Doomsday 2012: NASA Debunks The Apocalyptic Prophecies

NASA took time out of its busy schedule this past week to ease the minds of many who believe the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. Following misinterpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar, doomsday seekers have been busy preparing for a front-row seat for the end of all things. However, the US space agency said Mayan apocalypse rumors are just that: rumors.

Growing fears of the apocalypse have led to frightened children everywhere and teens becoming suicidal, among others, trying to make sense of the supposed end of the world. But while the 21^st of December can be associated with a number of events, it does not have anything to do with the world meeting its maker.

Not only is NASA trying to help soothe doomsday fears, but Mayan scholars are also playing their part, telling the world that ancient Maya had never seen this day as apocalyptic. The 21^st of December is most notably associated with the Winter Solstice, an annual occurrence. Yet, this year, the date also marks the end of the 13^thb’ak’tun calendar cycle.

According to ancient-mythology.com, the b’ak’tun calendar cycle is based on Mayan myth that their gods (Quetzalcoatl and Tepeu) wanted to create a people that would both resemble and praise them. However their attempts were less than fruitful, and on the end of the last 13th b’ak’tun (equivalent to 144,000 days) all creation ended and the gods began anew. The last 13th b’ak’tun ended on August 11, 3114 BCE, officially starting the next cycle, which is now set to end on December 21, 2012 AD.

However, Mayans have never seen this date as an end of all creation, only the completion of a cycle. And thus, the Mayans have never associated the end of the b’ak’tun with the end of the world.

“We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles,” charged Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop, according to PhysOrg.

The doomsday myths have ballooned out of control partially due to Hollywood. Several movies and documentaries have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on 12-21-12. And to further complicate the matter, some governments and groups are heeding the prophecies just in case.

The Culture Ministry is hosting an event in Guatemala City just in case the world does end. And in other places, tour groups are promoting doomsday-themed getaways and retreats.

Gomez has urged the Tourism Institute to rethink their doomsday celebrations, which he is criticizing as a “show” disrespecting the Mayan culture and its beliefs, which have nothing to do with the end of the world.

Oxlaljuj Ajpop released a statement saying that the Maya time cycle simply “means there will be big changes on the personal, family and community level, so that there is harmony and balance between mankind and nature.”

The alliance is holding events it considers sacred in five cities to mark the event and Gomez said the Culture Ministry would be wise to throw its support behind their real celebrations.

It’s safe to say that apocalyptic rumors such as the 2012 doomsday prophecies spread more readily due to the Internet age. While the Internet can be a great resource tool and a good platform for spreading word of developing news, it has also shown that it is a bane for technology as it makes for a grand stage for rumors that often become so virulent, that they affect the lives of millions of people who turn these falsehoods into twisted reality. This starts a snowball that can grow out of control, as has occurred with the 2012 doomsday prophecies.

At NASA, the agency is taking a strong stance to debunk the persistent online stories of doom. One such end of the world rumor is the tale of a fictional dwarf planet that is supposedly on a crash course with Earth. According to the myth, the rogue planet Niburu, supposedly discovered thousands of years ago by the Sumerians, will crash into our planet sometime next month. There are also variations on this myth, with some calling for dwarf planetEris to come hurtling toward us with apocalyptic vengeance. The myth has also been inaccurately tied to the end of the Mayan calendar.

And along with the end of the Mayan calendar doomsday predictions, several other doomsday rumors are easily picked apart with minimal scrutiny, according to NASA.

“Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, Dec. 21, 2012 won’t be the end of the world as we know it. However, it will be another winter solstice,” NASA associates wrote in a Google+ post.

NASA has launched a new site called Beyond 2012, dedicated to debunking pseudo-science. The site maintains there is no Niburu (or Planet X, according to some doomsdayers) and there is no worry of Eris coming even remotely close to our planet as it is floating around in the outer solar system about 4 billion miles away. And even if any of these celestial bodies were to come crashing into Earth in the next few weeks or so, they would be easily visible with the naked eye by now.

