Misconceptions

Questions

1. Why are misconceptions so commonplace?
2. How does a misconception start?
3. Do you think shaving thickens hair?
4. Where do you think fortune cookies come from?
5. Do penguins mate for life?
6. Can sharks smell blood from a mile away?
7. Do we really use 10% of our brain?
8. Do humans have 5 senses?

Videos

Vox
One man cracked his knuckles in one hand for 60 years and not the other. Watch the video to see what he found out.
There’s a long-held myth that cracking your knuckles can damage your hands. The sound definitely might

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make people around you cringe, but what’s making those noises, and is it actually bad for you?

There’s a space in your joints filled with synovial fluid, a liquid that reduces the friction in your joints when you move. It contains gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide).

When you pop a joint, you stretch out that space between the bones. That expanding space creates negative pressure, like a vacuum, that sucks in the synovial fluid. It forms bubbles, which then collapse, and that’s what you hear.

Most medical sources agree that unless you experience pain when you pop your joints, you’re probably fine to keep doing it. Researchers (including one man who cracked his knuckles on just one hand for 60 years) haven’t established a connection between cracking your knuckles and arthritis.

One 1990 study of 300 people did find that cracking knuckles over a long period of time led to hand swelling and decreased grip strength, but there hasn’t been any follow-up research on that.

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Category:  Science
Keywords: Hands | Misconceptions
How does evolution really work? Actually, not how some of our common evolutionary metaphors would have us believe. For instance, it’s species, not individual organisms, that adapt to produce evolution, and genes don’t

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“want” to be passed on — a gene can’t want anything at all! Alex Gendler sets the record straight on the finer points of evolution.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Giant Animation Studios.

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Category:  Controversial

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots