[Sternumator]

Penicils used to have lead in them. I was told this by three different teachers.

[BethaneyJ]

(Original post by whyumadtho)
Really? That must be one of the most widely taught misconceptions.

(Original post by Mrkingpenguin)
Really? Have you got a source for that? (not accusing you, I am just interested as during my science years I have done several experiments which proved that Tongues do have taste regions.)

EDIT: hmmmm seems your right : http://www.livescience.com/7113-tong...-debunked.html

Indeed! I have lots of sources but I see you already have one.


It's so widely believed that it was recently taught as fact by one of my lecturers at med school much to our surprise! :P <- appropriate smiley.

[nexttime]

(Original post by ArtGoblin)
Not exactly. Vegans wouldn't eat animals that were captured and killed, even though they had lived a free life before that. Breast milk and sperm can be voluntarily given so they are vegan.

Well... there are various motivations to becoming a vegan, or vegetarian, or whatever. I'm sure both of use are right about some people. For me though, the notion of 'consent' in a cow is a bit absurd. Captivity, battery farming and slaughter houses are, however, emotional issues that i would imagine could strongly motivate someone to become vegetarian or vegan or whatever. People can think what they like

[BethaneyJ]

(Original post by 117r)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...misconceptions

Basically all of them.

Some particular ones to highlight:

Glass is NOT a liquid
The Great Wall of Chine CANNOT be seen from space
A penny dropped from a tall building CANNOT kill somebody

The great wall one always gets me. Just because something is very long doesn't mean it can be seen from space. That always seemed daft and I was pleased when I heard it was rubbish.

[Kinkerz]

Myth: schizophrenia is the same thing as multiple/split personality disorder.

[BethaneyJ]

Myth: Humans have 5 senses

Fact: We have lots more, balance, temperature, pressure, location in space of various parts (you can tell for example that your arm is in front of you not behind you, proprioception), pain etc.

[sarahthegemini]

Shaving makes the hair grow back thicker and darker

[randomd_love]

If you swallow chewing gum it takes 7 years to digest - it doesn't take 7 years if you can't digest somethinhg you can't digest something hence sweetcorn poop. Plus your stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve bone so gum should be easy.

If you write on yourself with pen ink you get cancer. Do you really think bic/steadler would sell pens without warning people it may cause cancer?

[Hype en Ecosse]

(Original post by Kinkerz)
Myth: schizophrenia is the same thing as multiple/split personality disorder.

That's an actual thing people believe? Wow! I had no clue.

[Harry Callahan]

Elvis was fat.

[Palatial Veranda]

(Original post by AspiringGenius)
Since when was this a myth? haha

Sorry. I was thinking of Brass Eye when I wrote that. It just popped into my head when I was reading this thread.

Watch this . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3icDB3kRKPg

[Kinkerz]

(Original post by Hype en Ecosse)
That's an actual thing people believe? Wow! I had no clue.

Really? I've heard it said many, many times.

[DeadGirlsDance]

Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb.

[Eternal*]

Osama Bin Laden's death

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by Copperknickers)
Sorry, but no. That may be part of it, but a lot if not most of people with flu in Winter are elderly people living on their own who rarely have contact with others. They get the flu because their houses are not properly heated and so their immune systems are weakened.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12113594

Sorry, but yes. Wikipedia states:

"The traditional folk theory is that a cold can be "caught" by prolonged exposure to cold weather such as rain or winter conditions, which is how the disease got its name.[18] The role of body cooling as a risk factor for the common cold is controversial.[19] Some of the viruses that cause the common colds are seasonal, occurring more frequently during cold or wet weather.[20] Some believe this to be due primarily to increased time spent indoors in close proximity;[21] specifically children returning to school.[16] However, it may also be related to changes in the respiratory system that result in greater susceptibility.[21] Low humidity increases viral transmission rates potentially due to dry air allowing small viral droplets to disperse farther and stay in the air longer.[22]"

Major German newspaper Die ZEIT has a "Stimmt's?" (can be roughly translated as "Is it actually true?") column and in order to answer this question they mailed dozens of university professors of medicine - the answers indicated a very small contribution of the temperature and indicated the reasons I stated.

Another example: the common cold prevalent in sub-sahara Africa. A German-Dutch survey found very high levels of virus antibodies in Gabun, concluding that epidemics of influenca are common in central Africa - and we all know that it's not overly cold down there

(Original post by Copperknickers)
It was a figure of speech. Do you really think I went through the entire thread and ascertained that exactly 50% were not true? Feel free to attack the examples I did give in my edit.