Other popular doomsday fears countered by NASA on the Beyond 2012 site are the prophecies that there will be an imminent reversal in the Earth’s rotation, giant solar storms that will disrupt and destroy the entire planet, and a disastrous rare alignment of the planets.

The Beyond 2012 social site links to a video of a recent Google+ hangout where a panel of science experts take on a series of 2012 doomsday claims and explain why there aren’t any truths to them.

Among the panelists in the Google+ hangout video is NASA’s own David Morrison, an astrobiologist at Ames Research Center.

At the beginning of the discussion, Morrison said that while 2012 doomsday theories were “a joke to many people” and while there was no real threat to Earth or its citizens, it was nevertheless “appropriate for NASA to answer questions” about such doomsday prophecies, if only to soothe the fears and potentially prevent some from harming themselves.

“There is no true issue here,” said Morrison during the Google+ Hangout event. “This is just a manufactured fantasy.”

Unfortunately, added Morrison, this fantasy ends up having real-life consequences. As one of NASA’s most prominent 2012 doomsday myth speakers, Morrison said he receives numerous emails and letters from people who are worried about the coming apocalypse; most of these letters are from the younger generation. Some of the more notable letters come from people who say they cannot eat, are too worried to sleep, and some who even go as far as to admit they are having thoughts of suicide, he said.

Although these people should have nothing to fear, they have been led to believe the world is in fact coming to an end, and it is wreaking havoc on their well-being.

“I think it’s evil for people to propagate rumors on the Internet to frighten children,” Morrison said.

While NASA is most concerned with how the young are handling these frightening rumors, Morrison said that not every 2012 apocalypse believer thinks the world will end on December 21. Some expect a day of universal peace and spiritual transformation. Yet, even these prophetic beliefs are based on ancient myth rather than cold hard facts.

Ultimately, we should be more concerned about real-world problems that will shape the future of society, such asglobal warming and climate change, said Andrew Fraknoi, an astronomer at Foothill College in California.

Mitzi Adams, a heliophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, agreed.

“The greatest threat to Earth in 2012, at the end of this year and in the future, is just from the human race itself,” Adams said.

Along with the Google+ Hangout video, NASA released a series of answers to the most popular questions revolving around the 2012 doomsday scenarios. You can find the full list of questions and answers at NASA.gov.

NASA predicts total blackout on 23-25 Dec 2012 during alignment of Universe.

US scientists predict Universe change, total blackout of planet for 3 days from Dec 23 2012.

It is not the end of the world, it is an alignment of the Universe, where the Sun and the earth will align for the first time. The earth will shift from the current third dimension to zero dimension, then shift to the forth dimension. During this transition, the entire Universe will face a big change, and we will see a entire brand new world.

The 3 days blackout is predicted to happen on Dec 23, 24, 25....during this time, staying calm is most important, hug each other, pray pray pray, sleep for 3 nights...and those who survive will face a brand new world....for those not prepared, many will die because of fear. Be happy, enjoy every moment now. Don't worry, pray to God everyday. There is a lot of talk about what will happen in 2012, but many people don't believe it, and don't want to talk about it for fear of creating fear and panic.

We don't know what will happen, but it is worth listening to USA's NASA talkabout preparation. Whether it's true or not, better be prepared. No panic, stay calm, just prays. Remember to smile more, love more and forgive more...every day. Better avoid traveling during December.

NASA crashes two probes into a mountain on the moon

A pair of NASA moon-mapping probes smashed themselves into a lunar mountain on Monday, ending a year-long mission that is shedding light on how the solar system formed.

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft had been flying around the moon, enabling scientists to make detailed gravity maps. The probes sped up slightly as they encountered stronger gravity from denser regions and slowed down as they flew over less-dense areas.

By precisely measuring the distance between the two probes, scientists discovered that the moon's crust is thinner than expected and that the impacts that battered its surface did even more damage underground.

Out of fuel and edging closer to the lunar surface, the probes were commanded to smash themselves into a mountain near the moon's north pole, avoiding a chance encounter with any Apollo or other relics left on the surface during previous expeditions.

"We do feel the angst about the end of the mission," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which oversaw the mission. "On the other hand, it is a celebration because this mission has accomplished tremendous science."

The U.S. space agency lost radio communications with the first spacecraft at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT) and the second about 20 seconds later, a NASA mission commentator said.

The probes' final resting place was named after the first U.S. woman in space, Sally Ride, who orchestrated GRAIL's educational outreach program before her death in July. The spacecraft included cameras that were operated by students.

Scientists may have found two different Higgs bosons

Scientists studying data from the Large Hadron Collider who announced the possible discovery of the 'God particle' - Higgs boson - now say they may have actually found not one, but two previously unknown particles.

The most recent release from the Atlas experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) showed the scientists seem to have found one Higgs boson with one mass, and then another with a statistically significant slightly higher mass, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

There seems to be one version of Higgs boson with a mass of 123.5 gigaelectron volts (the unit particle physicists prefer using to measure mass) and a second Higgs with a mass of 126.6 GeV.

First proposed in 1964, the Higgs boson is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, a widely accepted theory that describes the basic building blocks of the universe.

According to that model of our world, the Higgs particle must exist to bestow mass on other fundamental particles. However, until it was possible to build high-powered colliders like the LHC, it has been impossible to detect.

Researchers at CERN in July announced that they believed their experiments had finally revealed the Higgs, but their findings may have been far from definite, the paper said.

The Higgs they found appeared to show that the Higgs seemed to be decaying into two photons more often than they had expected - hinting at a new, as yet unimagined physics.

Now, scientists with the project's Atlas experiment have finally admitted the bizarre revelations from their data - that there appears to be not one Higgs' boson signal, but two, the paper quoted 'Scientific American' as saying.

Geminid meteor shower to grace night sky tomorrow

Cosmic fireworks will enthral sky gazers tomorrow night as the Geminids meteor shower will be at its peak.

"Astro lovers are expected to see shooting stars whizzing past in the skies as the Geminid meteor showers will be seen on the night of December 13 and 14, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) President C B Devgun told PTI.

The Geminids are known for producing up to 60 multi-coloured meteors per hour at their peak, he saidThe best time to view the shower is on December 14 at 5 AM in the east. And the good news is that in 2012, the moon will be in a new moon phase, so there will be no moon to ruin the show.

One of the most spectacular meteor showers, Geminids, never seems to disappoint sky observers, he said, adding, as the point of origin of the shower lies in the direction of the constellation of Gemini, they have been named Geminids.

Geminids have another interesting fact. The source of the meteor shower is not a comet but a rocky asteroid named 3,200 Phaethon, which is in a highly elliptical 1.4 year orbit.

The usual meteors do not leave glowing trails but the brighter ones can have a yellow, green or blue hue, Devgun said.

Meteors are startling streaks of light that suddenly appear in the sky when a dust particle from outer space evaporates high in the earth's atmosphere.

The light phenomenon in the atmosphere is called a "meteor", while the dust particle is called a "meteoroid". When the number of meteors is large, it is called a meteor shower or meteor storm. The shower always happen on a particular day or a time period as it is associated usually with comets.

Now, a headset to give you 360-degree vision

Eyes in the back of your head! French scientists claim to have developed a headset that gives you a 360-degree field of vision.

The headset captures images from every direction around the user, then transforms them into something the human vision system can comprehend.

The system called FlyVIZ was designed by Jerome Ardouin and colleagues at the Grande Ecole d'Ingenieurs Paris-Laval in France, the New Scientist reported.

The headset is at prototype stage: at 1.6 kilogrammes, it's a bit heavy to walk around with, and remains connected to a laptop for image-processing while it runs.

It uses a video camera, mounted atop a helmet, along with specially shaped mirrors to capture the environment on all sides of the user, then displays it in real time on a modified 3D Viewer headset.

