16 Mind-Blowing Science Facts That Sound Too Crazy to Be Real

Truth is stranger than fiction, and science proves it time and time again. From mysterious conditions that defy logic to miraculous feats of survival, the natural world never ceases to amaze us. When people share their real-life encounters with these bizarre phenomena, it reminds us that life is filled with stories even science can barely explain. Here are some of the most jaw-dropping true tales that sound straight out of a sci-fi novel.

• What you see when you look into the mirror isn’t you. Not only are there multiple distortions, your real you isn’t even visible, technically speaking. So your brain corrects nerve impulses of the retina using the vestibular system to know if the image is upright. You also perceive yourself as more (or less) beautiful than how others perceive you. Benjamin Weiss / Quora
• Longevity of stars: Stars can burn for over a trillion years. Most fires burn briefly and then die out, as anyone who tries to light a camp fire can testify. Yet stars burn, stably, for billions (yellow stars, e.g., our Sun) or even, potentially, for trillions (red dwarfs) of years, harnessing one of the most explosive processes ever — thermonuclear power. How weird is that? Michael Price / Quora
• Slime molds don’t have brains or nervous systems but some how retain information and use it to make decisions. Even more crazy is that they can fuse with another individual and share the information. Emmarae21 / Reddit

• A close friend of mine once mentioned something strange about his dad — he swore he smelled different as he got older. He described it as a "musky, almost oily scent." None of us paid much attention to it, thinking it was just one of those odd sensory quirks.
  Years later, his dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. We were floored when we found out that certain people can actually detect Parkinson’s by smell before clinical symptoms appear. Scientists have even worked with these “super-smellers” to develop early detection methods. My friend had unknowingly sensed something science only recently validated.
• Caterpillars basically dissolve into liquid in the cocoon. The only thing left are the so-called ‘imaginal discs’, groups of cells that contain all the information and the mechanism to turn that soup into the various body parts of a butterfly (the same applies for other insects).
  boostman / Reddit
• All matter literally gives off light, but we can only see a sliver of that spectrum (although we do have tools to help us see other spectrums.) Our bodies give off infrared and are basically glowing in that portion of the spectrum, similar to how iron glows to our normal vision when it’s heated. Something that sees a different spectrum than us might not see hot iron as glowing at the same temperatures we see iron glow at. MadgoonOfficial / Reddit

• When you dream, one portion of your brain creates the story, while another part witnesses the events and is really shocked by the plot twists. Longjumping_Owl9929 / Reddit
• I used to work with a woman who never seemed to flinch. Paper cuts, stubbed toes, even a dog bite - she just shrugged them off. One day, after she walked off a twisted ankle without even limping, I had to ask how she managed it.
  She laughed and said doctors once told her she had a rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. She could feel touch but never pain. While it sounded amazing at first, she explained the dangers - she’d burned herself on stoves without realizing it and had broken bones she kept walking on because she didn’t know they were fractured.
  Her life taught me that feeling pain, strange as it sounds, is actually a blessing.
• On a related note, people with certain types of blindness will still mirror a smile. Because the part of our brain that handles emotional contagion makes use of visual information independently of the visual processing part of our brain. You don't need to actually see someone's emotional state in order to respond to it. headzoo / Reddit

• Ice doesn't cool your water, the water heats up your ice. Energy transfers one way. When I realized this, studying thermodynamics, I sat and just let it hit me. I love chemistry. Top_Distribution_693 / Reddit
• With the help of quantum tunneling, there is a 1 in 5.2⁶¹ chance that the molecules in your hand and table would miss each other when slamming it, making your hand go through the table. Macury / Reddit
• Exponential power: Fold a “big sheet” of paper — that is 0.1 mm thick — 50 times and the height of the stack is over 20 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Thank you. laidmajority / Reddit
• The knowledge that the atoms of our bodies contain elements only forged in the center of stars, and that such stars upon death blow the elements via supernova across the universe and into our very existence. We are made of stardust. analyzeTimes / Reddit

• A few years ago, my wife was caught in a freak thunderstorm while hiking. She was struck by lightning — thankfully, it wasn’t a direct hit, but the current traveled through her body. Miraculously, she survived with only minor burns.
  The bizarre part came later. Over the following months, I noticed her eyes, which had always been dark brown, were turning lighter. By the end of the year, they were hazel with golden flecks.
  The doctor said it was possible the lightning had damaged the melanin in her irises, causing the color change. To this day, her eyes are a stunning reminder of that terrifying but miraculous moment.
• My test results came back positive for a rare and fatal condition. Sitting in the doctor’s office, I could barely hold back tears as I asked, “Is there any way to treat this?” My doctor took a deep breath and said, “I don’t think you actually have it.”
  I blinked in confusion. “What do you mean? The test said I do.” He explained, “This condition is notorious for false positives. Statistically, you’re more likely to not have it than to actually be sick.”
  He further explained that this was called the false positive paradox, and in tests of rare conditions, a positive result can mean you don't have the disease. I still cannot wrap my brain around this.
• Alice in Wonderland syndrome: I experienced this when I had a high fever as a kid, and was happily delirious, playing ball with Pink Panther at the foot of my bed. We tossed this invisible ball back and forth, and sometimes it was enormous and light, and then it would shrink and become impossibly small and heavy. It was fun. thundercrown25 / Reddit

Reality has a way of surprising us far beyond the limits of imagination. These bizarre science facts and stories are a testament to the wonders of the human body, nature, and the world we live in. So, the next time you think you've seen it all, remember - there’s always something stranger waiting to be discovered.