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All Food is “Natural”
While walking through the grocery store, you may notice labels such as “Natural”, “Organic”, and “Free Range”. Many consumers are willing to pay extra for products with these claims. In one poll, 63%...
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Survival of the Fittest is Not Related to Physical Fitness
Almost everyone has heard of evolution and most of us have a vague idea of what it means. Animals with useful traits survive and pass on their genes. Over time, these positive traits become more common...
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Cinnamon Helps You Learn and Remember
The United States dietary supplements industry is huge, bringing in over $20 billion in sales every year. Since 2004, the industry has seen rapid growth every single year. More than 80% of adults buy...
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Some Nature Documentaries are Filmed in Studios
Nature documentaries can provide insights into the natural world and behavior of wildlife. Although often educational, they are still a form of entertainment. Reality TV shows are known for being...
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Extreme Athletes May Benefit from Vitamin C Supplements
Cold season is upon us and even the latest scientific technology can’t prevent us from catching a cold. The lack of a real “cure” has led to all sorts of crazy remedies, including Epsom salts and...
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Placebos Work Even When Patients Know They’re Taking Placebos
A placebo is a sugar pill or similarly ineffective treatment used in medical studies. The placebo acts as a control for comparison when studying the effectiveness of a proposed treatment. Often,...
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The Five Second Rule Works Best on Carpet
The “five second rule” is an unofficial pass to eat food dropped on the floor—provided only a few seconds have elapsed. The general wisdom is that it takes several seconds for bacteria to transfer to...
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Dogs See Green and Blue not Black and White
When television shows and movies show events from a dog’s point of view, they usually switch to black-and-white. Dogs, like most mammals, actually do see colors—though not quite the same way humans do....
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Caffeine is an Addictive Mind-Altering Drug
Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world and over 80% of Americans consume some form of the chemical daily—whether it’s from tea, coffee, or soda. Caffeinated drinks have been around for...
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Bread Can Stop Ducks From Flying
Many people have fond childhood memories of feeding ducks at the park. Feeding some stale bread to the birds seems like it’d benefit them, too. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In reality, bread...
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There is No “Versus” in Nature Versus Nurture
The “nature versus nurture” debate is alive and well today, even though science has debunked the entire argument. This might seem surprising since people still claim that certain traits are from...
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Eating Before Swimming Won’t Cause Cramps
Mothers have been repeating the same advice to their kids for decades: “Don’t go swimming after lunch, you’ll get cramps and drown!” Some parents have taken it a step further, declaring that it’s not...
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Basketball Was Originally Played With Soccer Balls
By Chad Upton The NBA has one Canadian team and 29 American teams. This is kind of fitting since basketball was invented by one Canadian teaching many students at what is now Springfield College in...
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Birth Control Makes Women Blink More
Blinking is a critical function for most animals. Few of us give it much thought, however, since blinking is a spontaneous action that we have little control over—similar to breathing. Although science...
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Tomatoes Lose Flavor in the Fridge
Thanks to modern refrigeration, we can keep our food fresh longer. The problem is that the cool temperatures of the fridge don’t preserve all foods equally—as much as we’d like to believe it. People...
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Melting Icebergs Don’t Cause the Sea Level to Rise
Even among people who understand that the sea level is rising due to climate change, there are still some misconceptions floating around. It makes sense that as the temperature rises, floating sea ice...
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Coconut Water Is Not a Health Drink
Coconut water is a trending drink in the United States. Two common health claims are that coconut water is more hydrating than sports drinks and that it contains large amounts of potassium (which isn’t...
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Pink wasn’t always for girls
Pink is for girls and blue is for boys—or at least that’s what marketing tells us. Interestingly, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, it was the opposite for a long time, with boys being dressed in...
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Essential Oils Aren’t Essential
Essential oils are popular in all sorts of alternative medicine practices—everything from aromatherapy to oil massages. The name sounds rather scientific as if these are important chemicals for...
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Lone Baby Animals are Rarely Abandoned
The wealth of available resources and mild weather make spring the perfect season for most animals to raise offspring. When these helpless (and often adorable) babies are in danger, it’s natural for...
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Seabirds Eat Plastic Because it Looks and Smells Like Food
Marine pollution is a well-known, continuous problem in our world’s oceans. Of the types of anthropogenic debris (waste originating from human activity), plastic is perhaps the most dangerous. Few...
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Poinsettia Plants Aren’t so Bad after All
As the holidays draw near, there are PSAs everywhere about how to protect your pet from the most dangerous of plants: the poisonous poinsettia. While the holidays do bring some extra challenges and...
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Cold Weather Doesn’t Disprove Climate Change
One common misconception about global warming is that it’ll impact each part of the globe in the same way. If it’s a global warming than why are some places getting cold winters? As it turns out,...
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Foxes May Be the Next Domestic Animal
Cats and dogs evolved thousands of years ago, with other animals, such as livestock, following suit. Interestingly, there appears to be another type of domestication underway: the domestication of the...
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Forgetting Why You Came into a Room
Walking through doors causes your brain to reset Have you ever walked into a room for something, only to forget exactly what that was? You’re not alone—it happens to everyone and psychologists call it...
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Cherries Help Cure Insomnia
Can’t sleep? You’re not alone—one third of Americans develop insomnia at some point in their lives. You’ve probably heard a lot of the usual sleep advice: exercise during the day, no electronic use...
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Zebra Stripes Confuse Biting Insects
Spending time outdoors can be a lot of fun but what aren’t fun are biting insects! Flies and mosquitoes are a pain whether you’re hiking or chilling in your backyard. The good news is that science...
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Magenta Isn’t a Real Color
We’re all familiar with magenta—it’s a kind of purplish-red that exists between blue and red on color wheels. It’s one of four base colors used in printers to make other colors—along with black, cyan,...
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How Vaccines Work
Vaccines aren’t so scary Vaccines make a lot of people nervous to the point where there are entire communities rejecting them and even refusing to give their children basic vaccinations. This type of...
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Insect Myths: True or False
Insects have been the source of myths and wives’ tales for as long as humans have had to deal with them. They’re small and hard to observe so it’s no wonder we’ve come up with tons of crazy ideas. To...
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