Some science facts can be pretty wild. Like this fun fact about grasshoppers. Did you know that their ears are actually on their bellies? And not just one pair of ears. They apparently have six along the sides of their abdomens! This is the kind of fact that I find quite hard to wrap my head around.
So I totally get why one Redditor went to r/AskReddit and posed a similar question to other netizens. The user u/shirofromgame wrote: "What is a scientifically proven fact you refuse to believe?" And the 'refuse to believe' part in this case is not that they actually don't believe it. It's more that the fact is so outlandish or ridiculous that it just blows their mind.
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As a child I could not grasp that groves in a record could make complicated music when a needle ran over them. Now that I'm older and it's all light on metal disks or just math (somehow) I have given up even pretending I believe. It's magic, pure and simple.
Just because we understand it doesn't make it any less impressive. We are dust that got exploded so hard it started thinking about itself. Miraculous
Bored Panda reached out to the curious person who asked the Redditor about the things they couldn't believe. The Redditor u/shirofromgame agreed to have a short chat with us and told us the reason behind this post. The idea for the question came to the Redditor as almost all intrusive thoughts do – just before falling asleep.
"I came up with the Reddit post after trying to go to sleep (and failing), and I was thinking about such facts," u/shirofromgame told Bored Panda. "You see, I was so sleepy that I wrote the question on Reddit and immediately fell asleep after. I actually remembered I wrote it after two days and was surprised to see it had so many replies," the Redditor adds to her whimsical story.
Out of so many interesting replies, u/shirofromgame says that the very top one messed with them the most. It was the one about how our eyes work. "I really can't get my mind wrapped around [that]," the Redditor says, "About how our brains flip the image that we see from our eyes."
Q-tips do belong in my ears and I refuse to believe any doctor saying otherwise.
I refuse to believe a leopard-moose-camel with a 40ft neck is a real animal and a horse with a horn isn’t.
Giraffe used to be called "camel-leopard". Rhino used to be called "big horse with a single horn".
Admittedly, it is quite fascinating – our eyes actually do work like a Camera Obscura. As the specialist in neuro-ophthalmology, Dr. Andrew G. Lee, explains, the image we see is inverted on the retina. It's the retina that sees the world upside down. "Your cortex just turns it upside down," Lee says.
There's also an interesting experiment related to the whole phenomenon. If a person were to wear prism glasses (which do the opposite), they would see the world upside down. But what's interesting is that after they take the glasses off, the whole world would be upside down for them for a few days. How does it go back to normal? "[Your] cortex puts it back in the right orientation," Dr. Lee explains.
The fact that our eyes see everything upside down and back into our brain we have to flip the image. Just crazy.
The fact that t.rex and stegosaurus were separated by millions of years and never existed together. I will always have Stegosaurus battle T Rex when given dinosaurs to play with!.
Best point of that whole thing not mentioned - not only didn’t they live together. But its more time between the Stegosaurus and the Trex then between us humans and the Trex. 80 million years between them two, and 65 between us and the Trex.
The idea that time can bend and stretch depending on gravity and velocity.
They had to correct the GPS to take account of this, it wouldn't work otherwise. Space also bends and stretches — falling towards a black hole can produce an effect known as "spaghettification" :-)
The solution to the Monty Hall paradox. I can even do the math myself. But it still "feels" intuitively wrong.
The scenario: you're on a game show and the host offers you a choice between three doors. Behind one door is a million dollars. Behind the other two doors, you get nothing.
You make your choice. But before the host opens the door to reveal what's inside, he opens one of the *other two* doors to reveal nothing behind *that* one. He then offers you a second choice: do you keep the door that you already chose? Or do you switch to the other unopened door? Does it matter?
Intuitively, it feels like it shouldn't matter, that you have a 50-50 chance of winning whether you switch to the other door, or keep the one you chose originally.
Mathematical reality: you should switch. You have double the chance of winning the money if you switch to the other door, compared with staying put.
Close second: in any random group of just 23 people you will have more than 50% chance that at least two of them will share the same birthday. Again, I can do the math to prove this but it still doesn't feel right.
Ask Marilyn (vos Savant) did several columns on this. I agree with OP. It doesn't make sense that switching is better, but it really is. The situation makes me grumpy.
That babies' adult teeth are under their eyes (skeletal).
I refuse to believe that ALL snowflakes in the entirety of history are unique.
You mean to tell me, that ALL snowflakes EVER, across the ENTIRE GLOBE, are COMPLETELY UNIQUE?
That can’t be mathematically possible. Like, a single storm that drops 3 inches on my house must be a million flakes. Multiply that by the area of that storm, and the depth of the snow, and that number becomes huge. THEN, add that to every storm in the history of the whole globe.
I just can’t believe that we have seen every snowflake and have come to the definite conclusion that they’re all unique. Scientists aren’t at my house cataloging the snowflakes. How do they know?.
They found an identical snowflake. I can't remember who 'they' are, but that's actually now been disproven now, I belive, as it's now been discovered that there are identical snowflakes. Or, rather, identical patterns formed. And it's also been proven to do with the weather conditions. So basically the weather, the area, altitude, etc, dictates the various shapes of the snowflakes that will fall
That I'm not one living entity; billions of lifeforms all combine to make one of me.
