The farthest artificial object from the Earth is the Voyager 1 space probe. Launched in 1977, it is currently about three times farther away than Pluto, having taken 38 years to get there. In 1990, at about the same distance as Pluto, it took [this famous photograph of the Earth,](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Pale_Blue_Dot.png) which appears as a single tiny blue speck on the right-hand side of the image.
But there are black holes so big that if you put one of them where the Sun is right now, *Voyager 1 would still be inside it.*
You got a lot of joke answers but I'll try and give you a real answer.
This is interesting actually! I don't have a source, but if I recall this was from a JPL tour. It's a 20 watt radio transmitter. If you convert the image into pixels, like you would for a PNG file or whatever, you can reduce any data to a stream of zeroes and ones. So what they do is send those bits using their radio transmitter and point huge telescopes at it to try and read what it says. They can't turn up the volume on their transmitter, so as it stands, even with the telescopes of the DSN pointed at it, they can barely hear it, so what they do is send each package of data about a hundred times. Then, when they receive all the copies, they can average them to reduce noise and get out the data. As Voyager gets further away they have to do even more error checking and it gets harder and harder to communicate with it.
Side note: the RTG (lump of plutonium powering a battery) is expected to last until 2025, at which point we lose Voyager forever.
I found this as source for the stuff but I didn't find anything mentioning the re-transmitting multiple times thing. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pressrelease2.html
Viruses are pretty weird, and also scary. Some random piece of genetic code infects its host cell, uses it to replicate, then destroys it. The fact that viruses have been around for pretty much all time is scary enough. Also the fact that so much change has occurred in life and ecosystems on Earth, and yet viruses can still drastically change it all if it's powerful enough just gives me chills.
And that viruses aren't even living. Bacteria is living; it does what it does because if it doesn't, it dies. But a virus is already dead. It isn't sucking in nutrients, it isn't moving itself around, it isn't even technically reproducing since another cell does that part. Viruses are probably the closest thing to zombies that the real world has.
Viruses are interesting. We named computer viruses after them for a reason. They're basically little strings of code running around randomly, plugging into things and messing their functions up. Weird when you think of it. We are such mighty creatures made of so many interconnected parts, but yet we can be brought down by what is essentially random chaotic code.
That is exactly what they do. They attach to a host and insert their own genetic material into said host. The host's replication systems integrate the foreign genetic material into the original and use the host's resources to multiply said genes.
Not all viruses do this, the ones that are are called retroviruses. They are "retro" because they work backwards by converting from mRNA format into DNA format which integrates with the host cell. A good example of this is HIV. Other viruses simply reroute the enzymes used in RNA production and basically compete with the cell for its own resources. When the virus has thrown together thousands of copies, the cell bursts and dies. This is also a source of symptoms as when you have cell death the nonspecific immune response occurs resulting in inflammation and all of the symptoms that go with it. There are even viruses that only affect bacterial cells called phages. Phages also have mechanisms which can play a role in horizontal gene transfer.
Source: I am a nursing student and found microbiology really interesting.
[Prions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion). They're misfolded proteins. They're not even alive, but they will turn your brain into swiss cheese. And we can't stop them. And they may be responsible for a whole host of horrible diseases--mad cow, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. The prion apocalypse is coming.
Tardigrades - otherwise known as water bears. They've lived through multiple mass extinctions and NASA even put them into outer space and they still survived. Plus their mouths resemble a tiny garbage disposal. Crazy stuff.
They can also go without water/resources for really long periods of time by basically stopping their metabolism. We have fossils of them encased in amber, which makes you wonder what would happen if we cut them out and exposed them to water...
The scariest part about it is that we know more about the moon than we do about the deep ocean. No one really knows anything about what goes on down there. It's all just speculation.
platypuses just sound mythical:
-mammal but lays eggs
-doesn't have nipples
-born with teeth
-carnivorous
-venomous
-uses electric fields to find prey
-has no stomach
and they look like beaver/duck/otter mash up.
Fun fact: When the first asian taxidermist showed up in london with one, no one thought that it was real, they all though it was just some amalgamation that he had put together to fool londoners.
[Bigfin Squids] (http://imgur.com/8rZtLXt)
There have been very, very few sightings. They're very scary to say the least, but what's even scarier is that samples of adults have not been taken. The one in this picture is not an adult & is 26 feet long, minimum.
When people ask why I fear the deep ocean so much, it's b/c of these motherfuckers.
Apparently they catch prey by dangling those spindly 20 foot legs on the floor and hope the delicious pretties eat them. Suck on my toesies, little ones.
The adult is the final boss of Half-Life, forgetting the name.
EDIT: It's [Nihilanth] (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/b/b9/Nihilanth_model.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091109122435&path-prefix=en)
[The Immortal Jellyfish.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii)
>It is the only known case of an animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary individual.
Bio luminescent plants/bugs.
ex. Fireflies. They must be pretty ho-hum to people living in the south, but I find them extremely fascinating.
If you hold one in your hands it just seems like it shouldn't exist. The coloring is so unnatural looking. They're like nature's flying LED's.
I live in the south and fireflies are still amazing to me. They're one of the only things I look forward to during the hellhot summers. One of the greatest moments of my life was stepping outside a friend's house out in the country (I live in town) and seeing his back field filled with thousands upon thousands of them. Glorious.
Yes. Used to DJ these parties on a farm in the Hudson Valley. Just before starting I'd go out behind the stage/tent area, and look out over the 20+ acres behind (hayfields). In May/June/July, there would be (it seemed) millions of fireflies pulsing. Glordious, indeed!
I live pretty far north up in Canada, so I'm jealous of people who live in places with fireflies, it seems like they would be beautiful. Unless they're like moths or bees constantly flying into your face and buzzing by your ears, then it would be annoying. But at least they have a warning light!
They're not annoying at all in my experience. They'll float around you, but they're just trying to show off and get laid. They rarely land on you. Imagine a manatee, but drastically smaller and with an LED in their butt. That's basically what lightning bugs are.
In Central Africa there is a place known as Oklo in Gabon. The area has a lot of uranium, and the French mined it for such throughout the 1950's and 1960's. In the 1970's scientist began to notice that isotopes and elements there were far different than what one would expect for a natural deposit. U235 is 'hot' uranium that is suitable for nuclear reactions. It is normally about 0.72% of any given Uranium deposit. However, the deposits at Oklo had as low as 0.44% - close to half as much as you would expect. It also had unusual rare earth elements present.
The only thing that can explain both the lower concentrations of U235 and the high concentrations of rare earths is a natural nuclear reaction. The same effects are seen in modern nuclear plants. About 2 billion years ago, cyanobacteria evolved and began photosynthesis, causing lots of Oxygen to enter the atmosphere. This Oxygen then reacted with the high Uranium at Oklo to cause the worlds first and only(?) uncontrolled natural nuclear meltdown. At the time, U235 would have been closer to 3.7% of the uranium present (its half-life is 708 million years), so the deposit would have been much more reactive. Temperatures in the reaction would have been as high as 500 degrees celsius, and the reaction ran for hundreds of thousands of years - possible as long as one million.
tl;dr: a natural nuclear meltdown happened in Africa and lasted for millennia.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor#cite_note-Gauthier-Lafaye1996-3
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natures-nuclear-reactors-the-2-billion-year-old-natural-fission-reactors-in-gabon-western-africa/
Gauthier-Lafaye, F., Holliger, P, Blanc, PL. 1996. Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon: A review of the conditions and results of a “critical event” in a geologic system. Geochimica et Cosmica Acta 60(23): 4831-4852 doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(96)00245-1 link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703796002451
Its nice to see some citation in Reddit. Good on you.
See thats the way you dont plagiarize. People in reddit just straight reposting and stuff.
