# When good adults believe bad science (share your stories) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738 "2005-12-30T16:52:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/161 "2006-01-03T18:30:25Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > They used to do that in British hospitals too, but only at night - night is when those pesky plants do their oxygen stealing! > Seriously tho’ I don’t think this quite counts as ‘bad science’ just ‘old science’ - I mean I don’t know how old your husband is but my parents talk about this happening 40-50 years ago, biology has moved on _a lot_ since then (I looked at stuff on a cellular level in A level biology that my Mum, a qualified doctor had never heard of), if the nurses were still doing it now, then we’d have cause to worry. Of course, at night! That makes so much more sense! 😉 This was 1977, so I really hope they’ve gotten past it now! ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/162 "2006-01-03T18:34:35Z")
I have an otherwise intelligent friend who adamantly believes that ice, frozen water, cannot have a temperature lower than the freezing point of water. He insists that the internal temperature of an ice cube inside of a freezer in which the air temperature is 0 F will never dip below 32 F. He “read it somewhere.” ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/163 "2006-01-03T18:41:48Z")
> [@Siege](#): > > **Left Hand of Dorkness** , I suspect your friend with the odd beliefs about water may have overdosed on _[What the Bleep Do We Know?](http://www.whatthebleep.com/)_ which is not a movie and a book. The movie mentions the experiments Dr. Masaru Emoto with frozen water crystals. The movie was fascinating. I haven’t read the book yet, but I was given it for Christmas (in fact, I brought it with me to respond to this post) and I should be able to report back on it later. > > CJ From Roger Ebert Answer Man: > [@](#): > > Q. I’ve read your review of “What the #$\*! Do We Know?,” a film that attempts to explain some of the more interesting aspects of quantum physics. These explanations are given by what you describe as “experts” in the field. > > I am a professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, doing research in the field of experimental particle physics. I glanced at the cast names and did not recognize any of them as leading names in the field of theoretical particle physics or cosmology. I even searched for their names using the search engine of the High Energy Physics database, which references authors of papers appearing in the leading journals of the field. Nothing came up. > > I suspect that the persons appearing in the film are not physicists who have a rigorous training in the very mathematical and non-metaphysical theory of quantum mechanics. If this is indeed the case, then I warn you that the content of the film may have little or nothing to do with the actual theory of quantum mechanics. > > Carlo Dallapiccola, Amherst, Mass. > > A. Since the expert who made the most sense to me was JZ Knight, who claims to be channeling Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old mystical sage from the lost continent of Atlantis, this does not come as a shock. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/164 "2006-01-03T18:55:42Z")
> [@diku](#): > > I had my boss argue with me for a solid hour that Dalmation puppies ears stand up when they’re puppies. Like cat’s ears. Then they become floppy ears when they grow. Nevermind the fact that I have a dalmation puppy, with very floppy ears that have a tendency to get infected. Some dogs, including Pembroke Welsh Corgis, are born with floppy ears, which stand up later on. > [@commasense](#): > > I thought it had been shown that microwave ovens do not actually cook from the inside out, but I forgot where I saw this. Mythbusters, maybe? Alton Brown’s book _I’m Just Here For The Food_ has a debunking of the “microwaves cook from the inside out” myth. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/165 "2006-01-03T19:03:05Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > I used to do electronic assembly and this sounds like the gadgets I helped build for some new agey company. They sent us a bagful of quartz crystals that looked like they had been just dug out of the earth, dirt and all and then were wrapped a bunch of times with a length of copper wire. I clipped the wires the proper length, inserted them in a little circuit board and added 9-volt batteries to them. There may have been an led light or two involved though I don’t remember exactly. My boss explained what these gimmicks were supposed to do and though I don’t remember that exactly either, I do remember that we both agreed it was a bunch of hooey. Do you mean that your Quality Control director didn’t test each device for molecule aligning effectiveness? I was going to ask if you could fix my molecule aligning do-dad, but now I’m not sure I trust you. I think I’ll just wrap another layer of tin foil over it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/166 "2006-01-03T19:20:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by commasense > I thought it had been shown that microwave ovens do not actually cook from the inside out, but I forgot where I saw this. Mythbusters, maybe? > > Alton Brown’s book I’m Just Here For The Food has a debunking of the “microwaves cook from the inside out” myth. Geez! Do you people need a cite that the sky is blue? I know that microwaves don’t cook “from the inside out” because every time I nuke my leftovers I have a relatively thin region of warm food around the outside of the Tupperware and an ice-cold center. I have to take out the container, mix it all up, and put it back in a couple of times to get it adequately and approximately uniformly heated. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/167 "2006-01-03T19:43:19Z")
