No one likes to contemplate death — whether their own or the death of loved ones. It's a natural part of life, and many people have firm beliefs about a next chapter of existence. But the mysterious nature of death makes it a frightening prospect even for people of deep faith. No one who has died can tell us what the experience is like, after all, and people who have supposedly come back from death didn't really die, so their experience may not be reliable.
The Most Painful Ways To Die (According To Science)
No one likes to contemplate death — whether their own or the death of loved ones. It's a natural part of life, and many people have firm beliefs about a next chapter of existence. But the mysterious nature of death makes it a frightening prospect even for people of deep faith. No one who has died can tell us what the experience is like, after all, and people who have supposedly come back from death didn't really die, so their experience may not be reliable.
Burning to death has to be one of the most gruesome ways to die imaginable. If you've ever made the mistake of absent-mindedly touching a hot surface, you realize quickly how intense and lingering the pain from a burn can be. Now imagine that pain lasting not for a fraction of a second but for minutes — until it kills you. Indeed, there's a reason authorities have punished criminals (such as Joan of Arc) by burning them at the stake: the intensely painful and prolonged death of the victim would make others think twice about doing whatever the condemned did.
The human body is an amazing structure, capable of carrying us through life and its many adventures ... or even misadventures. The body can also be a walking, talking accident. And for anyone who has ever hurt themselves — whether through sports, daily activity, or simple mishap — they know that some injuries are worse than others.
According to the BBC, the world's most painful insect sting is delivered by the bullet ant, a large species that lives in the rainforests of South America. How do we know it's the most painful sting in the world? Well, we don't, really — that's a totally subjective question, and it could really only be answered by someone who has actually been stung by all or most of the world's most impressively painful stingers. But wait, we actually do have someone like that: Entomologist Justin Schmidt, who's not just a dude who's been stung more than 1,000 times by 150 plus different species of insect, he's also the dude who developed the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which categorizes the pain intensity of an insect's sting on a scale of one to four. Schmidt says the sting of a bullet ant is "pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel." Ouch.
Sorry, Charlie, but this blue-green ball that we call home is full of stuff that's trying to kill you. Around every corner are microscopic amounts of poisons that can kill you in a thousand cruel and painful ways. Whether these toxins live in the glands of animals, seep up naturally through the Earth, or escape from labs, exposure to many of them is nearly guaranteed death. Here are but a few to watch out for, and what they'll do to your puny, delicate body.
Fascinating facts about the amazing and strange things the human body can do.