10 popular science-based myths that are ashamed to believe

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Does hair grow after death, how clean is the dog's saliva, and how humans are related to monkeys.

1. The human body is completely renewed every 7 years

The cells in our body are constantly being renewed. It takes about seven years for all of them to be replaced with new ones. But if all these years you have not seen your friend and finally met, the question arises: is this the same person if there is not a single particle in him from the familiar to you in the past? A kind of Theseus' paradox.

What really is. In 2005, researcher from the Department of Cell Microbiology at the Karolinska Institute, Jonas Frisen, published Retrospective Birth Dating of Cells in Humans, which focuses on the lifespan of individual human cells. He found that on average it is 7-10 years.

Journalists from The New York Times Your Body Is Younger Than You Think and other publications, having seen these numbers, came to the conclusion that every seven years all the cells of the human body change. This is where this bike came from. But if they had read more closely the work of Jonas Frisen, they would have learned some of the details.

The scientist found that different cells change in different ways.

For example, intestinal cells live on average 10, 7 years. The epithelium is renewed every 5 days, and skeletal muscles - every 15.1 years. The cells in the gray matter of the brain are finally formed by the age of two and then stay with you for life. At the same time, the cells of the occipital cortex continue to renew themselves. The cells that make up the lenses of the eyes are also unchanged The aging lens and cataract: a model of normal and pathological aging.

Therefore, it cannot be argued that all cells in the body change over time. Some of them serve us throughout life, others are replaced, but at very different intervals. So there is no talk of any complete renovation.

2. Lightning never strikes the same place

If lightning strikes some place, it will no longer strike there. This is a highly selective weather phenomenon.

What really is. According to research by Lightning really does strike more than twice by NASA specialists, there is a 67% chance that lightning will strike at least twice in the same place or in an area within a radius of 10 to 100 meters from it.

Discharges regularly hit high-rise buildings. For example, the Empire State Building is hit 100 times a year. Roy Sullivan, ranger of Shenandoah Park in Virginia, has been struck by lightning 7 times in his career. He survived, and even ended up in the Guinness Book of Records.

Believing this myth can cost you your life.

Therefore, during a thunderstorm, you do not need to go where you saw lightning, in the hope that it will not appear there again. Instead, find cover and stay away from windows, electricity, metal objects, and tall objects.

3. Hair and nails grow after death

When a person dies, some of his cells continue to live and multiply for some time. For example, those that make up nails and hair. And so they grow. Creepy, isn't it?

This grim detail is often mentioned in the literature. For example, on the pages of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the hero reflects on how his comrade Kemmerich's nails and hair will grow after he dies.

What really is. When the heart stops beating, the supply of oxygen to the cells in the body stops and they begin to die. Skin cells, however, live long enough - transplant surgeons have about 12 hours to take it from a recently deceased person.

But still, after death, neither nails nor hair grow Do your hair and fingernails grow after death?: Nail bed injuries and deformities of nail are needed so that the body has a working heart, respiratory system and blood flow to transport glucose. Without its reserves, cells cannot multiply and die off.

In addition, the growth of hair and nails is directed by medical myths complex hormonal regulation that stops after death.

But where did the idea come from that corpses grow hair and nails? The fact is that after death, the skin quickly dehydrates and dries out. As a result of this, parts of the nails that were previously hidden are becoming visible, which gives an eerie impression that they continue to grow. Likewise with hair: the skin dries up, which visually does Do a person's hair and fingernails continue to grow after death? the hair is fuller, and the stubble is more noticeable.

4. People descended from monkeys

All in the slightest degree reasonable people know that man descended from a monkey. And those who deny this are religious fanatics and obscurantists.

What really is. It is believed that Charles Darwin was the first to put forward the theory of the origin of man from a monkey. But before him, such assumptions were made by the naturalist Georges Louis Buffon. People and monkeys are really very similar. Our DNA, for example, is 98.8% identical to DNA: Comparing Humans and Chimps with chimpanzee DNA.

And when we hear “people descended from monkeys,” we imagine that some particularly clever gorilla or chimpanzee mutated into the first person. But this, of course, is not the case. What, by the way, was the famous scientist himself writing about Darwin, C. R. 1871. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. Volume 1. 1st edition:

We should not, however, fall into another mistake, assuming that the ancient ancestor of the entire monkey genus, not excluding man, was identical or even closely similar to any of the existing monkeys.

Charles Darwin "Human Origins and Sexual Selection"

Humans did not descend from modern primates. They just share the ape-like ancestor of Introduction to Human Evolution with them. Saying that humans descended from monkeys is the same as saying that your cousin gave birth to you.

The same chimpanzees have been around longer than humans. Their species The Divergence of Chimpanzee Species and Subspecies as Revealed in Multipopulation Isolation ‑ with ‑ Migration Analyzes is a million years old, our (Homo sapiens) is approximately Oldest Fossils of Our Species Push Back Origin of Modern Humans 300,000. Our evolutionary paths diverged about 6 –7 million years ago.

And today's monkeys do not evolve into humans for a simple reason: as Why Haven’t All Primates Evolved into Humans said? Brianna Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, "they are fine anyway."

5. We only use 10% of the brain

You are using only a small part of the capacity of your brain. In fact, its possibilities are endless. Turn on this organ 100% and you can heal people, see the future, talk to aliens and fly.

What really is. The myth that the brain is only used by 10% has been debunked many times, but it continues to live in the media and in culture. This is just nonsense. Most likely, the legend appeared due to misinterpretation of research results Do we use only 10 percent of our brain? neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield. He manipulated the brain with electrodes to determine which parts of the brain were more sensitive to interference.

