You only use 10% of your brain. Never start a sentence with a conjunction. Albert Einstein
failed math in high school. There are a surprising number of urban myths and co-called "common
knowledge" that turns out to be misinformation. Here are some lies they taught you in school.
This feel-good story was practically shoved down U.S. students' throats during elementary
school. The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the land was inhospitable to the newcomers,
and many of them starved. Luckily for the colonists, the indigenous people felt bad
for them and taught them how to grow crops on unfamiliar soil. That way they could share
in a happy celebration.
Though much of this story is technically true, it's often used as a sort of trick. The idea
is to make children believe those early colonists shared a peaceful relationship with America's
indigenous populations. And that's anything but the truth.
There isn't much historical information about that first Thanksgiving in 1621, other than
that it happened, and some Native allies were present. Otherwise, the mythologized events
of the festival are generally accepted as truth by most Americans.
But many indigenous Americans view the first Thanksgiving quite differently. It's common
for people of Native heritage to hold a mourning fast over Thanksgiving. To them, the day marks
a dark history filled with conflict, death, and other hardships they would not have encountered
if Europeans hadn’t started to colonize the Americas.
Experts will likely agree that the English language is a mash-up of several wildly different
European languages clumped together. And the way the "rules" are taught to us in school
doesn't make it any easier. That’s mostly because these "rules" aren't actual rules
at all.
Take this piece of widely believed grammar advice: "You can't start a sentence with a
conjunction."
Most of us were conditioned to nix these short connecting words from a very early age. We
were taught it, we believed it, and... it's absolutely false.
There's no single authority on the English language. As long as it does its job, namely
conveying ideas from the writer to the reader, then whatever you decide to do with the words
is acceptable. If you need an authority to tell you it's okay to start a sentence with
"and," "but," or "or," you can check out Merriam-Webster. They say we've been breaking this "rule" since
at least the ninth century.
Similar to beginning a sentence with a conjunction, most of us were warned that ending a sentence
with a preposition is an improper use of the English language. It's probably best to forget
most of what you learned in high school English class, though.
Language changes based on how it's used in everyday speech, and as we've seen with internet
lingo, it can even change overnight. There was certainly a time when ending a sentence
with "to," "for," "of," or "with" would've made you sound like uneducated street rabble.
But that time has long since passed.
These days, it's perfectly fine to end sentences with prepositions. It's simply an informal
use of the language. You'll find it in virtually all written and spoken media. Frankly, if
you go around declaring "of which" or "to which", you'll sound overly formal and even
somewhat awkward.
You’ve heard it a thousand times: "You only use 10% of your brain." The phrase seems to
suggest that there's a trove of hidden brainpower that could turn us into superhumans if we
could tap into it.
"It's true. Once the brain reaches 20% it opens up and expands the rest. There are no
more obstacles. They fall away like dominos."
The whole idea, however, is a myth.
If you only used 10% of your gray matter, you probably wouldn't be capable of reading
an article or tying your shoes. Lucky for you, our species is capable of harnessing
a lot more of the brain's power than we were told.
According to neurologist Dr. John Henley of the Mayo Clinic, people use close to 100%
of their brains throughout the day. At the lowest, we might be using 10% of our brains
at any given time. But even that's unlikely since the brain controls such a wide range
of functions, both conscious and unconscious.
It has designated areas for everything from language to math, to basic life support functions
such as keeping your heart beating. Only using 10% of it would make it impossible to breathe,
walk, and talk on the phone without falling over dead.
The 10% brainpower excuse might help us feel better about forgetting why we walked into
the kitchen three times in a row. But the truth is, we have a much larger percentage
of our brains to blame for our absent-minded behavior.
Slavery is one of the worst atrocities the United States has ever known. And the full
history of abolition isn't widely understood. For example, and contrary to popular belief,
slavery didn't end in the United States with President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
in 1863. The proclamation did free slaves, but only in Confederate-controlled states.
