Below I am reposting a rather long piece taken verbatim from the website of Steve Detweiler who just says that it’s an “amusing anecdote from a friend of mine.” So, I’m not sure of the veracity of the story, and some claim that it’s an urban legend. It may well be. But […]

I came across a new science blog recently – A Schooner of Science — and really enjoyed Sarah’s fresh and funny writing style about all sorts of things that this blog doesn’t tend to cover — namely, biology and chemistry. (I write about them when I can, but, well, it does all come down […]

Ooh ooh ooh, Bad Astronomy posted (a while ago) a fabulous list of Ten Things You Didn’t Know about the Earth. If you dig my science myths, check this one out. Such gems as “The earth is smoother than a billiard ball,” “Destroying the earth is hard,” and “Mt. Everest isn’t the biggest […]

This myth appears in a bunch of textbooks, so it’s not surprising that it’s persisted. The myth is that we mostly taste sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, and sourness at different areas of the tongue. While it’s true that we do have different taste sensations on different areas of the tongue, the exact distribution of […]

Have you been told that glass is a liquid? I remember back in 10th grade and my teacher told me that old windows were thicker at the bottom than at the top, showing that glass flows, veeerrrry slowwwwly.
While I was at the Exploratorium, this myth was debunked for me by my mentor Paul Doherty. […]