101 Science facts that aren't true

[LONDONER]

It's time for these 101 ridiculous science 'facts' to die

http://www.techinsider.io/worst-science-...ths-2016-1

[matty7]

Brilliant , that's one of my favourite posts from you Londoner - plus I actually learnt a few things , the ones I actually believed were the ones about sharks not getting cancer , I love nature dvd's so im presuming ive learnt that from one of them ...and they were wrong

[LONDONER]

Brilliant , that's one of my favourite posts from you Londoner - plus I actually learnt a few things , the ones I actually believed were the ones about sharks not getting cancer , I love nature dvd's so im presuming ive learnt that from one of them ...and they were wrong

Thank you Matty, such a compliment has made my day.

[Blackout]

Wonderful stuff!

[Genersis]

Thanks. I love learning trivia like this. It had a few I was unaware of.

[MikeMercury]

Just as that webpage points out mistakes it too has some.

According to astronaut Chris Hadfield and many other sources the Great Wall of China is not visible from space. At least not with the naked eye as it is too narrow and is the same colour as the surrounding rock.

The one about the Fermi paradox which should be called the Hart-Tipler argument is also wrong. The first person on record to ask the question, according to Wikipedia, was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and even he referenced other people.

I've never heard of some of the facts they are stating.

[Insertnamehere]

In which case it's better to call them myths.

Although I'm not sure if these are actual "science" myths or just things that "common" folks have perpetrated over time.

How many times I've found people here believing some nonsense just cause they read it online?

Pseudo-science is abundant and people outside the scientific world are of course prone to believe it because they don't have the body of knowledge necessary to make the distinction. Hence, why they are perpetrated as myths.

Any freshmen in any bio/biochem/medicine for instance would tell you that, as one of the 20 standard animoacids, tryptophan (while not frequent within a single protein sequence) you'd find frequently in various proteins, hence in any kind of meat, so:

1) All meats should make you sleepy, then. And any protein containing food too.

2) No, it doesn't. It's an aminoacid, it has no effect in any neuron receptor as far as I know. What does have an effect is serotonin, which is a neurotransmited derived from tryptophan. Serotonin is related to happiness and its physiological effects, anyway, not to drowsiness.

The food-on-floor bit...duh, especially since the kitchen is the most filthy place in the house. Any person with just a little bit of knowledge in basic microbiology can also tell you that.

It's really irritating that one can't control what thousands of non-knowledgable people (as far as the science areas go) pass off for science on a daily basis.

In which case, it's good to get ahold of information, basic or more specialized, as one can understand it so as to make the distinction oneself.

If anything, you should always treat everything with a bit of skepticism, you should look for the sources: i.e. don't take the words of the author of a news article, go the the people who did the experiment and wrote the paper about it and when you don't understand something, lets say a paper that had "x" experiment reaching to "y" conclusion you can even contact the person who wrote it and ask them about it!