People in Union states where slavery was legal were still allowed to keep slaves. This was
in part because Lincoln didn't want to alienate them and provide more potential allies for
the rebels.
Slavery mostly ended with the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865, which outlawed both
slavery and involuntary servitude in all forms. This is minus a glaring loophole that's still
taken advantage of today. According to the language used in the amendment, involuntary
servitude is still allowed as long as it's punishment for a crime. Unfortunately, we've
seen this tradition live on through prison labor. Many historians partially blame the
loophole for the booming prison industry in the United States, one that disproportionately
incarcerates Black Americans. Benjamin Franklin Discovered Electricity
One night in 1752, Benjamin Franklin decided it was a brilliant idea to take a key, a bit
of string, and a kite and sail it all through the tumultuous air of a thunderstorm. Franklin
was on a scientific mission he didn't know would go down in mythic history as the discovery
of electricity. But this famed experiment didn't lead to the discovery of electricity
at all, despite what people have wrongly claimed for years.
Electricity wasn't exactly a new concept in Franklin's time. The world had known about
it for centuries, even if they didn't yet know how to utilize it. The ancient Greeks
ran experiments with static electricity. Ancient clay pots containing iron rods and copper
cylinders were found in Baghdad in the 1940s. They appear to have been early batteries,
suggesting that parts of the world may have been able to harness electricity before others
knew it existed.
Franklin's experiment served its purpose, though. The Founding Father wasn't setting
out to discover electricity. Instead, he wanted to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning,
which the experiment illustrated perfectly.
Considered one of the wonders of human ingenuity, the Great Wall of China was one of the longest
construction projects in history, both in physical length and length of time. It's so
long that many of us were told that it's visible from space. This is a complete myth. Even
with the best possible human vision, a person couldn't actually see the Great Wall from
outer space.
This myth is so widely believed, it made its way into textbooks. Some even claim the wall
is visible from Earth's moon, which is even more of a stretch. The truth is you can't
even see the wall from the International Space Station with the naked eye. Though, to be
fair, it doesn't take a whole lot of work to bring it into view from there.
A Chinese astronaut was able to photograph the wall with a 180mm and 400mm camera lens
while on the ISS. Experts say, however, that the wall was only visible because the photos
were taken under perfect conditions. The structure is no wider than a house and is a similar
color to its surroundings.
Many of us remember hearing our teachers tell us to put our hats on before going outside
in winter. After all, you lose most of your heat from the top of your head. None of us
thought to refute it. But once again, this is another lie.
The whole "losing more heat through your head" thing is nothing more than a popular myth.
It was likely cemented itself into society through a 1970s survival manual published
for the U.S. Army. It claimed, in one line, that you lose "40 to 45 percent of body heat"
from an uncovered head, and from there, the myth spread like a disease.
In a lucky break for hatless children everywhere, two researchers at Indiana University published
a study on medical myths in 2008 and totally debunked this lie. Now, they do say you're
more likely to notice cold temperatures on your head and face because of the plethora
of nerve endings in the area. So, you'll likely be more comfortable wearing a hat in winter,
but it's not a health crisis if you don't.
Physics isn't the easiest subject to get young people interested in, but it's important.
Physics is a unique subject, as it's the field that studies the rules of our existence. A
common way teachers try to get kids to pay attention in these somewhat dry classes is
with lighthearted anecdotes. A classic example being the famous story about Sir Isaac Newton
and the apple.
It goes something like this:
Newton was lounging against an apple tree in his mother's garden when one of the fruits
fell and bonked him on the head. This sudden blow sparked inspiration, and Newton conceptualized
gravity. Except that's not how it went down.
Gravity wasn't a new concept to Newton. He'd thought about the subject long before the
falling apple. Better yet, there's no evidence suggesting the falling apple ever hit him.
In fact, all accounts that claim the apple sparked Newton's insight into gravity are
secondhand at best. Even if the anecdote were true, it only influenced a small part of his
theory, and it certainly didn't happen instantaneously. The majority of Newton's fascination with
gravity stemmed from his interest in the Moon's orbit around the Earth.