The most noticeable effect (for example, changes in motor skills or perception) was manifested when only some parts of the organ reacted to electricity - about 10% of its mass. The writer Lowell Thomas, seeing this figure, replicated Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains? a myth that this is exactly how much we use the brain.

However, in reality this is not the case. According to Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains? neurologist Barry Gordon, most of the brain is active almost all the time and there are no areas that are not working at all.

6. Dog saliva is cleaner than human

Dogs are much smarter, kinder and more loyal than people. And their saliva is generally sterile. If a furry pet licks you, you don't need to wash your face. In addition, human bites are more dangerous than dog bites. After all, human saliva carries much more microbes and provokes infection.

What really is. First, human saliva is no more conducive to Dog, cat, and human bites: a review of wound infection than saliva from other mammals. The risk of contamination is approximately 10%. But at the same time, animal bites are more dangerous than Animal Bites, because they do not particularly monitor oral hygiene. There are known cases of Former soldier left fighting for his life from rare killer infection caused by dog licking him, when people whose wounds were licked by dogs received serious complications.

Allowing the animal's saliva to get on the affected area of the skin, you risk catching meningitis Pasteurella multocida meningitis in infancy - (a lick may be as bad as a bite) Review of bacterial and viral zoonotic infections transmitted by dogs Salmonella, Pasteurella, Campylobacter and Leptospira, and also to get hold of parasites.

So wash your hands and wash your face after communicating with your dog, do not neglect the veterinary examination and do not meddle with other people's pets.

7. Einstein did not study well

The most famous physicist in the world was a poor student. He had a hard time studying at school. But then he began to use the brain not 10%, but 100%, after which he created the theory of relativity! His example tells us that everyone can become great.

What really is. If you look at the Einstein's certificate in Aarau (assessments on a six-point scale) of Einstein, it will immediately become clear that this myth is far from reality. He had excellent grades in science and mathematics, he could play the violin and perfectly mastered Latin and Greek, although he did not like these subjects for the need to memorize a lot.

The only thing that was not so good for him was French.

Perhaps the myth arose Einstein revealed as brilliant in youth due to the fact that the grading system at Einstein's school changed. This used to be 6 was the highest rating, 1 the lowest. Then the scale was turned over and 1 became the highest score. So do not flatter yourself. If your blockhead learns from Cs, he is unlikely to become the second Einstein.

8. Telegony exists

It is known that women retain the DNA of all their sexual partners in themselves, even if the relationship occurred a very long time ago. Thus, it may well turn out that fair-skinned, blond Europeans will have a dark-skinned baby (genetic memory, everything).

This phenomenon is called "telegony", and its existence was proved by Charles Darwin. More precisely, not himself: the scientist only referred to experiment III. A communication of a singular fact in natural history. By the Right Honorable the Earl Morton, F. R. S. in a letter addressed to the President of Lord Morton's mare and zebra crossing. But all the same - Darwin will not say nonsense.

What really is. There is no telegony. James Ewart's Statistics of telegony series refutes Morton's experiments. Subsequent studies of Heredity also did not find evidence for the existence of such a phenomenon.

It should be said that in some animals, sperm cells live much longer than in humans. For example, guppy fish can give offspring from the same male several times, because they store his sex cells in the body for a long time. But human sperm are viable Sperm FAQ for about 5 days, no more.

9. Nobel's wife cheated on him with a mathematician

As you know, the Nobel Prize is not given to mathematicians. It is awarded only for achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature and for promoting world peace. Mathematicians are in flight.

This is all because the wife of chemist, inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel cheated on him with the mathematician Magnus Mittag-Leffler.

What really is. This is a funny legend, but its credibility is slightly hampered by the fact The reason there is no “nobel prize for mathematics” had nothing to do with any wife / mistress of Alfred Nobel that Nobel was never married. In some variations of the myth, the wife was replaced by a bride or mistress. And Nobel really had the last one - an Austrian named Sophie Hess.

But there is no evidence that she knew Magnus Mittag-Leffler at all.

So why didn't Nobel include mathematics on his “award list”? We are unlikely to know for certain, but there are several assumptions about the No Nobel Prize for Math.

• Nobel instituted prizes only for those areas that interested him, and mathematics was not included there.
• Swedish monarch Oscar II, at the insistence of Mittag-Leffler himself, established a prize in mathematics even before the Nobel. The first to receive it were such masters as Hermite, Bertrand, Weierstrass and Poincaré. Perhaps Nobel simply did not want to create another prize.
• The inventor was more interested in research that was useful from a practical point of view, and he considered mathematics to be too theoretical a field of knowledge.

10. Coriolis force affects toilet water

Water flushed into a bathroom or toilet in the Southern Hemisphere rotates clockwise, while in the Northern Hemisphere it rotates counterclockwise. This is a consequence of the influence of the Coriolis force on it (roughly speaking, this is the inertia from the rotation of the Earth). Knowing this, experienced sailors can even determine the moment they crossed the equator by looking at the toilet flush.

What really is. There really is such a thing as the Coriolis Effect. It affects large phenomena such as the movement of air masses, hurricanes and ocean currents, the formation of river beds, as well as small things like the ballistics of long-range sniper bullets or gun shells.

But on the flush in the toilet, the effect of the Coriolis force is so small that it can be neglected.

Basically, the direction of movement of water is determined by the design of the drain and water supply and the pressure of the liquid. This was proven by Coriolis myths and draining bathtubs back in 1962 by Asher Shapiro, an expert on fluid mechanics at MIT.

By the way, you can watch an experiment conducted by physicist Derek Mueller and engineer Destin Sandlin. They, being in opposite hemispheres, simultaneously drained the colored water and found no differences in the flow.