Dead Man Walking

Many guys don't like to be tied down in a relationship during their college years, but science has recently determined that this behavior may cause them to die before their female counterparts. Apparently, species which are not monogamous, also called polygynous species, tend to age faster and die earlier due to the constant competition for sex. This wouldn't be a problem for people if they weren't so afraid of death, but we intrinsically fear the unknown and death is the ultimate unknown.

The current definition of death is the point at which the brain stops functioning, and it often occurs when the brain spends a considerable amount of time without oxygenated blood. According to New Scientist, the average person has about 10 seconds between when the blood stops running and losing consciousness, which will probably be the scariest 10 seconds of our lives. Granted, we won't be around to remember it, but I think it's the fear of physical pain that makes us fear death, as none of us know just how much death hurts.

Given that we live in a society full of the delicious, artery-clogging goodness that is fried food, it isn't surprising that heart attacks are among the most popular ways to die. Although some heart attack survivors claim to have felt pain and pressure in the chest, others say "it felt more like indigestion, tiredness or muscle cramps than a heart attack," according to New Scientist. So while you think you may just be experiencing gas from eating at a hole-in-the-wall burger joint, it might turn out to be a heart attack — not to freak you out or anything.

Probably more common to our demographic — the Florida college student — is death by drowning: drowning in the ocean, drowning while drunkenly swimming and drowning in your own vomit. According to the National Safety Council, 3,718 people died from accidental drowning in 2003, and only 412 of these cases involved boating accidents. The survivors claim that there is a "tearing" and "burning sensation" as the water goes into the lungs, and they are ultimately overwhelmed by a feeling of calmness, says New Scientist. People can typically only hold their breath 30 to 90 seconds, after which the water that the victim inhales blocks the gas exchange in the lungs, which leads to death.

No one knows for sure what happens after that, but common beliefs are that our souls go to some faraway land, that our souls walk the earth for all eternity or that nothing happens at all. Given that today is Halloween, though, you're sure to see many ghosts and other "dead" people — albeit fake ones — walking the streets.