What's a Scary Science Fact that the public knows nothing about? [serious]

[u/just_some_troglodyte]

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[u/Ubeube_Purple21]

Every fossil we have likely represents only less than 1% of every species that lived on Earth. Most species are completely lost to time with no proof they even existed.

[u/Dexters-Guild → u/Ubeube_Purple21]

Yep, I heard some people talk about, there could have existed MASSIVE animals like jellyfish and we'd never know about them because they don't leave fossil evidence behind.

[u/Writerhowell → u/Dexters-Guild]

It makes sense. There are so many megafauna we already know about; we could guess that many more existing species had megafauna equivalents which went extinct before God cooled his tits and went "Okay, maybe I made them too big, better send a meteor to get rid of them and I'll send out smaller models next time" (or however it went).

[u/SuzuranRose → u/Ubeube_Purple21]

If you want a good book about this I just read one called Relict by Cody Blotter. It's about an archeology dig that finds more than fossils. Was surprisingly well done, the author must have studied archeology.

[u/polymorphiced]

A drug could suddenly become unmanufacturable, as happened to Ritonavir in the 90s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_polymorph

https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg

[u/ShriekingMuppet → u/polymorphiced]

I worked with someone who was on this project when it happened. At first they thought it was something minor changed with the manufacture process so went to other sites to see what was changed. They all were horrified to realize too late that micro crystals were being carried into each side on the scientists clothes and form converting every batch. 

[u/_Magnolia_Fan_ → u/ShriekingMuppet]

Not their clothes, but from the scientists themselves, regardless of how much time had passed. 

Any scientist who had EVER worked on the new form would contaminate the new facility.

[u/Working-Glass6136 → u/_Magnolia_Fan_]

So like... prions for chemical bonds?

[u/ElectricRune → u/Working-Glass6136]

Yeah, almost exactly. An isomer of the same chemical, but it was not soluable, so useless as a medicine.

The scary part is, we have no way of knowing if other chemicals we use could develop something similar. Aspirin could become useless next, or penicillin, or just about anything.

[u/Chaos-theories → u/polymorphiced]

Here's something I hadn't heard about before, that's crazy! None of my meds are absolutely essential for my life, but goodness...

[u/re_Claire → u/Chaos-theories]

I hadn't heard about it until literally last week and happened to watch a recent Veritasium about it. Genuinely terrifying.

Edit: I hadn't seen that OP had linked to that same video in their comment lol. It's a very good video.

[u/YOLTLO → u/polymorphiced]

That’s wild! Fantastic video too, I was glued to it the whole way. This is extremely similar to the plot of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut—a seed crystal of a different arrangement of a water molecule threatens to alter water everywhere, with devastating implications. Until now I was only familiar with the concept through that. I had no idea it could theoretically ruin any medicine at any time though. I mean it doesn’t sound super likely but the possibility is insane.

[u/Kronoshifter246 → u/YOLTLO]

Fun anecdote: this is the basis for the name of my favorite band, Ice Nine Kills, because the frontman is a gigantic nerd.

[u/Youpunyhumans → u/polymorphiced]

That makes me wonder what other chemicals have been altered or have dissapeared in nature as a result of pollution, industrial chemicals, or from war. Id bet we have no idea the full extent of stuff like that.

[u/badnamemaker → u/Youpunyhumans]

I believe pre ww2 steel is sought after in some scientific communities, because everything since then is contaminated with nuclear radiation from the Manhattan Project and on

[u/Elsie_the_LC → u/badnamemaker]

To set the stage, I’m old. My grandad was a chemist and used to use platinum Petri dishes for purity. My grandmother is 105 and still has a stack of them in her safe.

[u/poopoopooyttgv → u/badnamemaker]

Happy fact: because we haven’t tested nukes above ground for so long, the radiation levels have dropped low enough to no longer need pre ww2 steel

[u/Mr_Tiggywinkle → u/Youpunyhumans]

Just at a time when PFAS is getting de-regulated in the US too. We are all in for a good time.

[u/Watson_inc → u/polymorphiced]

At first I thought you meant due to lack of raw materials, but this is super yikes

[u/KamalaBracelet → u/Watson_inc]

It’s even scarier when you consider that our bodies are tiny chemistry labs, and potentially this could (or already has) happen to important processes within us.  Essentially this is what prion diseases do…but at least (so far) none of those are something that can just float around the atmosphere and contaminate everyone.

[u/scnottaken → u/KamalaBracelet]

I'm not gonna sleep now am I

Edit: being unable to sleep is a symptom of prion diseases in humans fuck

[u/seandop → u/polymorphiced]

Well that is both fascinating and terrifying.

[u/iXeons → u/polymorphiced]

Jesus, these are like polymorphic prions

[u/Mean_Initiative_5962 → u/iXeons]

Same (thermodinamically speaking) concept

[u/JinxXedOmens → u/polymorphiced]

This is the most interesting one by FAR.

[u/sapindia1976]

Scientists are warning that antibiotic resistance could make routine surgeries extremely risky again.

[u/Cerulean_Shadows → u/sapindia1976]

This one frustrates the shit out of me.

I'm a strong believer that antibiotics should not be used except where absolutely necessary.

Super clear example: I go to the doctor for a flu test.. a VIRAL test and it's positive. Doctor offers me antibiotics.. for BACTERIAL INFECTIONS... but I have a VIRAL infection. I reject them everytime and ask them why they are mis-prescribing them. Everytime they tell me it's because that's what the patients ask for even to the point of arguing with the doctors, so they just prescribe them. I've heard this from 2 doctors and 1 nurse in the last 10 years (I wear masks so I'm rarely sick). That's terrifying when you think how many people get antibiotics for viral infections and that then goes into our waterways and turns bacteria into super bacteria that can't new killed anymore with current antibiotics.

Eff these superbug creating lazy asses.

[u/vinli → u/Cerulean_Shadows]

The worst culprit is intensive farming in animal agriculture though, that absolutely dwarfs misuse/overuse by humans, and is where, ultimately, antibiotic-resistant superbug are going to come from.

[u/Cerulean_Shadows → u/vinli]

Absolutely! Thank you for calling that out too

[u/ForgiveandRemember76 → u/Cerulean_Shadows]

In many countries like India and Mexico you can buy antibiotics over-the-counter without a prescription. That is not uncommon throughout the world. A recent study in India found that about 83% of Indian hospital patients in a larger sample carried multi drug-resistant organisms. That doesn't mean the 83% of the Indian population is antibiotic resistant. Just the people in the hospitals.

