune system is an army of cells inside you playing defense nonstop.
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#2
There is a spooky skeleton inside of you right now!
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 hours ago
The average number of skeletons inside people is slightly above one per person.
#3
There are more trees on Earth (about 3 trillion) than there are stars in the Milky Way (100–400 billion)
But there are more viruses on Earth (roughly 10³¹) than there are stars in the entire observable universe (about 10²⁴).
You’re basically a walking meat spaceship covered in an invisible ocean of creatures that could end you in days if your immune system ever takes a coffee break.
Night night.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 1 hour ago
And what if our observable universe is a body of some unfathomable being and we're just microbes to it?
These facts are not made-up horror stories, yet they are unsettling enough to scare many people. A few of them can also serve as reminders that life is precious and fleeting. Psychologists believe that when we confront the larger truths, it can also push us to start living intentionally and practice mindfulness.
Research suggests that people who strongly believe in something beyond death, such as religion or spirituality, are more likely to say they would “die happy”. In that light, scary facts can also open a door to deeper reflection.
#4
You know how if you take a deep breath and jump into a body of water, the air in your lungs makes you float to the surface?
Yeah so somewhere between 30-50 feet under, this no longer happens. You just sink.
#5
We’re much closer to running out of drinkable water than anyone seems to act like.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 1 hour ago
Yeah, so make sure you use ChatGPT for every stupid thing and generate lots of images of your AI waifu in lingerie ✌️
#6
When you start showing symptoms for Rabies, its too late to get the cure and you're going to die. Such an evil disease, and you wouldn't even know you have it until its too late.
A study published by Peleskova et al. (2024) shows that “the strongest fear is triggered by modern threats (electricity, car accidents), while the highest disgust is evoked by ancient threats (body waste products, worms, etc.)”. It proves that fear is deeply rooted in survival mechanisms.
Thinking about our mortality or the unknown universe is scary but experts say that we need to recognize which of these thoughts are important and which ones can quickly turn harmful.
As psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD, puts it, “imagination is a super‑power, until it goes dark” and truly some of the facts here have the power to flip that switch.
#7
You've already eaten lots of micro plastic today.
#8
We are potentially all alive today because a single Soviet officer second guessed the missile detection system he was operating. The machine threw a warning for 5 nuclear missiles fired from the US that ended up being a false alarm caused by a rare weather event over North Dakota. His name was Stanislav Petrov.
#9
A stroke can happen at anytime and to anyone.
There are risk factors, of course. But everyone is at risk.
#10
No one will remember anything about you after you die within a few generations. Certainly after 1000 yrs.
Nothing. All of your actions, your thoughts, dreams...zero.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 1 hour ago
Then do something worth remembering. Of course everyone will forget you if everything you do in life is study, work, reproduce and die.
These facts are not made-up horror stories, yet they are unsettling enough to scare many people. A few of them can also serve as reminders that life is precious and fleeting. Psychologists believe that when we confront the larger truths, it can also push us to start living intentionally and practice mindfulness.
Research suggests that people who strongly believe in something beyond death, such as religion or spirituality, are more likely to say they would “die happy”. In that light, scary facts can also open a door to deeper reflection.
#11
You are never 100% safe. Even if the danger is an extreme one, it could still happen. You're not safe in you're bed, in your house, at your work, nowhere. You will never be 100% safe.
#12
The moon is moving AWAY from the earth at around the same speed that fingernails grow.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 1 hour ago
There'll be a day where we'll have to ram something into her to prevent her from escaping
#13
Everybody was taking pictures of the pretty aurora's as far south as northern Florida last week. Not too many realize that if they sky gets colorful enough, all modern electronics including the electrical grid will fail, and there is no backup plan to get it functioning again before society collapses.
#14
One of the few absolutes in medicine is that no person born blind has developed schizophrenia.
While some of these facts may shock us and others might fade from memory, they might also open a door to wonder. Realizing we are a part of this big beautiful Universe, and confronting these truths, can give us a deeper sense of meaning.
As Dr Jesse Preston, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick, believes: "Science can be a powerful source of awe and wonder for many… It can foster a sense of connection to others and our place in the world.”
#15
If you ever want to know what life after death is like, it's the same as life before birth. When you are gone, you are gone.
#16
You don't realize just how fragile you are. One wrong car accident, and you've lost your ability to walk, or worse. And that car accident could be unavoidable because it's out of your control.
One bad trip/fall, and you have to be stationary for a week, or a month, or longer. And then you'll need physical rehab.
You may not know it, but an aneurysm or a blood clot to the heart may be right around the corner, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
If you went swimming once in a lake with friends, you may have some sort of illness or amoeba that is now a death sentence.
