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34 Scientific Misconceptions We All Need to Collectively Shake Off

Do not bring these up in front of a STEM major

34 Scientific Misconceptions We All Need to Collectively Shake Off

February 16, 2024

Maybe you picked them up from a TV show or movie, maybe you heard them on the playground, maybe they’re common “knowledge” passed down from generation to generation. Wherever they came from, it’s time to excise these myths, STAT.

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34

THERE'S NO TRUTH IN TRUTH SERUMS Any individual that can hold out in normal interrogation can hold out in a drugged- state, according to the CIA. If you trust them to tell us. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

EXPLOSIONS IN SPACE ARE WAY LESS COOL Explosions that happen in space are much shorter, way less dramatic, and are silent, compared to movies. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

SONAR SCREENS LOOK LIKE THIS. AUT *36-73 Longs toda *02-33 4.7 are OK Status 025 day Mode ACTOVER LES chack END 22:07:07 FFF - Paper W-4-7658 Happy Survive Course - LANT C-0-9782 detecting screws Accounte Premissing - teraction - 80% People mostly use passive screens (right) that involve listening to highly sensitive microphones and complex calculations. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Movie Myths

MOVIE SWORD FIGHTS WOULD END WITH BROKEN BLADES. Edge-on-edge parry would damage the swords, resulting in dull and damaged blades. Most sword fighting involves the swords not making contact. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

NEANDERTHALS WERE NOT DIM-WITTED. They were capable of complex thought, communication, and sophisticated technology. And they bred with modern humans. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

BULLETS GO STRAIGHT THROUGH CAR DOORS. (11 ANCELES to protect and to serve POLICE 24785 You can't use a car door as a shield. They are made to be light-weight, not bulletproof. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

CHLOROFORM TAKES 5 MINUTES TO TAKE EFFECT. Unlike in action movies, you can't just use a towel over someone's face to knock them unconscious. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

METEORS ARE LUKEWARM WHEN THEY HIT EARTH. The warm outer layers get blown off on impact, leaving the inner layers that have been in cold, cold space for billions of years. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

THE SUN IS WHITE, NOT YELLOW, WHEN VIEWED FROM SPACE The Earth's atmosphere makes it appear yellow or orange, but from the International Space Station, it appears white. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

A SILENCER DOESN'T WORK LIKE IN THE MOVIES A silencer muffles the sound of gunshot, only comparitively. It's much louder than the noise that is used for movies. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

DON'T SUCK VENOM OUT OF A BITE Sucking out poison can contaminate the wound and damage nerves or blood vessels. You may also harm yourself. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

YOU WOULD USE CPR, NOT PADDLES, IF SOMEONE FLATLINED Defibrillation is used when someone is experiencing rapid heart contractions. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

YOU CAN'T TRICK A SCANNER WITH A SEVERED HAND ID POSITIVE Biometric scanners check the capillary flow through your hand, not just the palm print. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

MYTH: HEALTHY ABS LOOK LIKE DInneR ROLLS. FACT: WASHBOARD ABS CAn ве BAD FOR YOU. As awesome as a stomach you can open beer bottles with may seem, six-pack abs mean precisely jack shit when it comes to health. In fact, they can be downright hazardous. In order to get those muscles to pop out, you'd need to get your body fat to dangerously low levels. Having too little body fat can lead to immune system disorders, heart and nervous system damage, and even death. CRACKED.COM https://www.scientificamerican. com/article/athlete-body-fat/ — Source

20

MYTH: THIN people HAVE A QUICK METABOLISM. FACT: THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A SLOWER one. The folks at the Mayo Clinic found out that, when you take weight into consideration, the metabolisms of over- and underweight people are the exact opposite of what we always heard: Thin people actually tend to have slower metabolisms than their heavier counterparts. It's because a heavier body actually needs a faster metabolism to get around. CRACKED.COM http://www.mayoolinic org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508 — Source

19

MYTH: HEALTHY TeeTH ARE GLEAMING WHITE. FACT: THE NATURAL COLOR FOR TeeTH IS YELLOW. You might think white teeth are attractive, but as far as being natural, they're the dental equivalent of fake breasts. The actual color of healthy human teeth is yellow. Know what's unhealthy? Whitening your teeth, either by bleaching or scouring off the enamel. See, tooth enamel is bluish- white. It's the dentin below the enamel that's yellow. CRACKED.COM http://www.sciencefocus.com/qa/are-yellow-teeth-stronger — Source