I know At the time of your first post I had read all prior posts and spotted only very few mistakes, so your claim that a lot of it is actually untrue is still false.

(Original post by Copperknickers)
I prefer to use my own eyes as sources.

The myth is that the Great Wall is the only man made object which can be seen from space. It is not the only one, and it is a poor example of one, but nonetheless, from a very low altitude, the very border between Outer Space and the earth's atmosphere, it can be seen.

Because your own eyes which have never ever been in space are so much more reliable than those of astronauts, the NASA, scientists etc. The link you give only says that the Great wall is not visible from the moon and shows a satellite image of the wall - well, the last time I checked satellites were not equipped with human eyes but use cameras which are able to zoom in.

As I already said, most people with any knowledge about the subject state that it cannot be seen, even from an altitude of only 100km. From an article of "Scientific American":

"I have spent a lot of time looking at the Earth from space, including numerous flights over China, and I never saw the wall," asserts former NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew on five space shuttle missions from 1985 to 1996. "The problem is that the human eye is most sensitive to contrast, and the color of the wall is not that different from the ground on either side of it."

Hoffman, now an aerospace engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, failed to make out the Egyptian pyramids for the same reason. But he could identify roads, airport runways and irrigation ditches simply because they stood out in their environments.

Some U.S. astronauts, notably Eugene Cernan and Ed Lu, have said they've seen the wall from low orbit. But it tends to show up only in certain lighting conditions. When the sun is low on the horizon, for example, the wall casts extended shadows that make it possible to discern its silhouette.

In 2004 American astronaut Leroy Chiao snapped a photo from the International Space Station of a swath of Inner Mongolia, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Beijing, while the sun's angle was favorable. NASA experts later confirmed that the photo appears to show the wall. But Chiao admitted that he wasn't sure what he was seeing from space."

Even the government of China, previously very proud to make a boast of the only manmade structure visible from space, announced that it is a myth and changed school textbooks in 2004.

Still, you are right about Descartes, I've deleted that from my post.

[NuckingFut]

Austerity measures will drag us out of recession

[nexttime]

(Original post by Copperknickers)
They get the flu because their houses are not properly heated and so their immune systems are weakened.

Myth: the only way to stay warm is to heat your entire home. Don't want to take anything away from those elderly that do suffer, but the number of people that complain their room is cold but they aren't even wearing a jumper...

[siwelmail]

(Original post by silverbolt)
porn turns children in to rapists

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show....php?t=2019042

LOL just posted on that thread. Yes, you're correct, it is a myth.

[Copperknickers]

(Original post by Sir Fox)

Major German newspaper Die ZEIT has a "Stimmt's?" (can be roughly translated as "Is it actually true?") column and in order to answer this question they mailed dozens of university professors of medicine - the answers indicated a very small contribution of the temperature and indicated the reasons I stated.

Another example: the common cold prevalent in sub-sahara Africa. A German-Dutch survey found very high levels of virus antibodies in Gabun, concluding that epidemics of influenca are common in central Africa - and we all know that it's not overly cold down there

1. Wikipedia? Please use a more reliable source.
2. Please use English sources. Just because it is major, doesn't mean it is reliable: it might be the German equivalent of the Daily Mail for all we know.
3. Nobody claimed cold was the only factor, just that it was a contributing factor. Let us compromise however, and say that it is one of many contributing factors, the important thing being that whether or not it causes colds and flu, extreme cold is still bad for your health.

Because your own eyes which have never ever been in space are so much more reliable than those of astronauts, the NASA, scientists etc. The link you give only says that the Great wall is not visible from the moon and shows a satellite image of the wall - well, the last time I checked satellites were not equipped with human eyes but use cameras which are able to zoom in.

It also includes a quote from an astronaut which says it is just barely visible from 180 miles up, which is quite a long way into outer space.

Some U.S. astronauts, notably Eugene Cernan and Ed Lu, have said they've seen the wall from low orbit. But it tends to show up only in certain lighting conditions. When the sun is low on the horizon, for example, the wall casts extended shadows that make it possible to discern its silhouette.

That is still seeing it in my book.

[Drunk Punx]

9/11 was caused by Al-Qaeda.

Consider the can of worms well and truly opened.