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About This Quiz
In 1998, a British doctor published a groundbreaking study linking vaccines and autism. Terrified parents quickly took note, questioning their children's pediatricians or even skipping vaccines altogether. Just two decades later, this reluctance to vaccinate has negated years of vaccination progress and caused nearly eradicated illnesses like measles or whooping cough to threaten the lives of a whole new generation of children. But here's the kicker -- no one has been able to replicate the results of the study. The doctor who published the initial study has lost his license to practice medicine and the medical journal that published his work has issued a retraction -- but that hasn't stopped the fact that many people still accept his initial work as fact.
And that's just one example of this phenomenon. Despite the fact that science and medicine are continuously reaching new heights, far too many people cling to folk remedies, old wives' tales, disproved facts and plain old bad science. It's why turkey "makes you so sleepy," a goldfish "has no memory," and a penny dropped from the Empire State Building is "deadlier than a speeding bullet." Think you can know the truth about some of the most commonly repeated scientific "facts?" Prove it with this quiz!
Red
Running through your veins, pumping into your heart or oozing from a wound, blood is always the same color -- red. Well, unless you happen to be an octopus or a horseshoe crab. Both of these critters are among the rare species running around with blue blood.
Blue
It depends on blood type.
It depends on skin tone.
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You'll have two thriving worms.
You'll have two dead worms.
You might end up with one living worm.
No, cutting an earthworm in half will not result in two thriving worms. While some flatworms can regenerate when cut in half, earthworms cannot. The best case scenario is that the head end of the cut earthworm will survive, but the tail end is a goner.
Several smaller worms will pour out from inside.
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Pretty much when you die
Ever heard that fingernails and hair continue to grow after you die? Creepy, but not true. When you die, body processes stop -- including nail and hair growth. This rumor likely reflects the fact that dehydration after death causes skin to shrink, which can make hair and nails appear to have grown.
Never
1 year after death
5 years after death
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Chicken soup
Orange juice
Rest
No, antibiotics won't cure a cold. They are designed to attack bacteria, but a cold is caused by a virus, so antibiotics will have zero effect. Orange juice and soup can't really hurt, but also won't help. Want to get that cold out of your system more quickly? Get plenty of rest and relaxation to speed healing.
Antibiotics
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Pure water is an insulator.
Contrary to rumor, pure water -- such as distilled -- is actually an insulator, not a conductor. When you are warned to steer clear of water during a lighning storm, it's because all of the minerals in the water are excellent conductors. The threat doesn't come from the water itself.
Water in any form conducts electricity.
Hanging out in the ocean protects you from lightning.
Water can never conduct electricity.
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Yes, but only small ones.
Yes, but only for around 50,000 years.
Yes, unless the human could run fast.
Nope.
The closest any human has ever came to a dinosaur was when you saw that T. rex skeleton at the museum. Dinosaurs died out around 65 million years before humans came into the picture, so the two species never cohabited.
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You just ate a huge meal.
The enzyme tryptophan is involved in sleep, but no one eats enough turkey on Thanksgiving to ingest any meaningful amount of this amino acid. Instead, that after-dinner crash comes because your body is so busy digesting all that food, leaving you little energy for other activities.
Tryptophan in turkey
It's late in the day.
Enzymes in the gravy
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Chocolate
Overactive glands
It's safe to finish that candy bar -- chocolate does not cause acne like you might have heard. Instead, pimples come from overactive sebaceous glands, but scientists aren't exactly sure what gets these glands so worked up.
Fatty foods
Fast food
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So much mucus
Increase in fever
Cooling effect on throat
The old wives tale that dairy consumption increases mucus production has caused many people to steer clear of ice cream or milk when nursing a cold. Today, scientists know that there's no connection between dairy and mucus, so it's safe to enjoy that ice cream when your throat is too sore for anything else.
Prolong your illness
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Annoy friends and family
Contrary to rumor, cracking your knuckles does not contribute to arthritis or any other long-term health effects. Dr. Donald Unger proved this when he spent 50 years only cracking the knuckles in one hand, but not in the other. After half a century, he had no difference in physical health between the two hands.
Arthritis
Broken digits
Paralyzation
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Coriolis effect
Which hemisphere you live in
How the fixtures were installed
Sorry Simpsons; the Coriolis Effect does determine wind patterns, but has no effect on the way water flows out of your toilet when you flush. Toilets in both hemispheres can drain clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the fixtures and how they were installed.