A programmer where I work believed that radiation leaking out of the microwaves in the break room was dangerous to us. She also was concerned about the radiation leaking out of the overhead lights and from her (flatscreen LCD) computer monitor. No amount of pointing out the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation would convince her. She also refused to let her kids be vaccinated, and believed floride in the water was poisoning anyone who drank tapwater. This programmer later left the company, resigning by email without giving any notice. I can’t say I was suprised. My wife had serious trouble understanding the actual cause of the phases of the moon, and the idea that the moon rotates yet always keeps the same side facing the earth. I had to demonstrate using a desk lamp and some oranges as props before she got it. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/168 "2006-01-03T19:54:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Geez! Do you people need a cite that the sky is blue? Sometimes I think that, if there were one of those chain e-mails going around saying it wasn’t, we all know people who would really believe it wasn’t. Even though they could see with their own eyes that it was in fact blue, they would believe that somehow it “really” wasn’t. You know, if it’s in an email that’s been forwarded all over the internet, it must be true :rolleyes: Funny thing is, their absolute faith in the truth of things on the internet doesn’t seem to extend to the sites we send them to to show them why whatever it is they read in an email is wrong. Maybe, instead of citing snopes or other authoritative sites, we should make a mass-forwarded email saying that whatever rumor isn’t true. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/169 "2006-01-03T21:38:40Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Technically trained people aren’t necessarily immune. A physicist (Masters degree) argued at length that the statistics of dice even up on a daily basis. In all fairness, the actual amount of applied statistics training that one has to obtain in order to get a degree in physical sciences or engineering is astonishingly minimal. I have a degree in mechanical engineer with minors in physics and mathematics, and yet I was not required to take a statistics course; my academic exposure to statistics came from applying a linear least-squares fit to experiment data in basic and intermediate physics labs, and stochastic analysis in a machine design class, neither of which provided a comprehensive coverage of basic statistical methodology. When Marilyn vos Savant did her version of the [Monty Hall problem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem), plenty of people wrote in, including those claiming to have advanced degrees in mathematics and one stating that he was responsible for safety at several nuclear plants, contending that she was wrong or that she misapplied the method to obtain her solution. [Cecil’s weaseling](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_189.html) aside–as Homer says, weaseling is what seperates us from the animals (except weasels)–an application of [Bayes Theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem#Bayes.27s_theorem) clearly indicates that the door switching is favorable. (Actually, you can show this without even getting into the math of Bayes’ Theorem, if you consider the opened door and the unselected door to be one “virtual door”; i.e. by switching, you get to see what is behind 2 doors instead of the single one you pick.) Besides, I’ve known a number of physicists who believed that their extensive knowledge of arcane physical laws translated into an understanding of other physical phenomena, and yet very few seem qualified to change their own motor oil. Experience in one field does not translate to the command of another. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/170 "2006-01-03T21:48:13Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Technically trained people aren’t necessarily immune. A physicist (Masters degree) argued at length that the statistics of dice even up on a daily basis. In all fairness, the actual amount of applied statistics training that one has to obtain in order to get a degree in physical sciences or engineering is astonishingly minimal. I have a degree in mechanical engineer with minors in physics and mathematics, and yet I was not required to take a statistics course; my academic exposure to statistics came from applying a linear least-squares fit to experiment data in basic and intermediate physics labs, and stochastic analysis in a machine design class, neither of which provided a comprehensive coverage of basic statistical methodology. When Marilyn vos Savant did her version of the [Monty Hall problem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem), plenty of people wrote in, including those claiming to have advanced degrees in mathematics and one stating that he was responsible for safety at several nuclear plants, contending that she was wrong or that she misapplied the method to obtain her solution. [Cecil’s weaseling](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_189.html) aside–as Homer says, weaseling is what seperates us from the animals (except weasels)–an application of [Bayes Theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem#Bayes.27s_theorem) clearly indicates that the door switching is favorable. (Actually, you can show this without even getting into the math of Bayes’ Theorem, if you consider the opened door and the unselected door to be one “virtual door”; i.e. by switching, you get to see what is behind 2 doors instead of the single one you pick.) Besides, I’ve known a number of physicists who believed that their extensive knowledge of arcane physical laws translated into an understanding of other physical phenomena, and yet very few seem qualified to change their own motor oil. Experience in one field does not translate to the command of another. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/171 "2006-01-03T22:16:44Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > They used to do that in British hospitals too, but only at night - night is when those pesky plants do their oxygen stealing! > Seriously tho’ I don’t think this quite counts as ‘bad science’ just ‘old science’ - I mean I don’t know how old your husband is but my parents talk about this happening 40-50 years ago, biology has moved on _a lot_ since then. I’m guessing that this has to do with a misunderstanding of the light and dark portions of the carbon cycle. It would have to be a multilevel misunderstanding because, at the very least 1. The “Dark” reaction doesn’t happen only at night. It just doesn’t require sunlight. 2. Plants _produce_ Oxygen. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/172 "2006-01-03T22:33:25Z")
