Happy Thought for 14 February 2025

Have a Happy Thought: 

 

There is an old saying that you learn something new every day. (My college roommate added the corollary that once she learned something, that meant she could go back to bed – no matter how early in the day it was!)  

 

Unfortunately, sometimes the new thing you learn is, in fact, not true. So fact-checking is always a good thing to do (yes, I very much try to fact-check these emails, but have and will miss things!). One way to reset yourself is to, every once in a while, check out Wikipedia’s List of common misconceptions page. Here are some of the things that caught my eye during my own recent visit there. I either learned these recently, or can vividly remember when I learned them. Words in italics are mine, everything else comes direct from Wikipedia: 

1. Allspice is not a mix of spices. It is a single spice, so called because it seems to combine the flavours and scents of many spices, especially cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and black pepper.

 

Image: Pimenta dioica leaves flowers, seeds – the dried fruit is known as Allspice. By Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen

2. Seeds are not the spiciest part of chili peppers. In fact, seeds contain a low amount of capsaicin, one of several compounds which induce the hot sensation (pungency) in mammals. The highest concentration of capsaicin is located in the placental tissue (the pith) to which the seeds are attached.

3. Julius Caesar did not invent Caesar salad. Its creator was Caesar Cardini, an Italian-American restaurateur, in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1924.

 

(I’m guilty of spreading this mis-conception myself)  

4. The difference between the taste of "banana-flavored" candy and a real banana is not due to the former being specifically designed to replicate the taste of Gros Michel bananas, the cultivar that dominated the American banana market before the rise of Cavendish bananas. All banana cultivars derive their flavor from a complex mix of many compounds, while a single compound, isoamyl acetate, gives banana candy its flavor. Isoamyl acetate naturally occurs in bananas as well as many other fruits and fermented beverages. It is more concentrated in Gros Michel bananas than in Cavendish bananas, but its use in candy production was due to its simple production, not any specific resemblance to a banana's flavor.

A Gros Michel and a Cavendish Banana, for comparison. Image

 

5. Sign languages are not the same worldwide. Aside from the pidgin International Sign, each country generally has its own native sign language, and some have more than one.

Fun fact, American Sign Language is more similar to French Sign Language than it is to British Sign Language (BSL). New Zealand Sign Language, meanwhile, is based on BSL. All of the signs that I personally learned growing up in the USA are useless to me here in NZ. 

6. The so-called Roman salute, in which the arm is fully extended forwards or diagonally with palm down and fingers touching, was not used in ancient Rome. The gesture was first associated with ancient Rome in the 1784 painting The Oath of the Horatii by the French artist Jacques-Louis David, which inspired later salutes, most notably the Nazi salute.

(I’m intentionally not including an image here, but I think many of you are thinking of the same image I am. ) 

7. There is no “dark side” of the moon, there is only a “far side". The dark (far) side of the Moon receives about the same amount of light from the Sun as the near side. It is called "dark" not because it never receives light but because it had never been seen until humans sent spacecraft around the Moon, since the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth due to tidal locking.

Image: cover art for Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon  

8. Egg balancing is possible on every day of the year, not just the vernal equinox, and there is no relationship between any astronomical phenomenon and the ability to balance an egg.

Image: an egg balancing on an egg. By Mark Robinson 

9. There is no such thing as an "alpha" in a wolf pack. An early study that coined the term "alpha wolf" had only observed unrelated adult wolves living in captivity. In the wild, wolf packs operate like families: parents are in charge until the young grow up and start their own families, and younger wolves do not overthrow an "alpha" to become the new leader. 

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10. Bats are not blind. While about 70% of bat species, mainly in the microbat family, use echolocation to navigate, all bat species have eyes and are capable of sight. 

(David Attenborough might still beg to differ, though!) 

11. The bold, powerful cry commonly associated with the bald eagle in popular culture is actually that of a red-tailed hawk. Bald eagle vocalizations are much softer and chirpier, and bear far more resemblance to the calls of gulls. 

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12. The Pacific tree frog and the Baja California chorus frog are some of the only frog species that make a "ribbit" sound. The misconception that all frogs, or at least all those found in North America, make this sound comes from its extensive use in Hollywood films.

 

(This one might be a bit of a relief for you)  

13. People do not swallow large numbers of spiders during sleep. A sleeping person makes noises that warn spiders of danger. Most people also wake up from sleep when they have a spider on their face. 

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Finally, and very importantly:

14. Vaccines do not cause autism. There have been no successful attempts to reproduce fraudulent research by British ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield, where the misconception likely originates. Wakefield's research was ultimately shown to have been manipulated. 

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There are so many more misconceptions to unlearn – I definitely learned a few while reading through to gather them for today’s email. Or, if you feel like inoculating yourself against baseless conspiracy theories, check out the List_of_conspiracy_theories instead.