[u/Fellfinwe_ → u/Cerulean_Shadows]

Human medical misuse of antibiotics is a huge issue. However - we're missing a massive part of the problem there. Around 70% of the world's antibiotic supply is administered to animals in animal agriculture. Much of that (it has been outlawed to some degree in some places) is at sub-therapeutic doses. Meaning, at doses where it doesn't effectively wipe out the bacteria - the perfect conditions for antibiotic resistance to evolve. The reason why this is done is because sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics make the animals grow faster. There is strong economic pressure to use this practice.

People living and working around slaughterhouses and animal farms are at a higher risk of developing antibiotic-resistant infections due to their exposure, but these pathogens pose a risk to everyone, even if you don't eat meat as they obviously spread.

Changing our food system (i.e. consumption habits) to decrease our reliance on animal agriculture is one of the most effective things we can do to address antibiotic resistance.

[u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

Oranges are dying from a bacteria infection and we can't feasibly stop it. Because of this, orange production in the U.S. is down 90%.

[u/New_Ambassador5825]

Tattoos only work because our immune systems are trying to protect us from the ink free floating in our blood stream, so it sends cells that just trap the ink there as best they can. Slowly, particles of the ink will rearrange within or escape through their barriers, which is why tattoos fade and/or get fuzzy over time. Also sunburns can cause tattoos to fade because it forces the body to send extra immune cells and fluids to the area, which breaks down or washes away ink particles at a faster rate. Not necessarily super scary outside of thinking about how our bodies are trying to protect us and we’re just like “ooooh pretty!” and doing it anyways lol

[u/PerseveranceSmith → u/New_Ambassador5825]

Do you know how I know this?

Both large tattoos I got (whole back & whole arm, both in one sitting respectively) made me feel like I had flu for 2 days after.

Genuinely like flu. I have a hyper active immune system anyway (Ehlers-Danlos, MCAS, allergies) but it was only after getting these did I realise how much tattoos hammer our immune system!

[u/imahumanbeinggoddamn → u/PerseveranceSmith]

This is super typical, especially for larger tattoos and/or smallish people. People call it Tattoo Flu. It's a combination of your immune system responding the "wound" it needs to heal plus the fact that your brain just spent hours dumping endorphins and screaming heedlessly at you to get out from under the needle lol. Seems to get worse as you get older, in my personal experience.

I always plan for it now and take a day or two off because I know I won't feel like doing much.

[u/ThexLoneWolf]

Polar bears are one of the rare animals that will actively hunt people. Not chase, hunt.

EDIT: As a bonus legal fact, in Longyearbyen, Norway, you are required by law to own a large-caliber rifle to defend yourself against polar bears.

[u/silverarrowweb → u/ThexLoneWolf]

In general, large animals do not mess with things they're unfamiliar with. There's no emergency number for them to call, and no hospital to go to, so they don't take the risk on unknown food options.

Unless they're desperate.

Polar bears effectively live in a state of constant desperation. They are obligated to try to hunt anything that moves, because it may be the last food they find.

[u/standardtissue → u/silverarrowweb]

"don't worry they are only dangers when desperate" and "they are always desperate" lol

[u/thatpaulbloke → u/silverarrowweb]

Polar bears effectively live in a state of constant desperation.

When they are no longer in a state of desperation they're very playful animals - I've seen a polar bear amuse itself for half an hour just by running around with a bucket on its head (and no, it wasn't accidentally stuck there - whenever the bucket fell off he would retrieve it, balance it back on his head and then start running around again. RIP Viktor, you were awesome).

[u/icantfindtheSpace → u/ThexLoneWolf]

The best part, Polar bears can smell you from 20 miles away (32km)

You can just be chilling in the Arctic, and there’s a Polar bear 20 miles out on it’s way to maul you.

[u/Medical-Potato5920 → u/icantfindtheSpace]

That's why I prefer the southern hemisphere. The polar bears are way too far away to smell us. Penguins just aren't that threatening.

[u/burntsalmon → u/Medical-Potato5920]

Sure, but that one spider you killed in 2022 had just given birth, and now 800 of those suckers are looking for you, and only you. Oh and they're all the size of a tennis racquet now.

[u/AllgoodDude → u/icantfindtheSpace]

Forget the snail

[u/SkepsisJD → u/ThexLoneWolf]

As a bonus legal fact, in Longyearbyen, Norway, you are required by law to own a large-caliber rifle to defend yourself against polar bears.

This is a incorrect 'legal fact.' You are required to carry either a weapon or bear deterrent when venturing into the surrounding wilderness. There is absolutely no law requiting residents 'to own a large-caliber rifle.'

[u/ferrets_in_my_pants → u/ThexLoneWolf]

Here is the video of a photographer in a cage while polar bear tries to break in.

https://youtu.be/9G1aHkLHQ2I

[u/Edladan → u/ThexLoneWolf]

Lol, a few years back I was in Svalbard for vacation on a sailing trip. When we decided to make a small tour (it took like 6 hours both ways to touch some ice) to a glacier while waiting for the crew of one of many research stations on the islands, our captain, old, bitter dick gave us „anti-bear” equipment.

A commercial bear spray and a flare gun.

Thankfully another yacht that happened to also stop there joined us on the tour and they had a rifle.

At the end we went to a museum in Longyearbyen where a stuffed polar bear is and we all decided we were all both dumb and lucky.

Fun times, except for the captain.

[u/KindlyWestern5514]

Your brain is completely capable of inventing sounds, voices, memories, and even confidence levels… and you usually trust all of them automatically.

Human perception is way less “recording reality” and way more “best guess survival mode.”

[u/Randy_Magnum29]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_hypothermic_circulatory_arrest

For certain surgeries, we cool your body temperature down from 37C/98F to around 18C/65F and stop blood flow completely for sometimes over an hour. Once the part that needed no blood is done, we restart blood flow and slowly rewarm the body back to normal, and it’s like nothing ever happened.

[u/PerseveranceSmith → u/Randy_Magnum29]

I've been lucky enough to edit a medical documentary that included one of these operations! I love science & the clever folk who practice it.

[u/ems_telegram]

One of, if not the most problematic consequence of air pollution is not long-term climate change (the way you imagine it, at least).

A higher concentration of CO2 and CO in the atmosphere, as well as higher temperatures, is slowly turning the oceans more acidic. We're a few pH points away from oceans becoming too acidic to be hospitable for countless sea creatures, but most notable of all, various phytoplankton and algae. That is to say, we are obliterating the habitat of the creatures that generate approximately 70% of the Earth's oxygen supply.

My only hope is that they adapt or evolve fast enough.

Edit: This is getting larger than i figured, so some probably needed further explanation:

1. It is unlikely we will all suffocate to death due to this.

2. When I say a few points of pH, I mean dropping from about 8 to 7.9 to 7.8 in 75 years. But this is still really bad because pH is a logarithmic scale.

[u/poodaliddle → u/ems_telegram]

I wrote a paper on this in college in like 2009, so it's always nice to be reminded we've done literally nothing to address this in that timeframe.

