this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] danekrae@lemmy.world 183 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I like it, though there wasn't a single one of the false facts that I was taught in schools.

"Dinosaurs shed their skin all at once like snakes"

"Girls are naturally not as good at math as boys"

I don't mean to be rude, but If this was taught in your school, everyone around you is probably a moron.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 66 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, the concept is nice, but it tells me that the Big Bang doesn't explain what happened before it (the leading hypothesis is that the Big Bang started time, so there is no "before") and sources a Wikipedia article on spiders. Then, it cites the common myth about Daddy Longlegs being highly venomous, says that that wasn't dispelled until 2020, and then cites a fucking BuzzFeed listicle.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah, the concept is nice, but it tells me that the Big Bang doesn’t explain what happened before it (the leading hypothesis is that the Big Bang started time, so there is no “before”)

Which is entirely correct. Time as we know it is an "inside" parameter of our universe, and therefor any causality only exists inside our universe, too. Because causality always contains a temporal element as in "Event A happened, which caused Event B later". We cannot make any assumption of "before the big bang" and therefor no assumption of "what caused the big bang" either.

At least not in any way we could relate to.

the common myth about Daddy Longlegs being highly venomous

Quite a childrens tale, even back then. Two reasons for it: First, the "Daddy Longlegs" has no ability to bite us. Even extreme thin parts of the skin, e.g. the lips, are still way to thick for it to penetrate with its teeth. Second, even if it could inject its venom (which really exists!) it would need to inject about half a cup of it into a grown adult (IIRC about the amount, it could be a quarter cup or a whole cup or something, but still in the range of "thousands of total spider weights").

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

Buzzfeed out here doing the real work

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

The fucking MythBusters did an episode on that like 20 years ago.

[–] Kushan@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yeah I didn't get taught any of the stuff mentioned for me either.

One thing I did notice that wasn't mentioned was the tongue map, that I was taught about in the 90's - you know the one that said that your tongue has different areas for detecting different kinds of tastes - sweet at the front tip, sour at the back, that kind of thing. All bullshit.

[–] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

the landing page mentions "your tongue has taste zones". though on the other hand brontosauruses are real again

[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I remember even testing that one out as a kid, observing that it obviously wasn't true, and bringing up my experience to my teacher. "No" was basically the only response I got. How did a myth like that catch on when it was so easily testable by literally anybody?

[–] sleen@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago

Ageism, it is always implied that adults are the ones right - because what adult would accept a child to disprove their logic?

It's also one of those myths which people forget after a year; and even if its encountered again, it is treated as insignificant.

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I think that the "you have to discharge your batteries entirely before charging them" would be a better fit, even though it wasn't false at the time, but the technology changed

[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You still occasionally should, let it go all the way to dead, but for calibration reasons instead of safety reasons

[–] tuff_wizard@aussie.zone 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That was the original reason. Ni-cad batteries develop a “memory” if they aren’t fully discharged loose capacity.

[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

With modern Lithium ion batteries its because as their capacity decreases over time the BMS can't always keep up and recover the 100% point unless you're occasionally draining it all the way. This can result in someone charging their battery to say 97% and leaving it for hours to reach a 100% it will never reach. This is potentially unsafe as it heats up the battery.

Edit: Autocorrupt beansed up my comment

[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

You're probably already familiar with this resource, but Battery University has some interesting and useful information about batteries and it's accessible enough for the layperson.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Planet X (Planet 9) exists and explains gravitational pull"

Weird conspiracy theories were not taught at my school.

Also:

In 2017, a photograph appeared to prove that Amelia Earhart survived her plane crash and was taken prisoner by the Japanese. However, it was later proven that the photo was taken two years before her disappearance, leaving the mystery unsolved.

Updated understanding emerged around 2010

The updated understanding emerged 7 years before the photo appeared?

This is why websites need downvotes.

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Planet 9 a conspiracy theory? Who's conspiring against whom there :|

Afaik it was a legit theory since we discovered planet 8 that way and then people tried to use the same method for further planets. Also beyond Mercury there was supposed to be Vulcanus and people reported sightings but nothing added up

Discovery of planet 8 (Wikipedia):

unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to hypothesise that its orbit was subject to gravitational perturbation by an unknown planet. After Bouvard's death, the position of Neptune was mathematically predicted from his observations, independently, by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier. Neptune was subsequently directly observed with a telescope

And then Mr Einstein had a thing or two to say about those gravitational disturbances being actually relativity and most things clicked into place (but you'll still have a discrepancy between the known spacetime curving and observed orbits because it's hard to know what mass is exactly where in the Kuiper belt etc.). Or something. I'm probably wrong on the details but that's the broad strokes as I remember them

We didn't get planet 9 in school either fwiw but I think it was in magazines or encyclopedia at my grandparents' place that I heard of it

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Where did you go to school? I've never heard of either of those before.

[–] danekrae@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Those false facts were on the site. I was never taught that.

Besides every girl in my school were better than any boy at mathematics.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

Ah sorry, I totally misread that lol!

I think a lot of those are highly dependent on where a person went to school and who their teacher was, because some of them are pretty far out there.