I really wish I could contribute to this conversation, but the fact is that I’m terrible at all things science-related.
But I do love good science facts, there’s no doubt about that!
What scientific fact blows your mind?
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about this.
1. That is crazy.
“The time period in which dinosaurs lived is so vast, there were dinosaur fossils when dinosaurs were still alive.”
2. Undiscovered.
“The Cosmic Horizon.
There’s vast swathes of space we will never be able to see or know anything about as space is expanding faster than the speed of light.”
3. Interesting.
“The Cathedral Effect.
If you work in a room with low ceilings, you will stay a bit more focused and be better at detailed, analytical work. If in a room with high ceilings, you will be more open and creative.
This can be simulated by wearing a brimmed hat if you’d want to hammer away at say data entry or data analysis.”
4. Think about that.
“The fact that we are all d**d in practical terms for forever.
We were not alive for billions of years before birth, and we will be d**d for billions of years after d**th with only a blink of conscious existence in deep time.
As Mark Twain put it: “I had been d**d for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.””
5. In and out.
“When you lose weight it leaves on your breath
So when people lose 100 lbs/ 50 kg, they have exhaled that much carbon.”
6. This is crazy.
“At one point, there were giant trees all over the land masses of the planet, but no bacteria that would consume them. So when trees fell over or d**d for any reason, they just piled up and piled up instead of rotting away.
This lead to MASSIVE fires that likely burned for incredibly long periods of time, and these piles of trees became the coal beds that we find deep underground to this day.
Thinking of insanely huge forest fires burning for decades is pretty crazy to me.
This period is known as the Carboniferous era if you are interested in learning more.”
7. He knows what he’s talking about.
“I spent some time with Gene Cernan, the Apollo 17 astronaut who was the last guy to walk on the Moon. He told me two things that I couldn’t stop telling people:
The Earth is round in space like a ball, not flat looking like the Moon is to us. He said while looking up from the lunar surface, the Earth just hung there, like a grapefruit that he could almost grab if he just jumped high enough. Could see the weather change too.
Because of the smaller size of the Moon, not only is it’s curve very visible, the apparent horizon is also much closer so he said there were moments where if he ran too fast or jumped too high he felt like he was going to fall off.”
8. They can see!
“A recently discovered vine can mimic nearby artificial plants, modifying the size, shape and colour of its leaves to match them.
The only plausible explanation is that plants can see.”
9. Think about it.
“A DNA molecule, if pulled from end to end can cover enough distance to reach Earth-Sun.
A measly 1% of your DNA is responsible for how you physically look.”
10. Gotta love it.
“Ice doesn’t cool your water, the water heats up your ice. Energy transfers one way.
When I realized this studying thermodynamics, I sat and just let it hit me.
I friggin love chemistry.”
11. Way over yonder.
“Dinosaurs lived on the other side of the galaxy.
In the time since dinosaurs ruled the Earth the entire galaxy has rotated half a revolution and we’re on the opposite side of the galaxy than where they were.”
12. This person is full of knowledge.
“I’m so glad you asked, I have a list!:
-If all the DNA in the average person was stretched out in a single line, it could reach from Earth to the Sun and back 248 times
-Despite the wildly varying sizes of mammals, sloths and manatees are the only ones who don’t have exactly seven cervical vertebrae
-Hippos sweat sunscreen, and it’s red
-If the entirety of the Earth’s history were compressed down to a single day, humans of any sort wouldn’t appear until the last second before midnight
-If the lifespan of the universe was equated to a human life, the entire time that stars will actually be burning is equivalent to the first day after birth
-And finally, my personal favorite: there are about four times as many unique ways to shuffle a standard deck of playing cards as there are atoms in the Milky Way.”
What crazy science facts do you know?
Please share them with us in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