Some of the lies we've learned were simple informational blunders, while others seem
to be more benevolent falsities. Those white lies, whether believed or not, serve a purpose.
For example, we have a famous — and totally false — anecdote about Albert Einstein.
The inventor of the theory of relativity was supposedly a poor student in high school.
He allegedly performed so badly in math that he actually failed the subject.
"...I still failed ze math test!" Shirley: "You do have Einstein's genius or some junk.
I just forgot to tell you that, when Einstein was a kid, he flunked math too"
Of course, this never happened.
The truth is that Einstein was a fantastic student who excelled from a young age in just
about every subject he studied. The only known time where he failed was during his first
crack at taking the entrance exam for Zurich Polytechnic. And he only failed because the
exam was in French, a language he wasn't very familiar with.
Regardless of whether or not Einstein failed math doesn't affect the usefulness of the
myth. Though it may lose teachers some perceived integrity later in a student's life, the anecdote
tells children that even if they fail now, they can succeed later on.
It's easy to see why one may think deoxygenated blood is blue. If you have a pale complexion,
where your veins are easily visible, they appear blue-green through your skin. And except
for the pulmonary veins, veins carry deoxygenated blood. Therefore, deoxygenated blood is blue,
right? That at least seems to be the sort of false logic that's led to this myth spreading.
Throughout school and in every diagram of the circulatory system, we see this.
But in reality, all blood is red. Whether they're in arteries or veins.
Blood is never blue, regardless of its level of oxygenation. Oxygen-rich hemoglobin makes
blood appear a brighter red than the deoxygenated cells. But it isn't a drastic enough change
to shift blood to a different color. So, why do blood and veins appear blue from the outside
when visible? The false color comes from several variables. But basically, red light is absorbed
by lighter skin tones, while blue light is reflected.
Bats' abilities to perceive the world around them is practically a superpower compared
to humans' limited sensory capabilities. Their big ears capture reflected squeaks and clicks
to create a detailed sonic map that allows them to avoid obstacles and catch tasty mosquitos.
Sonar is pretty useful when you're nocturnal, especially if we're to believe that bats are
blind.
But they aren't!
This lie has been wrongfully taught everywhere for as long as most of us can remember. The
myth has pervaded society deeply enough to give rise to phrases such as "blind as a bat."
But idioms don't have the power to make misinformation true.
In all actuality, bats don't just have super hearing; they also have incredible light-dark
vision which is three times better than human vision. Bats can see in conditions humans
consider pitch black. This is really the only type of vision they need, and it's also the
only vision of theirs that's any good. It's a perfect adaptation to their nocturnal evolution.
But what bats gain in light-dark vision, they lose in color sharpness.
The bottom line: bats aren't blind. They just can't see well during the day.
Your mothers, grandmothers, and, of course, your teachers probably warned you about spending
too much time out in the cold. This is especially true if it was both cold and wet, because
you'll catch a cold from being cold.
Of course, that's not how any of that works.
The common cold is usually caused by a rhinovirus or a similar culprit. The human body obviously
doesn’t create a virus out of exposure to winter weather. Viral infections are more
common during winter months for a plethora of reasons that have nothing to do with your
body temperature. For instance, Low humidity allows viruses to live longer outside of a
host. People spend more time in poorly ventilated indoor environments during the winter months.
And the protective mucus inside of your throat and sinuses becomes dryer and more easily
infected. The list goes on.
There is a kernel of truth to this lie though. Lowered body temperature wreaks havoc on the
immune system and makes you more susceptible to infectious disease. Where winter weather
isn't going to give you a virus by itself, it still has real consequences on the human
body if you don't dress properly for outside temps. The only health issues you're likely
to find as a direct result of those cold temperatures, though, are frostbite and hypothermia.
