WEB DESK: challenging our preconceived notions is often times the only way we can further our knowledge of the things in nature that we don’t quite yet have a complete understanding of.
So before go thinking you’ve got it all figured out, you should probably familiarize yourself with these seven common misconceptions that people everywhere are still trying to pass off as factual information.
It is a common thought that cracking your fingers will lead to arthritis, but that is not the case. Cracking fingers is not all that harmful apart from the fact that cracking it will bring some discomfort and pain to your hands.
The only harm reading in a dimly lit environment might cause is a little extra eyestrain, which should go away in a few moments if you simply rest your eyes. Of course, this misconception should have been corrected long ago given the fact that prior to the 1900s people had been reading by dim candlelight for centuries without there being reports of a rapidly deteriorating eyesight epidemic.
If you were a picky eater as a child you can probably remember your parents telling you that you’ll need to wear glasses if you don’t eat all of your carrots. While it’s true that carrots are a good source of vitamin A, which promotes healthy skin and eyes, eating them won’t give you sharper vision.
MythBusters actually tested this idea by placing makeshift matadors in an arena. Each of the dummies were holding a different colored flag and the aim was to see if one particular color seemed draw the bull’s attention more than the others.
The test showed that red, blue and white flags got equal, half-hearted attacks when they were motionless. An aggressive charge response from the bull could only be evoked by flags that were being waved.
As it turns out, the color red doesn’t seem to make bulls charge or get fired up in the slightest. In fact, bulls don’t seem to have any sort of color preference at all. They’ll just go for whatever object happens to be moving the most.
the idea that our brain has a dominant side responsible for governing our character—the things we’re interested in and the ways we conduct ourselves—is complete nonsense according to scientific research.
Using brain imaging techniques, neuroscientists have show that while the brain does use different sides to carry out certain functions, there is no one side that’s shown to be dominant over the other when it comes to determining our personality.
Really, the biggest difference between the two sides is that the brain’s right hemisphere controls the muscles on the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the muscles on the right side of the body.
According to Dr. Sorana Segal-Maurer of the Division of Infectious Disease at New York Hospital Queens, when the weather turns cold we all run indoors where we remain in close quarters and breathe recycled air that likely has a higher concentration of viruses than it would in the summer months.
The dry, cold conditions also make it easier for viruses to spread from person to person.
Lots of parents will swear that a single piece of birthday cake will transform their child from an obedient little angel into a wild frosting-faced animal that bounces around the room and screams at the top of their lungs.
But according to a double-blind research study conducted in 1994, eating a lot of sugar doesn’t affect kids’ behavior or cognitive skills. There is something that does change when children are seen gobbling up a lot of sugar though, their parents’ expectations.
