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Big Myths of Everyday Science

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The myth: Food that you drop on the floor is


OK to eat if you pick it up within five seconds
(a.k.a. the "Five Second Rule"). The reality:
Germs are on the floor, and if food lands on
the germs, they will stick to the food
immediately. This is especially true in the
kitchen, where bacteria such as salmonella
thrive. Seen here is a salmonella culture, so
ask yourself: Do you want to eat that?Image
Credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Big Myths of Everyday Science
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The myth: Brain cells don't regenerate. The


reality: The reason people believe this myth is
that scientists thought for a long time that
complex brains would be disrupted by new
cell growth. In 1998, however, scientists in
Sweden and at the Salk Institute in La Jolla,
Calif., discovered that brain cells can
regenerate. The learning and memory center
of the brain can create new cells. Even better
news is that Steve Stice, a University of
Georgia stem cell researcher, discovered a
process to create replicas of human
embryonic stem cells that can morph into
brain cells. Shown above are stem cells from
a tank in his lab in Athens, Ga., Tuesday,
March 13, 2007.
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The myth: A penny dropped from a tall
building can kill someone on the ground. The
reality: While people may think a penny
dropped from the Empire State Building would
pick up enough speed to kill a person on the
ground, this just isn't true. The non-
aerodynamic nature of a penny, as well as its
relatively small mass, keeps this from
happening. A person on the ground would
most certainly feel a sting from the impact,
but the penny wouldn't kill.Image Credit:
Michel Porro/Getty Images
Big Myths of Everyday Science
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The myth: Lightning doesn't strike the same
place twice. The reality: Lightning can
absolutely strike the same place twice. In
fact, it's actually quite common -- the Empire
State Building is struck by lightning about 25
times per year, for example. Lightning favors
tall buildings and trees, but in a large field,
lightning is likely to strike the tallest object
several times before it moves sufficiently far
away to find another tall target. Above,
multiple bolts of lightning strike the ground in
the desert north of Scottsdale, Ariz., during a
late evening storm.Image Credit: AP
Photo/Scott Troyanos
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The myth: There's no gravity in space. The
reality: Yes, there is a lot of gravity in space.
So much, in fact, that gravity is what causes
stars to orbit the center of a galaxy, Earth to
orbit the sun and a satellite to orbit the Earth.
The reason that astronauts seem to be
weightless in space is that they are orbiting
Earth; they're falling towards it, but moving
sufficiently sideways to miss it. In short,
they're falling but never landing. At orbit
height, about 250 miles (402 kilometers)
above Earth, gravity is only reduced by 10
percent.Image Credit: NASA/Getty Images
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The myth: There is a dark side of the moon.
The reality: The dark side of the moon only
exists as a Pink Floyd album. The sun
illuminates every part of the moon at some
point. There is, however, a side of the moon
that is never visible from Earth. This is caused
by tidal locking, which causes the moon to
take just as long to rotate around its own axis
as it does to revolve around Earth. We always
see the same side of the moon, but the other
side isn't always dark -- when we have a
crescent moon, sunlight mostly illuminates
the side we don't see.Image Credit: Mike
Hewitt/Getty Images
Big Myths of Everyday Science
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The myth: Evolution means getting better, or
going from "lower" to "higher." The reality:
Though natural selection weeds out less
advantageous genes from the gene pool,
imperfect organisms often survive. Mosses,
fungi, sharks and crayfish, among others,
have remained basically unchanged over long
periods of time. Other species have changed
a lot, and not always in ways that seem like
obvious improvements. Evolving to be more
"fit" doesn't necessarily mean a species
makes "progress" -- it just means it is more
likely to survive and reproduce in its
environment.Image Credit: Dan
Kitwood/Getty Images
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The myth: Humans explode in the vacuum of
space. The reality: This comes from science
fiction movies, not real life. Humans can
survive brief encounters with empty space as
long as they fully exhale beforehand. This
keeps the lungs from bursting, which would
send air into the bloodstream. Without
oxygen, however, the person will pass into
unconsciousness and die from asphyxiation.
This is one reason why space suits are so
important: They let us breathe in the vacuum
of space.
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The myth: Synthetic chemicals are


dangerous. The reality: Many chemicals made
in laboratories and factories are exactly the
same as those found in nature, and very few
synthetic products are as toxic as natural
substances. Some natural chemicals are fatal.
Cyanide is a natural substance, and it's fatal
at a dose of 10,000 mcg. Botulism is natural,
but a thimbleful could kill half the people in a
city. Even common plants like poison oak and
poison ivy are dangerous. On the other hand,
the majority of prescription drugs are
synthetic, and they've helped dramatically
increase life expectancy.Image Credit: David
McNew/Getty Images

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