Who hasn't shared an amazing science fact only to feel embarrassed later on, when you find out the information was wrong? No more!
It's time to put an end to the most alluring science myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies passed down through the ages.
1. Myth: eating ice cream will make your cold worse
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If you're home sick with a cold, you can totally go ahead and comfort yourself with some ice cream.
The idea that dairy increases mucous production is very fortunately not true, according to researchers and a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, who says "in fact, frozen dairy products can soothe a sore throat and provide calories when you otherwise may not eat."
Bless him.
Sources: Business Insider, American Review of Respiratory Disease, Mayo Clinic
.2. Myth: sharks can smell a drop of blood from miles away
This one is a big exaggeration. Jaws is not coming for you from across the ocean if you bleed in the water.
Shark have a highly enlarged brain region for smelling odors, allowing some of the fish to detect as little as 1 part blood per 10 billion parts water — roughly a drop in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
But it the ocean is much, much, much bigger and it takes awhile for odor molecules to drift. On a very good day when the currents are favorable, a shark can smell its prey from a few football fields away — not miles.
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3. Myth: the moon's gravity pulling on water causes the tides
This is only half true.
On the side of Earth that's facing the moon, the moon's gravity does indeed pull water toward it to cause tides.
On the other side of Earth, however, gravity is weaker (from the moon's pull on the other side) and it's the inertia of water from the Earth's rotation at work: spinning at about 1,040 mph flings ocean water into a slight bulge we recognize as the tide.
Sources: NOAA, NASA
.The world's tallest mountain technically is not Mount Everest.
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level, but if we're talking mountain base-to-summit height, then the tallest is the island of Hawaii that peaks as Mauna Kea.
Everest stands 29,035 feet above sea level. Mauna Kea only stands 13,796 feet above seal level, but the mountain extends about 19,700 feet below the Pacific Ocean. Over half of it is submerged.
That puts the total height of Mauna Kea at about 33,500 feet — nearly a mile taller than Everest.
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5. Myth: the sahara is the biggest desert on earth
REUTERS/Deborah Zabarenko
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Not all deserts are hot and full of sand. They need only be dry and inhospitable.
Antarctica fits the bill, since it receives only two inches of precipitation a year and has few land animals.
At 5.4 million square miles compared to the Sahara's 3.6 million square miles, the Bottom of the World is a vastly larger desert.
Sourcse: USGS (1, 2), NASA, Encyclopedia of Earth (1, 2)
.6. Myth: humans have five senses
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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Sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are just the beginning.
Don't forget about balance, temperature, and time, as well as proprioception — the body awareness that helps us not walk into things all the time — and nociception, our sense of pain.
Source: Business Insider
.7. Myth: there are only 3 phases of matter: solid, liquid, and gas
You forgot one: Plasma.
It's easy to assume solids are the most abundant form of matter in the cosmos, since we all live on a giant rock. But plasma is vastly more abundant; stars, including the sun, are gigantic orbs of glowing plasma.
Sources: NASA, Southwest Research Institute
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8. Myth: mixing energy drinks with alcohol makes you drunker
Reuters
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Turns out it just energizes you.
The problem is the extra shot of energy can make you feel less intoxicated than you actually are, which might lead you to drink more alcohol than normal.
Sources: Business Insider, California State University
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9. Myth: sitting too close to the tv is bad for your eyes
The most this will do is give you a headache from eye fatigue.
This rumor probably started with old TVs, which produced some X-rays, but newer ones don't.
Source:New York Times
.10. Myth: water conducts electricity
flickr user: elitatt
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Pure or distilled water doesn't conduct electricity well at all.
The reason we can get shocked when standing in electrified water is because water we come across will be contaminated by minerals, dirt, and other things that will conduct electricity.
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Source:
IFLScience
Summarised by Nguyen Thanh Ngoc (Jenny)
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