12 "scientific" fallacies we have believed in since high school

1. You can't wake up sleepwalkers

Myth. In no case should you wake up a sleepwalker, otherwise he will have a heart attack, or he will fall into a coma, or he will simply fall to the floor and hurt himself.

Truth. If you wake upIs it dangerous to wake a sleepwalker?, Why Do People Sleepwalk? sleepwalker, he, of course, will be very surprised that he woke up not in his bed, but nothing terrible threatens him. And the fact that sleepwalkers deftly move in a dream is also a myth. They may well break something during their night walk or cut themselves. So it's better to wake a person up if you can't get him back to bed.

And yes, don't grab the sleepwalker or he'll get scaredWhat Happens if You Wake a Sleepwalker? and can begin to defend itself in a dream. Instead, call his name out loud.

2. Counting Sheep Helps Sleep

Myth. If you can't sleep for a long time, count the sheep. This tedious, monotonous task will tire your brain and you will fall asleep faster.

Truth. Research by the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford has shownThe management of unwanted pre-sleep thoughts in insomnia: distraction with imagery versus general distraction, Ask Healthy Living: Does Counting Sheep Really Help You Fall Asleep?, Forget counting sheep, go to sleep under a waterfallthat people who imagined landscapes and views of nature fall asleep the fastest. But those who count sheep, on the contrary, go to bed later. The point is, counting makes the brain gather and tense, but not relax.

3. Moles are blind

Myth. Moles are blind and move only by touch. And in some cases they don't even hear anything.

Truth. Only a few are blindThe New Encyclopedia of Mammals types of moles. Most can seeScientists shed light on eyesight of molesthough not very good. Vision is important for moles, because they use it for reproduction, and also with its help they determine the time of day and the season of the year.

4. And the fish are dumb

Myth. Fish are unable to make sounds. Therefore, when we want to describe someone's silence, we say "it is like a fish."

Truth. Fish make soundsMorozov V. P. "Entertaining bioacoustics", but not with the vocal cords, but with the help of the swim bladder. In large rivers like the Amazon, underwater microphones are simply deafened by the "singing" of fish.

5. Human urine and dog saliva are excellent antiseptics

Myth: Human urine sterile (especially for children), so if you have nothing to treat the wound, urinate on it. Dog saliva is sterile too, so let your pet lick the cut and it will heal faster.

Truth: Urine is not at all sterile and should never be used to clean wounds - no matter who it belongs to. In addition to bacteria, it contains“Sterile Urine” and the Presence of Bacteria, Urine various nitrogenous substances, uric acid, phosphates and other harmful components, from which the body seeks to get rid of.

Urine therapy is definitely evil.

The same applies to dog saliva. The claim that the mouth of an animal is cleaner than a human mouth is a colossal delusion.Is a Dog's Mouth Cleaner Than a Human's Mouth?. There are about 600 species of bacteria in the human mouth... and in the dog's too.

Only here people at least sometimes brush their teeth and do not pick up things from the floor with their mouths. Letting your pets lick their wounds puts you at risk of infection, amputation, and even death from blood poisoning.

Yes, even dogs are badShould Dogs Lick Wounds To Heal Them? lick your own wounds. Therefore, after various surgical operations, veterinarians put on special collars on them.

6. A drop of nicotine kills a horse

Myth. A drop of nicotine kills the horse. And the hamster tears to pieces. Well, right, let them not smoke.

Truth.Nicotine and the truth is very harmful and in its pure form will kill both a person and a horse. But it will take a little more nicotine to kill a standard 400 kg horse. So, according to studies, the lethal dose of oral nicotine for horses and mules isPharmacology and Toxicology of Nicotine with Special Reference to Species Variation, Lethal nicotine intoxication in a group of mules 100-300 mg. Pharmaceutical dropA drop - 0.05 ml.

That is, it can take up to six drops to kill a horse. For comparison, to poison a person, you needHow much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century from 500 mg of nicotine, that is, 10 drops.

7. Camels store water in humps

Myth. Camels store supplies in their humps water. Thanks to them, they can survive for a long time in the desert.

Truth. In humps, animals accumulate fat, which allows them to go without food for a couple of weeks, or even a month. Fat, being oxidized, can be converted into water by lipolysisLipolysis, What secrets lie within the camel's hump?, but this is a rather energy-consuming process. What really helps camels to live without drinking is the special arrangement of the circulatory system.