And then think that you're actually mostly made up of space, and that not one cell of you is actually touching any other because of this "space". You're mostly 'made' of "space". But this "space" isn't just 'nothing'. It has influence, and may even have some control over whatever is around it. So... What is it?... ; ) THEN, realise that that is the same for appsoloutly everything 'solid', living and inanimate... I'm still learning about this, of course (same as the people studying it, of course), but that's a good one to me
Skyscrapers sway a lot. I refuse to believe a building like the burj khalifa moves 6-7 feet in the wind without issue.
Used to live on the 14th floor and I can confirm this 👍🏻 They sway!
That the average time to sleep is 7 minutes. WHO???.
It's me. I'm bringing the average down. If I'm not asleep within a couple of minutes of closing my eyes, then something is wrong. Sorry everyone. I'm the freak.
That the speed of light can’t be broken. They said flight was physically impossible with a machine, then they said breaking the sound barrier was impossible. I just don’t believe that we’re right this time either.
I know it's true but I still find it hard to believe that viruses are not considered living organisms.
There are a lot of factors but the two biggest ones I think are the fact that they are inert and do not use energy when not in a host. And that they cannot self replicate without said host.
Hard to believe something capable of so much death and destruction is probably not even conscious.
That fruits and vegetables do not decay faster when I’m the one paying for them.
Lol 😂 Well I can guarantee that even if you buying them personally curses them, they’ll last way longer (& have more nutrients from being riper) if you buy from local growers than the big supermarkets.
Women are born with all the eggs already in them and don't produce those through the lifetime.
It is so ridiculous that I still can't believe it, even though I tell it to the others. Hope for a paper suggesting an alternative to "The egg from which you were born was actually created by your grandma".
It wasn’t created by your grandma. It was created by your mother, which happened to be inside your grandma. Not the same thing.
The double-slit experiments and all their variations still weird me out. As someone who hasn't studied the necessary fundamentals, it just seems like the Light particles know whether or not you're watching and will change their behavior depending on what you're expecting them to do.
Narwhals. Ain't no way.
Yeah how can they exist but a unicorn can’t???? If we have the genetic material to grow feathers why can’t a horse have the genetic material to grow a horn?!
In a lottery, having a string of consecutive numbers (say 1,2,3,4,5,6) being drawn is equally likely as a string of random numbers being drawn.
Black is absolutely a colour, how else would there be a crayon for it?.
That cold plunges are good for your health. Can’t do it. Not going to submerse myself if freezing water.
I once had a ridiculously high temperature and I was hallucinating and raving so the hospital stuck me in a tub full of Ice water...................I was lucid instantly.
That many living people have Neanderthal DNA. Mostly in non-African ethnicities. My DNA is apparently more 'Neanderthal' than 93% of the population tested to date by 23andme. WTF? THat many living people have the DNA of another non-modern species (is that the right word?), the Denisovans (mostly certain Asian ethnicities). How many more non-modern species of DNA do humans carry that we just have not identified? How many others did we interbreed with? WHAT ARE WE?
Neanderthals & Denisovans are both members of the human species. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution#Neanderthal_and_Denisovan
That jet planes can fly. Come on.
I’ve flown on them many times before.
But come on.
I watched the airshow where the A380 was presented to the public. It did a very slow fly-by. How that plane just stayed airborne was insane (and a combo of no cargo/passengers, very little fuel, and a tremendous flight crew, but still insane).
Our stomach acid is strong enough to even dissolve metals over time.
Humans are made up of 70% water, just doesn’t make sense. Too many bones and muscle for such a high number.
That dark matter / energy exists. We've yet to directly observe any of it, only the indirect effects via gravity, and even Einstein himself acknowledged that his model of physics was incomplete. We understand gravity now better than Newton did, but there are still gaps.
While the body of evidence supporting dark matter theory is extensive, we're one step away from demolishing and reinventing all of modern physics. One day a new Einstein will come along and invent an even more robust model of gravity, and it could reveal that our supposed "dark matter" was really the result of a huge flaw.
I love physics and anything to do with the universe but, when it comes to dark matter, my brain melts down. No, don't understand it, don't want to even start understanding it AARRGGHH!!!
Cold water is just as effective as warm water for washing hands.
The levels of crazy my kids can reach after having a marshmallow, or any junk food for that matter, makes me not believe that sugar doesn’t cause hyperactivity.
Expectation bias. The perception of hyperactivity is solely that of the parents & nothing to do with the children’s behaviors. Not to mention the environmental circumstances skewing perceptions.
The fact that, in the entire history of humanity, it is likely that the same arrangement of a (fairly) shuffled standard deck of 52 cards has ever come together twice, and probably never will.
Not really "refuse to believe", more "having a really hard time to wrap my head around it":
The survival of the human race (especially in relation to how time- and work intensive our reproduction is.)
I know amazing leaps were done in fertility treatment, reproduction medicine and infant care!
Yet, at it's core, it's still the same process: the offspring has to be grown for (roughly) 40 weeks, inside a female body.
