Experts and Scientests; What are some commonly held misconceptions that have been debunked or just really cool things that you believe the rest of the world doesnt know about.

Zergling_Supermodel · 7 months

Women are 30% more likely to orgasm during sex if their feet are warm.

Conchobair · 7 months

Most people in the ancient world knew the world was round.

*Just going to put this here for people's enjoyment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gD6Solpy4aQ#t=33s

riverfunk · 7 months

white-nose syndrome is killing off the majority of the northeastern USA's bat population. our best research to stop this basically says we can kill this fungus, g. destructans, with bleach. further research shows that it can live in caves/roosts for significant periods of time without a bat host.

worst part is that its spreading west and south. when you consider that bats represent 20% of the classified mammalian species, that's a pretty big dent in our ecosystem.

pheel23 · 7 months

An HIV+ individual who is on effective treatment reduces their chances of infecting another individual by 96% . You are more likely to catch HIV from someone who doesn't know their status than you are from someone who knows that they have HIV and is taking medicine.

SoapKing · 7 months

Ran across this in neuroscience class:

"a headless cat retains all of its normal functions like standing, scratching an itch, walking on a treadmill, and adjusting posture to prevent falling over."

Originally conducted by Russian scientists, the experiment was reproduced by Jerome Lettvin.

Perhaps more interesting is Lettvin's encounter with an Octopus. After teasing his son's pet octopus, Juvenile Delinquent (JD), the octopus spent the night practicing how to blast Lettvin in the face with a squirt of water, and succeeded in soaking Lettvin the following morning.

Source (under Trivia)

somethngrandom2635 · 7 months

New drugs are really not proven safe until thousands of people have taken them and followed their health for many years to get a data point other than, "this will not kill you immediately". I know of one drug study that was doing animal testing (you start with rodents and work your way up to primates)...when it came time to test primates, it turned the monkey's butt purple. You never can tell what will happen during metabolism.

ZootKoomie · 7 months

The idea that kids today are digital natives and natural multitaskers whose brains work in different way from previous generations.

When actually tested, they pick up new technological skills no faster or more adeptly than older people and, although they think they're great at doing multiple things at once, they do poorly at each of those things just like everyone else.

WarehouseJim · 7 months

Homo Sapiens are not uniquely intelligent just because we use tools. In the "Walking with Cavemen" documentary, they say one of our earlier ancestors (homo habilis maybe?) made the same type of ax that was found in fossils separated by thousands of years. They likened it to a bird building a nest.

sevenofdiamonds · 7 months

It is possible to make all precious gems in laboratories/factories at qualities equal to or better than what can be mined. These intentionally grown gems are chemically identical to their natural counterparts, can be purchased at most jewelers, cost roughly 1/100 of the price of a mined gem, and come with none of the political baggage of mining in developing countries.

In the particular case of diamonds, lab grown diamonds have become so good that DeBeers had to design sophisticated testing instruments to distinguish factory-made from natural gems.

DrDerpberg · 7 months

I don't know if anyone will be interested by this, but here goes...

I'm doing a Masters of Engineering in structural engineering, doing a lot of structural dynamics/earthquake-resistant design, etc., but I'm not a seismologist or anything. This is obviously written from a "why we care/how will it damage our cities" perspective.

The Richter scale for measuring earthquakes was designed to describe one type of earthquake in California. It is not even close to accurate to compare earthquakes occuring in different parts of the world, at different distances from cities, different depths in the ground, etc. You can't just say "this EQ was a 5.6, that one was a 6.9, why did the 5.6 cause so much more damage?". Journalists who cover earthquakes do a huge disservice to people's understanding by always giving you the Richter measurement of it when, really, the only place Richter is truly appropriate is for measuring one type of earthquake in California. Without getting too scientific, I think it would actually be better to use one of the many subjective scales that people can understand (i.e: the Mercalli scale ).

DogsEyeView · 7 months

Women smell better, are more symmetrical/attractive, and have increased verbal fluency during the peak fertility phase (estrus) of their ovulatory cycle. I initially came across this while reading the ignoble winning study on strippers earning more in tips during their estrus phase.

If I were a woman I would schedule all presentations, first dates and job interviews during my estrus phase.

mileylols · 7 months

I'm pretty sick of people asking me when we are going to "cure" cancer. Cancer is a whole group of diseases, each of which will (hopefully, eventually) have its own specific treatment.

Ntang · 7 months

Africa does not contain the poorest people in the world. The largest number of people living in extreme poverty in the world are in India. (The African continent has nearly as many people living in it as India does.) India also has the largest number of children suffering from malnutrition. The large majority of the African continent is also completely peaceful, safe and nice to visit.