How hard you flush
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10 percent
About a third
Almost half
Pretty much all of it
No, humans don't limit themselves to using 10 percent of their brains, leaving the rest of that gray matter to rot. In fact, the brain uses around 20 percent of all the energy used by the body, which means you're using pretty much every part of your brain at almost all times.
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Hyper activity
Bad behavior
Poor listening skills
They enjoy a sweet treat.
A 1994 double-blind, peer-reviewed study found that sugar does not make kids hyper or lead to bad behavior. What it does is impact the way parents think; parents told their kids are given sugar rate the child as more hyper than parents who are told the child was given no sugar -- even if neither group had any sweets.
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Adults
Every major medical institution on the planet recommends basic vaccines to prevent illness and allow people to live healthy lives. That MMR/Autism study by Andrew Wakefield that spurred the whole anti-vaxxer movement? It was based on a sample size of 12 and rife with fraud. Wakefield lost his license to practice medicine and no other study has ever come close to replicating his results.
Autism
Depression
Weight gain
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7 years
About a year
3 months
A few hours to a few days
Humans have been chewing on gum for fun since the first version of the product -- made from spruce resin -- came out in the 1840s. Rest assured that swallowed gum doesn't linger for 7 years; it's processed just like other food and sent out with other waste products.
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Couldn't see it
In perfect conditions, flying at 100 miles above the Earth, it's sometimes possible to see portions of the Great Wall of China. Far from being the only manmade object visible from outer space, however, Neil Armstrong himself specifically said he couldn't see it at all -- and could only distinguish the continents and water bodies.
It was the only thing I could see.
I saw some parts of it.
I only saw the parts with lights.
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3 seconds
About a minute
Around a day
Several months or more
Forget everything you've heard about goldfish and their sad, three-second memories. Even wild goldfish can be trained to remember things -- and some of those memories can endure three months or more.
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You would die.
You'd be hospitalized.
You might be annoyed.
A penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building wouldn't kill anyone. Instead, its flatness would slow it enough that it would only be traveling at around 25 mph when it reached the ground. That might be annoying if it hit you, but it certainly wouldn't cause any real injury.
There's no gravity that high up.
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Nope
It's great marketing for apple sellers, but there is no scientific link between eating an apple each day and time spent at the doctor. For real -- it's actually been studied. A 2015 study published in "JAMA Internal Medicine" found that apple eaters visit the doctor about as much as non-indulgers.
No, but two apples a day does.
Only if it's a Granny Smith
Only if it's an Apple watch
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She's scared.
She's stupid.
She's checking on her eggs.
Forget the rumors; ostriches don't stick their heads in the sand because they are scared or shy. They do bury their eggs underground, so mom might duck her head down at times to take a peek -- which might make it appear she's gone into hiding for a minute.
Ostriches never do that.
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2000 years ago
No, people did not think Columbus was going to sail off the edge of the Earth in 1492. Most educated people have understood that the Earth is round since the ancient Greeks figured it out starting around 350 BC.
When Columbus reached America
Around the 1700s
Within the past century
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Going out without a jacket
Cold weather
Going out with wet hair
Viruses
Forget the old wives' tales; you don't get a cold because it's cold outside, or you went out with a wet head or forgot your jacket -- colds come from viruses, period. If it seems like you get more colds in the winter, it's probably because you're spending more time indoors sharing close quarters with other people, who are sharing their germs with you.
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Maybe short-term eyestrain
No matter what your mother may have told you, sitting too close to the TV does not permanently damage eyes. The worst it can do is cause temporary eye strain, which resolves itself with a bit of R&R.
Nearsightedness
Farsightedness
Permanent damage
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1 year
3 years
7 years
15 years
According to the American Kennel Club, the first year of a dog's life is equivalent to about 15 human years. Year 2 for a dog is another 9 human years, and every year after that is about 5 human years.
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There's no gravity at all in space.
Some gravity fields in space are super strong.
When you exit the Earth's gravitational field, it can seem like gravity in space is really weak, but in fact, outer space gravity is super strong. It's what keeps all the planets where they are, slinging them around an orbit to circle the sun.
Gravity is really weak outside Earth.
Earth has the strongest gravity in the universe.
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The same side is always in total darkness.
Only one side is visible from Earth.