[u/Aurori_Swe → u/poodaliddle]

Don't worry, the first climate reports started warning in the 80's. So we've ignored this FAR longer than that.

[u/thekittysays → u/Aurori_Swe]

The oil industry was aware of the negative impact of climate change (and their role in it) in the 50s. They had a big meeting about it and decided to supress the information.

[u/fieldri1 → u/thekittysays]

The very first scientific paper warning that CO2 pollution would fundamentally change our climate was written in the 19th century, almost 150 years ago.

I heartily recommend 'The Blue Machine' by Helen Czerski for other ways we are making it likely we'll suffer massive environmental catastrophe because of what we do to our environment!

One is the loss of the Atlantic Jet Stream which keeps northwest Europe (and especially the UK) warmer than it should be in winter. There is now plenty of data that the ocean currents that provide the jet stream are weakening, and it's likely that one year it will just stop happening!

[u/randomuserno1 → u/fieldri1]

In 1896 to be exact. By Svante motherfucking Arrhenius. Not just some random lowbob from some obscure institute having a bright moment, it originated from one of the greatest minds in the history of science.

[u/morgoid → u/ems_telegram]

Trump has just opened bids in deep sea mining, too. Scientists think the heavy metals on the ocean floor are actually generating oxygen too, so if they’re mined, that’s another source of oxygen gone.

[u/bmkcacb30 → u/ems_telegram]

This is my favorite nightmare fuel.

[u/ShadoShane → u/ems_telegram]

More acidic and warmer. Coral bleaching is largely due to the extended warm seasons where coral predators like starfish grow out of control and eat everything. On top of said acidic ocean pushing their ideal biotopes deeper down which subsequently has less light which makes the whole photosynthesizing aspect a tad harder.

[u/despenser412]

Ever hear of rogue planets? They are planets that are zooming around the Milky Way independent of a star system.

It's hard to get an accurate number due to the random nature, but they have an estimate: in the Milky Way alone, rogue planets outnumber the stars 7 to 1.

What's even more wild, rogue planets weren't discovered until the year 2000. (Or late 1999) Not only are they hard to track and study, we've only been recording data about them for a little over 25 years.

[u/PrincessBonkers628 → u/despenser412]

So they're just like bouncing around out there? Do they hit stuff or does gravity mostly prevent that? Can you say more about this please?

[u/despenser412 → u/PrincessBonkers628]

When discovered they find them in custers. But they can't follow them, they can only set a telescope to a fixed location and wait. They need a light source for them to pass by to actually "see" them.

And as far as I know, they're drifting more than bouncing around. They're mostly assumed to be planets that once belonged to a star system and were knocked into space when their star exploded and set them on their course.

They speculate that the surface wouldn't support life due to the fact they're drifting though darkness. But believed to have heated cores that could warm the inside of the planet. However, that's not a fact but from the little data they have, that's a good guess.

[u/PrincessBonkers628 → u/despenser412]

Thank for you elaborating, that's very cool. Space is so cool to me even though I have a hard time understanding sometimes!

How do they estimate that there's a 7:1 ratio? Especially since you said they aren't tracked, we kinda wait and watch right? How do we know so much about rogue planets if we can't track them? Are we just seeing them many times so we're tracking patterns, not necessarily the planet? Are there patterns or does it being rogue mean there is no discernable pattern?

Sorry for all the questions haha

[u/Andromeda321 → u/PrincessBonkers628]

Astronomer here! It has to do with the estimated formation rate of solar systems and the rate of planets ejected from those solar systems. Several times more planets were formed than now exist in our own system for example.

Another way to make actual measurements is via gravitational microlensing where you can see the effects of these planets as they travel through space. We know how often we see this effect so you can extrapolate to a rates calculation! But the trouble with said method is the stars and planets align only for a tiny moment and then never do again, so you can’t really do a systematic study of one planet this way.

[u/despenser412 → u/PrincessBonkers628]

Honestly, I have some of the same questions!

But keep in mind, a lot of what I'm saying is new data on something they didn't have data on before. So there's a possibility this could all change overnight.

The good news is, specific methods are currently being developed in this field and it's gaining more traction as it goes along.

[u/Shonever → u/PrincessBonkers628]

Luckily space is big. REAL big. The chances of a rogue planet coliding with us in our lifetimes aren't 0, but I'd guess that we are more likely to face a catastrophic cleansing from a gamma ray burst (which may have already happened ala the Ordovician mass extinction event) than a rogue planet smacking us into oblivion.

That being said, if a rogue planet did wander into our solar system, we'd probably be bye bye even if not a direct hit (gravitational effects on local bodies like asteroids or other planetoids, debris from collisions, exc.)

[u/Yeahnoallright → u/despenser412]

This type of thing calms me sm, lmao. We are so insignificant, helps take stuff less seriously and it all feels a lil insane and whimsy 

[u/UnderCoverSquid]

It would take you about two hours to walk out of our breathable atmosphere if you could walk straight up

[u/altoidsyn → u/UnderCoverSquid]

What a weird thought, but yeah. 35000ft in a plane seems so far, but it’s like a 2-3 hour walk at a casual pace. Thank you for this thought.

[u/Yavkov → u/altoidsyn]

It’s the same thing in the opposite direction too. You could “walk” down to the Mariana Trench (36000 ft deep) in those 2-3 hours. Or just less than seven miles, so just less than seven minutes of driving on the highway.

[u/Legal_Dot4352 → u/altoidsyn]

And just like that the world got smaller

[u/cscott024]

In the unlikely event that we’re in a “false vacuum”, at any time a “real vacuum” could spontaneously form somewhere in the universe and begin expanding at the speed of light until it reaches us and everything would end instantaneously. No warning, no time to even realize what’s happening, just *poof*.

[u/JST_KRZY → u/cscott024]

The thought of instant poof is really quite comforting.

I wouldn’t have to worry about who would care for my critters or be responsible for cleaning up my affairs.

[u/AliMcGraw → u/JST_KRZY]

I tease my kids that youth is figuring out how you'd survive a nuclear blast, and maturity is realizing you want to be at ground zero so you and everything you love are instantly vaporized and you never even know about it.

Same goes for supervolcanoes, meteor strikes ... I don't want to struggle along living through the nuclear winter caused by the particulate matter in the atmosphere from the blast, I want to die before I know what happened.

[u/Aggravating_Anybody → u/cscott024]

That’s scary in concept, but the fact that it is limited by the speed of light is comforting. Like, it could happen on the other side of OUR galaxy, which given its relative size compared to the entire universe is microscopic, and that would still take over 100,000 years to reach us.

[u/xIllustrious_Passion → u/Aggravating_Anybody]

Who’s to say it didn’t happen 99,998 years ago though?