RandianHero · 7 months

When you see somebody defibrillating a person with a flatline rhythm (asystole) on an EKG, they're doing it wrong. A defibrillator works by stopping the electrical activity in the heart in the hope that the impulse will reset itself and return to a regular rhythm. Asystole is the absence of electrical activity, so when you shock it, you're stopping something that's already been stopped.

A lot of TV shows were ruined for me when I became a paramedic.

Technicolor_Yawn · 7 months

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence"

2percent · 7 months

The correct term is "Venomous snakes", not "poisonous."

pepperharvest · 7 months

We shouldn't really use the term "Survival of the Fittest" which implies that only the very best individuals survive to pass along their genes. In the long run the slowest, dumbest, sickest and weakest individuals in a population tend to get removed from the gene pool, so the correct term is "Survival of Everyone Except the Least Fit". The Very Best tend to survive and pass on genes, but so do the Pretty Good, and the Mediocre.

It's a subtle difference, but important.

[deleted] · 7 months

The palm oil industry is responsible for most of the deforestation in Indonesia and will likely end up causing orangutans to go extinct if palm oil expansion doesn't slow down in the upcoming decade.

theungod · 7 months

The whole "turkey makes you sleepy" thing. I don't know why people still pass this around despite the fact it's utter bullshit. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp

Phallic · 7 months

I love pondering the size of the universe.

Even trying to comprehend the size of our Solar System is impossible.

OK, so there's this thing called the Oort Cloud, and the Oort Cloud is a bunch of rocks and debris floating around way out past Pluto.

It's still considered part of our Solar system, though, because it orbits around the sun. So how far away is the Oort Cloud?

Well, in astronomy there's a unit of measurement called the AU (or Astronomical Unit) and 1 AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth (About 150 million km).

So, imagine that the Solar system is shrunk down to size so that 1 AU is now 1 foot. You have the sun sitting at your feet, and the Earth is sitting one foot away from the sun. On this scale, Pluto is 40 feet away.

Got that idea in your head? Good. Now, where's this Oort Cloud (Remember, it's still part of our solar system).

The heart of the Oort Cloud is fifty thousand feet away. 50,000 AU. The universe is so freaking big.

expletive-deleted · 7 months

I always wondered what a canola was, then I found out that canola oil is actually rape oil. Brilliant marketing move.

dtrainusmc · 7 months

Megapixels don't matter as much as you think. A lot of it marketing. It only matters when you blow the picture up.

Onslow_Skils · 7 months

There is no lead in pencils.

provibe4000 · 7 months

Most people outside of physics/engineering dont know about the double slit experiment

Marcob10 · 7 months

There is no clear evidence of today's vaccines being harmful or having important neurological impact on some people (like people claiming it causes autism in kids...).

Vaccines are efficient and safe.

jelly_wobble_head · 7 months

There's no conclusive study to show that salt is bad for you or that it raises your blood pressure.

Edit; Here's an article to corroborate.

coreythechemist · 7 months

Grapefruit juice can make certain medicines more potent. This works by inhibiting the enzymes that metabolize them.

akimtke · 7 months

The idea of electrical current flowing from a positive to negative terminals is a convention used since it was defined. It was once thought to be electrons flowing in that direction, however we now know it is wrong. Electrons flow from negative charge to positive charge since electrons are negatively charged and are attracted to positive charge. Thus electrical current is defined as the opposite flow of electrons in a charged medium.

icehouse_lover · 7 months

Baby oil is not made from babies

IrrevrentHoneyBadger · 7 months

Cool thing - Mixing pool chlorine and brake fluid will result in a violent reaction producing immense heat (fire).

Drilz24 · 7 months

Glass is not a liquid

strong_grey_hero · 7 months

You can't be allergic to anything without proteins.

If you have reactions (usually non-autoimmune) to other substances, you are sensitive to them, you don't have an allergy.

RedditRage · 7 months

Lift is not fully explained via Bernoulli's Equation (pressure differential), and must invoke newton's 3rd law.

FocusOnThePie · 7 months

That people think Petite Lap Giraffes are real.

novacolumbia · 7 months

That swimming after eating will lead to muscle cramping. It may be uncomfortable because you're full but you are unlikely to drown.

360walkaway · 7 months

Cracking your knuckles does not give you arthritis.

asahisuperdry · 7 months

The reason civilizations exists is (quite possibly) because people wanted to drink beer. The production of enough grains and wheat to make beer requires agriculture and irrigated fields. With the "hunter gatherer" lifestyle, the volume of grain required to make beer was not available.

Also, lots of women orgasm during rape.

