20 Scientific Facts That Keep People Up at Night
![20 Scientific Facts That Keep People Up at Night](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/5/9/1137659_320x180.jpg)
Remember in Inside Out 2 when the little anthropomorphic feelings explain that the difference between fear and anxiety is that one protects you from things you can see and the other protects you from things you can’t? Well, not to disparage the brilliant neurologists at Pixar, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Anxiety does protect you from real concerns, but it also tends to give you false beliefs. Like, it’s a bad thing to fail to find a social group, but you probably won’t be ostracized if you say one dumb thing. To its credit, the movie acknowledges that. God, it’s so good.
But there’s a flip side to that kind of anxiety, too: Dangers that you can’t see but know for a fact are real. For example, it is not irrational to worry that any or all of your memories are false narratives implanted in your brain, accidentally or otherwise. That is just how memory works. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, and you’ll never know which memories are lies until you happen to tell a story at Thanksgiving and your brother looks at you like you’re crazy because he was the one who ended up with a twisted testicle when you played Jackass as children, not you.
That’s just one scientific fact about the world that should make you feel like you’re living in a sci-fi thriller. For some ungodly reason, user bck83 wanted more when they asked r/AskReddit, “What scientific fact or theory scares you to your bones?”
![happy32fx 2y ago Pigeons give milk](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/4/2/1128442.jpg)
![saltgirl61 2y ago Prions](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/4/3/1128443.jpg)
![HalfChineseJesus 2y ago We're either alone in this universe or we're not](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/4/1/1128441.jpg)
![usspaceforce 2y ago I've got to stop going around to these posts commenting methane cascade, but not today.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/8/1128438.jpg)
![Backstage_ 2y ago Quite a common one, but space is so BIG. Like, bigger than the amount that we can observe. Gives me the chills.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/4/0/1128440.jpg)
![justandswift 2y ago There have already been five mass extinction level events](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/9/1128439.jpg)
![- DemonFrage 2y ago If you get hit hard enough in that spot on the back of your head where your spine connects to your skull, you die instantly.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/7/1128437.jpg)
![wetlettuce42 2y ago Gamma blasts scare the crap out of me they could happen at any time and nothing can stop them](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/6/1128436.jpg)
![5keletonj4zzw1zard 2y ago The fact that we've only searched a little bit of the whole ocean. I wouldn't even get wet from the sea on the surface, I don't wanna see whatever the fuck's down there](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/5/1128435.jpg)
![Ok-Organization9073 . 2y ago Edited 2y ago lonizing radiation. The concept feels like cosmic horror to me. Like an invisible curse, that can kill you just for stepping into a forbidden place.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/3/1128433.jpg)
![Old_Championship3196 . 2y ago naegleria fowleri (brain eating amoeba) has a 97% fatality rate and it's immune to most antibiotics](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/2/1128432.jpg)
![2y ago I suppose that at any moment you can have an aneurysm and bam you're dead and there's not much you can really do to prevent it or even predict it](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/5/1128425.jpg)
![llcucf80 2y ago There is a thought that if there were a big enough landslide on the Canary Islands (which is a real possibility), if it were large enough it'd cause a giant tsunami causing significant damage to the Eastern United States. I've seen some of the models, they look quite grim.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/8/1128428.jpg)
![ppardee 2y ago Learned about fuel-air explosive weapons this week (thanks, Russia) and I'm not particularly thrilled about the concept. Big, sustained explosion followed by a vacuum that can rupture the lungs and internal organs of people outside the blast radius. They work best in confined spaces like buildings and bunkers, and can potentially kill the occupants without destroying the infrastructure. They're not cool.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/1/1128431.jpg)
![DarthWoo 2y ago It is possible that the universe exists at a false vacuum level and at some point, any time or anywhere, vacuum decay could occur, sending a wave of destruction out in every direction. The only solace is that if it did occur, it would probably spread at no greater than the speed of light, so if it occurred in some other galaxy, humanity would be long gone before it reached here. Of course, that also means it could have already occurred in multiple places and at multiple times and the universe is just being destroyed bit by](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/0/1128430.jpg)
![Fun_Boysenberry_5219 2y ago It's thought our galaxy is full of rogue planets wandering free from their original star. At any time one of these planets could wander through our solar system radically throwing off the fragile balance of our orbits. A big enough planet passing close enough could send us careening into the sun.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/9/1128429.jpg)
![567stranger 2y ago When you get rabies and didn't get treated until the symptoms show up, you're dead. When you experience single symptom of rabies you're already dead, there's nothing you can do about it. Also rabies symptoms can take long to show up, the incubation period for rabies can last up to years. So if you were bitten or scratched by an animal with rabies years ago, the symptoms could show up right now and you will die.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/4/1128434.jpg)
![osunightfall 2y ago Atoms are 99.99% empty space. The nature of all seemingly solid matter is an illusion.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/4/1128424.jpg)
![PatMenotaur 2y ago There are between 6-10 nuclear missiles that are missing. No sovereign nation has a clue where they are, or who has control of them.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/7/1128427.jpg)
![Good-of-Rome 2y ago When you look up at the sky you aren't really looking up. Gravity keeps ури grounded, and you're really staring down into an infinite fall](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/6/1128426.jpg)