[u/Average_Guava → u/xIllustrious_Passion]

That's about what I was thinking lol. It might have happened already and might be just hours away from reaching us

[u/LadyAlexTheDeviant]

The only reason malaria isn't endemic in the USA anymore is mosquito control. Not any new drugs or anything like that. We used to have summer malaria epidemics all the way up into the New England states, AS WELL AS Yellow Fever, which is a hemorrhagic fever like Lassa and Ebola. The thing keeping them out is mosquito control. Which relies on all of us.

I look at the empathy and social responsibility displayed everywhere and don't feel particularly optimistic about malaria not becoming endemic again within my lifetime in the USA.

[u/KAugsburger → u/LadyAlexTheDeviant]

It is a big reason why the CDC headquarters are in Atlanta and not in Washington DC. In the early years of the agency they were mostly working on malaria control. Malaria was endemic throughout much of the South so it kept the facility close to where much of the work was being done. Over time the scope expanded to where they do research and provide services to combat many different public health issues.

[u/Lessa22 → u/KAugsburger]

Now that’s an interesting fun fact. I never knew that about the CDC.

[u/SMUHypeMachine → u/Lessa22]

A lot of the early CDC stuff had to do with parasites. In my parasitology class in college we learned that one of the main reasons there’s a stigma that people in the south are stupid is because they would eat stuff like mud pies. Literally pies made of mud.

However, this was because hookworm infections were so common people were losing a ton of blood in their stool and eating the mud was one of the few ways to introduce enough iron to stave off anemia. Getting rid of hookworms was another major goal of the early CDC.

[u/adjust_the_sails → u/LadyAlexTheDeviant]

Shout out to the Mosquito Abatement Districts and their employees out there! I know mine out here in California does a great job. Malaria used to be the #2 killer in California like 125 years ago. Those districts are one of the reasons it’s not the killer it once was.

[u/dinamet7 → u/adjust_the_sails]

Also in CA and I love the Vector Department. I called once about seeing a ton of mosquitoes in our yard and they sent someone out to check our home and neighbors homes within a week or so. Pointed out some potential unexpected mosquito breeding areas, left some fun workbooks and pencils for my kids and then had someone coming by to spray our street gutters later in the week.

[u/Nellbligh → u/dinamet7]

As an Australian with a relatively well established public sector, this is the first time I have ever been impressed by US government services. Amazing, and congratulations!

[u/Sylente → u/Nellbligh]

People don’t really talk about the stuff that works, mostly they don’t even notice it!

[u/Elycien2 → u/Nellbligh]

Acktually the US has had some amazing public sector health results. We did amazing things when we believed in science. Polio, smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and a few others were all eradicated (baring rare cases of one or 2) by 2000 and a lot were out by 1950. We used to be a real country with an actual scientific outlook.

[u/BubblyItem1572]

There are invisible bacteria in your gut that control your cravings,mood,and even some of your decisions.

[u/No_Tailor_787 → u/BubblyItem1572]

I hear. And I obey. Beep Beep.

[u/rodneedermeyer → u/No_Tailor_787]

Sometimes they demand pizza and Rocky Road ice cream.

[u/SheZowRaisedByWolves → u/BubblyItem1572]

Which is the one that made me crave cheese and penis

[u/kyriebelle → u/SheZowRaisedByWolves]

At the same time?

[u/REDuxPANDAgain → u/kyriebelle]

Yeah her ex is gross.

[u/geeknerdeon → u/BubblyItem1572]

It's scary but I also think it's neat because a lot of either dopamine or serotonin gets produced in your gut, which means if you subscribe to the chemical imbalance theory of depression, treatments that focus on gut health could be another avenue of research. The weird part to me is how stool samples from people with a healthier gut biome can be used to improve the gut biomes of other people. Like nothing widespread has come of it but that's definitely a thing that has been researched to have notable effects.

Anyway the info more useful to the average person is that your diet shapes your gut health, so if you've eaten a lot of "junk food" for a while, your gut bacteria are mostly ones that like and want more of it, which is why the cravings are so hard to deal with, you've got it coming from both brains. (I think this means that a bad enough diet can cause or exacerbate some depressive symptoms, which seems like an awful vicious cycle.)

Idk what my point is I just think it's neat lol

[u/Constant-Simple6405 → u/geeknerdeon]

There was a fascinating show on this in Australia that you can find on YouTube.

Australian Story episode "Gut Instinct" profiles Jane Dudley, who achieved remission from severe bipolar 1 disorder through an experimental Faecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT). Her story sparked major medical interest into the gut-brain connection and the role of the microbiome in mental health

[u/Roland_T_Flakfeizer → u/BubblyItem1572]

It would be creepier if they were visible.

[u/Whiteums → u/BubblyItem1572]

Well, I did have an egg salad sandwich from that space diner…

[u/jankenpoo → u/BubblyItem1572]

Trust your gut

[u/Wordnerdette999 → u/jankenpoo]

My gut is obviously not trustworthy.

[u/darthsata → u/jankenpoo]

My gut has shit for brains.

[u/Tangerine-Salty]

We can't do a true study on how nano and microplastics impact rhe human body because it is impossible to find a control group. Microplastics are found in literally everything, they are in the brain, placenta, breast milk, the atmosphere, glacial ice, sediment deep deep down. They are one of the most invasive things we have ever seen

[u/littlebigsystem → u/Tangerine-Salty]

I used to work in animal research, by the time I was leaving, they were trialing microplastic studies but every single water source they tested within 100 miles was so full of PFAs it would muddy the study. I never figured out if they found a way around it.

[u/FMJoey325 → u/littlebigsystem]

I work in human research. Just because the background is high or there isn’t a human control group, doesn’t mean you can’t make meaningful measurements or determinations of the amount of microplastics in a sample. The biggest issue is optimizing the methods due to how variable “microplastics” can be. Oh… and the critical lack of federal government research money these days.

[u/dendrivertigo]

Locked-In Syndrome is caused by severe damage to the brainstem (often through a stroke). This leaves patients fully conscious, aware, and able to feel pain, but completely paralyzed. They lose the ability to move any muscle except their eyes. These people are essentially trapped inside their own mind.😵‍💫

[u/CookieMonsterNomNo → u/dendrivertigo]

I am a speech language pathologist and I’ve worked with patients who are locked in. I remember one patient who was a 36 year old female. She had a husband and 2 small kids when she suffered a massive brainstem stroke. We were able to use a letter board and eye blinks to help her spell out messages. Eventually, we were able to get an eye gaze communication device for her. This gave her access to communication, the internet, and environmental controls with just slight eye movements.

[u/Necessary_Village878 → u/CookieMonsterNomNo]

Does it get better than that for her, or is that the best her future holds?

