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from the even-smart-people-can-perpetuate-stupid dept.
False beliefs and wishful thinking about the human experience are common. They are hurting people — and holding back science.
[...] These myths often blossom from a seed of a fact — early detection does save lives for some cancers — and thrive on human desires or anxieties, such as a fear of death. But they can do harm by, for instance, driving people to pursue unnecessary treatment or spend money on unproven products. They can also derail or forestall promising research by distracting scientists or monopolizing funding. And dispelling them is tricky.
Scientists should work to discredit myths, but they also have a responsibility to try to prevent new ones from arising, says Paul Howard-Jones, who studies neuroscience and education at the University of Bristol, UK. "We need to look deeper to understand how they come about in the first place and why they're so prevalent and persistent."
Some dangerous myths get plenty of air time: vaccines cause autism, HIV doesn't cause AIDS. But many others swirl about, too, harming people, sucking up money, muddying the scientific enterprise — or simply getting on scientists' nerves. Here, Nature looks at the origins and repercussions of five myths that refuse to die.
These are some of the science myths that will not die.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday December 20 2015, @02:09PM
Some of my favorites missed
We only use 10% of our brains
You can take any mystical magical astrological BS, and if you call it "quantum" its now real science. With a side dish of "quantum" meaning "the largest possible".
Since 1960 or so, the government can fix or improve anything. Not "everything" I really do mean "anything".
WRT the above, see the response to global warming.
Donning the asbestos fabrics, we've got creationism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 20 2015, @06:24PM
You can take any mystical magical astrological BS, and if you call it "quantum" its now real science. With a side dish of "quantum" meaning "the largest possible".
So what you're saying is, my degree in Quantum Dianetics is useless?! Drat!
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday December 21 2015, @07:09AM
Most of our DNA is "junk DNA".
Drink 8 glasses of 8 fl oz. of water per day.
10 years of obsessive practice of any skill will make anyone into one of the top practitioners in the world of that skill.
We can and should and need to colonize Mars.