Climate & Energy
This greenhouse gas is the main driver of climate change.
What is carbon dioxide (CO₂)?
Real: Eating fruits and vegetables provides these compounds that protect cells from damage.
What are antioxidants?
Bees are considered this type of species because they are vital to pollination.
What is a keystone species?
Real: NASA’s rovers study this planet’s habitability potential.
What is Mars?
Junk claim: This hairy ape-like creature roams forests in the Pacific Northwest.
What is Bigfoot?
Junk claim: Wind turbines cause this health problem, often called "Wind Turbine Syndrome."
What is illness from low-frequency sound (debunked)?
Junk claim: This breakfast cereal mascot once told us sugar is “part of a balanced breakfast.”
Who is Tony the Tiger?
Junk claim: Sharks can “smell” a single drop of blood from this impossible distance.
What is miles away (actually closer to a few hundred meters)?
Junk claim: Conspiracy theorists say this giant leap in 1969 was staged.
What is the Moon landing?
Real: The placebo effect demonstrates the power of this human trait.
What is belief / expectation?
Real: This renewable resource harnesses the movement of water to generate electricity.
What is hydroelectric power?
Real: The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was caused largely by this unsustainable farming practice.
What is over-plowing / poor soil management?
Real: This invasive species in Florida is a constrictor snake causing ecological damage.
What is the Burmese python?
Real: Satellites detect changes in this polar feature to monitor climate change.
What is sea ice / glaciers?
Junk claim: Drinking this silver-colored liquid metal is deadly (but touching it isn’t).
What is mercury?
Junk claim: Global warming is caused by this astronomical body "getting hotter."
What is the Sun?
Junk claim: This trendy diet promises "detox" using only juice cleanses.
What is a juice cleanse / detox fad?
Sci-Fi Twist: In Jurassic Park, scientists used DNA from this insect trapped in amber.
What is a mosquito?
Sci-Fi Twist: In Star Wars, the Death Star destroys planets with this kind of “energy beam.”
What is a superlaser?
Sci-Fi Twist: In Back to the Future, Doc Brown powers the DeLorean with this “fuel.”
What is plutonium / later Mr. Fusion?
Real: The 1987 Montreal Protocol phased out this class of chemicals destroying the ozone layer.
What are CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)?
Sci-Fi Twist: In The Martian, Mark Watney survives by farming this crop on Mars.
What are potatoes?
Junk claim: Goldfish have this laughably short memory span.
What is 3 seconds (actually months)?
Real: This branch of science focuses on studying extraterrestrial life possibilities.
What is astrobiology?
Real: This famous equation, developed by Einstein, links energy and mass.
What is E = mc²?