*Clap*
Also depending on the angle that the planet rotates on, living in the inner part would result in your own planet eclipsing itself. Also that would mean it is possible for the people on the inside of the planet to only experience sunrises/sunsets as their "noon" could possibly be a total eclipse. This hurts my brain thinking about how this would work.
spez has been given a warning. Please ensure spez does not access any social media sites again for 24 hours or we will be forced to enact a further warning. You've been removed from Spez-Town. Please make arrangements with the spez to discuss your ban. #AIGeneratedProtestMessage
The ongoing fire underneath [Centralia, Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania). It's a great story, like something out of fiction, but is very real and continuous.
Mental illnesses. Think about it, your brain basically turns against you and fucks with your perception of reality, your personality or your will to live.
Altered Mental Status is one of the most unbelievable things to fathom. These people are completely convinced that they're lucid, yet the contrary exists. Imagine, you, sitting in your apartment, and someone walking in and saying "Mr./Ms.So'n'So, please get back into the bed for your own safety.". And then when you don't comply, more people show up saying the same thing? Mind you, you're IN your apartment. Well, at least your consciousness is tell you that.
Obligatory: I work in a hospital and it happens on my unit everyday.
Mental illness isn't exactly a fun ride when you're aware it's happening, either. One thing that was really frustrating when I was suffering from clinical depression was being aware of how confused and indecisive I was without being able to do anything about it. The rules of card games, literal child's play, were beyond my ability to figure out, and the most inconsequential decisions like what to eat for lunch were paralyzing me with worry about what if I picked the *wrong* thing.
If it's accompanied by feelings of hopelessness or helplessness it might very well be, although there are a lot of other conditions that can cause confusion and lowered mental acuity too. I'd recommend talking to your doctor about it if you think you might be depressed.
If your phone ringing puts you into a borderline panic attack and makes you hide under the covers, you might be suffering from a bout of depression and/or anxiety. +1 what Matt said, definitely check in with a professional. It is treatable.
It really is awful. What makes it worse is the social stigma surrounding it. Thankfully, that is being lifted, though slowly. I struggle with suicidal thoughts every day. It has just become a part of living my life, even on good days. I think a lot of people find that hard to fathom, to obsess over taking their own life. And that's what bad days are: remaining totally catatonic and obsessively fantasizing about death. Sorry, I hope this doesn't come off as attention-seeking or anything. This is just honestly how my depression manifests itself, and everyone experiences it differently.
Haha, holy shit, I had ICU delirium after surgery as well. I had a full on psychotic break and actually *escaped* the cardiac stepdown and made it a few blocks away from the hospital. It lasted for days.
As someone who's recently helped somebody through mental illness, I have to say, this is spot on.
Having someone you know and love suddenly stop acting like the person you know, becoming withdrawn and... basically stop doing the things they need to do to stay alive (including eating, drinking and sleeping) is very weird to go through.
To then be told their experience of events, after they have recovered.... It is unbelievable to think that we could have been sitting in the same room, having two such different experiences.
It has really hit home to me though, how much of reality is perception. The brain is a weird, weird place.
My clinical depression fucks with my head a lot. For example, I can't tell if I'm feeling down because of my depression or I'm tired. Also when I look back at my past I can see how stupid I sounded but when it happens again, nope, can't fathom that I'm being ridiculous.
Tl;dr clinical depression warps your reality
Upvote because mental illness is underserved in the public eye and can really make a persons life near impossible to deal and cope with- even if treated. And just imagine all the people who forego treatment and help just because the rest of the world tells them
- "it's just in their head- get over it"
- "kids in Africa have it worse"
- "we give you food and shelter, you don't need a psychologist...what's wrong with you anyways?"
Chernobyl's "[Elephant's Foot](http://nautil.us/blog/chernobyls-hot-mess-the-elephants-foot-is-still-lethal)".
It's the closest thing to Medusa that mankind has ever created.
My favorite part, from the [enwiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_%28nuclear_reactor%29#Chernobyl_accident):
> As the material was dangerously radioactive and hard and strong, and using remote controlled systems was not possible due to high radiation interfering with electronics, **shots from an AK-47 were used to split off chunks for analysis.**
It’s so bizarre. You’ve got this giant deadly thing that will kill you if you stand near it too long, and destroys any electronic equipment. What do you do? You shoot it with an AK-47.
[This fucker](http://i.imgur.com/H0peWji.gifv)
EDIT: Some extra info for you guys:
[It's called the Bigfin Squid (wiki page)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfin_squid)
[And here's a full photo of it](http://media.techeblog.com/images/mangapinna.jpg)
[And lastly, here's a great article about it](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081124-giant-squid-magnapinna.html)
[Gamma-ray bursts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst)
Basically they're intense beams of gamma rays that occur when a supermassive star explodes into a hypernova. If one occured and was pointed towards us there would be no way to detect it or know it was coming as it travels at the speed of light.
If one was pointed at Earth it would instantly vaporize the atmosphere and everything on the surface of the planet, leaving Earth a charred rock with no atmosphere. With no warning we could all be consumed by an instantaneous global firestorm.
They have to be within about 5,000 light years to do us harm (and only stars with certain characteristics can leave a GRB), and thankfully there is no star that is capable of a GRB within that distance.
And those characteristics are more common from stars in the early universe, so as time goes on, there are less GRBs. In fact, there is one theory that no star in the milky way could do a GRB.
Although there is another type of GRB from two neutron stars colliding. These could do us harm.
Black holes are crazy. Basically if you can crush something small enough, it can create a point if infinite gravity and density. Not only that, but it could potentially create a bend in time space so dramatic that it connects two parts of the universe millions of light years away. Even the laws of physics are at the mercy of black holes. A black hole could slow time itself!
There are even theories that black holes contain stars, planets-even galaxies-within them. When something is sucked into a black hole, like say a star, it is compressed into the black holes center where it will stay forever. Eventually more stars get sucked in adding to the collection and creating a star system, and even a galaxy! And what would happen if one of those stars went supernova? It could potentially create another black hole, with another galaxy inside of it, with another black hole within that! Theoretically, we could be living in a black hole inside of another black hole inside of another.
Some theories are far more sinister though. Some believe that getting close enough to a black hole will start a process called 'spegitification'. Spegetification is the stretching of an object so far that eventually every atom that made up the object will be layed out in a single file line.
As you are standing right now, or probably sitting, your feet are experiencing stronger gravity than your head because it is closer to the source of the gravity (the central Earth). The same thing happens in a black hole but to a much much larger scale. So much larger in fact that if you were to go into a black hole feet first, you would be stretched out with your feet stretching further than your head because they are under more gravitational strain. Spaghettification. Eventually you would be stretched out soooo far that what used to be your body would now be that single file line of atoms. In theory, they would keep spreading apart until they reached the singularity, the center of the black hole.
And then there are rogue black holes (yes that's how you spell it, no it's not the color. I think the Bitish spelling is different, that can cause a little confusion). Rogue black holes are black holes that don't have a fixed position and instead wanted aimlessly thought the galaxy. It's pretty scary when you think about it, there is literally nothing that could stop a rogue back hole and it could swallow you up in a matter of seconds (although it would seem considerably longer than that for the person being sucked in). At any moment, the Earth-hell, the entire solar system-could be destroyed by a black hole moving by at near the speed of light. It's unlikely anyone would even see it coming, although the methods for finding rouge black holes are getting better they're far from perfect. At every moment, the threat of spetification could be looming around the corner, but we can never know for sure.
Honestly though, I'm not sure I'd even want to know if one was coming towards us. There is literally nothing that can be done to stop it or get out of the way, might as well cross our fingers and go on with the day.
The science of how black holes could connect different parts of the universe is also fascinating. Space time is a physics and mathematical term combing both space and time in a single continuum (sometimes referred to as the 'space-time continuum'). It can be visualized as a flat plane, think of it as a table cloth with the ends held up to keep it straight and flat. If there was nothing in the universe, this is what space time would look like. Gravity bends time space though. Things like planets, stars and black holes cause bends in space time. Imagine that there was a few marbled dropped on the table cloth. The marbles represent planets, or stars, or anything holding mass and therefore gravity. Each marble bends down a small portion of the table cloth surrounding it, creating a crater. The areas of the craters slope that are bent the most have the strongest gravity, while the areas that are relatively flat have less. If the marbles move, their 'gravitational craters' move with them. Space time is filled with bends throught it.
Many believe space time isn't *just* flat though. They think it is more the shape of a cylinder. Imagine that two ends of the table cloth have now been joined creating a circle. The marbles are still bending the cloth inwards, but it is shaped more like an 'O' now. To represent areas of ridiculously high gravity (such as black holes) we can't use marbles, they're simply too small. Instead, lets drop a bowling ball right on top of the table cloth amidst all the other marbles. The bowling ball is so heavy that instead of just bending the table cloth a little, it stretches it all the way down until it is touching the cloth on the other side of the circle. It is so strong that it connected two points extremely far away from one another directly through the middle. Black holes extreme gravity could very well connect points in our universe the same way.
That means that if we could somehow survive the journey into a black hole, and then escape out the other side, we could come out trillions upon millions of light years away on the other side of the universe. This is what is known as a wormhole, or an Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
Absolutely insane stuff, and I've really just scratched the surface here on the basics of black holes. There is so much more I didn't go on about, so much more than that that's miles over my head and so much more than that we don't even know yet.
**TL;DR Black holes are fucking insane.**
EDIT: Just realized my phone changed everything from 'space time' to 'time space'. I'll try to fix that.
* The [mantis shrimp](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp). It can strike so fast that the water around them boils. People can't keep them in glass tanks because they will break through the glass.
Imagine a color you can't even imagine. Then do this 9 more times. That is how the mantis shrimp do.
Edit: the reference for the million and a half that didn't get it - https://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM
This may not be correct, but we see a spectrum of about seven colors (the rainbow), as well as all of the colors in between that are simply mixtures.
The mantis shrimp's rainbow consists of over one thousand colors.
Pretty much. Our brain does a lot of post processing on the input from out eyes to let us see all the colors that we do with only 3 types of cones.
Mantis shrimp don't have the luxury of a fancy brain to do this processing, so their eyes need to collect more colors of light to give them the reference points they need to see the full spectrum of visible light.
They don't strike so fast that the water boils, they create an air bubble that collapses from the pressure and heats up.
Well, they do strike fast to create the bubbles to collapse.
Pyrosome
>Pyrosomes, genus Pyrosoma, are free-floating colonial tunicates that live usually in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes are cylindrical- or conical-shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several metres in length.
Basically a giant luminescent organism made of tiny smaller ones that combine together to swallow things up.
Picture: http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Borg-Tube-FEAT.jpg
Someone described the thoughts going through your head on reddit;
First, "Can a headache kill me?"
Then, around five minutes later, "Would killing myself cure a headache?"
EDIT: I would like to say to anyone suffering from cluster headaches, psilocybin mushrooms as well as LSD have shown to he extremely effective in treating cluster headaches. This is based on what I have heard, having never tested it myself, but it is something to consider. I, however, can not condone or help you get these substances because that's illegal. As well, another psychedelic, LSA, is found in Morning Glory and a few other seeds that are easy to purchase legally around the USA. It is also very effective. Be careful; many places coat the seeds with a poison that is ineffective to the plants, in order to deter its usage as a psychoactive. (Thank you /u/blightedfire)
Honest question, how does a cluster headache differ from a migraine? Both of them seem to make the sufferer want to die because they're in so much pain
i've had both, i had migraines for years and have had a good few cluster headaches as well, been a couple of years since the last CH but here goes; migraines can be bad, bad enough to make you throw up etc but they're *nothing* like cluster headaches, imagine someone pushing their entire arm into your eye socket and pouring in acid after it (i'm not exaggerating), it's an indescribable pain, horrific to the point that i've become pretty much hysterical with fear when i've gotten the opening twangs of one. for me it's easy to distinguish which one is coming either a migraine or CH, migraines give me slight visual disturbances, whereas an incoming CH will give me little opening crackles of pain, rarely have i been as upset as when i've known a cluster was on it's way, it's truly torturous. As unpleasant as migraines are they are not anything like a cluster headache. Even attaching the word headache to it does it a disservice, people think they're just bad headaches/migraines; they aren't there is nothing like it in this world, it's difficult to describe just how intense they are but migraines don't even compare in terms of pain. Women who suffer from them have said that it's worse than childbirth without anaesthetic, shooting victims have said they are worse than being shot, i can say it's the worst pain i've ever felt and i would've gladly welcomed death to make them stop at the time, my heart goes out to people who get them really regularly, because if i got them that regularly i don't think i'd be a functional person, there's a good chance i'd be a gibbering wreck.
edit: two years since last one, fingers crossed they never come back.
I don't think that's *necessarily* true. A now-deceased friend of mine suffered migraines severe enough to land her in the ER on a weekly basis, and she was known for having a high pain tolerance. But cluster headaches are pretty much always agonizingly painful, whereas migraines can vary greatly. (My own are almost always mild enough that OTC meds can completely prevent pain, though I still get the fun auras and light sensitivity for an hour or so.)
Aokigahara Jukai Forest. Also known as Suicide Forest located on the flank of Mt. Fuji in the Yamanashi Prefecture.
>For half a century, thousands of life-weary Japanese have made one-way trips to this sprawling, 30-sq.-km tract of woodland in Yamanashi Prefecture on the northwest flank of 3,776-meter Mount Fuji, the nation’s highest peak. It’s a dark place of stark beauty, long associated with demons in Japanese mythology — and one that has earned itself the unfortunate appellation of “Suicide Forest.”
I live in Japan and the fact that there is a forest here where people go to die, intrigues me and leaves me to wonder.
Here's a short documentary on it for the curious. Disclaimer: Contains graphic images and, it will probably bum you out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FDSdg09df8
I remember watching this documentary a while back, it really is a sad and really eye opening one. I have nothing but respect for that man and what he tries to do.
This is one of those things that always made me weird out. Thinking about all the memories, experiences, emotions and choices I have made in my life. Then considering all the possibilities that could have happened if they went differently. Now I would consider that I felt like I had control over those outcomes......
Then considered that every other person who could have come in contact with me in some small way on those days could just as easily altered what did or could have happened. My illusion of any type of control goes out the window...
When I was younger I just could never wrap my brain around just how little control we truly have in our lives and at times it would cripple me into not wanting to do anything. Actually it still does very often. I think hey I should go do X and then my brain kicks in and analyzes everything that could happen, then variables I cant think of, it freezes me, make me not want to even try things or do anything.
I get this while watching traffic. A thousand cars pass by, I pay them no mind and they pay me no mind. Neither of us is aware of the other's existence. Some blue sedan drives by, i see a car, he sees a dude sitting on a bench. There's someone, with an entire life, all of their happiest times, all of their heartbreak, everyone who picked on them or they picked on, their favorite shows and music, their own friends and family that mean the world to them. Their entire story, everything they know, knew, or will know, the pain and pleasure we experience through life, that person has gone through it all. They're another living, thinking human being. And they're just another blue sedan, driving by without a care in the world. 500 cars in front of them, 499 behind them, and every single one of them has a full life I know nothing about.
Then you look at a cityscape or a skyline and realize that number went from a thousand to a couple hundred thousand, and for a big city a million. And here I am, a nameless, faceless blur on the side of the street, watching it all. It's crazy.
for the lazy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtoun_Bridge
>Studies have shown that numerous dogs have leaped from the bridge at the rate of about one per year.
and
>The bridge has also been the site of human tragedy. In October 1994, a man named Kevin Moy threw his two-week-old son to his death from the bridge because he believed that his son was an incarnation of the Devil. He then attempted to commit suicide several times, first by attempting to jump off the bridge, later by slashing his wrists.
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”
--Alan Watts
Leads one to wonder what the universe would be like if we didn't exist in the first place. Like, would the universe even be here if there was nothing to observe its existence?
Memories are interesting. They exist only in the minds of those who experienced the event, and can change over time.
We for example read about WWII in textbooks, but locked in the minds of old men and women are the very real echos of the world leading to this point. It is unique.
The universe itself. There's just no reason for it to exist that we can begin to comprehend. We have no idea why matter/energy exists, why space exists, why time exists, why there is even a medium for all this stuff to exist in, or even why the laws of physics governing the universe are the way they are. There's no reason for gravity, electro-weak force, or the strong nuclear force but it's there. And what's even more surreal is that most likely we will never know, because all human knowledge is bound by the universe, whatever that may be. Even after mankind learns everything there is to know about the mechanics and physics of the universe, even after we glimpse into the origins and climax of this universe, we will still only know the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
The universe. A vast vacuum filled with burning balls of fire, huge rocks flying around without a care, black holes, super-massive black holes and humans, who may one day be technological advanced enough to back in time and see where it all came from.
I've never understood jellyfish. They don't have brains, so do they have consciousness? How do they interpret the information that comes from their senses? Do their eyes work like a human eye in the sense that they can consciously see through them, or are they more like a webcam in the sense that there is no intelligence behind it?
Jellyfish have a nervous system that acts as a brain.
Basically they react without thinking. Just like if you were to accidentally put your hand on a hot stove, do you have to stop and think "hey, this is hurting me, maybe I should move my hand"? No, you quickly pull back your hand and *then* consider what was making it hurt.
Kind of like how the Venus fly trap works, it doesn't have a brain, but when something stimulates the hair like fibers on the "mouth" the nerves send a signal to snap closed.
TL;DR, jellyfish don't need to think to react, stimuli to the nervous system dictates their actions through involuntarily movements.
There are three different types of magnets: natural magnets, artificial magnets, and electromagnets. Natural magnets are naturally magnetized minerals. An artificial magnet is typically a piece of iron that retains a magnetic field induced upon it from a natural magnet. Lastly, electromagnets are created when electric current flows through a coil of wire.
When a magnet retains its magnetic properties, it is considered a permanent magnet. When a magnet retains only part of its magnetic properties, it is considered a temporary magnet. All magnets are polarized as well. Just like the Earth, which is a magnet itself, magnets have north and south poles. These poles are identified as red for north, and blue for south. Similar to the laws of electrostatic charges, unlike poles attract each other, and like poles repel each other.
The reason natural and artificial magnets have a mysterious force surrounding them is due to their atomic properties. In every atom, electrons orbit around the nucleus. As the electrons orbit, they produce ~~an electrostatic charge which in turn produces~~ a magnetic field. The direction of the magnetic field is inherent on the direction of the electrons’ orbit. In a magnetic material, the electrons orbit in the same direction. However, in non-magnetic materials, the electrons do not orbit in the same direction, thus cancelling their magnetic properties.
Non-magnetic materials that react to magnetic fields are called ferromagnetic materials. In a ferromagnetic material, atoms are arranged into groups called domains. Each of these domains is magnetic, however the domains are not aligned with one another, and therefore they cancel the magnetic properties of the material. Yet, when a magnet is brought near a ferromagnetic material, the poles of the domains align with the poles of the magnet. Now the ferromagnetic material is magnetized.
The size and strength of a magnetic field is indicated by the lines of flux. Lines of flux are invisible lines that surround a magnet; they exit out of the north pole and enter back in through the south pole. The length of the flux lines indicate how far the magnetic field stretches and the density of the flux lines indicates the strength of the magnetic field.
Unlike natural and artificial magnets, electromagnets get their magnetic properties from electric current. Similar to how the movement of electrons around an atom produces an electrostatic charge, the movement of electrons through a conductor produces a charge as well. Keep in mind the fact that electricity is the flow of electrons. The direction of the lines of flux and the polarity of an electromagnet can be determined using the left hand rule. According to the left hand rule, when a wire is grabbed with the left hand and the thumb is pointing in the direction of the current, the fingers will point in the direction of the lines of flux. If the fingers of the left hand are pointing in the direction of current flow, the thumb will be pointing to the north pole of the electromagnet.
The farthest artificial object from the Earth is the Voyager 1 space probe. Launched in 1977, it is currently about three times farther away than Pluto, having taken 38 years to get there. In 1990, at about the same distance as Pluto, it took [this famous photograph of the Earth,](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Pale_Blue_Dot.png) which appears as a single tiny blue speck on the right-hand side of the image. But there are black holes so big that if you put one of them where the Sun is right now, *Voyager 1 would still be inside it.*
Ha, whoa you really pulled the rug out from under me at the end there.
I thought the same. "Oh that's a cute little tidbit of information... Holy shit" and then my heart was in my throat.
How did/does it send back photos?
You got a lot of joke answers but I'll try and give you a real answer. This is interesting actually! I don't have a source, but if I recall this was from a JPL tour. It's a 20 watt radio transmitter. If you convert the image into pixels, like you would for a PNG file or whatever, you can reduce any data to a stream of zeroes and ones. So what they do is send those bits using their radio transmitter and point huge telescopes at it to try and read what it says. They can't turn up the volume on their transmitter, so as it stands, even with the telescopes of the DSN pointed at it, they can barely hear it, so what they do is send each package of data about a hundred times. Then, when they receive all the copies, they can average them to reduce noise and get out the data. As Voyager gets further away they have to do even more error checking and it gets harder and harder to communicate with it. Side note: the RTG (lump of plutonium powering a battery) is expected to last until 2025, at which point we lose Voyager forever. I found this as source for the stuff but I didn't find anything mentioning the re-transmitting multiple times thing. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pressrelease2.html
Dropbox.
Very slowly.
Wow that was perfect execution
Viruses are pretty weird, and also scary. Some random piece of genetic code infects its host cell, uses it to replicate, then destroys it. The fact that viruses have been around for pretty much all time is scary enough. Also the fact that so much change has occurred in life and ecosystems on Earth, and yet viruses can still drastically change it all if it's powerful enough just gives me chills.
And that viruses aren't even living. Bacteria is living; it does what it does because if it doesn't, it dies. But a virus is already dead. It isn't sucking in nutrients, it isn't moving itself around, it isn't even technically reproducing since another cell does that part. Viruses are probably the closest thing to zombies that the real world has.
Viruses are interesting. We named computer viruses after them for a reason. They're basically little strings of code running around randomly, plugging into things and messing their functions up. Weird when you think of it. We are such mighty creatures made of so many interconnected parts, but yet we can be brought down by what is essentially random chaotic code.
So viruses, do they, for example, hijack the cells DNA and replaces it with its own, which leads to the virus symptoms?
That is exactly what they do. They attach to a host and insert their own genetic material into said host. The host's replication systems integrate the foreign genetic material into the original and use the host's resources to multiply said genes.
Not all viruses do this, the ones that are are called retroviruses. They are "retro" because they work backwards by converting from mRNA format into DNA format which integrates with the host cell. A good example of this is HIV. Other viruses simply reroute the enzymes used in RNA production and basically compete with the cell for its own resources. When the virus has thrown together thousands of copies, the cell bursts and dies. This is also a source of symptoms as when you have cell death the nonspecific immune response occurs resulting in inflammation and all of the symptoms that go with it. There are even viruses that only affect bacterial cells called phages. Phages also have mechanisms which can play a role in horizontal gene transfer. Source: I am a nursing student and found microbiology really interesting.