18

MYTH: CERTAIN GAmes CAn IMPROVE YOUR BRAIN. Memory Attention Speed Focus FACT: THEY JUST mAKe YOU BeTTeR AT THE GAme. Most studies that say brain-training games actually do what they advertise aren't exactly credible. Scientists who administered intelligence tests learned the actual result of playing a brain game: You get better at the game. That's all. But that hasn't stopped the multimillion-dollar brain game industry from making wild, unsubstantiated claims. CRACKED.COM https://www. ncbi nim. nih gov/pmc/articles/PMC2884087/ — Source

17

MYTH: EMOTIONS BLOCK YOU FROM BEING LOGICAL. NO YES FACT: WITHOUT FEELINGS, YOU CAN'T mAKe Decisions. The brain uses emotions to remind us about the consequences of our choices. Patients who suffer damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, the bridge linking our emotional amygdala and the rest of our brain, often become totally rational but can't make decisions - precisely because they don't have emotions to guide them in the right direction. CRACKED.COM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wup_K2WNOr — Source

16

MYTH: omeGA-3 OIL IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN. FACT: THERE'S no RELIABLE evidence THAT IT IS. The idea of omega-3 fatty acids being brain food comes from the fact that our brains already contain quite a lot of the stuff. However, none of the supposed brain benefits of consuming omega-3 fatty acids have been conclusively proven. In fact, studies that incorporated important stuff like peer review and double-blinds found no brain benefits. CRACKED.COM https://eric ed gov/Pid=EJ878773 — Source

15

MYTH: TWO HEADS ARe BeTTeR THAN one! FACT: THAT MIGHT ве TRUE IF we weRe ROBOTS. In humans, the social element of multiple minds working together leads to conformity, which incidentally is kryptonite for creativity. We are social animals first and foremost-our ability to fit in with a group has been our main survival trait for a few hundred thousand years now. So our fear of not fitting in overrides our logical thinking. CRACKED.COM http://www. businessinsider.com/brainstorming-team-building-effectiveness-2012-1 — Source

14

Our Senses

MYTH: HUMAN BEINGS HAVE FIVE senses. TOUCH TASTE SIGHT HEARING SMELL FACT: You've ACTUALLY GOT SOMETHING LIKE 15. Scientists still aren't quite sure exactly how many senses you have, or what even constitutes a sense, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one who believes you have just five. Depending on how they count senses, experts usually wind up with somewhere between 14 and 20. There's your sense of time, your sense of where your body is, and so on. CRACKED.COM http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/question242.htm — Source

13

MYTH: YOUR TONGUE IS zoneD BY FLAVOR TYPE. BITTER SALTY SALTY SOUR SOUR SWEET FACT: YOUR WHOLE TONGUE TASTES THINGS. The myth about your tongue being able to taste different flavors with different areas started with a mistranslation of an old German study. Turns out all areas in the tongue are about equally good at detecting different flavors. It's not an evenly distributed democracy of taste buds, but every tongue has different patterns of strength and weakness. CRACKED.COM http://www. livescience.com/7113-tongue-map-tasteless-myth-debunked.html — Source

12

MYTH: A PeRSon IS eITHeR LeFT- OR RIGHT-BRAINED. FACT: YOUR BRAIN ISN'T DIVIDED UP THAT WAY. The myth that right-brained people are creative and artistic and left-brained people are logical and mathematical is so pervasive that teachers are instructed to balance the brained-ness of their teachings. The brain does indeed have some specialized structures, but the idea that they cluster on opposite sides of the brain like rival gangs is ridiculous. CRACKED.COM http://www.livescience.com/655-lefty-myths-mysteries-persist.html — Source

11

MYTH: THE BLOOD LEAVING YOUR HEART IS BLUE. FACT: IT'S ACTUALLY DARKER ReD. The myth that deoxygenated blood is blue comes from the fact that through Caucasian skin, veins often look blue. While it's true that those blue vessels you're seeing carry blood without oxygen, the blood itself is actually not blue. The veins aren't blue, either. They primarily look blue because of the way light reflects off the skin. CRACKED.COM http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5607648_blood-look-blue-veins_.htmi — Source

10

MYTH: YOU Lose most OF YOUR BODY HEAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! FACT: YOU Lose HEAT THE SAme ALL OVER. Turns out covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other. The origin of this myth can be traced back to a 1950s U.S. Army study that put several test subjects through bitter cold conditions to measure the amount of body heat lost. But the army neglected to give their subjects hats. So naturally they lost heat through their heads. CRACKED.COM https://www. .theguardian.com/science/2008/dec/17/medicalresearch-humanbehaviour — Source

