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Does alcohol cause cancer? The latest Cancer Council of Australia claims that alcohol "probably caused about 5.6 per cent of cancers in Australia" and that there is no safe amount of alcohol to consume. http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/quit-drinking-to-cut-cancer-risk-20110501-1e38g.html That sounds extreme...	Other cancers linked to alcohol consumption are esophageal cancer, mouth and oropharynx cancer, and a few others (colon cancer, breast cancer) where it appears to be a risk factor, too.
Is playing sport at your 'home ground' a benefit? As Wikipedia puts it... In team sports, the term home advantage (also called home field/court/diamond/ice advantage) describes the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in fa...	Pollard suggests that the biggest factor is "familiarity with conditions when playing at home, rather than the extra mental and physical effort involved in travelling to your opponent's ground," although Clark and Norman's finding would suggest the opposite would be true.
Do the military have the technology to trigger earthquakes? When I was scholar at one class on "aircraft equipments" we also talked about weapons. The teacher mentioned that the military was developing weapons which were going to cause earthquakes. That was many years ago but whenever I hear about some earthquakes I am...	It's hard to know for sure because relevant research is classified.
Is watering plants under a hot sun bad? A couple of people have told me that it's a bad for plants to be watered in the middle of a sunny day, i.e. it's not just that you waste more water due to evaporation, but that there are actually bad effects on the plants itself. I've heard this claim specifically for watering gr...	It's still not ideal to water during the midday sun because the plants try to retain as much water as possible and they are pretty much resting (midday depression of photosynthesis can also be examined).
Do toilets that require squatting reduce birth complications in women? When I was travelling in France, I encountered toilets without toilet seats. Essentially they require the user to squat. I was told that as a result, French women had fewer birth complications. Is it true that regular use of squat-toilets makes gi...	I couldn't find any sources linking the use of squatting toilets to childbirth.
Do you feel pain in a life-threatening situation? Let's say you are in a war-situation, and both you and your opponent are out of bullets. When I was in the army, I learned that the most efficient way to kill your opponent would be to kick him in the balls until he was incapacitated by the pain (one or two good hits in...	There is no such thing as "no pain state", but the feeling can be reduced drastically.
Have any "cures" been invented since the 1950's or so? A well reputed professor of neurology once mentioned to me that no drugs have been invented to cure human afflictions since the 1950's or 60's. Are there any drugs that have been invented since that time that are permanent cures of human ailments? This is somewhat...	The professor I spoke with mentioned one drug that was discovered, alas serendipitously, by Barnett Rosenberg that effectively cures (with over 85% success) testicular and ovarian cancer: Cisplatin. Flumazenil is a benzodiazepine antagonist. I would consider vaccines to be cures because they effectively cure the spread...
Are there any perceptible differences between the sound quality of 192 versus 320 kbps MP3 files? I have friends that are very picky when it comes to MP3 bitrate, and will always look for the 320 kbps version of a file. However, I have never noticed any differences, they sound the same to me. I remember reading somewhe...	Some follow-up testing confirmed our suspicions: variable bit rate encoding makes a tremendous difference in the audio quality results, certainly enough to justify—many times over—the slight file size increase.
Is perfect pitch something you're "born with?" I always thought perfect pitch was a lot like language - it's significantly easier to learn/retain if it was learned as a child, but it's still possible to learn as an adult. However, there are some musicians who believe either is has to be learned as a child, or yo...	In an important sense, Yes, perfect pitch is something you are literally born with.
Is premium fuel "better"? Is there any evidence that premium and/or high-octane fuel (petrol/gas for cars): improves performance; and/or improves engine longevity; and/or improves mileage so that money is saved on fuel, even when taking into account the extra cost of it I'm somewhat sceptical of the claims of fue...	The advantage that high octane fuel has is that you can build the engine to use a higher compression ratio which allows you to get more fuel, and hence, more power, into and out of each stroke.
Does hot water freeze faster than cold water? Is it true that hot water freezes faster than cold water and if so, what practical applications have there been found for this phenomenon? <Q> In certain settings, cold water freezers slower than hot water. <S> This is called the Mpemba effect . <S> Although the observa...	The Mpemba effect is the observation that warmer water sometimes freezes faster than colder water.
Did Bill Nye get booed by a room full of Texans for saying that the moon reflected the suns light? Did Bill Nye get booed by a room full of Texans for saying that the moon reflected the Sun's light instead of coming from God? This is a well-known internet rumour. Is there any evidence proving/refuting it? <Q> Source ...	No, he wasn’t booed.
High Fructose Corn Syrup vs Cane Sugar (aka Battle of the Bulge) There are recent ads from the Corn Sugar industry telling us that 'sugar is sugar'. While I appreciate the "natural" sugar of fruit juices vs refined sugar question - and its answer does touch on this tangentially, I am looking for something more specif...	Fructose is metabolized primarily in the liver.
