Parents, teachers, and the internet have usually meant well by us, but they’ve sometimes drifted from the truth. Carrots won’t give you night vision, a hat won’t ward off viruses, and a “female alpha wolf” simply doesn’t exist in the wild. See how ten stubborn misconceptions crumble under the weight of evidence—and read what the latest research reveals about “new” states of matter, plastic cigarette filters, and a fungus whose underground network could swallow most of Bratislava.
1. Do we have only five senses? Not even close
Modern neuroscience distinguishes more than twenty dedicated channels: proprioception (body position), interoception (signals from internal organs), nociception (pain), the sense of balance, temperature, or CO₂ concentration. Aristotle’s classic five thus splinter into many subcategories—even vision alone includes brightness, color, depth, and motion (PMC).
2. Big shoes ≠ a big ego (or penis)
Statistical studies have found no meaningful relationship between foot length (or even hand size) and penis size (PubMed). One slight clue, however, may come from the ratio of the second to the fourth digit (2D:4D). The lower it is, the higher the probability of greater length—likely due to prenatal androgen exposure (PubMed).
3. The alpha wolf? In reality, a family dad
The concept of an “alpha” male or female arose from observations of unrelated wolves kept in captivity. In the wild, however, a pack is a family led by a breeding pair; the young eventually leave to establish their own dynasty (wolf.org).
4. Sugar doesn’t make kids hyperactive
Twelve different studies found no increase in hyperactivity after sugar consumption—neither in children with ADHD nor in healthy peers (PubMed). The more likely risk is a “sugar crash,” i.e., a slump.
5. The Bermuda Triangle? The number of wrecks is average
Analyses by NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Lloyd’s of London have shown that the number of disappearances in the area between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda is comparable to busy shipping lanes elsewhere. Most cases can be explained by tropical storms, the strong Gulf Stream, and human error (oceanservice.noaa.gov).
Did you know? The Japanese have their own “Pacific Triangle”—the Dragon’s Triangle (Devil’s Sea). Here too, researchers have shown that ship disappearances were closely linked to underwater volcanic activity and accidents involving small fishing vessels (Wikipedia).
6. Cigarette filters: a stealthy plastic plague
International shoreline cleanups consistently collect more cigarette butts than bottles, straws, or bags combined. Cellulose acetate filters break down into microplastics, and billions escape into the environment every year (oceanservice.noaa.gov).
7. Touch a baby bird = you doom it? Myth
Most songbirds have a poor sense of smell; they recognize their young by sound and appearance. If you gently return a fallen chick to the nest or a nearby branch, the parents will continue to care for it (All About Birds).
8. The planet’s largest organism grows underground
Armillaria ostoyae, nicknamed the “humongous fungus,” forms a genetic individual spanning nearly 10 km² in Oregon’s mountains. It’s a mass of interconnected underground filaments (rhizomorphs), not a single gigantic mushroom. Its estimated age exceeds 2,000 years and its weight is tens of thousands of tons (US Forest Service).
9. Cold weather won’t give you a cold—viruses will
Cold on its own isn’t enough to cause a viral infection; viruses spread when we spend time indoors and immunity is weakened. If you dash outside with wet hair, you’re only risking discomfort—not a runny nose (Mayo Clinic News Network).
10. Solid-liquid-gas? You’re missing plasma… and much more
Plasma—an ionized “gas” found in stars, lightning, and neon signs—is the fourth classical state of matter (NASA Science). At temperatures billions of times lower than in a star’s core, a Bose–Einstein condensate forms, in which atoms stop keeping their individual distance and behave like a single “super-atom” (NIST).
Physicists today are investigating how much energy (and thus mass) a single bit of information represents—according to Landauer’s principle, at least k·T·ln 2 joules. Experiments with quantum circuits confirm that even hitting delete on a keyboard has a measurable carbon footprint (Nature). If data growth continues at the current pace, future data farms will require more energy than all of humanity uses today.
Video: 5 myths we saw on TV
A short, punchy SciShow recap for a more visual take.
Sources
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Bermuda Triangle FAQ: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bermudatri.html
- International Wolf Center – Is the alpha wolf idea a myth?: https://wolf.org/headlines/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/
- Mayo Clinic News Network – Can cold weather cause a cold? https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/1-16mayo-clinic-minute-can-cold-weather-cause-a-cold/
- NOAA Ocean Conservancy Cleanup Report – Most common ocean litter: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/most-common-ocean-litter.html
- PubMed – Can shoe size predict penile length? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12230622/
- Asian Journal of Andrology – Second to fourth digit ratio predicts adult penile length https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21725330/
- PubMed – Hyperactivity: is candy causal? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8747098/
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology – If I handle a baby bird, will the parents abandon it? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/if-i-handle-a-baby-bird-will-the-parents-abandon-it/
- USDA Forest Service – Armillaria Root Disease in Conifers of Western North America (PDF) https://www.fs.usda.gov/foresthealth/docs/fidls/FIDL-188-ArmillariaRootDisease.pdf
- NASA Science – The Fifth State of Matter https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/stories/the-fifth-state-of-matter/
- NIST – Bose-Einstein Condensate: A New Form of Matter https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2001/10/bose-einstein-condensate-new-form-matter
- Nature Physics – Experimentally probing Landauer’s principle in the quantum regime https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02930-9
Robert
I’m interested in technology and history, especially true crime stories. For three years I ran a fact-based portal about modern history, and for a year I co-built a blogging platform where I published dozens of analytical articles. I founded offpitch so that quality content wouldn’t be hidden behind a paywall.