9

MYTH: SITTING CLOSE TO THE TV HURTS YOUR eyes! FACT: THERE'S no science TO BACK THAT UP. If there is a correlation between bad eyesight and sitting too close to the TV set, it's the other way around: People who sit close to the set do so because they already have poor vision. Staring at a screen for long periods of time can make your eyes tired and irritated, but that's because when you focus super hard, you forget to blink. CRACKED.COM https://www.aao.org/eyecare-america — Source

8

MYTH: ROLLING YOUR TONGUE IS A Genetic TRAIT. FACT: TONGUE ROLLING IS SOMETHING YOU LEARN. Elementary school science teachers like to use tongue rolling as an example when they're teaching about genetics. But it actually isn't an inherited trait. It's learned. It turns out that kids who can't roll their tongues aren't unable to- they just haven't figured out how, yet. And once they know about the trick, they figure it out pretty quickly. CRACKED.COM http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythtongueroll.html — Source

7

MYTH: HAIR AND NAILS keep GROWING AFTeR DEATH. FACT: THEY Don'T. THE REST OF YOU SHRIVELS. Just like anything else in your body, hair and nail growth require a constant supply of nutrients, oxygen, and blood to keep going. The myth probably stems from the fact that after death, the body starts to dry up and shrivel, and the skin pulls away from the nails and hair in such a way that by comparison it looks like they're getting longer. CRACKED.COM http://www. smh.com au/lifestyle/do-your-nails-and- hair-continue-to-grow-affer-death-20130606-2ntmy — Source

6

MYTH: HEART ATTACKS HURT REALLY BAD. FACT: some HEART ATTACKS GO unDeTecTeD. The Hollywood version of a heart attack, where a person clutches his chest and falls over like he's been shot, is not especially accurate. Some heart attacks feel like stomach pain and anxiety, for example. In fact, the symptoms are so frequently not-pain-in-the-chest that studies have found that 40 to 60 percent of heart attacks go unnoticed. CRACKED.COM http://www. webmd. .com/men/news/20060123/hollywood-heart-attack-vs-real-life#1 — Source

5

Your immune system actually needs to step off

MYTH: A STRONG immune SYSTEM FIGHTS COLDS. FACT: A COLD IS YOUR immune SYSTEM. Despite the rhetoric of the immunity-booster industry, a strong immune system won't keep you from getting a cold. Those annoying symptoms are caused by your immune system, and not the cold virus itself. In fact, the cold virus is actually mostly harmless, except for the fact that it causes your immune system to go bananas. CRACKED.COM https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/pg-fcg102408.php — Source

4

MYTH: FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL SUPER unique. FACT: THeY'Re ACTUALLY WORRYINGLY SIMILAR. Your fingerprints aren't all that unique - relatives will have matching ridges, for example - and even if they were, there are a large number of variables that can make technically different prints seem very similar. Fingerprint collection is so flawed, and the analysis so subjective, that even experts will get different results from the same set of prints. CRACKED.COM https://www. theguardian.com/science/2007/mar/23/crime.penal — Source

3

MYTH: CAN'T STOP BARFING? MUST ве THE FLU. FACT: THERE'S no SUCH THING AS STOMACH FLU. People who can't stop throwing up are likely experiencing gastroenteritis, which can be caused by anything from a virus to food-borne parasites. Michael Jordan didn't have the flu during the flu game, yet the nickname persists. The myth is so common that people who have stomach trouble after getting their flu shot assume the shot didn't work. CRACKED.COM http://chestertontribune. .com/indiana20News/stomach_flu_is_not_the_flu_but_w.htm — Source

2

MYTH: some PeoPLe'S BRAINS ARE JUST BeTTeR AT MATH. Cunlikely /chance)-not h symbol y used which w/ cramers chi square V test for independe aci pants for either rows /cols whichever is smaller VINI X2 (dfrow/col) when was 0.10 motorch 0.07 0.30 0.04 0.50 0 21 by to repr 0.35 I FACT: THERE'S no MATH cenTeR in THE BRAIN. It's true that a certain percentage of your intelligence is due to genetics (exactly how much is almost impossible to quantify) but there is no part of the brain that makes a person better at numbers. It simply seems to come — Source

1

MYTH: SHAVING OFF HAIR MAKES IT GROW BACK DARKER AND COARSER. FACT: SHAVING Doesn'T CHANGE HAIR TEXTURE. Facial and body hair is slightly tapered at the end. When you shave it, you're chopping it mid-strand and giving it a blunt tip. That tip might feel coarse or rough for a little while as your hair grows out. But even though the hair might be more noticeable and look darker or thicker, it isn't. CRACKED.COM http://www. mayoclinic org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/hair-removal/faq-20058427 — Source

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