Does exercise and eating healthy make you live longer? I'm not talking about someone who sits in a chair all day and never moves. I mean the difference between the people who go jogging then go to the gym for an hour or two compared to the people who just take casual strolls once in awhile. The reason why Im skeptica...	There are a huge number of studies that do indicate that exercise is good for you, in that it reduces your chance of getting various serous diseases, and hence causes you to live longer. The link is widely recognised.
Do more men use the Internet than women? Long before the Internet existed, computers were women . (United States Census Bureau, courtesy of the University of Hartford) It's a well-known trope that there are no girls on the Internet . In fact, apparently that is a " rule of the Internet ". There are no girls on...	Men were more likely to have used the Internet than women, with 84.6 per cent of men having used it compared with 79.8 per cent of women. For several years the percents were equal (84%, 2013; 84%, 2014; 86%, 2015).
Was the name "Wendy" created for Peter Pan? I ran across something odd today... I have an iPhone app that lists facts, trivia, and other useless information (it's called Cool Facts, downloaded from iTunes). So far, nothing I've found on it has been terribly inaccurate. However, flipping through it today, I came acr...	From what I have seen, there is no evidence to prove or dis-prove whether Barrie was aware of the existence of the Welsh-derived name or not; but due to its rarity pre-Peter-Pan, it is quite plausible that he was not aware and re-invented it on his own.
Is it necessary to change motor oil every 5,000km/3,000 miles? I've always heard that you should change your oil every 3,000 miles (5,000 km). That little sticker you get on your windshield after an oil change agrees. Growing up, my parents told me the same thing. I doubt that you need to change your oil that often ...	Most people in the UK with "normal" (non performance, non specialist) cars get theirs changed yearly during the service, unless they do very high mileage.
Does a webpage with a black background save energy? Blackle is a search engine that claims to save energy because it uses a black background. Is there any evidence to back up their claim that a website using a black background will save energy, and if so, how much energy will be saved? <Q> Blackle actually cite a rea...	LCD TV's sometimes have "dynamic contrast" LED back-lighting which should save power in black.
Is there a metabolically superior diet? With all of the fad diets, books, websites, etc dedicated to selling people on dieting "secrets" or even selling them the food under the guise of some sort of metabolic trick to "kickstart" your metabolism. Low carb, Paleo, high protein, low fat, the list goes on and on. I wonde...	Eat properly, exercise more .
Do apple seeds contain arsenic? I've heard recently that apple seeds contain arsenic. Is this true? Should apples not be eaten then? <Q> Arsenic is a metal - a chemical element that can't be manufactured. <S> Cyanides are organic poisons . <S> So, if your soil doesn't contains arsenic in the first place, there ...	The seeds actually contain a cyanide compound, not arsenic.
Is spousal abuse primarily initiated by males? Avoiding exceptions for same-sex couples, is abuse in heterosexual couples more commonly initiated by the husband? I am mostly interested in physical violence that is non-reciprocal. In other words, in a couple where only one spouse beats the other, is it significantly mor...	Innonreciprocally violent relationships,women were the perpetrators in morethan 70% of the cases.
Do knives get dull in dishwashers? Everybody keeps telling me don't put knives in dishwashers . And if I ask them why, nobody seems to have an answer or an argument to support his/her advice. So I thought I'll shoot the question to stackexchange: Do knives get dull in dishwashers? <Q> When I bought a set of nice Wüst...	Yes, knives get dull in the dishwasher, through rubbing against other items.
Could lightning have struck the entire North Korean women's soccer team? After the match between the United States and North Korea in the Women's World Cup in 2011 where the USA won the match 2-0, lightning was blamed by the North Korean manager. He is quoted as saying "During training [in North Korea] our players w...	Yes, it is possible. Flash Discharge and ground currents are both means by which an indirect strike by lightning can cause injury.
Does the digestion of some foods burn more calories than it supplies? Calories in food is a measurement of the amount of energy it will provide to the body. I've heard that eating some foods actually make you USE more calories than you consume. Do any foods actually contain less calories than it takes to chew and diges...	Short answer, possible, but probably no. Assuming that digestion of celery is comparable to that of other non-starchy vegetables, then the 14 calories per 100 grams contained in celery would far outweigh the 4 calories required for digestion per 100 grams of celery.
Is listening to music while studying distracting? When I was at school, the teachers always forbade us from using our mp3s, and we weren't allowed to listen to any music while in class. The reason being that it seems the music would distract us, that is, we won't be able to concentrate as well. Is this true? Why do t...	There are also studies, that give quite the opposite result : Music may impair cognitive abilities in these scenarios because ifyou're trying to memorize things in order, you may get thrown off bythe changing words and notes in your chosen song, the authorsspeculate.
