8 Terrible Science Takes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is a persistent myth that I think has even cropped up in a SciShow video: that mantis shrimp can see some brilliant array of colours unknown to humans, because they have 12+ types of colour cones, and humans have a mere 3. They (likely) can't. In fact, they're not very good at distinguishing colours. This was tested more than a decade ago. Probably what's going on is that humans' colour cones overlap to form a spectrum, and mantis shrimp cones are instead more specialized to alert to their specific frequencies faster. (edit) They can see different types of polarized light, though. Mantis shrimp vision is neat, and I would encourage you to look it up! Colour variety just isn't what's neat about it.

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

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

It's a shame that a certain governor from South Dakota did not have access to the facts about dogs. "Foggy, irritated, dizzy, itchy, or nauseous" seems to be a requirement for running for president these days.

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