8 Terrible Science Takes

Have you ever seen a science take on the Internet that you're pretty sure is wrong, but you aren't sure how to break it down? Well good news, we are taking care of that for you! Here are just 8 of them, from climate myths to health scares, all explained and fact-checked for your enjoyment.

0:00 Intro
0:43 Losing Heat out of Your Head
2:19 Alpha Dogs
3:33 Iceberg Melting
4:43 CO2 and Plants
6:44 Seed Oils
8:41 Wi-Fi Danger
9:31 Period Blood
10:10 Vitamin K Shots
12:17 Conclusion

Correction:
10:55 This box warning is primarily for patients getting a dose directly into their bloodstream, not into muscle.

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Sources:

[underthedice]

Correction: Alpha wolfs are so debunked that even the guy who made the initial study debunked it with a study. Not just denounced it.

[Aqua_Xenossia]

I’m begging you guys, PLEASE make this a regular series

[fireflyf]

Semi-related:
Whenever i hear some guy say, "Im an alpha male, " or some variation thereof, my first thought is always confusion about why anyone thinks that announcing themselves as being buggy, unstable, not feature complete, prone to crashing, and not ready for full public use is a good thing.

[leftcoastfunk]

As a neonatal nurse, the Vitamin K one pisses me off more than ANYTHING else!!! I've seen too many infants literally DEVASTATED simply because some "instagram-smart" granola mother refused a simple shot. And when I say "devastated", I mean devastated. The kind of devastated that nobody should ever have to see or "live" with. It's just the the most no-brainer decision and yet more and more mothers are choosing not to. It blows my mind and hurts my soul

[onorebakasama]

The idea that a period contains baby bits is such an unbelievably ridiculous failure of not just reproductive education, but also logic.

[jarod]

Based purely on the thumbnail I am going to assume you are here to tell me that there are NOT two wolves inside of me?

[eliyahzayin]

Not only do wolves not have alpha's but, just like humans, they will absolutely revolt against a parent/pack leader that's too abusive if given the chance.

[FrozEnbyWolf]

Not only can you not draw conclusions about wolf behavior by studying wolves in captivity, you also can't draw conclusions about human behavior by studying humans in captivity, i.e. prison. Nor should you use the behavior of prisoners as a prescriptive model for how all of society should be run. I don't think that's the kind of world you want to live in.

[TrueWolves]

I rescue abused high anxiety dogs. Someone tried the alpha and "beat aggression into them" acts on my GSD as a puppy. Now she's terrified of people as an adult. Not gunshots, thunder, or new experiences either, *just* people. Thankfully 5 years later and she at least approaches people who avoid eye contact and keep a low profile for butt scratches and she's an absolute snuggler with me and my family.

[LadyD]

I've grown up around a bunch of guys that can't even _hear_ about _anything_ related to periods without getting _extremely_ uncomfortable and cutting the convo off. It's refreshing to see a man talk about it without doing that. Thank you!

[jnzkngs]

I only feel the wifi sickness when I'm on social media.

[beezlgauze]

The vitamin K myth is the worst. My mother is a midwife and has dealt with some people like this. New mothers are often anxious and concerned for the babies health and sometimes buy into crazy conspiracies like this. Misinformation spread about medical interventions proven to save lives are disgusting and lead to deaths.

[ninaexmachina]

Periods aren't baby bits, they're baby blanket bits.

[Greenhourglass]

everything about the period blood tweet is so funny. "im not against periods but" like someone was going to accuse them of opposing it like its something women just chose to do?? 😭

[lisanorwoodtreefarm]

On the sea level rise issue: I have found some folks just didn't know the difference between glaciers and ice bergs and would use the terms interchangeably, and once that confusion was cleared up, they got on board.

[OneThreeEight]

I wonder if the "period blood contains baby parts" person had heard about the high rates of "chemical pregnancy", where you basically just have a really early miscarriage, and frequently didn't know you were pregnant. Because the aftermath of a very early miscarriage looks pretty much the same as regular menstruation they may have added one and one and gotten three. (Or, more likely, someone up the misinformation chain had done so.)

[zxzxzzxx]

Also, photosynthesis efficiency decreases as temperature rises, because Rubisco is less eager to grab CO2 when it's warm, and not everyone is a C4 chad maize

[Splizacular]

As far as bad takes that need straightening in science, I'd say you could do an entire episode solely on the dangers of correlations and how often they're mistaken as causations. This even extends well beyond just science

[haggielady]

YES, YES, YES! Please do more of these because the rest of the Internet is contributing to lower test scores and outright lies.

[GingerBread]

Do one about the gut microbiome and how we don't understand nearly as much about it as wellness influencers want to pretend we do.