Is reading household power meters frequently helpful for utility companies? IBM recently published a case study on "smart" power meters. Those power meters read consumption data many times a day and record that data so that it can be analyzed. IBM claims [cool stuff]Giving consumers more visibility into their energ...	They give time of use data, which allows the utility to set prices for the customer that change based on time of day or the season, effectively discouraging electricity use when prices are really high.
Does "fracking" cause earthquakes? The process of hydraulic fracturing or fracking uses fluid pressure to extract hydrocarbons from rock. There have been media reports in the UK linking a fracking operation to some minor earthquakes. The controversial new drilling operation for natural shale gas in Lancashire ...	To date, potentially induced earthquakes in Texas, felt at the surface, have been associated with fluid disposal in Class II disposal wells, not with the hydraulic fracturing process .
Fasting for 40 days - is it possible? According to Deuteronomy 9:9 , Moses did not eat or drink anything for 40 days. When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did ...	In any normal circumstance you'd be dead long before 40 days without water.
Are there any secret scientific researches? Many times in movies we see a people doing scientific research secretly and have achieved some amazing technologies. Is there any evidence of any such scientific work done very secretly anytime (might get caught red handed). <Q> The Manhattan Project was of utmost secrec...	Generally, a lot of military technology is developed in secrecy due to the nature of the "arms races" we may be involved in.
Does elemental mercury give off toxic vapor? This video claims to show mercury giving off a steady stream of toxic vapor when viewed with a UV light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JABbofwD3MI There is also a Reddit discussion about this video . The visible vapor could easily be something else besides mercury. Does ...	Mercury is toxic in its elemental liquid and vapour forms and in its compounds, though to different degrees.
Is there one (and only one) endurance sport in which women outperform men? I remember being told that there is one and only one endurance sport in which the women's world record exceeds the men's world record, and that the sport is Long Distance Endurance Swimming. Reason being that fattier tissue on a woman's body mak...	At this point is unclear if women will always out-perform men in ultra-marathons or any other event, partly because women's sport science is less developed than men's so the limits are less well understood.
Does camera flash destroy art? This is a question which is highly discussed on the Internet but I've been researching for a long time and I've never found any scientific proof backing this up. It's known (or at least spoken of) that intense light creates an effect called "photo-degradation," which makes colors like ...	No, your flash probably isn't going to do a whole lot of damage when you take a single picture. The risk of photo-degradation depends on materials and dyes used.
Do children accidentally suffocate themselves with plastic bags? My one year old daughter picked up a typical plastic supermarket grocery bag and I watched her with it briefly before taking it away, as it's common knowledge that kids aren't supposed to have plastic bags due to a risk of suffocation. After actually see...	According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission : The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received an average of about 25 reports a year describing deaths to children who suffocated due to plastic bags. Not only is it a real danger, but it is now common knowledge because the printed warning notice...
Is vinegar & baking soda an effective agent for disinfecting bacteria and mold? I've seen a lot of references on the Internet stating that vinegar mixed with baking soda is an effective way to disinfect mold, bacteria, etc. I'm skeptical that it has a significant effect because vinegar (and the result of mixing baking ...	Apparently using a vinegar based solution was 95% successful in removing bacteria from bacteria treated strawberries.
Do overweight people live longer? According to this study , overweight people actually live longer than people with normal/below normal weight. Is it really true? What about Okinawa people for example ? What about underweight people because of their high metabolism? They are slim and they live very long. I'm confus...	Moderately overweight people have significantly lower mortality than those with "normal" BMI's; the really thin and the really fat
What is the failure rate of Solid-State Drives (SSD)? One of our favourite StackExchange Overlords, Jeff Atwood, wrote a Coding Horror blog article in May 2011, decrying the unreliability of SSD drives. Solid state hard drives fail. A lot. And not just any fail. I'm talking about catastrophic, oh-my-God-what-just...	The claim that SSDs have an over 90% failure rate as per your question seems limited to anecdotes and should not be taken seriously.