Programmers don’t necessarily have much (if any) training in the physical sciences. Not all programmers have college degrees, and the ones who do might not have been required to take any physics classes. Not to mention how _incredibly_ effective introductory college science classes are at dissuading people from believing stupid things about radiation… True story: at one college I went to, one of the libraries had signs on the scanner things that you pass through on your way out of the library, reassuring people that they didn’t emit radiation :rolleyes: > [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > (Actually, you can show this without even getting into the math of Bayes’ Theorem, if you consider the opened door and the unselected door to be one “virtual door”; i.e. by switching, you get to see what is behind 2 doors instead of the single one you pick.) There’s an even easier way to show it: Suppose you pick door number 1. The prize can be behind door number 1, 2, or 3, and has an equal probability of being behind any of them. If the prize is behind door number 1, you lose if you switch. If the prize is behind door number 2, Monty opens door number 3, you switch to 2, and you win. If the prize is behind door number 3, Monty opens door number 2, you switch to 3, and you win. In 2 cases out of 3, you win by switching. (The same reasoning would apply if you initially picked door number 2 or door number 3.) QED. ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/173 "2006-01-04T00:11:12Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > > [@Cunctator](#): > > > > He’d “learnt it at school” apparently. [that all rivers flow south] > > Not a school that pays much attention to the Nile, it would appear. Nothing worth studying there. Oh, my! Reading this, I suddenly flashed back to junior high, when my teacher patiently explained to the class that the Nile was unique because it is the \*only \*river that flows North! :wally ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/174 "2006-01-04T00:18:43Z")
> [@mojave66](#): > > My great-aunt once asked me where the AIDS virus came from. “I heard it was 'cause people fucked goats” she told me. So I spent the next half-hour talking to her about viruses, retroviruses, how animal viruses can mutate and infect humans, and the (then common) theory that it probably evolved from a simian virus and was probably passed to humans through consumption of simian meat. > > She listens, lets all this sink in for a few minutes, then turns to my mother and says “Yep. Goat fucking.” One of my college students ranted in an essay last year that people only get AIDS by having sex with non-virgins. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/175 "2006-01-04T00:20:38Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I had a geography teacher who used to try and fool us with his “Continental Drip” theory. He explained that because the earth is round, all the continents are drifting southwards to the southpole. He used to fool quite a few kids before he’d 'fess up. Hate to burst your bubble, but he stole that from the “Journal of Irreproducible Results.” ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/176 "2006-01-04T00:33:28Z")
> [@Agonist](#): > > Oh, my! Reading this, I suddenly flashed back to junior high, when my teacher patiently explained to the class that the Nile was unique because it is the \*only \*river that flows North! :wally Heh, so I assume your teacher had never heard of the St. Lawrence Seaway? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/177 "2006-01-04T00:35:53Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > But in the real world, if I were a forced to bet on a coin that had turned up heads ten times in a row, I would choose heads, because there’s probably something not right about that coin. [Obligatory link to thread-killing druggy anecdote.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5637116#post5637116) Not bad science, but misguided adult belief: When I was a teenager, I remember having a conversation with a contracted plumber who related the fascinating factoid that plumbers are so-called because before there were threaded pipefittings, they used solder for joints – and the big blobs of sealing solder “looked like plums.” He insisted on that even after I told him that the first plumbers were Roman, and they used _plumbum_ to get the job done. ‘“Plumbum” is lead. That’s why you call a plumb-line a “plumb-line.”’ “No, it’s because it hangs _plumb down!_” He said I’d obviously made up the word “plumbum” because it sounded so silly. :smack: Ah well, at least he learned a trade. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/178 "2006-01-04T00:36:43Z")
Has this been mentioned yet? I’ve met quite a few Californians who firmly believe there is such a thing as “earthquake weather.” I think it’s when the weather gets a bit off-seasonally balmy & foggy. “Ooh, this is earthquake weather! I bet we’re going to have an earthquake!” ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/179 "2006-01-04T01:23:54Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > One of my college students ranted in an essay last year that people only get AIDS by having sex with non-virgins. Wow. I’d heard that notion was believed in some parts of Africa, or even worse, that having sex with virgins would cure AIDS. Scary. By the way, there is a side of the moon that doesn’t get sunshine. The _in_side. 😉 I’ve lost track of how often I’ve received the “true facts” e-mail glurge that includes things like the duck quack “fact.” Generally from people who should know better. > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by mojave66 > My great-aunt once asked me where the AIDS virus came from. “I heard it was 'cause people fucked goats”…She listens, lets all this sink in for a few minutes, then turns to my mother and says “Yep. Goat fucking.” I have to say, while I’d be annoyed by that refusal to absorb the facts, I’d be as impressed as hell if any of my great aunts would just say “goat fucking” in a matter of fact way. > [@](#): > > tdn… All of us diners remain, to this day, relatively undead. Zombie!!! We’ve got a zombie on the board. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/180 "2006-01-04T01:24:16Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Californians who firmly believe there is such a thing as “earthquake weather.” [Blame it on Aristotle](http://interactive2.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_category/get_answer.asp?id=148). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=10)