You're fragile. You're breakable. It'd be so easy for you to be bed ridden, be paralyzed, be stricken blind, deaf, and dumb. The world is dangerous, and every day you expose yourself to it.
Have a good day! (:.
#17
If you develop dementia one day, there will be a day that will be the last day that you don’t have it, but you won’t know it, ever.
#18
There are millions of tiny microscopic bugs that are crawling over your skin. They're always there so you leave a lot on the pillow while sleeping. That means you put your face on a graveyard of dead bugs and your skin bits. Since I know this I change my sheets way more regular than before.
Lukas (he/him, it/its) 1 hour ago
Lmao BP, what happened to the link under this entry? (screenshot below in hidden comment in case they fix it)
#19
When you drown, it takes 5 days for the gases to buildup for you to float to the surface.
Wear your life jacket.
Zig Zag Wanderer 1 hour ago (edited)
Why should it matter if I've drowned? It's more important before I drown!
A study published by Peleskova et al. (2024) shows that “the strongest fear is triggered by modern threats (electricity, car accidents), while the highest disgust is evoked by ancient threats (body waste products, worms, etc.)”. It proves that fear is deeply rooted in survival mechanisms.
Thinking about our mortality or the unknown universe is scary but experts say that we need to recognize which of these thoughts are important and which ones can quickly turn harmful.
As psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD, puts it, “imagination is a super‑power, until it goes dark” and truly some of the facts here have the power to flip that switch.
#20
Where I live, you might die a horrible death after being tortured just because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, and your body would just disappear, your family would not see you ever again, and the government would do nothing about it, but take your death just for the statistics and blame it to past administrations.
And to make things worse, if your family try to push your case, even if it's just to find your body for proper burial, they might get k****d too.
It's a horrible thing.
#21
The human body replaces its skin monthly. You have about 1,000 new sets of skin in your lifetime.
#22
A bear can run 35 MPH for 30 mins. I live 12 miles from a zoo. If the bear takes the freeway, it could be at my house in under an hour.
#24
If I live as long as my Dad did, I've only 19 years left to live.
#25
Due to electromagnetic repulsion nothing ever touches anything else.
Zig Zag Wanderer 1 hour ago (edited)
And yet I got downvoted for pointing that out. Go figure. Oh, btw, it occasionally does. The results are often cataclysmic.
#26
In 1859 a solar storm hit the earth with so much power it sent sparks through telegraph wires. The next one, and there will eventually be a next one, will fry most of our infrastructure.
But hey good news, we may not live to see if. If a single biologist on this planet figures out how to make harmful "left handed" microbes (microbes that are identical to existing ones but with proteins facing the opposite direction) it will probably wipe out all life on the planet because absolutely nothing is adapted to deal with it.
Stardust she/her 11 minutes ago
Well I have stuff to say. About the first point, yes it’s true that such a strong solar storm will destroy most of our infrastructure and send us back many generations but that’s only if our engineers and scientists are stupid people who ignore warning signs. And the chances of another Carrington event occuring is around 12% per decade (over time adds up to 64% in 50 years) so the smart people are generally prepared for such situations as satellites can be placed in ‘safe mode’ while on earth the electric grids can be prepared once the scientists detect these events. About the second point, OP has vastly oversimplified the concept of chirality and the potential risks of creating mirrored life. They’ve misunderstood it to the point where I don’t even know where to start. Reddit is not a place to get a lesson on chirality and biochemistry
#27
My solution to the Fermi Paradox ("so where are all the aliens?"). Its much more likely by probability that aliens have not just already come to earth but have already colonized it if they were intelligent enough to have the technology to do so, than they haven't, we just aren't aware.
Stardust she/her 6 minutes ago
How would they even know we existed before they came to out solar system? Our radiowaves haven’t even crossed 200 lightyears and even that is nothing to our galaxy with a diameter of 100,000 light years. Maybe they’d know that earth has life just based on whatever they can interpret from atmospheric phenomena but they can’t confirm if our life is multicellular, intelligent etc. The distances between stars is also so vast that even light takes literal years to traverse that distance
#28
That time doesn't slow down. So the moments we waste, we never get back.
Zig Zag Wanderer 1 hour ago
I'm afraid it definitely does. In the presence of gravity, or at significant speeds, time does indeed slow down. Sorry to burst your bubble. Time is NOT immutable.
#29
One of the most narcissistic imbeciles in the world has access to nuclear launch codes.
#30
One day you Will wake up and get dressed not knowing was the clothes you're going to die in that day.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 58 minutes ago
So if just decide to stay naked all the time, I'll be functionally immortal (and also in prison)
#31
As the air quality decreases so will cognitive function. This is already observable in poorly vented offices.