Their red blood cellsCamel not round, but oval, so that animals do not suffer from thickening of the blood, even when dehydrated. The camel is capableEncyclopedia of Deserts lose 25% of moisture in their body without harming themselves, while livestock already at 12-14% can die of heart failure.

In addition, camels sweat a little, get extra waterA PILGRIMAGE TO A MYSTIC'S HERMITAGE IN ALGERIA with inhaled air, defecate with dry manure and urinate little. The animal loses 1.3 liters of liquid consumed per day, while other cattle - 20-40 liters.

In general, the hump allows camels not to eat, and not to drink helps them.Do Camels Store Water in Their Humps? a special device of the body.

8. Diamonds are formed from coal

Myth. Most diamonds are obtained from compressed coal. So if you press very hard on a piece of this mineral, it becomes a gem.

Truth. Diamond and coal are made of carbon, that's true. However, the firstDiamond - This is a relatively pure carbon in crystalline form, and the second has many impurities such as nitrogen, selenium, mercury, arsenic and others. That is why a diamond cannot be made from coal. In the laboratory, these gemstones are made from graphite or hydrocarbon gas.

For that matter, most diamondsHow Do Diamonds Form? formed in the Precambrian eon - the time interval between the formation of the Earth (4.6 billion years ago) and the beginning of the Cambrian period (542 million years ago). And the earliest land plants that made coal grew 450 million years ago. So diamonds appeared before coal.

9. Ships regularly disappear in the Bermuda Triangle

Myth. The Bermuda Triangle is the most dangerous and mysterious place in the ocean. Thousands of ships and airplanes disappear without a trace, and scientists do not know why this is happening.

Truth. No more shipwrecks occur in the Bermuda TriangleStudy finds shipwrecks threaten precious seasthan most other waterways. Here on this mapcompiled by specialists from the Solent University, it can be seen that there are much more shipwrecks in the period from 1999 to 2011 occurred in the Black and South China Seas, as well as in the Atlantic off the coast of Great Britain.

The reason is simple: there is more traffic.

There is no talk of any "thousands" of ships missing in the Bermuda Triangle. Researcher Larry Kusche has collected statisticsThe Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved on incidents in the region and found out that ships and aircraft go missing there no more often than in any other point of the ocean. So the Bermuda Triangle is nothing more than a bike.

10. The soul weighs 21 grams

Myth. Man in the moment of death becomes 21 grams lighter. That is how much the soul weighs!

Truth. Strictly speaking, there is no research to prove that this very soul exists at all. In 1907, American physician Duncan McDougall decidedIs there lightness after death? to prove its existence, and for this he selected six people terminally ill with tuberculosis.

He weighed them before and after death, and one body in six turned out to be 21 grams lighter. This was enough for the doctor to announce the existence of a soul, which weighs exactly the same.

By the way, then Duncan McDougall weighed 15 more dogs and did not record any changes in their weight after death. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that these animals do not have a soul.

Explanation21 grams experiment, 21 Grams this "experiment" conducted over a century ago is very simple. After death, there is a temperature drop in the body, because the lungs no longer cool the blood, which leads to the removal of moisture from the body through sweating. And the body can lose a few grams.

Dogs have problems with sweating, they cool themselves through the mouth, so their weight does not change significantly.

11. The left half of the brain is responsible for analytics, the right half for creativity.

Myth. Different hemispheres of the brain are responsible for creative and analytical functions. The left is developed in people inclined to logic, the right - in creative individuals.

Truth. This is not true. Indeed, for some tasks, one hemisphere is sometimes involved more than the other, but it cannot be said that only one of them is working at a time. Most brain functions are distributedCerebral hemisphere, Neuromyth 6 more or less evenly between both hemispheres.

12. Theory is the same as guessing

Myth. A theory in science is a guess that most scientists simply believe. Therefore, the theory of evolution or origin The universe by the Big Bang - only assumptions, and to believe in them or not, you decide.

Truth. Scientific speculation is a hypothesisHypothesis. It is most likely true, but it has yet to be confirmed or disproved through experiments or observations. TheoryTheory - this is systemic knowledge, the truth of which is confirmed by observations or experiments.

Evolution is a fact confirmedEvolution both observations and experiments in the field of genetics. The big bang is also an established factBig explosion observations of the relict radiation of the Universe. And they do not depend on whether you believe in them or not.