Is this story about someone taking revenge on his cheating ex-girlfriend by tattooing excrement on her back true? This one is making the rounds on the Internet currently and I'm having trouble finding any reliable source. Most people seem to be citing the following unsourced tumblr post Tattoo artist Ryan Fitzgerald...	Via Snopes , the Daily Mail reports there are no corroborating court documents, while the Smoking Gun adds there are no people with those names in the Nexis database, and no registered tattoo artists by that name. This story seem to be false as it states:
Did NASA's STEREO spacecraft capture an image of a cloaked UFO near Mercury? Apparently on Dec. 1st a video camera on board a NASA satelite captured a "UFO" during a solar flare, near Mercury ( skip ahead to 33 seconds for the relevant footage ). Is it an alien spaceship? The shape is kind of odd looking, similar t...	This is not a cloaked UFO
Does a mobile phone charger that is plugged in but has no phone attached to it use energy? Obviously, I am talking about simple charger without any indicator lights etc. If yes, why does it use energy when the circuit is not closed? Examples of the claim: http://www.treehugger.com/culture/treehugger-homework-unplug-...	The mobile phone chargers I tested all consumed 0.1W or less of electricity when left plugged in and not charging a phone. Of course with very many people using phone chargers, that can add up to a very large amount of electricity.
Does playing chess burn as many calories as running? I heard once that when two Chess Grandmasters play a five hour game of chess, the intense concentration and focus they have causes their bodies to burn as many calories as someone playing a sport during that time, such as running. For example, Dr. Robert Sapolsky c...	So, no, chess grandmasters do not come anywhere close to runners when it comes to caloric expenditure .
Does listening to negative emotive music help dealing with negative emotions? My girlfriend tends to listen to music that express how she feels at a given moment. For example, if she's feeling frustrated then the lyrics of the songs she listens will be of frustration. Does this external agent (music) expressing her f...	So to answer the question: Yes, listening to sad music while a person is feeling sad themselves can be cathartic and is a matter of personal choice of whether to deal with their feelings that way.
Are BMW Owners the worst drivers? BMW drivers are widely thought to be poor drivers. For example, in a poll for Auto Trader : Around 21,000 motorists were quizzed, and 45 per cent said BMW drivers were the worst on the road. Is this perception accurate? Are BMW owners more likely than owners of other cars to be in...	BMW drivers are not the worst on the road:
Has anyone innocent ever been arrested because of contraband that was planted in their luggage? There is a question on travel.SE asking what to do if some culprit planted contraband in your luggage. There are some links provided to cases where this is suspected to have happened. Being able to wrap your luggage at...	Irish police has arrested a Slovak citizen who unknowingly transported 90 grams of explosives into the Ireland, but released him shortly after.
Is it illegal to refuse US currency for a purchase? I hear this claim every now and then. That US currency is legal tender and that it is illegal to not accept it. The most recent example of this was on an old episode of 30 Rock: The head and the hair. I was not able to find a clip online, however I did find this tr...	There is no law stating that legal tender must be accepted for other purposes.
Can a gun be made from ceramic? In the film Die Hard 2 one of the bad guys has a porcelain gun ( clip ): That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It's a porcelain gun made in Germany. Doesn't show up on your airport X-ray machines, and it cost more than you make in a month. From the Wikipedia entry...	While they are not ceramic, there is concern that plastic guns made from 3D printers will not be detectable by metal detectors without deliberate insertion of metal for that purpose.
Man using "water as fuel" for a welding machine? (H₂O → "HHO")? I saw a while back a YouTube video that appears to show a news report of a man who patented technology to turn water into "HHO" . The video makes some big claims — 161 km (100 mi.) on 0.1 L (4 oz.) of gas, developing water-powered Hummers, something "as...	Water is decomposed into Oxygen and Hydrogen on demand. Energy is conserved, you can neither create it nor destroy it , so going from water back to water cannot provide you with any energy out of the water.
Is the United States the fattest country in the world? It is often said that the United States is the fattest country in the world. Is it? Does it depend on how one measures fatness? <Q> The World Factbook is a reference publication by the United State's Central Intelligence Agency . <S> The World Factbook is pre...	It is possible that when people talk about the US being the fattest country, they are referring only to developed countries. For countries where this information is published in the World Factbook, The United States of America is ranked #18 in the world with 33% of the population obese.
If you raise taxes, will the rich leave the country? I often see/hear this argument used as an argument against raising income tax, at least here in the UK. The argument being the rich will leave, taking their cash out of the country, resulting in damage to the economy. I am always slightly sceptical about this argum...	It's a well know fact, that if you raise taxes beyond certain level, the income from taxation will decrease as it will cause more people to avoid taxation.
Does exercise make you smarter? Does exercising your muscles also increase your intelligence like the daily mail (and many others) report: Exercise makes you smarter 'by boosting energy levels in the brain ... Now a team from the University of South Carolina have found that regular treadmill sessions also give ...	Areas of the brain that are called upon to perform learning tasks are also stimulated by exercise.
Was Shakespeare Marlowe? What does stylometry say? I am not sure why this isn't asked here already, but Peter Farey and Ros Barber convinced me that Christopher Marlowe wrote the works of Shakespeare. This resolved my own cognitive dissonance from many years ago, when I picked up a copy of Tambourlaine, and immediatel...	And the bulk of the stylometric evidence shows that it is virtually impossible to distinguish early Shakesperean plays from Marlowe.
