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In Graeco-Roman scholarship, the terms etiological myth and aition (from the Ancient Greek αἴτιον 'cause') are occasionally used to describe a myth that clarifies an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence. Nature of origin myths. Origin myths are narratives that explain how a particular reality came into existence. [1] .
- Your fingerprints are completely unique. For more than a century, fingerprints have played a major role in forensic investigations. It all started with Scottish scientist and physician Henry Faulds who, in 1888, wrote an article asserting that each person has a wholly unique set of fingerprints.
- Rolling your tongue is a genetic trait. In 1940, geneticist Alfred Sturtevant published a paper claiming that genetics determined your ability to roll your tongue - parents who could roll their tongues were likely to have children who could as well.
- You have five senses. Children often learn that they have five senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. That's a "fact" that originated in a work by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, written around 350 B.C.
- Fingernails and hair continue to grow after death. Our bodies do lots of creepy things after we die, but they don't keep growing our fingernails and hair.
Jan 30, 2016 · No more. It's time to put an end to the most alluring science myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies passed down through the ages. To help the cause we've rounded up and corrected dozens of...
- Fact or fiction? Science is hard enough to understand, especially when there are so many “facts” floating around that aren’t actually true. You’ve probably heard more than half of the facts below.
- Myth: Water conducts electricity. While this is a science myth, it doesn’t mean you should bring your toaster in the bath with you. The reason you shouldn’t swim in a lightning storm doesn’t have to do with the water itself.
- Myth: Blood is blue in your body. A widely shared myth is that blood is blue until it is exposed to air or replenishes its oxygen. Because veins are a greenish-blue, that theory sounds reasonable enough.
- Myth: Dinosaurs were scaly beasts. The giant, scaly lizards you see in Jurassic Park probably don’t look that close to what actual dinosaurs looked like.
A creation myth (or creation story) is a cultural, religious or traditional myth which describes the earliest beginnings of the present world. Creation myths are the most common form of myth, usually developing first in oral traditions, and are found throughout human culture.
Today’s post on our Science Blog will discuss ten of the most popular and influential scientific discoveries that were based on dubious data, and were consequently proven wrong, debunked and replaced with more reliable and logical modern theories.
Jan 1, 2016 · Few of the chapters reflect explicitly on why myths become myths, but in the superb concluding essay, Michael Gordin does this in the process of debunking the widely accepted belief that science can be easily differentiated from pseudoscience simply by determining whether a particular theory is falsifiable.
