MYTH: Eating chocolate gives you acne:
For one month, a group of scientists fed dozens of people chocolate bars containing 10 times the usual amount of chocolate, and dozens of others fake chocolate bars. When they counted the spots before and after each diet, there was “no difference” between the two groups. Neither the chocolate nor the fat seemed to have any effect on acne.
MYTH: Sugar is as addictive as heroin:
Dr. Robert Lustig, claims that sugar stimulates the brain’s reward system the same way that tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, and even heroin does, and therefore must be equally addictive. Lustig even cites studies that show parts of our brain that light-up from a sugary reward are the same parts that get excited for many types of enjoyable activities, from drinking alcohol to having sex. The problem with “addiction” is that it can’t be described or proved properly by science. So for now, we can only assume that it isn’t as addictive, as other activities and sources of enjoyment aren’t as addictive as herion, despite stimulating the same part of the brain.
MYTH: Ostriches hide by putting their heads in the sand:
This is very incorrect, and an insult to the birds intelligence! In fact, there has never been a reported case of an Ostrich burying it’s head in the ground to hide. Next!
MYTH: Sharks can smell a drop of blood from miles away:
Shark have a highly enlarged brain region for smelling odours, allowing some of them to detect as little as 1 part blood per 10 billion parts water which (in simpler terms) is roughly a drop in an Olympic-size swimming pool. So, considering the ocean is VERY big, a Shark could probably smell you from a hundred or so meters away; on a good day that is.
MYTH: Dropping a penny from the Empire State building could kill someone:
Dropping a penny from the Empire State building is very unlikely to seriously hurt anyone. A penny weighs roughly 1/11th of an ounce and tops out at 50 mph in free-fall, which isn’t no where near fast enough to kill. You would most likely have a sore head for a while though.