The system takes about 15 minutes to get used to, its creators claim in a paper they presented at the Virtual Reality Software and Technology conference in Toronto, Canada.

Once acclimatised, the user is able to move around and interact fluidly with their environment.

In a series of trials, users grabbed sticks that would have been outside their normal field of view, dodged balls thrown from behind them, and even drove a car.

Despite the strange new perspective on the world, the device does not cause any nausea, motion sickness or visual fatigue, the team claimed.

Even though FlyVIZ acquires and displays images in 2D, users still had serviceable depth perception, which the researchers attribute to wearers intuitively tracking object motion and parallax in the image to compensate for a lack of normal binocular vision.

Scientists have identified a new bio-catalyst which can manipulate hydrocarbon chemicals, found in ice-cream, soaps and shampoos, into ready-to-use fuels in cars.

Scientists at the University of Manchester believe this development could mean fuel for cars or household power supplies could be created from naturally-occurring fatty

acids.

Researchers, led by Professor Nick Turner used synthetic biology to hijack the naturally-existing fatty acids and direct those fatty molecules towards the production of ready-to-use fuel and household chemicals.

Hydrocarbon chemicals are everywhere in our daily lives, as fragrance in soap, thickener in shampoo and fuel in the car.

Their number of carbons and whether they are acid, aldehyde, alcohol or alkane are important parameters that influence how toxic they are to biological organisms, the potential for fuel and their olfactory perception as aroma compounds.

The breakthrough allows researchers to further explore how to create renewable energy from sustainable sources, and the advance could lead to more innovative ways of sourcing fuel from natural resources.

"In our laboratories in Manchester we currently work with many different bio-catalysts that catalyse a range of chemical reactions - the key is to match up the correct bio-catalyst with the specific product you are trying to make," Turner said in a university statement.

"Bio-catalysts recognise molecules in the way that a lock recognises a key - they have to fit perfectly together to work. Sometime we redesign the lock so that if can accept a slightly different key allowing us to make even more interesting products.

"In this example we need to make sure that the fatty acid starting materials would be a perfect match for the bio-catalysts that we discovered and developed in our laboratories.

Apple Moves Closer to Making TV Set

Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test several designs for television sets, people familiar with the situation said, suggesting that the company is moving closer to expanding its offerings for the living room.

Executives at some of Apple's suppliers, said the company has been testing designs for a large-screen high-definition set.

Two people said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which assembles the iPhone and iPad, has been collaborating with Japan's Sharp Corp. on the design of the new television for several months. "It isn't a formal project yet. It is still in the early stage of ...

 TOP 10 UNEARTHLY CREATURES OF THE DEEP SEA

The deep sea is the lowest layer of the ocean, at a depth of 1800m or more. Little or no light penetrates so deep; it was therefore thought historically that no life would be found there. But on the contrary, sea life thrives in the deep sea. Almost miraculously, we are finding interesting, bizarre, never-before-seen life on every dive – so here are ten recently discovered deep sea creatures.

Polychaete Worm





This worm was trawled from the sea floor (3,900 feet/1,200 metres) off the northern coast of New Zealand this year. Yes, it may be pink; and yes, it may reflect rainbows – but polychaete worms can be ferocious predators. The “tentacles” on its head are sensory organs designed to detect prey. This one can turn its pharynx inside out in a sudden grab for smaller creatures – think Alien. Thankfully, these types of worms rarely grow longer than 10cm. They also tend to stay well out of our way, often found near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.



Squat Lobster


Looking rather unnervingly like a headcrab, these unique lobsters were found on the same dive that discovered the polychaete worm, but a little deeper, at around 4,600 feet/1,400 metres. Although the squat lobster was already known to science, this particular species had never before been seen. Squat lobsters live as deep as 5,000 metres, and are distinguished by their large front claws and compressed bodies. They can be detritus-feeders, algal grazers, scavengers or predators. Not much is known about this particular species, except that it was almost exclusively found near deep-sea corals.