PabstyLoudmouth · 7 months

I wish more people knew about Aerogel and it's ability to change the world in many ways. It has the ability to insulate with minimal heat/cold transfer and is highly durable. One day we will not need heaters or air conditioners once applied correctly.

nobcheese · 7 months

I'm always surprised how many people still believe vitamin C helps recovery or prevention of colds and flues. Taking vitamin C supplements actually does dick all to prevent/ help recovery from a cold or flu.

Moistened_Bint · 7 months

My understanding is that Columbus was using a German model (can't remember the name, but it was based off of earlier Greek and Egyptian calculations) of the world that was one third the size of the actual earth. So, he was actually making an educated guess...just based off the wrong information.

the_bearded_wonder · 7 months

A triceratops is just the juvenile version of a torosauros, not a completely different species.

Plumphooey · 7 months

Eating sugar doesn't make kids hyperactive

a_contact_juggler · 7 months

Juggling fire and/or knives is neither difficult nor dangerous if you can successfully execute the basic cascade pattern.

Here are a few examples of extremely difficult, beautiful, and technique-centered juggling:

Two minutes of BEASTLY technical juggling which is light-years beyond what I could ever hope to do.
Juggling is athletic and artistic. Here is a brilliantly shot video with tons of creative, challenging and original material.
This is about as low and fast and smooth as three and four ball juggling can get. (compare with my humble attempts at some of the same moves.)
Here one of the most talented female jugglers alive. Everything she is doing is incredibly challenging, and she makes it look effortless.

3dwinn · 7 months

This should get you started.

RoastBeefOnChimp · 7 months

I majored in math but did a lot of statistical physics. The coolest thing I learned is that when you more pump energy into a system than goes out, it starts self-organizing. Life is a special case of this.

The Second Law only applies to closed systems.

skintigh · 7 months

The entire concept of "nature vs. nurture" is crippling to human thought.

It's like asking "which of the 'two' letters of the alphabet spell every word" -- it's reductionist and absurd. Just like there are more than 2 letters in the alphabet and words are spelled with a combination of letters, neither nature or nurture is responsible for everything and it ignores things like womb conditions, epigenetics, random gene activation, chaos, etc.

Examples:

Are fingerprints the result of nurture? Of course not, so they must be genetic, right? Except twins have different fingerprints. And retinal patterns. And vein patterns. And sexuality.

What you maternal grandmother ate while she was pregnant with your mother while the egg that later became you was forming in that fetus, and what your father ate while his body was making the sperm that became you, both affects your epigentics and your susceptibility to chronic disease.

KrunoS · 7 months

That even if a molecule has the same formula and structure there can be many different variations.

This depends on which orbital is used for what bond. If for instance atom A is poking out to the front, it's not the same molecule if atom A is poking out to the back.

What's shocking is that one can kill you while the other might be essential for life. This is what happened with thalidomide. Its synthesis produced two versions of the drug. One was inactive in developed humans while the other relieved morning sickness. Unfortunately, the inactive version interfered with embryonic development causing the malformations characteristic in children born after their mothers had been taking thalidomide.

NegativeChirality · 7 months

There is no such thing as "nothing". The universe is filled with the 'quantum foam': a frothing sea of virtual particles constantly being created and annihilated.

The 'vacuum' is anything but 'empty'. See also: vacuum energy and the related Casimir effect

Xoebe · 7 months

Here's mine:

90% of a tree's roots are within 12"-18" (30cm-45cm) of the surface of the soil.
This is because roots need to breathe. Not much, and it varies by species.
Roots take in oxygen and emit carbon dioxide, unlike leaves.
Vertical tap roots are a myth. If anyone ever found a 60 foot long root, it was certainly not a a tap root, it was just a long root. Besides, there's no way in hell you could pull a 60 foot vertical tap root out of the ground.
Tree roots can commonly extend twice the distance from the trunk than the tree is tall.
Certain species of trees, in a forest, will merge their roots and form an interconnected network.

Bonus: Wood's tensile strength, for it's weight, is stronger than steel.

Extra bonus: Plants are classified by their morphology, and not by genetic comparison. Morphology means all the shapes and structures of a plant, down to the microscopic level, so it's a pretty fair way to classify plants. But when someone says plant species are "related" it doesn't really mean much other than they might have a common ancestor, because they have similar characteristics. This is changing, by the way, DNA analysis is revealing much about how plants are truly related. Maybe we'll be able to reclassify Hedera helix and Fatsia japonica as subvarieties of the same species! Well, probably not.

CallMeGG · 7 months

MSG is no worse for your body than other commonly consumed salts. So like all other salts, everything in moderation.

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