Did you know that your cellphone has 10 times more bacteria on it than the average public restroom? Yeah, that should make you think twice about all the places you set it down, right? I have a friend who thinks about this all the time and wipes her phone down after each outing. The thought of having it in bed next to her grosses her the hell out. Can't say I blame her...
There are way scarier––and gross things––to learn about though. You can thank Redditor LukasXB78 for traumatizing us all after they asked the online community,
"Hello scientists of Reddit, what's a scary science fact that the public knows nothing about?"
"A large dog..."
"If your dog swims in a lake after receiving a spot-on flea treatment - it absolutely decimates the invertebrate population.
A large dog swimming in 8 Olympic swimming pools worth of water soon after treatment will leech enough neurotoxin to kill 50% of the lake's invertebrate population within 48 hours.
There's some awareness of this, but it's not being taken seriously enough!"
"Most cases of cancer..."
"Cancer geneticist here. Most cases of cancer that are sequenced generally just denote the prognosis or how long a patient has to live, rather than treatment options. People always say "let's cure cancer" however this simplifies cancer as though it is only one disease. It's far more complicated than that. I studied at one of the largest cancer hospitals in the world where the motto is to make cancer history, but the only obtainable goal is to make it chronic. We study and research as much as possible but every cancer requires different research, and unfortunately the powers that be often prohibit funding and proficient research. It's work I am passionate about, but also a broken system that is infuriating to work in."
"The entire explosive output..."
"The entire explosive output from Little Boy, the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, came from just over half a gram of matter being converted into energy.
The mass of a butterfly exploding with the force of 15,000 tons of TNT."
The thought of this is difficult to even comprehend. Wild.
"Anthrax..."
"Anthrax can sporulate in dirt and stay viable for hundreds of years until the soil is disturbed and the spores inhaled."
Great... another thing for my neurotic mind to worry about.
"Small asteroids..."
"Small asteroids are hard to detect, but can still cause massive damage to towns."
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"In the UK..."
"In the UK, about 17% of people have fetal alcohol syndrome (McGuire Et Al, 1992). As much as 17% of us are developmentally disabled simply because, prior to the late 90s, a large proportion of British mothers drank during pregnancy (41%). Thankfully the prevalence rate has been falling fast since the late 90s when all this research was published, but it's terrifying to see how much of an effect FASD is having on society."
"Misfolded proteins..."
"Prions. Misfolded proteins cause a cascade of protein misfolding that leads to amyloid plaque buildups, resulting in uncontrollable neurodegeneration that is fatal in 100% of cases within two years. There is no cure. We don't understand what causes it. We don't understand the mechanism of the misfolding cascade. We don't even fully understand the structure of the misfolded proteins. It could in theory happen to anyone, at any time, and there's no way to tell until you start showing symptoms, at which point you might have 18 months to live, if you're lucky, the last 6 of which will be intensely unpleasant."
"The zone is still active..."
"The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) runs off the coast of northern California to southern Canada and ruptures about every 250-350 years. We know this from the geologic record. The last rupture was in January 1700 and there are written records from Japan of a tsunami that resulted from the earthquake on the other side of the Pacific. This zone is still active and is likely to rupture in the next 100 years resulting in a mag 9+ earthquake that impacts the west coast from northern Cali to southern Canada."
Why did I read this?
Why?
Take me off this planet. (Preferably not by earthquake.)
"Some forms of anesthesia..."
"Some forms of anesthesia don't numb you to pain––they make you forget that you felt it."
"Everyone knows about scurvy..."
"Everyone knows about scurvy, but the reason it's so terrifying is usually less know. You see scar tissue is not permanent, the process to build and maintain scar tissue is constantly ongoing. When you become vitamin C deficient your scar tissue starts being reabsorbed by your body. Opening up any and all old wounds. If you have ever had surgery those internal incisions will open back up. Fortunately, it doesn't take a lot of vitamin C and it's abundant in our food sources, but it's still a little creepy that you could just start falling apart without it."
Cool, now that we're all suitably terrified, we'll never be able to sleep properly again. Thanks, scientists.
Have some facts of your own to share? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below!
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