In the United States, students have been taught "proper" dietary nutrition through the USDA
food pyramid since 1992. In the first iteration of the pyramid, people were expected to eat
an extremely grain-heavy diet while avoiding all forms of fats and oils. At least it does
allow for some vegetables and up to six combined servings of meats and dairy as well. Eventually,
even the USDA realized this wasn't a healthy way to fuel our bodies, so they replaced the
classic pyramid with MyPyramid in 2005.
The new pyramid added activity into the mix and focused more on helping individuals tailor
a healthy diet unique to them, but it was heavy on carbs and milk while demonizing all
fats. This too, as it turns out, isn't great. The light-on-details dietary advice in all
forms of the USDA pyramid leaves out too much to be a useful guide. And it focuses too heavily
on foods that are only good for humans in moderation.
There's more than enough evidence to show that you can maintain great health while eating
a low-carb diet. Fats like omega-3s shouldn't be avoided. And your sodium intake is important.
While the dietary information housed in USDA graphics certainly means well, modern evidence
suggests the pyramids don't know what they're talking about. You're better off keeping up
with the latest research.
Despite what Edison-enthusiasts may want you to believe, Thomas Edison didn't invent the
light bulb. The first known person to successfully light up a filament with electricity was an
English chemist by the name of Humphry Davy around the turn of the 19th century. He ran
current through a high-resistance wire and there was light. But his design was nothing
more than a fancy science fair project. There was no way his thick wire would've been efficient
on an industrial scale.
Then came Warren de La Rue. He took the wire idea but made it of a thin, high-endurance
metal and stuffed it into vacuumed glass. By doing this, he created a light bulb almost
40 years before Edison. La Rue's bulb, like Davy's, would never be produced on a large
scale, mostly because the filament was made of platinum.
Still, though Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb, he did create the best light
bulb of his time. Edison's design used a thin carbon filament and created a better vacuum
than La Rue's design, providing the bulb with both longevity and commercial producibility.
He may not have been the first person to invent the light bulb, but Edison's company is the
reason we have electric lighting in our homes.
We're taught in basic science classes that there are only three states of matter: solid,
liquid, and gas. We learned it first with water vapor and ice cube experiments in elementary
school, and it's a fact that's stuck with most of us ever since. But that education
is an oversimplification, and it erased several less prevalent states of matter from popular
knowledge.
There are twice as many states of matter than we were initially taught, though you're only
likely to encounter the basic three here on Earth. The fourth state of matter, known as
ionized plasma, occurs when atoms are pumped with enough energy to strip away their electrons.
This breaks the gaseous threshold to form a whole new state that behaves by different
rules.
The fifth and sixth states of matter, to our knowledge, have only been created under laboratory
conditions. They're known as Bose-Einstein and Fermionic condensates. Bose-Einstein condensates
occur when a collection of bosons, a unique type of subatomic particle, are cooled to
their lowest energy state. Fermionic condensates, meanwhile, occur when fermions, another type
of subatomic particle, reach their lowest energy state and create a superfluid.
It would take a major crash course in quantum physics to really understand these states
further.
When you visit the zoo, one order of animal stands out above the rest: the primates. They
look suspiciously like us. And why shouldn't they? We are, after all, hairless great apes.
We just happen to stand straighter, and some of us are smarter than our tree-climbing cousins.
You were probably told in school, as most of us were, that we evolved from apes like
the gorilla or the chimpanzee.
But that's not exactly how evolution works.
"He is now in the custody of the Ministry of Science."
"Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!"
About 6 million years ago, protohumans and apes set off on divergent evolutionary paths.
We have yet to find any physical evidence of a single common ancestor. But based on
genetic evidence, there should be one trapped in the fossil record somewhere. What scientists
can see from tracing back our evolutionary history confirms that this ancestor was indeed
"apelike."
While the claim about humans evolving from apes is partially true, it's widely misunderstood.
The truth is that humans and the other modern apes share a common primate ancestor that
was neither human nor anything like modern apes. Until we find the "missing link," it'll
be impossible to say for sure if this creature was an ape or some sort of proto-ape deserving
of its own classification. So, don't take to the trees just yet.
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