The whole "dark side of the moon" thing isn't really true. Sure, we can only see one side of the moon from Earth, but both "sides" of the moon spend time in the light. Each side is light for about two weeks, then dark for a few weeks, so no area of the rocky surface is ever in permanent darkness.
There's no light on the moon.
You can't see Earth from the moon.
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Yes
No
While Earth is the only planet with consistent supplies of liquid water, it isn't the only planet with water. Scientists know that Mars has water, which even flows at times, while moons of Saturn and Jupiter have subterranean seas.
No one knows
There's no water on Earth.
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Less than a second
Forget the 5 second rule. Bacteria starts to contaminate food the second the food hits the floor. The longer the food stays down, the more bacteria climbs on board to threaten your gastrointestinal health if you decide to pick up the food and eat it.
5 seconds
30 seconds
It's safe to eat floor food.
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1 day
Italian astronomer Galileo raised eyebrows when he claimed that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe. While history leads us to believe he was persecuted for his ideas, he actually only spent one day in prison. The church actually sponsored his research, and only put him on trial because he was teaching his theories as facts without proof -- not because they were heretical.
20 years
His entire life
He was hanged.
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They're gone forever.
They kill cells around them.
They can be removed via surgery.
They regenerate.
No, dead brain cells aren't gone forever. Scientists have known since the '60s that just like many other cells in the body, brain cells damaged by disease or injury can regenerate and restore themselves over time. Isn't the body amazing?
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Lightning never struck the kite.
Yes, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a lightning storm in 1752 to experiment with electricity, but lightning never struck the kite. Instead, Franklin used a metal wire to attract ambient electrical charges in the air -- not huge, dangerous bolts of lightning,
He died.
He suffered a stroke.
He was badly burned.
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There's no real benefit to eating them.
They are always better than fresh veggies.
They're not as healthy as fresh veggies.
They are about equally as nutritious as fresh veggies.
On a budget but trying to get your greens? Flash-frozen veggies are about equal to fresh veggies in terms of nutritional value. If you can't afford fresh vegetables or can't find them off-season, frozen veggies can give you all the nutrients and fiber you're looking for.
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In winter
Contrary to what you might have heard, seasons on Earth are determined by the tilt of the planet's axis, not by its distance from the sun. In fact, people in the U.S. and other parts of the northern hemisphere are actually closest to the sun in the winter when temperatures are the lowest.
In summer
In autumn
In spring
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60 minutes
30 minutes
10 minutes
No waiting required
The whole idea of waiting 30 minutes after eating before you swim is an old wives' tale with no scientific basis. It's perfectly safe to swim right after chowing down, so feel free to jump in with both feet.
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Only once
No more than 3 times
An infinite number of times
Yes, lightning can strike the same spot more than once. In fact, a Virginia park ranger named Roy Sullivan was struck 7 times over a 30-year period, and tall buildings like the Empire State Building get struck all the time.
Lighting never actually makes contact with anything.
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Super eyesight
Damage to eyes
Ability to see in the dark
Not much
Back in WWII, British pilots blamed carrots for their awesome eyesight, when in fact it was a little trick called radar that was allowing them to hit their targets. The rumors stuck, and carrots are still associated with good vision. For people who aren't malnourished, however, chowing down on these veggies will have little to no effect on vision.
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Fewer allergy issues
Believe it or not, babies who grow up with a pet in the house are less likely than those without pets to suffer allergies over time. This effect only works if the baby is under a year old, and getting a pet later in life has no impact on allergy occurrence.
More allergy issues
It depends on the type of fur.
It depends if they sleep with the animal.
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Nothing
According to the National Cancer Institute, antioxidant supplements don't prevent cancer, and if you take them when you already have cancer, you may end up with a worse outcome. Some supplements actually cause tumors to grow, rather than shrink.
You're more likely to get cancer.
You're less likely to get cancer.
You'll lose weight.
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If you're an infant
If you're elderly
If your immune system is weak
Never
Flu shots contain a dead flu virus and absolutely, positively cannot give you the flu. Around 1 to 2 percent of people who get this shot may have mild symptoms like a fever, but that's just a sign that the immune system is responding to the vaccine and gearing the body up to fight off future flu infections.
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Spicy food
Dairy
Stress
Bacteria
Since 1982, scientists have known that helicobacter pylori, a type of bacteria, causes peptic ulcers. Spicy food might aggravate an existing ulcer, but it won't cause one to form.
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You Got:
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