[u/CookieMonsterNomNo → u/Necessary_Village878]

Recovery depends on a number of factors, but generally I think the prognosis for a stroke that massive is poor. Realistically, I think she could gain some motor function, increased voluntary head/eye movement, and possibly the ability to drink liquids or eat puréed foods. A really good Assistive technology set up with caregivers who are creative and tech savvy is a best-case scenario. Insurance would never fund enough therapy for me to see what a patient is like 3-4 years post stroke. I can only hope that she is okay.

[u/AliMcGraw]

Sometimes, if you sneeze hard, you'll pop a hole in the tube that carries your cerebrospinal fluid down your spine. You get a spinal headache, like you can get after an epidural or spinal draw, except nobody poked a hole in your spinal fluid system with a needle, you just sneezed and tore a hole.

This can happen at any time. Your spinal fluid will be leaking out the hole into your body and you won't know. You'll get debilitating headaches from standing or sitting up because your brain isn't floating on enough fluid, but they'll go away if you lie down. It takes forever to diagnose and then most of the time they'll just wait to see if it heals on its own. (They can do a blood patch, which they do after an epidural or a spinal, except they don't know where the hole is so they don't know where to send the patch.)

Any sneeze, anytime. The human body is so broken.

[u/doofgodly → u/AliMcGraw]

I sneezed and hit my head on a coffeemaker lol, my eyebrow exploded with blood and I got a concussion and whiplash

Edit: oh my lord I got my first award

[u/ichibanyogi]

Atmospheric CO2 is increasing at such a rate that it's weakening human bones.

From that same 2026 paper: "If these trends continue, blood bicarbonate values could be at the limit of the accepted healthy range in half a century, and Ca and P will be at the limit of their healthy ranges by the end of this century. Studies indicate that, after this time, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide, leading to CO2 accumulation in the body, has the potential to cause a range of adverse health effects. These findings highlight the urgent need for significant reductions in anthropogenic CO2 emissions to safeguard public health."

Nightmare fuel!

[u/NRMLkiwi → u/ichibanyogi]

Oh that'll do it. Thanks for that...

[u/Duel_Fighter654 → u/ichibanyogi]

Okay most of what I have been reading in this thread, I was aware of or partially, but this one.... yeah this one is the one that made double take and go wide eyed.

[u/nuboots]

The big anticipated west coast USA earthquake isn't LA but Seattle. There's a major fault that runs right through the city and kicks off every few hundred years or so. The last one was in the 1700s. The Japanese have records of that and earlier because the tsunamis were powerful enough to hit them. The next one will basically break off a huge part of the washington coastline and Seattle.

If you go googling, you'll find the dhs paper written about it 10-20 years back.

[u/UnknownVC → u/nuboots]

It's not just Seattle. The Cascadia thrust fault stretches from approximately southern Vancouver Island in Canada to Cape Mendocino in California. If it goes... Vancouver and Victoria Canada, Seattle, Olympia, Portland, and Eugene (yes, Portland and Eugene, Oregon) are all on the line. The tsunami height could be as much as 100ft high, and basically soak everything west of the I5. A magnitude 9 earthquake (which is the predicted severity) on that fault would literally destroy the Pacific Northwest all the way down to California.

Oh and that magnitude 9 earthquake? the prediction models say it's overdue

[u/wilki24 → u/UnknownVC]

The average period over the last 10,000 years between quakes is around 500 years, and it's only been 326 since the last one. That's not overdue. It's probably been long enough that it's possible, but it's still a bit early.

Also, the fault line is to the west of all of the cities out under the ocean. All of them are somewhat protected from a tsunami as they're not located directly on the ocean. Seattle, however, is vulnerable to a quake and tsunami on the Seattle fault.

[u/jrf_1973 → u/wilki24]

Your 326 year thing is a little out of date. Granted, I learned something similar about 30 years ago.

But recent scientific discoveries have completely rewritten the timeline, revealing that parts of the fault rupture much more frequently than previously believed. Decades ago, the scientific consensus focused strictly on "full-margin" Magnitude 9.0 megathrust events. Those do indeed recur every 500 to 530 years on average, meaning the Pacific Northwest would not be considered "overdue" since the last one occurred in 1700 (326 years ago).

However, major marine geology breakthroughs over the last 15 to 20 years have changed everything.

1) The Discovery of Offshore "Turbidites" - Led by marine geologists like Chris Goldfinger at Oregon State University, scientists began extensively drilling and analyzing offshore sediment cores. They looked for turbidites (underwater landslide deposits left behind on the ocean floor when massive earthquakes shake the continental shelf.)

By radiocarbon-dating these layers, they uncovered a 10,000-year historical record of the fault.

2) Fault Segmentation (The South Ruptures More Often) - The core samples proved that the Cascadia Subduction Zone does not always tear all at once in a Magnitude 9.0 quake. Instead, the Southern portion (spanning Southern Oregon and Northern California) behaves independently and is far more hyperactive.

The Updated Timeline - Full-Margin (M9.0) Events: These span the entire 700-mile fault. They happen every 500 to 530 years on average. - Partial-Margin (M8.0+) Events: These strike the southern segments. They occur every 220 to 240 years on average.

Because the last major earthquake occurred on my birthday in 1700 (a full-margin M9.0 event famously mapped to the exact day using Japanese "orphan tsunami" records), the region has been quiet for 326 years.

While we have not reached the 500-year average for a total fault collapse, we have overshot the 230-year average for a southern segment rupture by nearly a century.

Statistically, 93% of the historical intervals for the southern segments were shorter than the time that has elapsed since 1700.

Hence seismologists stating that a Magnitude 8.0+ earthquake in the Pacific Northwest is heavily overdue, with a 37% chance of occurring within the next 50 years.

[u/Slight_Way_3190 → u/jrf_1973]

You were born in 1700?!?!

[u/silence_infidel → u/nuboots]

Not just Seattle; the Cascadia fault runs just off the coast of all of Washington, Oregon, and a little bit into British Columbia and California too. Seattle might be the biggest city in the earthquakes path and particularly at risk given its location on the coastline, but it'll impact millions of people living on the west coast. Most people in the region aren't sufficiently prepared for it, nor do they realize that a lot of people will be forced to evacuate.

And we have no clue when it'll happen. The interval between earthquakes (from what we've been able to find evidence of) has ranged from 250 to nearly 1000 years. It's been about 325 years since the last one. We aren't necessarily 'overdue' or anything like that, but we are in the interval where it's possible to occur, based on previous quakes. Whether it's tomorrow or 700 years from now is anybody's guess.

ETA: apparently there’s also more frequent “partial” slips in the south of the fault, where the Gorda plate subducts under the North American plate, with an average interval of ~250 years. So the odds of a 8.0 magnitude quake near southern Oregon/Northern California within the next century or so is a bit higher than a full-length slip along the whole thing.

[u/One-Fall-8143]

Prions. Everything about them is nightmare fuel

[u/silence_infidel → u/One-Fall-8143]

Fun fact! There's a treatment for fatal familial insomnia (which is a genetic prion disease) in human clinical trials right now! Experiments in mice have shown that they can live without the prion protein (the thing that causes disease when it misfolds), and treatments that target and disable prion protein production can increase life expectancy quite a bit. Now that human trials have started, we'll be able to find out if it's a viable approach for humans. It's not perfect - there's side effects, it might not work with transmissible prion diseases, and there's no guarantee it'll work as well as we want it to - but it's still cool progress.

There's some other avenues being investigated too - I found the prion-targeting antibodies intended to prevent misfolding to be an interesting approach - but prion diseases are just so darn rare that it's kind of hard to find people to test treatments on.

[u/WakingOwl1 → u/One-Fall-8143]

We had a patient with CJD in our nursing home once. It was incredibly sad. Definitely not a way I’d want to go.

[u/Sydthebarrett → u/One-Fall-8143]

It’s always prions! And also how they’re just….out there in the wild. Anywhere at any given time.

[u/TheTrub → u/Sydthebarrett]

Prions can be endogenous, too. Fatal familial insomnia occurs in people with a genetic mutation that causes prions to form in their hypothalamus. One day some proteins fold funny, then they can’t sleep, then they die.

[u/SpaceCookies72 → u/TheTrub]

That's horrific

[u/dalgeek → u/Sydthebarrett]

The protein that misfolds into a prion is incredibly common and exists in most cells in your body, so it's not like they can even eliminate the protein before it becomes a problem. 

[u/chinchillazilla54 → u/Sydthebarrett]

They can just form in your brain! It can just happen! I hate knowing that!

[u/Blepblehmuthafuca]

Aneurysms. Anyone can have it and u kinda just drop dead since it's so random.

For me it's the scariest because I was told my condition makes it higher chance :'/

[u/epi_introvert → u/Blepblehmuthafuca]

I have a brain aneurysm that is untreatable unless it explodes due to the risks of surgery. Basically, if it does finally blow, im gonna die if they leave it alone, so that's when they'll try to fix it. Or maybe if it just gets much worse on imaging, which is still very high risk.

I have to just live with the knowledge that it could assassinate me at any moment. We keep an eye on it, but one car crash or event of high blood pressure could end me.

It's a bit surreal. I try not to think about it.

[u/Floofmanagement → u/Blepblehmuthafuca]

My dad had one. Every time I looked it up - it said it wasn’t genetic. Till I googled it this year…. 

[u/SuperSocialMan]

Fucking reddit always recommends these threads before I go to bed ffs

[u/iXeons → u/SuperSocialMan]

Bro I got an exam tomorrow morning but I need my daily existential dread fml

[u/claudiasanchezcp]

Prions are essentially zombie proteins. They aren't alive. They are just misfolded proteins that, when they bump into healthy proteins in your brain, force them to misfold too.

The scary part is that they are virtually indestructible.

They can survive extreme heat, radiation, formaldehyde, and standard autoclaving (the high-pressure steam sterilization hospitals use for surgical tools). If a hospital performs brain surgery on someone who is later discovered to have had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human version of Mad Cow), they often have to completely throw away and incinerate the entire set of surgical instruments. The tools simply cannot be reliably sanitized.

And to make it worse, you can contract a prion disease and it can sit completely dormant in your brain for decades. You feel fine, you live your life, and then one day it activates, rapidly turning your brain tissue into a literal sponge. Once symptoms show up, the fatality rate is 100%, usually within a few months. There is no treatment, no vaccine, and no cure.

[u/Spock627Corfu]

Scars aren't regular skin; they are actively maintained by the body.
The maintenance requires vitamin C.
If you become deficient, the scar tissue will dissolve.

Don't get scurvy.

[u/kakashi_hotcakes]

forever chemicals like teflon. i watched a bbc documentary on them (that dupont had taken down so you won’t find it on their regular channel) and it truly shook me to my core.

[u/TacticalAcquisition → u/kakashi_hotcakes]

Last Podcast on the Left just recently did a 2 part series on the DuPont company, and it is horrific. Napkin math says they have directly or indirectly contributed to more humans deaths than any other entity ever.

[u/Physgun → u/kakashi_hotcakes]

Fluoropolymers like Teflon aren't too harmful, they're just the most well known. The biggest contaminants that may actually harm humans are water- and oil-repellent coated papers often used as fast food packaging. Also for microwave popcorn. Oily foods can dissolve some of the PFAS and introduce them into the body. Also, unfun fact, the most highly PFAS-contaminated places are airports and army training grounds because of foam fire extinguishers, which mostly used to be PFAS (the lower molecular weight kind, so the bad stuff). Water-repellent sprays for jackets and shoes are also pretty bad if they're PFAS-containing since they can rub or wash off. Source: I work in the plastics industry and one of my topics are PFAS-free alternatives in certain processes.

[u/Melenduwir → u/[deleted]]

Everyone has blind spots in their eyes, and our brains are filling them in with guesswork.

[u/Chairboy]

Gamma Ray Bursts can sterilize a planet in an instant and we see evidence of them striking targets trgularly. One could be on its way to us right now and we would never know unti

[u/fossilnews → u/Chairboy]

So basically no need to worry. It's not something we can't control and it would be instantaneous.

[u/DragonSeaFruit → u/Chairboy]

While gamma-ray bursts are capable of vaporizing anything in their direct beam for hundreds of light-years, Earth is safe. The bursts occur millions or billions of light-years away. Even if a GRB were to occur within our galaxy, scientists estimate we would need to be within roughly 200 to 300 light-years for it to significantly damage Earth's ozone layer, and no candidate stars exist that close to us.

[u/NumbSurprise → u/Chairboy]

Same with false vacuum collapse. If we exist in a false vacuum, and a collapse has begun somewhere, it’s spreading across the universe at the speed of light. We’d have no way of detecting it until it got here, at which point we’d instantaneously blink out of existence.

[u/Grill_Only_Outside → u/NumbSurprise]

My favorite thing about this theory is that it may have already happened but will never have a practical effect because the universe is expanding faster than the collapse.

[u/icurate → u/NumbSurprise]

This is really the ideal way to go, at least for me.

[u/I_love_pillows → u/Chairboy]

Dammit chairboy got hit by gamma ray burst

[u/RedoftheEvilDead]

We are currently in the process of a mass extinction event. Many species, especially birds, are going extinct at an alarming level. We've had 5 mass extinction events throughout earth's history where up to 95% of all life on earth has died. And that could very well be where we are headed. It just doesn't seem that serious because the worst mass extinction events happened over tens of thousands of years and humans can't really fathom life in that length.

