Science That Sounds Fake Real or Fake
Real or Fake? Ten Scientific Claims, and Only Some Are True
Ten claims about physics, chemistry and biology. Some are established findings that sound absurd; some are things everybody repeats that are simply wrong.
There is a real difference between a fact that sounds impossible and a fact that is not true, and the internet is not good at keeping them apart.
Below are ten claims. Five of them are established findings that happen to sound ridiculous. Five of them are things people say constantly that fall apart the moment you check.
Decide on each before you open the reveal.
The ten claims
One. Cooled close to absolute zero, liquid helium will flow upwards and climb out of its own container.
Two. Glass is a very slow-moving liquid, which is why old window panes are thicker at the bottom.
Three. A teaspoon of material from a neutron star would weigh about a billion tonnes.
Four. Humans use only about ten per cent of their brains.
Five. Hot water can sometimes freeze faster than cold water.
Six. Bismuth naturally forms stepped, rainbow-coloured crystals that look manufactured.
Seven. Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
Eight. The Great Wall of China is visible to the naked eye from space.
Nine. Honey found in ancient tombs was still edible.
Ten. A coin dropped from a tall building would kill someone below.
The one worth arguing about
Number five is the interesting case, because it is neither a clean myth nor a clean fact.
The observation that hot water sometimes freezes faster than cold under certain conditions has been reported for a very long time and reproduced in some experiments. What is genuinely unresolved is why, and whether the effect is robust or an artefact of how the experiments are set up. Proposed explanations have included evaporation reducing the volume, dissolved gases, convection currents and supercooling behaviour.
That is a perfectly respectable state for a scientific question to be in, and it is a much better answer than either “yes, obviously” or “no, that is a myth”.
The reveal below marks each claim real or fake, with the reasoning.
Reveal the answer
Answer Real: 1, 3, 5, 6, 9 · Fake: 2, 4, 7, 8, 10
1 REAL — helium behaves as a superfluid near absolute zero and will climb the walls of its container. 2 FAKE — glass is an amorphous solid and does not flow at room temperature; old window panes are uneven because of how they were made. 3 REAL — a teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh in the region of a billion tonnes. 4 FAKE — humans do not use only ten per cent of their brains; imaging shows essentially all of it is active over a day. 5 REAL — hot water can, under some conditions, freeze faster than cold, an effect that is genuinely debated and not fully explained. 6 REAL — bismuth forms naturally stepped, iridescent crystals because of how its oxide layer reflects light. 7 FAKE — lightning strikes tall structures repeatedly; the saying about it never striking twice is simply wrong. 8 FAKE — the Great Wall is not visible to the naked eye from orbit; astronauts have said so repeatedly. 9 REAL — honey recovered from ancient tombs has been found unspoiled, because of its low water content and acidity. 10 FAKE — a penny dropped from a tall building reaches a modest terminal velocity and would not be lethal.
Where this came from
- Materials science and the properties of glass — Corning Museum of Glass
- Physics and chemistry reference — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Research and collections in earth and planetary science — Smithsonian Institution
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