You can't believe everything you see in the movies.
Here are some of the ballsiest lies movies told us about science.
The laser's edge
Lasers are the de facto sci-fi weapon, revered for their ability to make things disintegrate
and also because they come in lots of different cool colors.
Or, at least, that's what we've been taught by our favorite movies.
"They played us like a damn fiddle!"
In reality, our beloved sci-fi movies have been deceiving us since movie aliens first
descended from Mars and pointed their weapons at helpless Earthlings.
And although they're based on a real technology, the sad truth is that lasers are really boring.
According to How Stuff Works, to make a laser beam visible, you have to put particles in
its path, just like any beam of light.
You'll see the same effect with a regular flashlight.
In real life?
Unless the Enterprise is flying through a cloud of space dust, those cool space battles
would be nothing but invisible lasers.
Lame.
Pew, pew, pew!
We have established that you can't see laser beams in space, and we're all pretty bummed
about that.
And because we haven't pooped on enough parties yet, let's go one further and say that you
can't actually hear laser beams in space, either.
"So, who are you, man?"
"BLEEP!"
"I'm the party pooper."
So not only do laser weapons not go "pew, pew, pew," you also won't hear any giant booming
sounds when things explode and you won't hear that awesome wooo-wooo-wooo sound as the TARDIS
travels across time and space.
That's because there isn't any air in space, and sound needs air to travel.
Because sound is basically just our interpretation of vibrations made by various objects, like
vocal chords, footsteps, or lasers that make "pew pew" sounds… and because there's no
air in space for the sound waves to travel through, there's nothing to pick up those
vibrations and move them along.
So, no sound, no booming explosions, and no "pew, pew, pew."
Space is turning out to be a really disappointing place.
"I'm in space."
"I know you are, mate.
Ya, we're both in space."
"SPAAAAAACE."
Let dead dinos lie
Remember that moment in the first Jurassic Park movie, when the camera descends upon
that piece of amber with the mosquito trapped inside it, and the world has a collective
"aha" moment where we realize that all the information we need to resurrect extinct species
might lie within a 150-million-year-old wad of tree sap?
It's just a fantasy, not unlike the fantasy that Newman from Seinfeld might finally get
his comeuppance from a venom-spewing Jurassic jungle lizard.
Says who?
Says scientists who can't even find DNA in 60-year-old copal, which is the sub-fossilized
pre-amber version of amber.
According to SciNews, a team of researchers at Manchester University used "sensitive next
generation methods" to try and extract DNA from insects preserved in copal, and they
failed.
Miserably.
Which, if you've seen the movies, you'll know is actually a good thing.
"Mr. Hammond, I think we're back in business.
AAHHH!!!"
Mama said knock you out
When movie bad guys want to capture someone alive, they soak a piece of cloth in chloroform,
put it over their victim's nose and mouth, and within seconds that person has collapsed.
But if it were that easy to knock someone out with chloroform, don't you think every
evil jerk would be doing it?
According to Technology.org, the reason there isn't an epidemic of chloroform-related kidnappings
is because it actually takes a really, really long time for chloroform to knock someone
out.
"Ahhgg…
We ALL got chloroformed!"
"Somebody chloroformed all of us."
This particular myth does have some basis in fact, during the early 20th century, chloroform
was used as an anesthetic, which means criminals could easily obtain it.
But for the average would-be kidnapper, chloroform is not really a very effective tool because
it can actually take up to five minutes to incapacitate a healthy adult.
So as take-them-alive weapons go, not really very efficient.
Forget about it!
Who among us hasn't dreamed that a good thwack on the noggin will one day erase all memory
of that really embarrassing thing we did six years ago at the Christmas party?
"Hello.
Who are you?"
"I'm Ron Weasley."
"Really?
And, um… who am I?"
One of the most famous Hollywood amnesia victims is Jason Bourne from the Bourne Identity films,
who forgot his entire life after a near-drowning experience.
Well, if all this scientific mythbusting hasn't messed you up enough, NeuroPsyFi would also
like you to know that in real life brain damage usually doesn't lead to retrograde amnesia,
the kind where you forget your past.
Some brain injuries do, however, cause the anterograde type, where you can remember your
past but you can't remember stuff that has happened to you since the accident.
And if someone does experience severe retrograde amnesia like Jason Bourne's, there's almost
always anterograde amnesia, too.
Sorry Jason, you may have the upper hand when it comes to beating bad guys to mush with
coffee table books, but you can't beat science.