It takes hours, sometimes even days, of heavy pain to birth the offspring.
And even when that's done, human babies are 100% helpless and dependant on someone, for a good while. Sometimes, one even just "forgets how to breathe" and dies.
Somehow we still managed to grow in population by...a hell of a lot.
It boggles my mind, how biology hasn't found a safer, less time and work intensive way for us to reproduce, yet our population exploded.
Having clean water annd enough to eat along with modern medicine and hygiene practices helped a lot.
Pin hole cameras. It just blows my tiny mind.
The area from which the optic nerve leaves the brain is called 'The Blind Spot'. There is no image formed in this area. Yet we see the world accurately beacuse of the brains ability to fill in this accurately. This is mindbowing (pun intended) especially considering the accuracy to which the brain is doing this.
I remember as a kid doing a simple experiment to show this.. now how did it go again? Oh hey, HEY! it still works! Just close one eye and wave a finger about randomly and suddenly you'll find a spot where the fingertip disappears. About 20 degrees off to the right or left of the respective eye, roughly level. Of course when both eyes are open the brain compensates, so we're not generally aware of it.
Sail boats can go faster than the wind blows. 25 knot winds? The boat can go 30+ knots with just the sail power alone.
That we, as women don't "sync up" with other females in regular close proximity.
In my opinion, this topic has not been studied sufficiently and widely enough, because in the world of science/medicine, researching women has been perceived as difficult precisely because of hormonal activity. According to research, during the menstrual cycle, a woman secretes two different pheromones. The more recognized one is secreted during ovulation, but another pheromone is secreted after menstruation. Why couldn't these affect the menstrual cycles of women who live together or spend time together closely, if they don't use hormonal contraception.
That a regulation basketball hoop is 18 inches in diameter and can (almost) fit two NBA basketballs at the same time. I swear the hoops I play at are way smaller and it's not because I suck at basketball.
You realize how good nba players are when you try by yourself without any opponents and still failed a lot.
I’m not a creationist or deny evolution but where do platypuses fit in the evolutionary trees? Then you add in the idea that birds evolved to fly seems far fetched.
Like you’re telling me, an egg laying duck that lactates milk then swims in the water evolved that way? I don’t think so buddy.
That cutting 'young' & soft body hair does not necessarily make them grow back hard. It's usually the tip which is now blunt is what's making it feel rough.
Its not necessarily either, it do not make it grow out thicker. It is only that the tip of the hairs are now blunt and will feel thicker.
As usual there are many "scientifically proven facts" that are absolutely not true in this Bored Panda journalist's copy/paste exercise.
I refuse to believe the Banach-Tarski theorem. That it is possible to cut a sphere of volume V into four pieces that can be reassembled to make two spheres each with volume V. In other words, the mathematical theorem that 3-D volume is not conserved. An extreme example is that it's possible to cut a sphere the size of a pea into a finite number of pieces that can be reassembled to make a solid sphere the size of the Sun. No friggin' way.
The most recent that blew my mind is: There is no truth. It is a concept we all agree upon due to similar perception. Laws of physics may seem "true", but they're a product of human perception, therefore an agreed upon concept.
For me, the whole fabric of spacetime is completely incomprehensible. So spacetime is a 3d plane that changes time depending on where you are? and this explains gravity somehow?
These posts should have an entirely different title."scientific theories that are hard to believe" or something.This one creates expectations about a list of interesting facts.Misleading.
Dragons don't exist, but dinosaurs do. Dinosaurs are just scientifically approved dragons.
Its kind of sad the number of people who feel the need to correct any of these posts. So often it doesn't sound like a "hey I think they might have gotten this a bit wrong" but does sound much more like "I know more about this than the writer and by God I'm going to set that idiot straight". The tone of arrogance in some of those posts is gross. Definitely some people I would never want to meet.
As usual there are many "scientifically proven facts" that are absolutely not true in this Bored Panda journalist's copy/paste exercise.
I refuse to believe the Banach-Tarski theorem. That it is possible to cut a sphere of volume V into four pieces that can be reassembled to make two spheres each with volume V. In other words, the mathematical theorem that 3-D volume is not conserved. An extreme example is that it's possible to cut a sphere the size of a pea into a finite number of pieces that can be reassembled to make a solid sphere the size of the Sun. No friggin' way.
The most recent that blew my mind is: There is no truth. It is a concept we all agree upon due to similar perception. Laws of physics may seem "true", but they're a product of human perception, therefore an agreed upon concept.
For me, the whole fabric of spacetime is completely incomprehensible. So spacetime is a 3d plane that changes time depending on where you are? and this explains gravity somehow?
These posts should have an entirely different title."scientific theories that are hard to believe" or something.This one creates expectations about a list of interesting facts.Misleading.
Dragons don't exist, but dinosaurs do. Dinosaurs are just scientifically approved dragons.
Its kind of sad the number of people who feel the need to correct any of these posts. So often it doesn't sound like a "hey I think they might have gotten this a bit wrong" but does sound much more like "I know more about this than the writer and by God I'm going to set that idiot straight". The tone of arrogance in some of those posts is gross. Definitely some people I would never want to meet.
