Myths & misconceptions

MYTH Over a day, virtually all of the brain is used. It is about 3% of body weight but consumes about 20% of the body's energy. Read more · Source: Scientific American, Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains?

MYTH China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, said in 2003 that he had not seen the wall. It is narrow and blends with the surrounding terrain; the Moon version dates at least to a 1932 Ripley's cartoon. Read more · Source: Scientific American (2008), Is China's Great Wall Visible from Space?

MYTH In a 1994 study, goldfish learned to press a lever for food only during a one-hour daily window, kept that schedule over four weeks, and kept anticipating it for several days after food stopped. Read more · Source: Gee, Stephenson & Wright (1994), Temporal discrimination learning of operant feeding in goldfish, JEAB

MYTH Taste receptor cells for each basic quality are found in taste buds throughout the tongue and mouth. Read more · Source: Chandrashekar et al. (2006), The receptors and cells for mammalian taste, Nature

MYTH A 2011 case-control study of 215 people found osteoarthritis in 18.1% of knuckle crackers and 21.5% of non-crackers, not a significant difference. Read more · Source: deWeber, Olszewski & Ortolano (2011), Knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis, JABFM

FACT The US National Weather Service says lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially tall, pointy, isolated objects. The Empire State Building is hit an average of 23 times a year. Read more · Source: National Weather Service, Lightning Myths

FACT Earth reaches perihelion, about 91.4 million miles, in January and aphelion, about 94.5 million miles, in July. The seasons come from Earth's tilted axis, not its distance from the Sun. Read more · Source: NASA Space Place, What Causes the Seasons?

MYTH Three sources, including his physician, put him at about 1.67 m, just under 5 ft 6 in, which was slightly above average for a Frenchman of the period. Read more · Source: History.com, Was Napoleon Short? Origins of the 'Napoleon Complex'

MYTH The National Museum of Denmark calls the image a myth, partly because no such headgear of a Viking Age date has ever been found. Read more · Source: National Museum of Denmark, Berserkers (on horned helmets)

MYTH Shown a 1935 Ripley's clipping claiming he failed, Einstein said he never failed in mathematics and had mastered differential and integral calculus before he was fifteen. Read more · Source: TIME, Did Einstein flunk math?

MYTH Britannica says there is absolutely no historical evidence she said it. A version of the line appears in Rousseau's Confessions, written when she was still a child in Austria. Read more · Source: Britannica, Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say 'Let Them Eat Cake'?

FACT None of those executed at Salem in 1692 was burned. In accordance with English law, 19 were hanged. Read more · Source: History.com, Were Witches Burned at the Stake During the Salem Witch Trials?

FACT The story was likely spread by Johann Philipp Siebenkees in the late 18th century; the first known iron maidens were constructed in the 19th century and passed off in museums as medieval. Read more · Source: History.com, 7 Famous Torture Devices, Real and Mythical

MYTH A 1995 JAMA meta-analysis of 23 blinded, placebo-controlled studies concluded that sugar does not affect the behavior or cognitive performance of children. Read more · Source: Wolraich, Wilson & White (1995), The effect of sugar on behavior or cognition in children: a meta-analysis, JAMA (PubMed)

MYTH America's Test Kitchen seared one batch of rib-eyes before roasting and another after; both lost around 22 percent of their weight. Searing builds flavor, not juiciness. Read more · Source: America's Test Kitchen: Searing steak

MYTH USDA retention data show a flamed dish keeps about 75% of its alcohol, and even simmering for 2.5 hours leaves about 5%. Read more · Source: USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6 (2007) (PDF)

MYTH The USDA's Egg-Grading Manual says shell color does not affect the quality of the egg. Shell color comes from the hen's breed. Read more · Source: USDA AMS Egg-Grading Manual (PDF)

FACT Harvard Health calls microwave cooking one of the least likely forms of cooking to damage nutrients, because cooking times are short. Read more · Source: Harvard Health Publishing: Microwave cooking and nutrition

FACT Rutgers researchers testing 128 scenarios found that some transfer takes place 'instantaneously', at times under one second. Longer contact meant more bacteria. Read more · Source: Miranda & Schaffner (2016), Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from Surfaces to Food, Appl Environ Microbiol (PubMed)

FACT The CFPB lists your requests for your own credit reports as soft inquiries, which will not affect your credit scores. Hard inquiries, from applying for credit, can. Read more · Source: CFPB: What is a credit inquiry?

MYTH In the FICO model, amounts owed make up 30% of the score. Closing an unused card lowers your total available credit, so the same balances push your utilization higher. Read more · Source: myFICO: What's in my FICO Scores?

FACT Investor.gov's illustration of a $100,000 portfolio growing 4% a year shows about $208,000 after 20 years at a 0.25% fee versus about $179,000 at 1.00%, a gap of roughly $29,000. Read more · Source: SEC Investor.gov: Understanding Fees