Some of the things we learn in elementary school science class have a more likely chance of keeping us up at night than anything we might see in a Wes Craven film.
The fact that the sun will one day explode and destroy Earth in the process or that wearing headphones for long periods of time grows an exponential amount of bacteria in your ears.
But these are only the surface level of frightening scientific facts, not theories, but facts that most of the world's population doesn't know about.
Or, perhaps, chooses to ignore.
Redditor DogeStonks69 was eager to learn about some of the most terrifying and overlooked scientific facts, leading them to ask:
"What's the scariest science fact that the public knows nothing about?"
Apocalypse Eventually...
"For two days in September of 1859, a massive solar flare (coronal mass ejection) powerful enough to make hanging telegraph lines burst into flames from the induced current washed over the Earth."
"Another massive burst in 2012 only just missed Earth, but it's not going to be pretty when our luck runs out on this."-- No_MrBond
It Was There All Along
"Scientific literature conclusion on Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases in general is that the diseases start decades before the first obvious symptoms and that we need to treat them at this stage."
"When you exhibit obvious symptoms, it's too late..."
"If you get diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 65, you had the disease since your early 40's at least."
"And you experienced very mild symptoms but didn't notice it."
"And your brain fought like hell to compensate for the deficit."
"When you get diagnosed, your brain is already very severely damaged and will never recover from the deficit."- GotPC
The Deep Blue Sea
"For me personally, the acidification of our oceans."
"You don’t want to know what will happen if all plankton dies."- yannynotlaurel
"CO2 levels are causing the pH levels in the ocean to move towards an acidic level."
"No not like burn yourself acid, but just enough that it's causing an already noticeable impact to microorganisms at the bottom of the food chain."
"This may eventually lead to an ecological collapse."
"It seems to be impacting phytoplankton, which is responsible for producing a good chunk of the air you breathe as well."
"If the oceans go anaerobic, the atmosphere would become toxic."
"A similar event has occurred during one or two of the past mass extinction events."- CodeMonkeyPhoto
Marine Life Sea GIF by BBCGiphy
A Less Than Comforting Thought...
"Last time I had to go under the knife, i mentioned to the anesthesiologist, 'I read online that no one knows how anesthesia even works,' and he kinda just said, 'yeah....'"- SamURLJackson
The Water Is Wide...
"Europa, even though smaller than Earth, has more water than all water bodies in the world combined."- terrific_mephit325
Why "Drink Responsibly" Isn't Just An Idiom
"Alcohol increases the permeability of the blood-brain barrier by unpredictable factors, which is why people die from overdose on their normal drug dosages."- desexmachina
Dance Drink Responsibly GIF by London Kings RumGiphy
Before You Swat That Fly...
"Insect population depletion."- abysse
Way Too Little, Way Too Late
"By the time AIDS was first discovered in the United States in 1981, 250,000 Americans were already infected with HIV."- squid_ward_16
Make Sure That Detector Works...
"Our bodies have no way of knowing that we're breathing oxygen."
"If I could snap my fingers and replace all the oxygen in your room with another inert gas, you wouldn't notice."
"You wouldn't start to choke or struggle."
"You'd just get sleepier and sleepier until you die."
"That's why carbon monoxide is so dangerous."
"If you have any sort of gas appliance in your building, invest in a detector."- Lastalmark
Keep Those Oceans Clean
"The actual amount of crude oil that's been pumped directly into the ocean."
"BP had High Definition 4K live footage of the pipe that ruptured and chose to censor it."
"And it's not just BP that's had an incident like that."- Reddit
oil spill water GIF by South Park Giphy
Hands In The Air, I Give Up!
"Scientists were trying to study the effects that microplastics have on the human body and brain but were unable to draw any reasonable conclusions because they could not find a control group."- TheSpaceBornMars
At Least It's Out Of Pencils
"The greatest chemical contributor to IQ loss and violent behavior is Lead, and it's still in millions of people's piping."- re_artist
Talk About Perspective
"Tetra ethyl lead raised worldwide lead levels so significantly they had to drill into arctic ice to find an in contaminated sample."-biohazardmind
The future of our universe is full of mysteries and uncertainties.
While some will continue to dig deep to unearth these unsettling facts, others will likely embrace the fact that ignorance is, indeed, bliss.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads