What is the scariest scientific concept?

**Molydood** · Nov4-09, 07:32 AM

Something that always freaks me out is the idea that time has no end, every time I think about it I get properly wierded out.
Recently I started trying to get my head around the start of time, either there being one or not being one, and that's almost as bad.

The qustion is, are there any scientific concepts/topics that freak you out? What about trying to think about the boundaries of the universe? etc

**Borek** · Nov4-09, 07:49 AM

Human being descendants of apes?

Not that it freaks ME out, but for sure the idea is a pain for many.

**Wallace** · Nov4-09, 08:09 AM

The fact that increasing knowledge only ever increases the number of things we are aware of that we don't know. It freaks me out that there are so many things we know of (like the constants of nature) whose explanations may be eternally beyond our reach.

**Lacy33** · Nov4-09, 08:15 AM

Infinity, zero, nothingness.

**Dadface** · Nov4-09, 08:23 AM

E=mc squared
It doesn't freak me out but I know its scarey for many people.

**Dadface** · Nov4-09, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by Borek

Human being descendants of apes?

Not that it freaks ME out, but for sure the idea is a pain for many.

What freaks me out is that I'm rapidly evolving in the opposite direction.

**Borek** · Nov4-09, 08:35 AM

That is, you devolve?

**Andre** · Nov4-09, 08:47 AM

The evidence construction of preconceptual science

**Monique** · Nov4-09, 09:02 AM

That were all destined to decompose.

**Blenton** · Nov4-09, 09:46 AM

That 13.7 billion years of particle physics has boiled down to this thread.

**leroyjenkens** · Nov4-09, 10:08 AM

Recently I started trying to get my head around the start of time, either there being one or not being one, and that's almost as bad.

I think there has to be a beginning of time. If time has always existed infinitely in the past, the time would still be going in that infinity before us and we'd never reach this point in time where we exist.

**TheStatutoryApe** · Nov4-09, 11:27 AM

The idea that at some point I will simply cease to be. When I was little I laid in bed one night thinking about what it would be like to die and freaked out. I ran out of my room crying and telling my mom that I didn't want to die. Probably freaked her out. My grandmother then decided to tell me about the afterlife and such mumbo jumbo. Not much of a comfort there.

So pretty much anything that reminds me of my finite existence. Other than that its all just interesting ideas to ponder.

**Oerg** · Nov4-09, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by TheStatutoryApe

The idea that at some point I will simply cease to be. When I was little I laid in bed one night thinking about what it would be like to die and freaked out. I ran out of my room crying and telling my mom that I didn't want to die. Probably freaked her out. My grandmother then decided to tell me about the afterlife and such mumbo jumbo. Not much of a comfort there.

So pretty much anything that reminds me of my finite existence. Other than that its all just interesting ideas to ponder.

hey, I used to think about this too! It was a pretty scary thought for a kid. Sometimes when my mind wanders for long enough I occasionally remember my finite existence and it would give me the shudders.

**qspeechc** · Nov4-09, 12:10 PM

Yea, the thought that, one moment you are a thinking, feeling, conscious life-form, and the next... nothing. No after life, no nothin'.

But the scariest scientific idea must be the atomic bomb, I mean, come on...

**Pattonias** · Nov4-09, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by TheStatutoryApe

The idea that at some point I will simply cease to be. When I was little I laid in bed one night thinking about what it would be like to die and freaked out. I ran out of my room crying and telling my mom that I didn't want to die. Probably freaked her out. My grandmother then decided to tell me about the afterlife and such mumbo jumbo. Not much of a comfort there.

So pretty much anything that reminds me of my finite existence. Other than that its all just interesting ideas to ponder.

Wow, I had the exact same experience when I was about five or six. I ran to my grandmother crying that I didn't want to die. It gave me a great deal of comfort when she told me that she was not worried about dieing, and that I shouldn't worry about it either.

Grandmas (Nanas) are awesome.

**TheStatutoryApe** · Nov4-09, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by Pattonias

Wow, I had the exact same experience when I was about five or six. I ran to my grandmother crying that I didn't want to die. It gave me a great deal of comfort when she told me that she was not worried about dieing, and that I shouldn't worry about it either.

Grandmas (Nanas) are awesome.

Interesting. I believe I was about that age aswell. I wonder if there are any studies on the age that people begin to be aware of their mortality.