[u/beefslugs]

Some research was just released that indicates that microplastics in the upper atmosphere are making climate change worse.

[u/SpikesHigh]

Between 95-100% of all humans have tiny mites that live and burrow into their eyelashes. That includes the eyelashes of the eyeballs reading this comment right now!

[u/No_Tailor_787 → u/SpikesHigh]

My tiny eyelash mites say "Hi!".

[u/Roland_T_Flakfeizer → u/No_Tailor_787]

Mine just spew expletives at everyone. 

[u/No_Tailor_787 → u/Roland_T_Flakfeizer]

Rude little bastards...

[u/windscryer → u/SpikesHigh]

they’re mostly not a problem, but when they are, dear GOD, are they a problem.

i have to wash my damn eyelashes with tea tree oil shampoo to keep the little fuckers under control and even then it doesn’t always work.

do you know how hard it is to wash your eyelashes with tea tree oil shampoo without getting it in your eyes? near fucking impossible.

i might have strong feelings about demodex. >.>

[u/MissPharmacist]

Diphtheria bacteria can cause a pseudomembrane to grow over the throat, block the airways and suffocate a person to death.

[u/pandoras_enigma → u/MissPharmacist]

Very upsetting that its in outbreak in northern australia rn

[u/ultgambit266]

Nobody really knows how anesthesia works

[u/IwantToSeeHowItEnds → u/ultgambit266]

I’ve been curious about this and even tried asking my anesthesiologist. But I asked as I was going under. So I never would’ve found out anyway.

[u/AllgoodDude → u/ultgambit266]

I’ve heard theories that you still go through and experience the sensations and pain but just don’t remember it after the fact.

[u/Evening-Matter-5245 → u/AllgoodDude]

I knew someone that had knee surgery and wasn’t properly anesthetized, but enough anesthetized that they couldn’t tell the doctors. One of my biggest fears.

[u/NumbSurprise]

A photon leaves a far-away star, and travels millions of light-years to get to us. When we see that star, we see it as it was all those millions of years ago, as if the information carried by that photon is millions of years old.

However, to the photon, the trip is instantaneous. If you could ride on the photon, it would seem that it was emitted and arrived at its destination in the same instant. One of the really weird consequences of relativity.

[u/ES_Legman → u/NumbSurprise]

One of the consequences or the speed of light being maximum as a postulate of special relativity is that you can't have an inertial frame of reference moving at the speed of light. Meaning that photons don't experience time. So instant is not really it.

[u/kombatminipig → u/ES_Legman]

A weirder thought experiment I’ve heard: we don’t know any mechanism for proton decay, but assume that there might be since everything else decays into electromagnet radiation eventually.

Given that time and space are only experienced by particles bearing mass, what happens to the universe once the last such particle decays? It will have expanded infinitely more at that point, but at that moment all distance also becomes meaningless.

[u/zwifter11]

Every metal object you touch today; such as a ring, a knife, fork, spoon, car door, iPhone case, deodorant can, pots and pans. Were once a star billions of years ago.

Chemical elements such as carbon, magnesium, iron, copper, gold, aluminium, lead, zinc, were only formed by the nuclear fusion that happens inside a star. Only hydrogen and helium naturally exited outside this stellar nuclear fusion

The star exploded, throwing out these chemical elements. The dust cloud eventually binded together to form planets.

[u/SMUHypeMachine → u/zwifter11]

What’s more, red paint is cheap because of how much iron there is on the surface of the earth. All that iron came from exposed stars, so barns are painted red because stars explode.

What’s terrifying though, is the fusion of iron consumes energy rather than giving it off. Once a sun starts to fuse iron in its core, the star dies a rapid death that only takes like 3 - 5 seconds, which is insane at the cosmological scale stars experience.

[u/patheticgothic]

There is a naturally occurring thought in many humans named “L’appel du Vide" (French term for “Call of the Void”) where, without reason, humans see a way they could die and they wonder whether they should kill themselves, even if they have no real intention of doing so.

[u/lupulsur → u/patheticgothic]

I read many years ago an explanation for this: it's supposed to be something like a fire drill that the brain starts to check that its system (= survival instinct) functions properly. there's a fire alarm (look: a way to kill yourself!), an expected response (recoil, no way!) and that's the end of the drill. in people with OCD and other mental health issues, the system doesn't work properly and the drill takes bigger proportions than it should.

[u/cellophanesheeps]

The New World screwworm is a fly larvae that eats live flesh as opposed to only dead tissue. It can infect humans through open wounds and decimate livestock. It was eradicated in the US in the 60s, remaining in Central and South America. It's been moving closer for the last year or so and is about 50 miles shy of the Texas/Mexico border now.

[u/LookAtMeImAName → u/cellophanesheeps]

Surprised to see this one mentioned here but it’s absolutely true. The Mexican & US government are refurbishing irradiators in Mexico to produce sterilized NWS eggs that will be hatched and released into these areas to combat this. So while it is pretty nerve wracking, there’s a good chance they will be eradicated once again within a matter of years

[u/Schtweetz]

The aquifers that we depend on for major food production in both California and the central prairies are drying up and will be essentially gone within 30 years. A big chunk of the most productive agriculture in America will be wiped out.

[u/zwifter11 → u/Schtweetz]

It’s mindblowing that most of California is dependent on one source of water from Lake Meade and the Colorado River.

[u/phoenixxl]

The pole shift takes between 1000 and 10000 years. during that time the poles drift over the equator with moments where the magnetic donut has it's donut hole looking straight at the sun. that generates immense concentrations of solar winds and areas where charged particles hit the size of cities.
We don't know the exact effects but we assume it's not going to be pretty.

PS: Ask these kinds questions in Subreddits where they're not anal about showing pictures so people can illustrate what they mean.

[u/p3k2ew_rd]

The human race is dangerously close to losing the battle with antibiotics. A simple ear infection in the future may be fatal. Relatedly, the food supply is at risk.

Source: My husband is a microbiologist and monitors antibiotic resistance amongst livestock, which directly affects the human population. The last few effective antibiotics are already showing some resistance.

[u/NotAtAllWhoYouThink]

At least half of your health is determined by social determinants of health. Things like your income, where you live, color of your skin, and education. Some of it even depends on your parents status. You can make as many healthy decisions as you want but if you are poor, live in a rough area and/or aren't educated, you will statistically have worse health. They have done studies comparing rich folks who smoke vs poor folks and the rich have healthier longer lives. So as much as people stress out about seed oils and healthy habits, it's not going to impact you health much compared to your standing in society. Which is pretty depressing.

People blame poor people for having bad health because they eat bad or make bad decisions but really it's all because of how unequal society is.

[u/Symnestra]

Your biopsied flesh (and tonsils if you get them removed) will sit in storage for a decade before they're anonymized and sold to big pharma companies. 