Did Einstein say "if you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough"? A very popular quote attributed to Albert Einstein but did he really say it? If so, what is the original document containing the original explanation of it? <Q> The quote "An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can ...	Einstein is unlikely to have said it since his theory of relativity was very abstract and based on sophisticated mathematics. There is no citation supporting this claim.
Is the weather particularly bad in England? There's a well-known claim that weather is particularly rainy in England. In the UK, a country known for its bad weather and lack of sunshine, there appears to be an ever increasing number of very tanned young people. — Sunbeds Is it true that there are more rainy days ...	There are mixed claims in the question, "lack of sunshine" does not mean "above average rainfall" nor "more rainy days" . Since insolation of UK is much lower than of other European countries at same latitude, and similar to countries much farther north, only factor responsible for that difference can be bad (cloudy) w...
Does aniseed (anise) effectively treat insomnia? This was recently recommended to me by a colleague after I complained about insomnia. From WebMD : Other uses include treatment of seizures, nicotine dependence, trouble sleeping (insomnia) , asthma, and constipation. Is there any validity to the claim that anisee...	It is possible that Aniseed could help you sleep due to the active ingredient anethole having the following effect:
Does washing vegetables remove nutrients? There are many people who cook vegetables without washing them (before cutting) because they think it removes important nutrients. This claim is predominant in some Asian countries. Is that true? <Q> Yes , washing vegetables does remove some of the water soluble vitamins , ...	The claim appears to be "It is healthier not to wash vegetables at all, because washing may remove some of the nutrients."
Is Julian Assange "facing charges"? Wikileaks' twitter account states that Julian Assange doesn't face charges (as well as not being charged with anything) UK Foreign Minister falsely states Julian #Assange faces "charges", despite him not being charged with any crime https://twitter.com/foreignoffice/status/236...	There is as of yet no criminal case R. v. Assange (or whatever it would be called.)
Does one drop of nicotine kill a horse? There is a popular aphorism in Russia, translated as "one drop of nicotine kills a horse": , which is widely used on the anti-tobacco posters etc. Can 0.05 ml of nicotine really kill a healthy 400-kg horse? What could be the origin of this phrase? <Q> Toxicity : 30–60 mg (0.5–...	It takes more than a drop of nicotine, swallowed, to kill a horse.
Do lower income workers tend to vote Republican? It's election season in the United States and something that you tend to hear from domestic and international pundits is that: Lower income workers tend to vote Republican... which also tends to be restated using the stereotype: ... while Republicans are mostly l...	Census and opinion poll data since 1952 reveal that higher-income voters continue to support the Republicans in presidential elections.
Can you harvest energy from radio transmissions? This video gives instructions on building a circuit to harvest energy from radio waves in the air using some pretty straightforward circuitry. The creator has another video showing such a circuit powering a wall clock. Is it possible to harvest enough energy from rad...	Yes , but from a practical standpoint, don't expect much from them as you aren't going to be getting that much electricity from the antenna.
Who writes congressional bills? I'm not even American and even I know of School House Rock's " Just a Bill " and the Simpson's parody " An ammendment to be ". In Just a Bill the bill is written by a congressman because of public outcry. I was watching a TV program, called "Why Poverty", which said the idea of a congr...	In America, all legislatures will have a function that drafts bills on behalf of legislators.
Could an adult mind automatically adjust if a person was to wear glasses that inverted/flipped all vision? It is known that the human eye anatomy makes it so that all images we see with our eyes are flipped upside down .Without noticing it, at an early age, the brain is adjusted to this. What I mean is that we at an a...	Our vision can be altered, but our brain corrects this alteration to seem correct.
Is Khan Academy effective at teaching? For a research project I've decided to look at the merits of teaching through video compared to teaching through the medium of a lecture. This lead me to Khan Academy , a website launched in 2006 with the purpose of teaching the masses for free using video. Whilst I personally l...	Teachers reported that integrating Khan Academy into their instruction has increased their capacity to support their students in a number of areas.
Does alcohol-free "essential oil" mouthwash kill bacteria in your mouth? Case in point: No other alcohol-free mouthwash has been proven more effective at killing bad breath germs. Contains signature 4 Essential Oils found in LISTERINE® Antiseptic for bad breath protection. How many germs can it possibly kill with...	On the base of these results, it seems that an alcoholic mouthwash could be a good choice in preventing plaque formation after periodontal therapies.
Does a -9 dB room cause hallucinations? Does being in an anechoic chamber cause hallucinations? According to several blogs (that likely copy each other), it does. The Orfield Laboratory in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States is reported to be the quietest room in the world with a rating of -9.4 dB sou...	Apparently if you block or disrupt any of the senses for long enough it can cause hallucinations.