Carnivorous Coral


Most corals obtain nutrients from photosynthetic algae that live within the coral’s tissue. That also means that they have to live within 200ft/60m of the surface. Well, not this species, also known as the harp sponge. It was discovered in 2000 off the coast of California, but only confirmed to be carnivorous this year. Shaped somewhat like a candelabra to increase its surface area, it traps tiny crustaceans with tiny Velcro-like hooks and then spreads a membrane over it, slowly digesting it with chemicals. As if that wasn’t weird enough, it reproduces using “sperm packets” – see those balls at the top of each branch? Yes, those are packets of spermatophores, and every now and then they float away to find another sponge and reproduce. 



Tonguefish


This handsome fellow is a species of tonguefish, which are usually found in shallow estuaries or tropical oceans. This one lives in the deep sea, and was trawled from the bottom of the western Pacific earlier this year. Interestingly, some tonguefish have been spotted around sulphur-spewing hydrothermal vents, but scientists are unsure of the mechanism that allows this species to survive the conditions there. Like all bottom-dwelling tonguefish, both of it eyes appear on one side of its head. Unlike many tonguefish, however, they happen to look exactly like googly eyes from a golliwog.




Goblin Shark


The goblin shark is a really strange creature. In 1985, it was discovered in the waters off eastern Australia. In 2003, more than a hundred were caught off north-eastern Taiwan (reportedly after an earthquake). However, apart from sporadic sightings of this nature, little is known about this unique shark. It is a deep-sea, slow moving species that can grow to be 3.8 metres long (or longer! That’s only the largest one we know about). Like other sharks it can sense animals with electro-sensitive organs, and possesses several rows of teeth, but in the goblin shark some are adapted for catching prey and others for crushing crustacean shells.


If you are interested in seeing how it captures prey with that mouth, you can watch this video. And try to imagine a nearly 4m long shark coming at you with those jaws! Thank goodness they (usually) live so deep.

Flabby Whalefish


The brightly coloured specimen above (the colours are somewhat useless when you live where light can’t penetrate) is a member of the unhappily-named “flabby whalefish” species. It was trawled off the east coast of New Zealand, at a depth of more than 2 kilometres (1.3 miles). At the bottom of that deep blue sea, they did not expect to find many fish – and in fact it appears that the flabby whalefish has little company. This family of fish has been found as deep as 3,500 metres; has small eyes – they are pretty useless in this environment after all – and instead the fish tend to have a very well developed lateral line to detect vibrations.
It also lacks any ribs, which is perhaps why it appears so “flabby”. 



Dumbo Octopus


First seen in 1999 and then videoed in 2009, this cute animal (for an octopus, anyway) can live as deep as 7,000 metres below the surface, making it the deepest-dwelling octopus species on record. Named for the flaps on either side of its bell-shaped head, this group of animals – there may be as many as 37 species – never sees the sunlight. The dumbo octopus can hover above the seabed with a type of siphon-based jet propulsion, where it feeds off of the snails, bivalves, crustaceans and copepods that live there.



Vampire Squid


The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis, literally: vampire squid from Hell) is actually more beautiful than hellish, I think. This squid does not live at the same depths as the number one entry on this list, but at 600-900 metres, it still dwells a long way down as far as squid are concerned. At the upper levels of its range, there is some sunlight, and as a consequence it has evolved the biggest eyes of any animal (in proportion to size) in order to capture as much light as it can. What is really fascinating about this animal are its defense mechanisms. In the dark seas that it lives in, it releases bioluminescent ‘ink’ that dazzles and confuses other animals while it escapes.

 And check out this cool video, where a vampire squid turns itself ‘inside out’ to avoid predators: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWAnliNc6wk. This works a bit better when the sea around it is not illuminated. Normally, it can emit a bluish light which, seen from underneath, helps to camouflage; but when spotted, it wraps itself with its black-coloured underside… and disappears. 