Zig Zag Wanderer 1 hour ago
Get outside and get some fresh air. Better, see some countryside. I'm amazed at how little wilderness people realise is out here. So much more vast than all the cities!
#32
Society is actively doing what every robot uprising story tells us not to do.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 56 minutes ago
Building the Torment Nexus from the acclaimed sci-fi novel "Don't Create the Torment Nexus"
While some of these facts may shock us and others might fade from memory, they might also open a door to wonder. Realizing we are a part of this big beautiful Universe, and confronting these truths, can give us a deeper sense of meaning.
As Dr Jesse Preston, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick, believes: "Science can be a powerful source of awe and wonder for many… It can foster a sense of connection to others and our place in the world.”
#33
Women can and do have heart attacks without ever knowing or showing symptoms.
#34
There’s nuance to this, so I’m just going to post what I was told.
Your eyes and your body have two separate immune systems. They both have no idea the other exists. If your body finds out you have eyes, it will attack them as if they are foreign objects.
That, and a solar flare could cook us at nearly every moment.
reuben kift 1 hour ago (edited)
I posted this 'fact' as a comment a while back and it turned out to be false. Credit: Just_Lurking, the other bored panda who corrected me.
#35
If you lay all the veins in your body from end to end, you'd probably die.
#36
Things aren’t on fire. Fire is on things.
#37
There is an unbroken chain of evolution and successful reproduction extending from the very first form of life right up to you.
If you don't have kids, that chain ends with you.
I'm 35 and no kids. I'm letting the Saccorhytus down.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 hours ago (edited)
Life is a very complicated and on going chemical chain reaction.
#38
Healed wounds are held together by collagen, your body’s natural glue. The collagen needs to be regularly replenished, so your body constantly makes more and uses it to keep your scars glued closed. Collagen also keeps your teeth glued into your mouth.
If you have Scurvy you stop producing collagen. Your wounds reopen and your teeth fall out.
Eat your greens, kids.
Tucker Cahooter 1 hour ago
That's why I always ask if the cruise ship I want to go on has a good supply of limes and that passengers won't be subsisting on just salted pork
#39
Babies cry in the womb. We have observed through ultrasound all the classic signs of crying like heaving chests, quivering lips, opening mouths. All the movements made when a baby cries, but it cant because their lungs are full of fluid.
Also babies are covered in a fine hair called Lanugo that is shed before and sometimes after birth. At the same time, the digestive system starts working some time around 7 months. Know what the baby eats and drinks? That's right, amniotic fluid and it's own body hair. Where does all that go? It pisses and s***s back into the amniotic sack, only to drink and eat all that again.
Also it's *Loud* in the womb. Not only does sound transfer way better in fluid than it does air, but the late-term uterus is pretty close to the heart.
So for a couple months before you were born you were trapped in a pitch black fluid prison, screaming silently, drinking your own p**s, eating your own s**t, and the entire time it sounded like someone was trying to beat down the door 24/7.
The miracle of life yall.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 54 minutes ago
Imagine there was some actual sound attached to that. You're hanging out with a pregnant person and suddenly you're interrupted by this horrific muffled screeching.
#40
Nobody experiences true reality. We experience a story that our brain has invented a split second after true reality happens.
If those signals were produced some other way - dream, simulation, hallucinations, or misfiring neurons - you would have no method to detect it.
#41
What collapsed lungs are and how they can happen at total random.
#42
Prions exist. Basically, they’re a messed up protein that causes other proteins to fold wrong, which is fatal. I don’t know the science- just that prions are terrifying. That’s what caused the “Mad Cow” disease back in like the late 90s? Over in the UK. I learned about prions then as a kid and been scared since.
#43
My dog will die before I do :-(.
#44
Money is just a series of text files exchanged between financial institutions a few times a day through ftp style gets and pushes.
#45
Herons eat ducks. I learned that in a kids’ movie last year, and for some reason it traumatized me—a supposedly full-grown adult on paper.
#46
That we're alone in the universe.
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What do you think ?
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 hours ago
Merry Christmas to the one or two cowardly trolls that always downvote my comments regardless of content. Seriously, you guys have nothing better to do than go through each and every comment I make?
Awenpotato 1 hour ago (edited)
Ive not downvoted or upvoted you, but at a guess its probably because you feel the need to announce your preferred pronouns and s****l orientation in your username
Load More Replies... Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 hours ago
Merry Christmas to the one or two cowardly trolls that always downvote my comments regardless of content. Seriously, you guys have nothing better to do than go through each and every comment I make?
Awenpotato 1 hour ago (edited)
Ive not downvoted or upvoted you, but at a guess its probably because you feel the need to announce your preferred pronouns and s****l orientation in your username
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