Did Swedish tax rate ever exceed 100%? In several places I've seen the claim that some people have at some point in history paid more than 100% taxes in Sweden. The Economist on the Nordic Countries : Astrid Lindgren, the inventor of Pippi Longstocking, was forced to pay more than 100% of her income in taxes Escap...	While you asked specifically about Sweden, the US also has marginal tax rates approaching, and even exceeding, 100% on low-income people.
Would the US deficit disappear if the costs of medical activity were more like the rest of the world? It is well known that the USA spends more of its national wealth on healthcare than other countries (see, for example, some of the analysis in this question: Is more than 30% of US healthcare spending waste? ). But t...	Because the annual deficit is more than the government spends on health care, it is mathematically impossible for the federal deficit to be eliminated by any reduction in health care costs.
Can overheating laptops cause fire? I have come across a Facebook post from an unverified and unreliable source, which claims that a fire was started using heat as a source alone. Here is the exact post which is the subject of the question. LAPTOP USERS: BE AWARE! A couple lost their 25 year old son in a fire at hom...	Scientifically, i feel this is not possible to happen, since all laptops have a thermal sensor, which when crosses a certain threshold, just turns the laptop off, and i feel just the heat is not sufficient to start a fire, without any actual source of fire like a spark of some kind,an electrical short or a chemical re...
Are humans the only animals that kill for pleasure or no purpose? “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.” James Anthony Froude (British historian, 1818-1894) Is this statement factually correct? Have there been any researc...	Dogs are the only animal that definitely kills for sport, but that's only because humans taught them to do so.
Can CT scans performed on a child's head lower his or her intelligence? The Daily Mail reports that X-rays and CT scans performed on a child's head could lower their IQ: The study is the first to suggest that medical X-rays to the head could harm the development of the brain in later life. It found that adults w...	It claims Low doses of ionising radiation to the brain in infancy influence cognitive abilities in adulthood. However, if you do not have any symptoms, the benefits of having a CT scan may not outweigh the risks, particularly if it leads to further unnecessary testing and added anxiety.
In Pre-WWII peacetime Germany, were there about 18,000-20,000 suicides per year? In a discourse to his staff in 1943, Hitler made this claim: In peacetime Germany, about 18,000 or 20,000 people a year chose to commit suicide, [...] Source Was this true? I'm skeptical of this claim because 18,000 seems to be a ver...	Yes, suicide rates was that high! There were about that many each year around 1980 (when Germany's population was comparable to 1930s Germany).
Do Americans have on average seven operations in their lifetime? During a recent local NPR broadcast Atul Gawande claimed that Americans have on average seven operations during their life, stating , “We think in the course of a person’s life, that you will turn to the health system for a few high risk, high fai...	Based on the state of medical and surgical practice in 2002, the average American has 3.41 inpatient, 2.56 outpatient, and 3.20 non-OR, for an overall total of 9.17 surgical procedures in an 85-year lifespan.
Do international laws require the detention and extradition of suspects? Barack Obama has said following: My continued expectation is that Russia or other countries that have talked about potentially providing Mr Snowden asylum recognise that they are a part of an international community and they should be abiding...	No one can be extradited by either country unless the offense for which extradition is requested is a crime in both countries and carries a prison sentence of at least one year.
Is the "Necronomicon" book historically real? According to Howard Phillips Lovecraft the book is entirely fiction. Nevertheless, there are hoaxes available and many random references over the internet claiming that the book actually existed. In the official website dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft there is a page that...	Evidence suggests that the Necronomicon was a fictional invention of novelist H.P. Lovecraft. A perhaps famous version (which is now certainly seen as a hoax) is the one written and published by L. Sprague de Camp in 1973 by the Owlswick press, which due to its limited number of editions (378), came to be known as a ra...
Do lemons help cure cancer? This morning I read an article on Facebook (in German) about the huge health benefits of lemons - and not just the juice, but the whole lemon, especially the skin. Several other sites make similar claims. This Dynamic Health Now site recommends freezing lemons, grating the whole fruit, an...	No reputable scientific or medical studies have reported that lemons have been found to be a "proven remedy against cancers of all types," nor has any of the (conveniently unnamed) "world's largest drug manufacturers" reported discovering that lemons are "10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy" and that their ingestio...
Has climate change measurably increased the likelihood of tropical storms such as Haiyan? The recent extreme tropical storm Haiyan has brought the relationship between cyclones and climate change back into the newspaper headlines. This recent headline from Britain's Daily Mirror suggests the link is clear: Typhoon ...	The possibility that greenhouse gas induced global warming may have already caused a substantial increase in some tropical cyclone indices has been raised (e.g. Mann and Emanuel, 2006), but no consensus has been reached on this issue.