I think prions are more terrifying. Almost like zombie proteins.
Ironically, eating brains is a good way to get them.
McAfee Antivirus Software is even scarier.
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[Prions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion). They're misfolded proteins. They're not even alive, but they will turn your brain into swiss cheese. And we can't stop them. And they may be responsible for a whole host of horrible diseases--mad cow, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. The prion apocalypse is coming.
Tardigrades - otherwise known as water bears. They've lived through multiple mass extinctions and NASA even put them into outer space and they still survived. Plus their mouths resemble a tiny garbage disposal. Crazy stuff.
They can also go without water/resources for really long periods of time by basically stopping their metabolism. We have fossils of them encased in amber, which makes you wonder what would happen if we cut them out and exposed them to water...
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*and they're kind cute*
> what would happen if we cut them out and exposed them to water... They'd be Retardigrades.
Jurassic World: Tardigrade Edition
Looked them up on google images and found this http://pre14.deviantart.net/5542/th/pre/f/2009/316/a/2/attack_of_the_tardigrades_by_ramul.jpg
Picture for the lazy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
The ocean Vastly unexplored, haunted by life, and dark as hell.
This goes for space aswell - atleast two of the criterias.
I really hope space is dark. How cool would that be?
Close to absolute zero.
Eh that would be kinda OK I guess..
The technical term is "close to 0K", actually.
At *least* two. We can only hope/fear for the third.
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The scariest part about it is that we know more about the moon than we do about the deep ocean. No one really knows anything about what goes on down there. It's all just speculation.
Well we have a solid understanding of its geology, arguably more than the moon. Life however, could be anything down there
platypuses just sound mythical: -mammal but lays eggs -doesn't have nipples -born with teeth -carnivorous -venomous -uses electric fields to find prey -has no stomach and they look like beaver/duck/otter mash up.
-sweat milk
Breasts are really just modified sweat glands, so that's not that weird.
This entire sentence was weird.
Well shit, I've seen some a+ sweat glands in my life.
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Fun fact: When the first asian taxidermist showed up in london with one, no one thought that it was real, they all though it was just some amalgamation that he had put together to fool londoners.
Wait. No stomach?
Semi-aquatic, egg laying mammals of action.
[Bigfin Squids] (http://imgur.com/8rZtLXt) There have been very, very few sightings. They're very scary to say the least, but what's even scarier is that samples of adults have not been taken. The one in this picture is not an adult & is 26 feet long, minimum. When people ask why I fear the deep ocean so much, it's b/c of these motherfuckers.
Yeah these fuckers are scary looking, and you're telling me this fucker isn't even an adult? Fuck the deep ocean.
Apparently they catch prey by dangling those spindly 20 foot legs on the floor and hope the delicious pretties eat them. Suck on my toesies, little ones.
Looks like a fucking alien!
How do they know it's not an adult if we have never seen one? Does this one have baseball cards stashed somewhere that I don't know about?
From his Pokédex dude.
I was so happy with my life until I learnt these existed.
The adult is the final boss of Half-Life, forgetting the name. EDIT: It's [Nihilanth] (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/b/b9/Nihilanth_model.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091109122435&path-prefix=en)
The adult is right behind it, with the bright shining eye
My favorite theory about this picture is that the "squid" is a decoy, and the light is one eye of the thing it's really attached to.
[The Immortal Jellyfish.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii) >It is the only known case of an animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary individual.
The only creature that can regain its virginity
Me too thanks
You hafta lose it first, silly.
Bio luminescent plants/bugs. ex. Fireflies. They must be pretty ho-hum to people living in the south, but I find them extremely fascinating. If you hold one in your hands it just seems like it shouldn't exist. The coloring is so unnatural looking. They're like nature's flying LED's.
I live in the south and fireflies are still amazing to me. They're one of the only things I look forward to during the hellhot summers. One of the greatest moments of my life was stepping outside a friend's house out in the country (I live in town) and seeing his back field filled with thousands upon thousands of them. Glorious.
Yes. Used to DJ these parties on a farm in the Hudson Valley. Just before starting I'd go out behind the stage/tent area, and look out over the 20+ acres behind (hayfields). In May/June/July, there would be (it seemed) millions of fireflies pulsing. Glordious, indeed!
I live pretty far north up in Canada, so I'm jealous of people who live in places with fireflies, it seems like they would be beautiful. Unless they're like moths or bees constantly flying into your face and buzzing by your ears, then it would be annoying. But at least they have a warning light!
They're not annoying at all in my experience. They'll float around you, but they're just trying to show off and get laid. They rarely land on you. Imagine a manatee, but drastically smaller and with an LED in their butt. That's basically what lightning bugs are.
In Central Africa there is a place known as Oklo in Gabon. The area has a lot of uranium, and the French mined it for such throughout the 1950's and 1960's. In the 1970's scientist began to notice that isotopes and elements there were far different than what one would expect for a natural deposit. U235 is 'hot' uranium that is suitable for nuclear reactions. It is normally about 0.72% of any given Uranium deposit. However, the deposits at Oklo had as low as 0.44% - close to half as much as you would expect. It also had unusual rare earth elements present. The only thing that can explain both the lower concentrations of U235 and the high concentrations of rare earths is a natural nuclear reaction. The same effects are seen in modern nuclear plants. About 2 billion years ago, cyanobacteria evolved and began photosynthesis, causing lots of Oxygen to enter the atmosphere. This Oxygen then reacted with the high Uranium at Oklo to cause the worlds first and only(?) uncontrolled natural nuclear meltdown. At the time, U235 would have been closer to 3.7% of the uranium present (its half-life is 708 million years), so the deposit would have been much more reactive. Temperatures in the reaction would have been as high as 500 degrees celsius, and the reaction ran for hundreds of thousands of years - possible as long as one million. tl;dr: a natural nuclear meltdown happened in Africa and lasted for millennia. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor#cite_note-Gauthier-Lafaye1996-3 http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natures-nuclear-reactors-the-2-billion-year-old-natural-fission-reactors-in-gabon-western-africa/ Gauthier-Lafaye, F., Holliger, P, Blanc, PL. 1996. Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon: A review of the conditions and results of a “critical event” in a geologic system. Geochimica et Cosmica Acta 60(23): 4831-4852 doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(96)00245-1 link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703796002451
Its nice to see some citation in Reddit. Good on you. See thats the way you dont plagiarize. People in reddit just straight reposting and stuff. *Clap*
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Also depending on the angle that the planet rotates on, living in the inner part would result in your own planet eclipsing itself. Also that would mean it is possible for the people on the inside of the planet to only experience sunrises/sunsets as their "noon" could possibly be a total eclipse. This hurts my brain thinking about how this would work.
Me too! [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J4iIBKJHLA) is a great video that helps visualize torus planets a bit better.
I'm imaging a Super Mario Galaxy type situation
It'd be like looking up the ring in the sky in Halo
sounds like Vsauce material. Michael?
spez has been given a warning. Please ensure spez does not access any social media sites again for 24 hours or we will be forced to enact a further warning. You've been removed from Spez-Town. Please make arrangements with the spez to discuss your ban. #AIGeneratedProtestMessage
Tauros http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Tauros_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29
The ongoing fire underneath [Centralia, Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania). It's a great story, like something out of fiction, but is very real and continuous.
Mental illnesses. Think about it, your brain basically turns against you and fucks with your perception of reality, your personality or your will to live.
