There are lots of scientific facts that are misinterpreted on a regular basis. I see it all the time; more often than not it's something that's actually pretty insignificant, but it drives me insane nonetheless. As a total biology nerd, I get that not everyone loves or cares about science as much as I do. Everyone has their area of study, and it's not reasonable to expect everyone to be knowledgeable in every subject. But for those at least slightly interested, I want to share the difference between fact and fiction. If nothing else, it will give you a fun fact to throw out in class to make you sound smarter. These five photos represent what I believe to be the most common misunderstood scientific facts.
1. Evolution
This is the most common image associated with evolution, but it is actually very inaccurate. It is used in school when evolution is first introduced as a simple way to explain the process, but it causes a lot of the misconceptions people associate with evolution. First of all, evolution did not happen in four simple stages. It occurred over hundreds of super complicated, difficult to decipher steps, which take place in the span of millions of years. A more accurate picture would show a complex web going lots of directions with dead ends and gaps in the middle. Second of all, we did not evolve from monkeys like this photo implies; we evolved from a common ancestor with monkeys. Basically, there was some species that evolved in two different directions. One direction lead to monkeys, and one led to humans.
2. Osmosis vs. Diffusion
I hear this one all the time. Osmosis is the movement of water to an area of lower concentration. This is used to keep cells at a balanced pressure so they don't explode or shrink. Diffusion is the movement of particles. So in this scenario, you would be learning through diffusion, not osmosis.
3. Natural Selection
Yes, this technically falls under evolution, but I felt it needed it's own category. Natural selection is more random than it sounds. Some genetic mutation leads to an animal living longer (and therefore having more babies) than the rest of the species without that mutation. Those babies have more babies and slowly but surely that mutation is spread so much that it becomes normal. Basically, it happens over many generations. So a whale that beaches itself won't evolve to that environment. It's just going to die. A lot of people have a hard time understanding evolution because they can't see natural selection happening and therefore it looks like evolution isn't happening. I promise it is, it just takes a long, long time.
4. The Color Spectrum
Black is the absence of color, hence it is not a color in itself. It's white that's a combination of all wavelengths of colors. It's an easy and common mistake to make. To help you remember, just think about how unicorns are white. That's why they poop rainbows. #unicornscience
5. E. coli
I'm sure you've heard of at least one story in the news of a case of E. coli poisoning from some restaurant or food product. E. coli poisoning is terrible, but did you know that most strands aren't bad? Most people associate E. coli with poop, since it's found in fecal matter. No one wants poop in their food right? But the reason it's found there is because it's naturally already in your intestines. They actually protect your gut from certain strains of bacteria as well as produce certain essential vitamins. Those little guys are also really useful to scientists, as that type of bacteria is really easily grown in labs for different types of testing. That being said, the few strains that are pathogenic can cause horrible food poisoning, so it's best to stay away from those. Just know that E. coli is not always bad.