Did Nirvana ever do a cover of "I Smell Sex And Candy"? A Google Search turns up lots of results that suggest Nirvana did the song "I Smell Sex And Candy" but according to Wikipedia It was done by Marcy Playground and the article doesn't mention Nirvana. Did Nirvana do a cover of this song and if so where? If not, ...	As someone else mentioned all the times that Nirvana is mentioned as who sang it, it is an error.
Do people's IQs change? In a 1968 study of the Pygmalion Effect : Rosenthal and Jacobson gave an intelligence test to all of the students at an elementary school at the beginning of the school year. Then, they randomly selected 20 percent of the students - without any relation to their test results - and reported ...	This idea that IQ changes over childhood is supported by other studies.
Does majority-white and majority-republican Owsley county have the highest SNAP usage? Just saw this one shared on Facebook by Occupy Democrats with 79k+ likes. It's a repost of this by Less Than 10 Dollars an Hour . Text reads: Today's Bit of Irony Owsley County, Kentucky Is 99.22% White and 95% Republica...	If we go back to 2008 and earlier, Owsley County was indeed in the "lead", but the three other counties passed Owsley in 2009 when it comes to number of recipients per population count.
Does Marijuana deposit four times the tar in the lungs as tobacco? This picture is from Emily Miller 's Facebook page shows one lung divided into two parts one labeled Tobacco and one labeled Marijuana. The Marijuana side is substantially less-healthy looking and the the picture's caption reads, Marijuana deposits...	As compared with smoking tobacco, smoking marijuana was associated with .. an approximately threefold increase in the amount of tar inhaled, and retention in the respiratory tract of one third more inhaled tar
Do tinfoil hats protect against any sort of radiation? Delusional conspiracy theorists are commonly portrayed as wearing tin-foil hats to protect against mind-control rays from sinister organisations such as [goverments/aliens/NSA/CIA/FBI/liberals/conservatives/devil/god]. Are there any (electromagnetic or other natu...	Though tin foil hats do protect you from electromagnetic radiation and from some forms of ionizing radiation, they do not protect you from all possible electromagnetic radiation:
Does red meat increase the risk of heart disease? Conventional common wisdom has been that red meat consumption increases the risk of developing heart disease. There are a lot of studies indicating this may be true, but there are also a lot of studies indicating this may not. A report from the Harvard Health Blog la...	Consumption of red meat was associated with increased risk of heart disease in some, but not all, studies, which suggests that some common red meat ingredient, like sodium or other preservatives, rather than red meat by itself may be the actual risk factor.
Is the "Back to the future" Huvr board real? This website is promoting a hovering skateboard. As far as my knowledge can tell, this seems fake. The only two known technologies I know of which can hover like that are magnets and quantum levitation . But they both require a modified floor, which wasn't used here. Ha...	Funny or Die have admitted that the video is a hoax on their site . Additionally, the main "HUVr" tech guy in the blue shirt is never identified by name, which he would likely be if his product were real.
Is the mustard seed the smallest of seeds? From Matthew 13:31-32 , 31 He [Jesus] put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, s...	The mustard seed is far from the smallest.
Do European countries maintain Air Force on high alert? A question asked here recently " Is Switzerland vulnerable to aerial threats outside office hours? " kind of implies that this is something unusual. But is it really something unusual in Europe? Do other mainland European countries maintain their Air Force on hi...	In France, this mission is called “ permanence opérationelle ” and the air force is indeed supposed to have fighters but also radar systems and surface-to-air defense systems available at all times for this purpose.
Is looking at an IR transmitter bad for your eyes? I've seen some warnings regarding IR sensors and transmitters such as the 4th panel below for the Nintendo 3DS: The Operations Manual says, Do not get too close to the infrared transceiver Looking directly into the infrared transceiver can lead to impaired visi...	It might partially blind you (glare effect for visible spectrum and NIR) and maybe cause minor, insignificant damage.
Is there a cure for Ebola? Wikipedia's page on "Ebola Virus Disease" states: No specific treatment for the virus is available. Wikipedia's page on "Ebola Virus" also states: There is no cure for Ebola, but if people get care quickly from doctors and nurses at a hospital, more of them live. So how are there...	Survival and full recovery is possible for Ebola patients although future immunity is not certain.
Is this picture showing an eagle flying upside-down genuine? I found this picture on Facebook: It definitely doesn't come from a particularly credible source (I F***ing Love Science), but I'm curious if that picture is genuine. My mother claims that the legs, wings and head appear "unnaturally twisted" based on her...	The picture you found could just be a well-timed photograph that happened during the middle of this eagle's roll. I can tell you this image is real and not doctored in anyway.