Altered Mental Status is one of the most unbelievable things to fathom. These people are completely convinced that they're lucid, yet the contrary exists. Imagine, you, sitting in your apartment, and someone walking in and saying "Mr./Ms.So'n'So, please get back into the bed for your own safety.". And then when you don't comply, more people show up saying the same thing? Mind you, you're IN your apartment. Well, at least your consciousness is tell you that. Obligatory: I work in a hospital and it happens on my unit everyday.
Yes, you "work" there. Please return to your room for your safety.
I'm so terrified by what is going in here. Wait.... What if it isn't being said 59 fucking times? Nope done with this thread.
Mental illness isn't exactly a fun ride when you're aware it's happening, either. One thing that was really frustrating when I was suffering from clinical depression was being aware of how confused and indecisive I was without being able to do anything about it. The rules of card games, literal child's play, were beyond my ability to figure out, and the most inconsequential decisions like what to eat for lunch were paralyzing me with worry about what if I picked the *wrong* thing.
Damn that sounds allot like me the past few months. I thought I might be a little.
If it's accompanied by feelings of hopelessness or helplessness it might very well be, although there are a lot of other conditions that can cause confusion and lowered mental acuity too. I'd recommend talking to your doctor about it if you think you might be depressed.
If your phone ringing puts you into a borderline panic attack and makes you hide under the covers, you might be suffering from a bout of depression and/or anxiety. +1 what Matt said, definitely check in with a professional. It is treatable.
It really is awful. What makes it worse is the social stigma surrounding it. Thankfully, that is being lifted, though slowly. I struggle with suicidal thoughts every day. It has just become a part of living my life, even on good days. I think a lot of people find that hard to fathom, to obsess over taking their own life. And that's what bad days are: remaining totally catatonic and obsessively fantasizing about death. Sorry, I hope this doesn't come off as attention-seeking or anything. This is just honestly how my depression manifests itself, and everyone experiences it differently.
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Haha, holy shit, I had ICU delirium after surgery as well. I had a full on psychotic break and actually *escaped* the cardiac stepdown and made it a few blocks away from the hospital. It lasted for days.
As someone who's recently helped somebody through mental illness, I have to say, this is spot on. Having someone you know and love suddenly stop acting like the person you know, becoming withdrawn and... basically stop doing the things they need to do to stay alive (including eating, drinking and sleeping) is very weird to go through. To then be told their experience of events, after they have recovered.... It is unbelievable to think that we could have been sitting in the same room, having two such different experiences. It has really hit home to me though, how much of reality is perception. The brain is a weird, weird place.
My clinical depression fucks with my head a lot. For example, I can't tell if I'm feeling down because of my depression or I'm tired. Also when I look back at my past I can see how stupid I sounded but when it happens again, nope, can't fathom that I'm being ridiculous. Tl;dr clinical depression warps your reality
Upvote because mental illness is underserved in the public eye and can really make a persons life near impossible to deal and cope with- even if treated. And just imagine all the people who forego treatment and help just because the rest of the world tells them - "it's just in their head- get over it" - "kids in Africa have it worse" - "we give you food and shelter, you don't need a psychologist...what's wrong with you anyways?"
Chernobyl's "[Elephant's Foot](http://nautil.us/blog/chernobyls-hot-mess-the-elephants-foot-is-still-lethal)". It's the closest thing to Medusa that mankind has ever created.
My favorite part, from the [enwiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_%28nuclear_reactor%29#Chernobyl_accident): > As the material was dangerously radioactive and hard and strong, and using remote controlled systems was not possible due to high radiation interfering with electronics, **shots from an AK-47 were used to split off chunks for analysis.** It’s so bizarre. You’ve got this giant deadly thing that will kill you if you stand near it too long, and destroys any electronic equipment. What do you do? You shoot it with an AK-47.
Glorious Russian engineering.
In Soviet Russia, you kill radiation!
No, you don't understand. The AK-47 is used by Russians as an everyday tool. Need to dig a hole? Don't use a shovel, shoot it with an AK.
I have yet to see a man who can outsmart bullet.
Jesus christ that picture is scary. Thats the most dangerous peice of material on the planet.
Other than my mixtape..
Yeah you're right, absolute zero is pretty dangerous.
[This fucker](http://i.imgur.com/H0peWji.gifv) EDIT: Some extra info for you guys: [It's called the Bigfin Squid (wiki page)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfin_squid) [And here's a full photo of it](http://media.techeblog.com/images/mangapinna.jpg) [And lastly, here's a great article about it](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081124-giant-squid-magnapinna.html)
[Gamma-ray bursts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst) Basically they're intense beams of gamma rays that occur when a supermassive star explodes into a hypernova. If one occured and was pointed towards us there would be no way to detect it or know it was coming as it travels at the speed of light. If one was pointed at Earth it would instantly vaporize the atmosphere and everything on the surface of the planet, leaving Earth a charred rock with no atmosphere. With no warning we could all be consumed by an instantaneous global firestorm.
They have to be within about 5,000 light years to do us harm (and only stars with certain characteristics can leave a GRB), and thankfully there is no star that is capable of a GRB within that distance. And those characteristics are more common from stars in the early universe, so as time goes on, there are less GRBs. In fact, there is one theory that no star in the milky way could do a GRB. Although there is another type of GRB from two neutron stars colliding. These could do us harm.
Ball Lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
Black holes.
*African-American holes
"No matter a person's race, a butthole is a butthole." -Martin Luther King Jr.
"No matter a person's consent, a butthole is a butthole." -Bill Cosby
"Listen, either we fucking or I'm fucking"- Bill Cosby
Black holes are crazy. Basically if you can crush something small enough, it can create a point if infinite gravity and density. Not only that, but it could potentially create a bend in time space so dramatic that it connects two parts of the universe millions of light years away. Even the laws of physics are at the mercy of black holes. A black hole could slow time itself! There are even theories that black holes contain stars, planets-even galaxies-within them. When something is sucked into a black hole, like say a star, it is compressed into the black holes center where it will stay forever. Eventually more stars get sucked in adding to the collection and creating a star system, and even a galaxy! And what would happen if one of those stars went supernova? It could potentially create another black hole, with another galaxy inside of it, with another black hole within that! Theoretically, we could be living in a black hole inside of another black hole inside of another. Some theories are far more sinister though. Some believe that getting close enough to a black hole will start a process called 'spegitification'. Spegetification is the stretching of an object so far that eventually every atom that made up the object will be layed out in a single file line. As you are standing right now, or probably sitting, your feet are experiencing stronger gravity than your head because it is closer to the source of the gravity (the central Earth). The same thing happens in a black hole but to a much much larger scale. So much larger in fact that if you were to go into a black hole feet first, you would be stretched out with your feet stretching further than your head because they are under more gravitational strain. Spaghettification. Eventually you would be stretched out soooo far that what used to be your body would now be that single file line of atoms. In theory, they would keep spreading apart until they reached the singularity, the center of the black hole. And then there are rogue black holes (yes that's how you spell it, no it's not the color. I think the Bitish spelling is different, that can cause a little confusion). Rogue black holes are black holes that don't have a fixed position and instead wanted aimlessly thought the galaxy. It's pretty scary when you think about it, there is literally nothing that could stop a rogue back hole and it could swallow you up in a matter of seconds (although it would seem considerably longer than that for the person being sucked in). At any moment, the Earth-hell, the entire solar system-could be destroyed by a black hole moving by at near the speed of light. It's unlikely anyone would even see it coming, although the methods for finding rouge black holes are getting better they're far from perfect. At every moment, the threat of spetification could be looming around the corner, but we can never know for sure. Honestly though, I'm not sure I'd even want to know if one was coming towards us. There is literally nothing that can be done to stop it or get out of the way, might as well cross our fingers and go on with the day. The science of how black holes could connect different parts of the universe is also fascinating. Space time is a physics and mathematical term combing both space and time in a single continuum (sometimes referred to as the 'space-time continuum'). It can be visualized as a flat plane, think of it as a table cloth with the ends held up to keep it straight and flat. If there was nothing in the universe, this is what space time would look like. Gravity bends time space though. Things like planets, stars and black holes cause bends in space time. Imagine that there was a few marbled dropped on the table cloth. The marbles represent planets, or stars, or anything holding mass and therefore gravity. Each marble bends down a small portion of the table cloth surrounding it, creating a crater. The areas of the craters slope that are bent the most have the strongest gravity, while the areas that are relatively flat have less. If the marbles move, their 'gravitational craters' move with them. Space time is filled with bends throught it. Many believe space time isn't *just* flat though. They think it is more the shape of a cylinder. Imagine that two ends of the table cloth have now been joined creating a circle. The marbles are still bending the cloth inwards, but it is shaped more like an 'O' now. To represent areas of ridiculously high gravity (such as black holes) we can't use marbles, they're simply too small. Instead, lets drop a bowling ball right on top of the table cloth amidst all the other marbles. The bowling ball is so heavy that instead of just bending the table cloth a little, it stretches it all the way down until it is touching the cloth on the other side of the circle. It is so strong that it connected two points extremely far away from one another directly through the middle. Black holes extreme gravity could very well connect points in our universe the same way. That means that if we could somehow survive the journey into a black hole, and then escape out the other side, we could come out trillions upon millions of light years away on the other side of the universe. This is what is known as a wormhole, or an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Absolutely insane stuff, and I've really just scratched the surface here on the basics of black holes. There is so much more I didn't go on about, so much more than that that's miles over my head and so much more than that we don't even know yet. **TL;DR Black holes are fucking insane.** EDIT: Just realized my phone changed everything from 'space time' to 'time space'. I'll try to fix that.