Eastern Pacific Black Ghost Shark


Found deep off the coast of California in 2009, this mysterious shark belongs to the group of animals known as chimaeras, which may be the oldest group of fish alive today. Some believe that these animals branched away from sharks about 400 million years ago, and survived by living at such great depths. This particular ghost shark uses its fins to ‘fly’ through the water, and the male has a spiky, club like, retractable sexual organ that protrudes from its forehead. It might be used to stimulate the female or to pull her closer, but we don’t know enough about these animals to be sure. 



Colossal Squid


The colossal squid truly deserves its name, growing to lengths of between 12-14m (39-46 feet) – about the size of a bus. It was first “discovered” in 1925 – but only its tentacles were found, within the belly of a sperm whale. The first complete specimen was found near the surface in 2003. In 2007, the largest known specimen (10m) was captured in the Antarctic waters of the Ross Sea, and is now on display in the national museum of New Zealand. It is thought that the squid is a slow-moving ambush predator, feeding on large fish and other squid after attracting them with bioluminescence. Frighteningly, Sperm whales have been observed with scars that are believed to have been caused by the swivelling hooks on a colossal squid’s tentacles. 



 

Neil deGrasse Tyson may have helped DC Comics in the search for Superman's homeworld Krypton, but one can't help but wonder what kind of superhero would live on a newly discovered "super-Jupiter" orbiting the star Kappa Andromedae.

As announced by scientists using the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) and the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) mounted on the Japanese Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, this newly discovered exoplanet is likely a little exotic. Weighing-in at a whopping 13 Jupiter masses, there is some ambiguity as to whether it's a massive planet or a small, failed star -- although spectroscopic analysis of the light it generates suggests it is composed of similar gases as other gas giant exoplanets orbiting other stars

Battery built from GM viruses

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have genetically engineered viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery. The new virus-produced batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as the state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars.

MIT's Angela Belcher, who led the research team, said the new batteries could be manufactured using a cheap and environmentally benign process: The synthesis takes place at and below room temperature and requires no harmful organic solvents, and the materials that go into the battery are non-toxic. The viruses used are a common bacteriophage, which infect bacteria but are harmless to humans.

In a traditional lithium-ion battery, lithium ions flow between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. Three years ago, an MIT team led by Belcher reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire.

In the latest work, reported in Science, the team focused on building a highly powerful cathode to pair up with the anode. Cathodes are more difficult to build than anodes because they must be highly conducting, however, most candidate materials for cathodes are highly insulating.

To achieve high conductivity, the researchers genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material. Because the viruses recognize and bind specifically to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), each iron phosphate nanowire can be electrically "wired" to conducting carbon nanotube networks. Electrons can travel along the carbon nanotube networks, percolating throughout the electrodes to the iron phosphate and transferring energy in a very short time.

The team found that incorporating carbon nanotubes increases the cathode's conductivity without adding too much weight to the battery. In lab tests, batteries with the new cathode material could be charged and discharged at least 100 times without losing any capacitance. That is fewer charge cycles than currently available lithium-ion batteries, but "we expect them to be able to go much longer," Belcher explained.

The researchers now intend to pursue even better batteries using materials with higher voltage and capacitance, such as manganese phosphate and nickel phosphate.

MYTH or SCIENCE

There is nothing better than a bit of myth busting (which accounts for the popularity of the television program of the same name), so here we are again, presenting you with a new list of terribly common misconceptions and myths – this time about science.

The Myth: Evolution causes something to go from “lower” to “higher”

While it is a fact that natural selection weeds out unhealthy genes from the gene pool, there are many cases where an imperfect organism has survived. Some examples of this are fungi, sharks, crayfish, and mosses – these have all remained essentially the same over a great period of time. These organisms are all sufficiently adapted to their environment to survive without improvement.

