Guided by the Municipal Association for Science and Technology, the Municipal Network Information Office, and the Capital Internet Association, the monthly scientific gossip list jointly released by the Beijing Science and Technology Journalists Editors Association and the Beijing regional website rumor platform was released in October today, with a total of 8 rumors on the list.
Just have fun with the "left and right brain test"
Not long ago, the "left and right brain age test" swept the circle of friends. It is said that the left brain is responsible for language and the right brain is responsible for images. According to the test, the "age" of the left and right brains can be obtained. The gossip list points out, "It’s not scientific at all." Some programmers have studied the background code of left and right brain tests and found that the results are random. Some people even tested the same answer many times and found that the results were different every time. Shen Zheng, a professor of psychology in Peking University, said, "Brain testing is a very complicated problem, which requires a comprehensive test of the human brain, such as reading ability, memory ability, intuitive thinking and inference ability."
There are also rumors that in order to reduce noise, noise-reducing headphones actively emit sound waves to offset noise, which is actually more harmful to hearing. Rumor list debunks: Active noise-reducing headphones do not passively shield noise, but actively emit sound with the opposite phase of noise, which interferes with noise in the ear and cancels it. It can not only eliminate the common noise in daily life, but also will not affect the warning sounds such as sharp horns in emergencies, so it is definitely good for listening.
"Gravitational wave prevention" is just a hot spot.
Since the discovery of gravitational waves, many merchants have quickly launched "high-tech anti-gravitational wave radiation suits". Can these products really "prevent gravitational waves"? Zhang Shuangnan, a researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that gravitational waves cannot be shielded because they can penetrate the universe and the earth; Of course, there is no need to guard against gravitational waves, because gravitational waves have far less influence on us than our own breathing.
There are many plausible "scientific" rumors, such as the statement that "heated lemon water will become alkaline water, which can treat cancer". The rumor list refutes that the organic acid in lemon cannot become alkaline under simple heating. In addition, there is no "acidic constitution" or "alkaline constitution" at all. Metabolism is going on all the time in the human body, and many of the reactions are very sensitive to PH value, so the human body has a powerful and effective regulation system to keep the pH value of the human body stable and fluctuate only in a small range.
Old people often warn young people not to be "beautiful and frozen", and wearing less clothes will freeze arthritis. Is this scientific? The truth is: there is no arthritis directly caused by cold. Leg pain after catching cold is indeed one of the manifestations of arthritis, but cold is not the direct cause of arthritis. Although you won’t get arthritis directly because of freezing, freezing of joints will lead to muscle contraction around joints, joint stiffness, decreased blood circulation and synovial fluid secretion, and may also lead to decreased immunity, which will increase the burden of joints and the possibility of injury. If you already have arthritis, it will aggravate related symptoms, so it is not wrong to pay attention to keeping warm joints in cold weather.
"Soy sauce causes cancer" is alarmist.
A few days ago, the rumor that farmers "use syringes to inject water or other liquids into crabs to gain weight and sell more money" was circulated in the market. Gan Lian, an associate professor at the College of Oceanography, South China Agricultural University, told everyone that it is against common sense to add weight to crabs by injecting water. Creatures such as crabs will have a stress reaction after injecting liquid with syringes, and may even die. Dead crabs cannot be sold.
More and more people pay attention to food safety, and many people begin to "do it yourself and have plenty of food and clothing", even the oil has to be squeezed at home. Jiang Tong, an expert from Beijing Institute of Nutrition Sources, said that it is not safer to squeeze oil at home than to buy oil from a supermarket. Impurities in self-squeezed oil cannot be removed, and the oil is turbid, which will affect the flavor, taste and safety of the oil. In addition, peanuts, soybeans and rapeseed are all likely to be infected by aflatoxin, which is highly carcinogenic.
There is a rumor: "According to the announcement of the national health department, the national standard soy sauce brewed from grain has a national standard code, and the code for brewing soy sauce is GB18186. Any soy sauce without this code is a blended product of chemical black caramel, which causes liver cancer after eating. " Rumor list: Since March 23, 2017, the standard for brewing soy sauce (GB/T 18186-2000) has become a recommended level and is no longer enforced. In other words, GB/T 18186 replaced GB18186. The "basis" of the statement that "soy sauce is carcinogenic" is that the additive for preparing soy sauce contains "4- methylimidazole", which belongs to the list released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under the World Health Organization (Grade 2B). In this regard, Ruan Guangfeng, director of the business department of Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center, said that according to the current test data, the "4- methylimidazole" that people consume from soy sauce every day is also in full compliance with relevant international regulations and statutory standards. Consumers only need to buy soy sauce produced by regular manufacturers from regular channels, and they don’t have to worry about "soy sauce causing cancer".
Our reporter Sun Leqi