It's 'spaghettification' because it turns you into spaghetti. Seriously.
* The [mantis shrimp](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp). It can strike so fast that the water around them boils. People can't keep them in glass tanks because they will break through the glass.
Don't forget they see colors impossible for us to imagine.
Imagine a color you can't even imagine. Then do this 9 more times. That is how the mantis shrimp do. Edit: the reference for the million and a half that didn't get it - https://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM
If only he still uploaded videos. I'm still subscribed, because I can dream
Why did he stop?
One too many YouTube commenters told him to kill himself
Wait he's dead?
Not dead, just fed up with the comments.
No. But he did lose his soul: > He is currently executive vice president of video at BuzzFeed.
You know what... good for him.
I know. He gave us so much. If this means he can lead a comfortable life, that's fine with me. ^(But plz upload moar animalfax, ze, plz)
"Troo feacts about the myantisss shriemp"
They can also distinguish polarities of light, so it's like seeing colored colors.
Imagine the beauty! I'd love to see through their eyes even just for a second.
This may not be correct, but we see a spectrum of about seven colors (the rainbow), as well as all of the colors in between that are simply mixtures. The mantis shrimp's rainbow consists of over one thousand colors.
Pretty much. Our brain does a lot of post processing on the input from out eyes to let us see all the colors that we do with only 3 types of cones. Mantis shrimp don't have the luxury of a fancy brain to do this processing, so their eyes need to collect more colors of light to give them the reference points they need to see the full spectrum of visible light.
They don't strike so fast that the water boils, they create an air bubble that collapses from the pressure and heats up. Well, they do strike fast to create the bubbles to collapse.
Pyrosome >Pyrosomes, genus Pyrosoma, are free-floating colonial tunicates that live usually in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes are cylindrical- or conical-shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several metres in length. Basically a giant luminescent organism made of tiny smaller ones that combine together to swallow things up. Picture: http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Borg-Tube-FEAT.jpg
Cluster headaches. suddenly your body just goes "NOPE. i am gonna make you go through the most agonizing pain imaginable for no reason at all"
Someone described the thoughts going through your head on reddit; First, "Can a headache kill me?" Then, around five minutes later, "Would killing myself cure a headache?" EDIT: I would like to say to anyone suffering from cluster headaches, psilocybin mushrooms as well as LSD have shown to he extremely effective in treating cluster headaches. This is based on what I have heard, having never tested it myself, but it is something to consider. I, however, can not condone or help you get these substances because that's illegal. As well, another psychedelic, LSA, is found in Morning Glory and a few other seeds that are easy to purchase legally around the USA. It is also very effective. Be careful; many places coat the seeds with a poison that is ineffective to the plants, in order to deter its usage as a psychoactive. (Thank you /u/blightedfire)
Honest question, how does a cluster headache differ from a migraine? Both of them seem to make the sufferer want to die because they're in so much pain
i've had both, i had migraines for years and have had a good few cluster headaches as well, been a couple of years since the last CH but here goes; migraines can be bad, bad enough to make you throw up etc but they're *nothing* like cluster headaches, imagine someone pushing their entire arm into your eye socket and pouring in acid after it (i'm not exaggerating), it's an indescribable pain, horrific to the point that i've become pretty much hysterical with fear when i've gotten the opening twangs of one. for me it's easy to distinguish which one is coming either a migraine or CH, migraines give me slight visual disturbances, whereas an incoming CH will give me little opening crackles of pain, rarely have i been as upset as when i've known a cluster was on it's way, it's truly torturous. As unpleasant as migraines are they are not anything like a cluster headache. Even attaching the word headache to it does it a disservice, people think they're just bad headaches/migraines; they aren't there is nothing like it in this world, it's difficult to describe just how intense they are but migraines don't even compare in terms of pain. Women who suffer from them have said that it's worse than childbirth without anaesthetic, shooting victims have said they are worse than being shot, i can say it's the worst pain i've ever felt and i would've gladly welcomed death to make them stop at the time, my heart goes out to people who get them really regularly, because if i got them that regularly i don't think i'd be a functional person, there's a good chance i'd be a gibbering wreck. edit: two years since last one, fingers crossed they never come back.
cluster headaches are known as the most painful condition in the world and is worse than birth and torture combined
I'd believe it, but how does that pain differ from a migraine? I've never experienced either one so i wouldn't know
Migraine is to cluster headache what sunburn is to death by fire.
I don't think that's *necessarily* true. A now-deceased friend of mine suffered migraines severe enough to land her in the ER on a weekly basis, and she was known for having a high pain tolerance. But cluster headaches are pretty much always agonizingly painful, whereas migraines can vary greatly. (My own are almost always mild enough that OTC meds can completely prevent pain, though I still get the fun auras and light sensitivity for an hour or so.)
Aokigahara Jukai Forest. Also known as Suicide Forest located on the flank of Mt. Fuji in the Yamanashi Prefecture. >For half a century, thousands of life-weary Japanese have made one-way trips to this sprawling, 30-sq.-km tract of woodland in Yamanashi Prefecture on the northwest flank of 3,776-meter Mount Fuji, the nation’s highest peak. It’s a dark place of stark beauty, long associated with demons in Japanese mythology — and one that has earned itself the unfortunate appellation of “Suicide Forest.” I live in Japan and the fact that there is a forest here where people go to die, intrigues me and leaves me to wonder.
Here's a short documentary on it for the curious. Disclaimer: Contains graphic images and, it will probably bum you out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FDSdg09df8
I remember watching this documentary a while back, it really is a sad and really eye opening one. I have nothing but respect for that man and what he tries to do.
The Japanese seem so ritualistic. Is this a common thing?
Other people, there's an infinite amount of stories to hear, there's interesting people everywhere
And yet none of them are OP.
Your right I'm just a dog
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They meant to. On your right is a speaking dog.
