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 3 of 26
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. Big Myths of Everyday Science 4 of 26 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 5 of 26 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 Big Myths of Everyday Science 6 of 26 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 Big Myths of Everyday Science 7 of 26 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 8 of 26 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 Big Myths of Everyday Science 9 of 26 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. Big Myths of Everyday Science 10 of 26
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