Does the word "butterfly" stem from an erroneous transcription of "flutterby"? I've heard it said on multiple occasions that the word Butterfly was originally Flutterby , but that it was either misread or mispronounced and somehow ended up being recorded as Butterfly instead.I did a quick google and found the fol...	Books and references suggest that butterfly stem from butterfleoge; the rest is unknown.
Does rabies have an almost 100% mortality rate with around 160 deaths per day? One of my favourite information snippets to dish out to unsuspecting friends is that there are roughly only 10 recorded cases of rabies survival without vaccination, while it's estimated that around 160 people die from the virus every day. T...	According to Scientific American : Rabies is 100 percent preventable with vaccinations if patients receive them before the onset of symptoms
Did Switzerland declare a "Science day" in honour of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam? Recently, I saw a post on Facebook, of this image: The caption is: May 26 is celebrated as Science day in Switzerland in honour of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, because on that day, Kalam visited the country Dr Kalam is an acclaimed scientist, and a ...	Furthermore, Science Day is not an official Swiss holiday . CERN has a list of official holidays, too .
Is water from a sink different from water from a water fountain? I have heard (particularly but not exclusively from my friends who grew up in Asia, where the situation may be different) that you should not drink water from a sink in the bathroom. Why? They believe the water from a water fountain is safe and good for...	It’s okay to drink water from the restroom sink if there is no drinking fountain or kitchen sink available.
Do hand dryers in public bathrooms spread bacteria? A hand drier is a warm and humid environment that is surrounded by bacteria from all the bathroom users. It is claimed that this is one of the main causes for spreading bacteria/microbes ( NCBI ref ) Is this claim truly accurate, and should hot air hand dryers be a...	From a hygiene standpoint, paper towels aresuperior to air dryers; therefore, paper towels should be recommendedfor use in locations in which hygiene is paramount, such as hospitalsand clinics.
Is Obama the only president who has been denied by the opposing party when trying to raise the minimum wage? This is circulating on Facebook: Here's a list of every president in American history who has wanted a raise in the minimum wage but been denied by the opposing party: President Obama That's not a ...	The claim is false.
Is very young lamb poisonous? I spotted an article on BBC news (repeated on several other news aggregators ) about a farmer who had had his lambs stolen. There was a very specific warning given: PSNI Chief Inspector Graham Dodds has warned abattoirs to be careful about accepting lambs in the coming week. " The...	Whether these particular young lambs are actually poisonous or not - we aren't given enough information to make that conclusion.
Does washing hands with soap remove more germs than plain water? As a germophobic , I almost consume a soap bar each day due to the touch of a door handle or other daily used items around the house. This is instigated due to OCD perhaps. This is unhealthy and bad for the skin (As using too much is harmful and thus th...	Washing your hands with plain water does reduce germs.
Is adult life expectancy the same in hunter-gatherer tribes and in industrialized societies? This article Common misconceptions about science II: Life expectancy says: Another common misperception about science, which is held even by many social scientists, is that, both in our ancestral past and in many developi...	Yes, child mortality is much higher in hunter-gatherer tribes and acounts for a large increase in life expectancy at birth, but life expectancy increased in industrialized countries even for adult age.
Are there approved drugs where it's unknown how they work? A couple of months ago, I saw a YouTube video, stating that it is still not known how some common drugs really work. I think it might be Healthcare Triage , and I think it might be about antidepressants/SSRIs, but I can't find the video now. Is is possible fo...	Yes, it's known that some drugs work, but how they work is unknown.
Was the Earth one big ocean once? Many people believe that Earth was one big ocean at some point in its past . During Noah’s time the earth was completely covered with water. There are many other examples, not all related to Noah. See here , here , here , here and so on. Is that true? I'd also be intereste...	Yes, the Earth was entirely ocean before any continents existed.
Was dark matter invented to explain the formation of primordial stars? While reading a recent Creation Ministries article Five atheist miracles , I came across this claim: Here is the first problem: how do you get gases formed in a rapidly expanding primordial universe to coalesce together to form a critical mass so...	And no, dark matter was not invented to explain the coalesced gases in the primordial universe.
Has a fifteen year old from Canada discovered a hidden Mayan city? Recent news stories have reported on the discovery of a lost Mayan city by William Gadoury, a 15-year-old from Canada. According to these reports, Gadoury noticed a correspondence between the locations of Mayan cities and Mayan constellations (the arti...	The evidence is inconclusive and the experts that have been interviewed think that an alternative explanation is more likely.
Does men's testosterone increase with age? It is generally thought that men's testosterone decreases with age. However, according to Des Tobin , Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Bradford: Surprisingly the levels of testosterone [in men] continue to increase with age up until the age of 70. This is...	The best evidence indicates men's testosterone tends to DEcrease with age.

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