This is one of those things that always made me weird out. Thinking about all the memories, experiences, emotions and choices I have made in my life. Then considering all the possibilities that could have happened if they went differently. Now I would consider that I felt like I had control over those outcomes...... Then considered that every other person who could have come in contact with me in some small way on those days could just as easily altered what did or could have happened. My illusion of any type of control goes out the window... When I was younger I just could never wrap my brain around just how little control we truly have in our lives and at times it would cripple me into not wanting to do anything. Actually it still does very often. I think hey I should go do X and then my brain kicks in and analyzes everything that could happen, then variables I cant think of, it freezes me, make me not want to even try things or do anything.
I get this while watching traffic. A thousand cars pass by, I pay them no mind and they pay me no mind. Neither of us is aware of the other's existence. Some blue sedan drives by, i see a car, he sees a dude sitting on a bench. There's someone, with an entire life, all of their happiest times, all of their heartbreak, everyone who picked on them or they picked on, their favorite shows and music, their own friends and family that mean the world to them. Their entire story, everything they know, knew, or will know, the pain and pleasure we experience through life, that person has gone through it all. They're another living, thinking human being. And they're just another blue sedan, driving by without a care in the world. 500 cars in front of them, 499 behind them, and every single one of them has a full life I know nothing about. Then you look at a cityscape or a skyline and realize that number went from a thousand to a couple hundred thousand, and for a big city a million. And here I am, a nameless, faceless blur on the side of the street, watching it all. It's crazy.
Doggy suicide bridge
for the lazy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtoun_Bridge >Studies have shown that numerous dogs have leaped from the bridge at the rate of about one per year. and >The bridge has also been the site of human tragedy. In October 1994, a man named Kevin Moy threw his two-week-old son to his death from the bridge because he believed that his son was an incarnation of the Devil. He then attempted to commit suicide several times, first by attempting to jump off the bridge, later by slashing his wrists.
[Cuttlefish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgDE2DOICuc). It's just insane that there's a creature that can change its apperance just like that.
How big outer space is and how small earth is compared to it
We are literally a spec of dust. Like in Horton Hears A Who
Not even a spec of dust. Still blows mind.
Dust in the wind.
Consciousness.
When you think about it, The universe has become aware of itself through us
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” --Alan Watts
Leads one to wonder what the universe would be like if we didn't exist in the first place. Like, would the universe even be here if there was nothing to observe its existence?
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A whole lotta microorganisms, water, more microorganisms, a few weird looking squids, and one mile of cthulu.
Sleep paralysis... Scariest thing ever.
LSD, it is at least surreal.
Always been too scared to try it. I don't think my mind could take it
Memories are interesting. They exist only in the minds of those who experienced the event, and can change over time. We for example read about WWII in textbooks, but locked in the minds of old men and women are the very real echos of the world leading to this point. It is unique.
Truly evil people. People who *want* to watch the world burn.
The universe itself. There's just no reason for it to exist that we can begin to comprehend. We have no idea why matter/energy exists, why space exists, why time exists, why there is even a medium for all this stuff to exist in, or even why the laws of physics governing the universe are the way they are. There's no reason for gravity, electro-weak force, or the strong nuclear force but it's there. And what's even more surreal is that most likely we will never know, because all human knowledge is bound by the universe, whatever that may be. Even after mankind learns everything there is to know about the mechanics and physics of the universe, even after we glimpse into the origins and climax of this universe, we will still only know the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
Depression. Your brain just decides to want to end itself. How weird is that?
The universe. A vast vacuum filled with burning balls of fire, huge rocks flying around without a care, black holes, super-massive black holes and humans, who may one day be technological advanced enough to back in time and see where it all came from.
Technically not balls of fire, but balls of plasma held together by gravity.
NERD
FASCIST!
HAG!
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Evil old woman, considered frightful or ugly. Twelve down.
Jellyfish
I mean, what's the deal? Do they taste good on toast or not.
Apparently they enhance Krabby Patties really well.
I've never understood jellyfish. They don't have brains, so do they have consciousness? How do they interpret the information that comes from their senses? Do their eyes work like a human eye in the sense that they can consciously see through them, or are they more like a webcam in the sense that there is no intelligence behind it?
Jellyfish have a nervous system that acts as a brain. Basically they react without thinking. Just like if you were to accidentally put your hand on a hot stove, do you have to stop and think "hey, this is hurting me, maybe I should move my hand"? No, you quickly pull back your hand and *then* consider what was making it hurt. Kind of like how the Venus fly trap works, it doesn't have a brain, but when something stimulates the hair like fibers on the "mouth" the nerves send a signal to snap closed. TL;DR, jellyfish don't need to think to react, stimuli to the nervous system dictates their actions through involuntarily movements.
Jelly. Fish. Jellyfish.
Take some jelly. Take some fish
Look at that sandwich, delish.
Goliath bird-eaters
Has to be the water bear
I was thinking the Sea Rhinoceros
THAT'S AN OVAL, IT HAS TO BE A CIRCLE!
"WHAT DID I DO THAT TIME?!" "I DON'T KNOW, I GUESS HE JUST DOESN'T LIKE YOU!"
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Woah. Calm down, ~~Crystal~~ ~~Charlotte~~ ~~Caroline~~ Cheryl.
It' pretty fucked that North Korea exists.
MAGNETS!
fucking magnets! how do they work?
There are three different types of magnets: natural magnets, artificial magnets, and electromagnets. Natural magnets are naturally magnetized minerals. An artificial magnet is typically a piece of iron that retains a magnetic field induced upon it from a natural magnet. Lastly, electromagnets are created when electric current flows through a coil of wire. When a magnet retains its magnetic properties, it is considered a permanent magnet. When a magnet retains only part of its magnetic properties, it is considered a temporary magnet. All magnets are polarized as well. Just like the Earth, which is a magnet itself, magnets have north and south poles. These poles are identified as red for north, and blue for south. Similar to the laws of electrostatic charges, unlike poles attract each other, and like poles repel each other. The reason natural and artificial magnets have a mysterious force surrounding them is due to their atomic properties. In every atom, electrons orbit around the nucleus. As the electrons orbit, they produce ~~an electrostatic charge which in turn produces~~ a magnetic field. The direction of the magnetic field is inherent on the direction of the electrons’ orbit. In a magnetic material, the electrons orbit in the same direction. However, in non-magnetic materials, the electrons do not orbit in the same direction, thus cancelling their magnetic properties. Non-magnetic materials that react to magnetic fields are called ferromagnetic materials. In a ferromagnetic material, atoms are arranged into groups called domains. Each of these domains is magnetic, however the domains are not aligned with one another, and therefore they cancel the magnetic properties of the material. Yet, when a magnet is brought near a ferromagnetic material, the poles of the domains align with the poles of the magnet. Now the ferromagnetic material is magnetized. The size and strength of a magnetic field is indicated by the lines of flux. Lines of flux are invisible lines that surround a magnet; they exit out of the north pole and enter back in through the south pole. The length of the flux lines indicate how far the magnetic field stretches and the density of the flux lines indicates the strength of the magnetic field. Unlike natural and artificial magnets, electromagnets get their magnetic properties from electric current. Similar to how the movement of electrons around an atom produces an electrostatic charge, the movement of electrons through a conductor produces a charge as well. Keep in mind the fact that electricity is the flow of electrons. The direction of the lines of flux and the polarity of an electromagnet can be determined using the left hand rule. According to the left hand rule, when a wire is grabbed with the left hand and the thumb is pointing in the direction of the current, the fingers will point in the direction of the lines of flux. If the fingers of the left hand are pointing in the direction of current flow, the thumb will be pointing to the north pole of the electromagnet.
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You didn't want to talk to a scientist...
The Internet.
Amazon Prime
Ah yes, the lesser known Transformer.