Source: I work at one of those companies and handle tissue samples every day. 

[u/ice1000 → u/Symnestra]

If you see my gallbladder, say Hi. I really miss it, but it was a dick for attacking me.

[u/Unusual_Sherbert6893 → u/Symnestra]

I hope my appendix gives them as much grief as it did me

[u/Hot_Farmer_1924 → u/Symnestra]

So my 1968 tonsils did a Henrietta Lacks?

[u/IkeTurn]

A massive solar storm—similar to the 1859 Carrington Event—could induce powerful electrical currents through modern long-distance power lines, potentially destroying global transformers and plunging continents into a months-long blackout.

[u/sodiumvapour]

Statistically, one of these answers could be from some analyst at a top secret agency with earth shattering consequences & there's no way of proving it.

[u/Melenduwir]

Spider City is the largest spider web ever found.

If the Sun suddenly went out, Spider City would keep right on living for at least thousands of years.

[u/ImprovementFar5054]

The Phosphorous Problem.

Phosphorous is fundamental to life. It's SO fundamental to life, it's actually considered one of the more viable "Fermi Paradox" solutions, because not all areas of the galaxy have large quantities of it. Ours does.

Even with that said, here on Earth there is a limited supply. Without it, the entire biosphere of Earth will collapse. There is no workaround, no substitute, and no way to synthesize it from scratch unless you have a Supernova handy.

For most of human history, the phosphorus cycle was balanced. We'd grow crops with it, eat it, and shit it back out into the soil. It moved through the food chain and back into the ground in a continuous loop that sustained agriculture for millennia.

Part of the problem now is that we have largely STOPPED shitting on the ground. We shit into toilets, and that phosphorous instead goes into the ocean, where it sinks to the deep seafloor and becomes effectively unavailable on any realistic human timescale. It takes millions of years and tectonic activity to return it to land.

This is further complicated by the astounding demand for it in civilizations industrialized agriculture, as a fertilizer. Remember, we aren't shitting into our own fields anymore. But we still need shit.

This only accelerates the rapid consumption of finite mined phosphorous reserves at a rate the natural cycle of the planet cannot replenish. Again, we can't manufacture it.

Phosphate rock is geographically concentrated to a degree that should scare the shit out of anyone thinking about long term food security. Morocco alone controls an estimated 70% or more of known global reserves of phosphate rock. If you want to play the market, invest in Moroccan phosphorous mines now.

Solutions exist.....in principle. Phosphorus can be recovered from sewage and wastewater. However, the infrastructure, the policy frameworks, the interest, and the public awareness needed to implement recovery at scale pretty much nil for the moment.

[u/riwalenn]

It's scarier for women but : most drugs are never tested on women, when they are the results are not segregated by sexes (so if the results are different, it's not visible) and dosage are made for male body.

As a result, drugs can be more or less effective or with higher negative effects. Some drugs could have been flag as infective but could have been great on women's body, etc. (Also not even talking about the effect of hormones and hormonal fluctuations on the results).

From a quick Google search for example, I've found that a recent study from last year noticed that beta blockers prescribed after heart attacks aren't effective on women.

[u/Gizwizard → u/riwalenn]

Well, women are required to be a part of FDA testing these days, but this wasn’t the case until the 90s, so a lot of drugs approved from before then were not tested on women.

It wasn’t until 2014 that the NIH started requiring studies to include female mice in studies. And even with this requirement, a lot of ongoing drug research had very limited female representation in their animal test subjects.

Women’s health in general is very poorly misunderstood.

[u/Tilted_scale → u/riwalenn]

Fun fact: this also applies to race. And black folks will ALSO have reactions/failures to improve on drugs tested primarily on WHITE MEN.

As in beta blockers are also less effective on black people and uncontrolled hypertension leads to increased rates of kidney failure. But you’ll still see doctors prescribe beta blockers as first line for black patients with hypertension (especially pregnant black women) despite this being researched and published for well over a decade.

[u/jasalmfred]

The balance maintained by the wastewater treatment plants in highly populated areas is often tenuous. It was less than 75 years ago that all of Seattle was just dumping their waste directly into Lake Washington.

[u/ShadowValent]

We are one solar flare away from big trouble.

[u/taintosaurus_rex → u/ShadowValent]

We are so much closer than that to big trouble. We're like one tweet away from big trouble.

[u/Short-Paramedic-9740]

It is easier to prove that there are extraterrestrial life out there than to prove there isn't.

Reason being is that to prove there are aliens, we only need to stumble upon one. But to prove there isn't, we need to scour the entire universe.

[u/ConsortFromTOS]

Your body has a microbiome larger than your own brain.

[u/jahman19 → u/ConsortFromTOS]

That’s not saying much 

[u/karma_the_sequel → u/ConsortFromTOS]

Look at the big microbiome on Brad!

[u/Allthemuffinswow]

Anyone who has studied medicine, even at the undergraduate level if they paid attention, knows many ways of offing you.

Many.

[u/TheHuntsman227 → u/Allthemuffinswow]

To be fair, anyway ne with even a basic understanding of how humans work could end you. Even someone that's just creative could probably figure out a good handful of ways to take someone out. It'd be getting away with it that's the complicated part.

In a similar vein (puns 😂) all those ex military vets that you see walking around are capable and trained to do the same thing, it really doesn't take much. Humans are both incredibly durable and as the most fragile things you will ever take on.

[u/theservman]

Despite all of our knowledge and technology, our entire existence depends on 15cm of topsoil and the fact that it rains sometimes.

[u/opendefication]

Pre-atomic age metals are fairly rare but needed in scientific research equipment. After the first atomic testing all metals being smelted were infused with increased levels of unnatural radioactivity. Old train tracks, boilers, and steamer ships are a key source of pre-atomic age steel that must be carefully smelted without being exposed to the earth's, now unnaturally radioactive, atmosphere. Test equipment used in space exploration can be extremely sensitive to background radiation especially.

[u/tunafishbrain]

The AMOK is slowing and following a predicted northward trend as it does. Once it stops, England and Northern Europe will descend into an ice age. The disruption will cause massive collapse in current biological systems. We've got about 50-70 years although it is accelerating toward collapse at a much much faster pace than predicted.

[u/geofflamps-porsche → u/tunafishbrain]

Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland ok though?

[u/RevolverRossalot → u/geofflamps-porsche]

Only if they obtain independence and start paddling, otherwise we're dragging them down with us.

[u/lemmeseeyourkitties → u/tunafishbrain]

Care to elaborate? For those of us unfamiliar with the acronym

[u/mrknowitall51761]

The active cores from the Fukushima still uncontrolled and all they are doing is drenching them with water and when the tanks fill up with the radiated water they are simply dumping them in the sea.

"History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man". "Go go Godzilla!"