Other taxa have changed a lot, but not necessarily for the better. Some creatures have had their environments changed and their adaptations may not be as well suited to their new situation. Fitness is linked to their environment, not to progress. [Source]

The Myth: When exposed to the vacuum of space, the human body pops

This myth is the result of science fiction movies which use it to add excitement or drama to the plot. In fact, a human can survive for 15 – 30 seconds in outer space as long as they breathe out before the exposure (this prevents the lungs from bursting and sending air into the bloodstream). After 15 or so seconds, the lack of oxygen causes unconsciousness which eventually leads to death by asphyxiation.

The Myth: Polaris is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere night sky

Sirius is actually brighter with a magnitude of ?1.47 compared to Polaris’ 1.97 (the lower the number the brighter the star). The importance of Polaris is that its position in the sky marks North – and for that reason it is also called the “North Star”. Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor and, interestingly, is only the current North Star as pole stars change over time because stars exhibit a slow continuous drift with respect to the Earth’s axis.

The Myth: Food that drops on the floor is safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds

This is utter bunkum which should be obvious to most readers. If there are germs on the floor and the food lands on them, they will immediately stick to the food. Having said that, eating germs and dirt is not always a bad thing as it helps us to develop a robust immune system. I prefer to have a “how-tasty-is-it” rule: if it is something really tasty, it can sit there for ten minutes for all I care – I will still eat it.

The Myth: There is a dark side of the moon

Actually – every part of the moon is illuminated at sometime by the sun. This misconception has come about because there is a side of the moon which is never visible to the earth. This is due to tidal locking; this is due to the fact that Earth’s gravitational pull on the moon is so immense that it can only show one face to us. Wikipedia puts it rather smartly thus: “Tidal locking occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an astronomical body always face another; for example, one side of the Earth’s Moon always faces the Earth. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. This synchronous rotation causes one hemisphere constantly to face the partner body.”

The Myth: Brain cells can’t regenerate – if you kill a brain cell, it is never replaced

The reason for this myth being so common is that it was believed and taught by the science community for a very long time. But in 1998, scientists at the Sweden and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California discovered that brain cells in mature humans can regenerate. It had previously been long believed that complex brains would be severely disrupted by new cell growth, but the study found that the memory and learning centre of the brain can create new cells – giving hope for an eventual cure for illnesses like Alzheimer’s.

The Myth: A penny dropped from a very high building can kill a pedestrian below

This myth is so common it has even become a bit of a cliche in movies. The idea is that if you drop a penny from the top of a tall building (such as the Empire State Building) – it will pick up enough speed to kill a person if it lands on them on the ground. But the fact is, the aerodynamics of a penny are not sufficient to make it dangerous. What would happen in reality is that the person who gets hit would feel a sting – but they would certainly survive the impact.

The Myth: Meteors are heated by friction when entering the atmosphere

When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of the earth (becoming a meteor), it is actually the speed compressing the air in front of the object that causes it to heat up. It is the pressure on the air that generates a heat intense enough to make the rock so hot that is glows brilliantly for our viewing pleasure (if we are lucky enough to be looking in the sky at the right time). We should also dispel the myth about meteors being hot when they hit the earth – becoming meteorites. Meteorites are almost always cold when they hit – and in fact they are often found covered in frost. This is because they are so cold from their journey through space that the entry heat is not sufficient to do more than burn off the outer layers.

The Myth: Lightning never strikes the same place twice

Next time you see lightning strike and you consider running to the spot to protect yourself from the next bolt, remember this item! Lightning does strike the same place twice – in fact it is very common. Lightning obviously favours certain areas such as high trees or buildings. In a large field, the tallest object is likely to be struck multiple times until the lightning moves sufficiently far away to find a new target. The Empire State Building gets struck around 25 times a year.

The Myth: There is no gravity in space

In fact, there is gravity in space – a lot of it. The reason that astronauts appear to be weightless because they are orbiting the earth. They are falling towards the earth but moving sufficiently sideways to miss it. So they are basically always falling but never landing. Gravity exists in virtually all areas of space. When a shuttle reaches orbit height (around 250 miles above the earth), gravity is reduced by only 10%.