Popular Myths in Science

www.livescience.com...

This link above has many pages of short myth busters in popular science.
The subjects can be read from using the left right arrows. I have not made a list yet but can do of subects if that helps bring the interest in.

1. Chickens can live without a head
2. Water drains backwards in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth's rotation
3. There is no gravity in space
4. Humans use only 10 percent of their brains
5. Eating a poppy seed bagel mimics opium use
6. A penny dropped from the top of a tall building could kill a pedestrian
7. Adults don't grow new brain cells
8. Chicken soup can cure the common cold
9. Yawning is "contagious"
10. Lightning never strikes the same place twice
17. Animals can predict natural disasters

It's probably late to get a great response and it's not really a debatable article but it may suprise or straight things out with what TV tells you or the movies. Anyone suprised or has an opinion?

[edit on 23-2-2007 by The time lord]


Mod Edit: All caps title only.

[edit on 23-2-2007 by UM_Gazz]

[edit on 23-2-2007 by The time lord]

Interesting, though I think I knew most of them.

I found the topic to be oddly presented, because while they're calling all of them 'myths', they acknowledge that quite a few of them are true.

For example:

external source

Chickens can live without a head
True, and not just for a few minutes. A chicken can stagger around without its noggin because the brain stem, often left partially intact after a beheading, controls most of its reflexes. One robust fellow lived a full eighteen months. Likely he was a real birdbrain, however.

So, if some of the statements are true, it sort of belies the 'myth' appellation, doesn't it?

BTW, here is a link to the story of Mike, the Headless Chicken: www.miketheheadlesschicken.org...