"As soon as astronauts go to heaven, they gain weight." "Residues from mask disinfection can cause cancer." "Drinking some red wine every day can soften blood vessels." These are all fake—
Why "Science" Rumors Are Popular
The more natural snowfall during the Winter Olympics, the better?
Do astronauts get fat as soon as they arrive at the space station?
Mask disinfection residue can cause cancer, should you shake it before use?
In the past 2021, these rumors under the banner of "science" and combined with news hotspots are still flying all over the sky. Some old rumors that have been refuted, have become popular with new vests and become new rumors that are frequently forwarded.
Not long ago, the Beijing Association for Science and Technology and the Beijing Municipal Party Committee's Internet Information Office announced the 2021 "scientific" rumor list, and the ten most representative rumors of the year were on the list.
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter interviewed a number of experts to interpret the top ten rumors, and refine the five laws behind the rumors, including "confused concepts", "prejudice effect", "inappropriate association", "subjective inference" and "inertial thinking", in order to disseminate and identify rumors of scientific methods to increase public immunity to scientific gossip.
Mask disinfection residue can cause cancer, should you shake it before use?
In the "confused concept" routine!
In the past year, the new crown pneumonia epidemic is still raging around the world, and rumors about masks have often emerged.
There is one on the list: "Ethylene oxide", the residue of mask disinfection, is a carcinogen. After opening the package, the mask should be thrown in the air to greatly reduce the ethylene oxide value, otherwise it will cause cancer.
"This is completely a misunderstanding that confuses concepts," said Wang Peiyu, director and professor of the Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, School of Public Health, Peking University School of Medicine, and director of the Chinese Nutrition Society.
He told reporters that most of the medical surgical masks and N95 masks will be fumigated by ethylene oxide steam.
However, after disinfection, the manufacturer will wait for the ethylene oxide to volatilize before packaging.
In addition, after the masks are sterilized by ethylene oxide, the manufacturer will also conduct ethylene oxide testing. The factory masks must meet the national standard, that is, less than 10μg/g.
"Ethylene oxide is a volatile substance. When the mask reaches consumers through multiple processes, it basically does not carry any residual substances that will affect it. The residues of masks produced by regular enterprises meet national standards and will not affect the The health of the wearer poses a threat." Wang Peiyu said that doctors and nurses wear masks when they go to work, and there are no reports of harmful health.
He told reporters that there was a "confusion of concepts" in the rumor.
Some people concoct gossips with some seemingly professional and advanced scientific vocabulary and pseudo-scientific concepts that seem to be "high-level", and confuse the original correct scientific concepts. If people are not scientifically literate or rational, they are easy to be fooled. deceived.
"Inoculation of the new crown vaccine will cause the virus to 'immune escape'", which is also a typical rumor of "confused concepts".
Wang Peiyu said that immunity is the body's resistance, which monitors or eliminates pathogens outside or inside the body through cellular immunity and humoral immunity.
"Immune escape" can be understood as a pathogen trying to escape the surveillance and attack of the human immune system, making the established immune system in the body "unrecognizable" and evading its attack; Evade the attack of cellular and humoral immune antibodies.
"The new crown vaccine does not cause 'immune escape', and accordingly, the new crown vaccine can reduce 'immune escape'. Whether it is influenza virus or new coronavirus, both belong to RNA coronavirus, and RNA coronavirus is characterized by easy mutation, and 'immune escape'. "Escape" occurs in the process of virus mutation." Wang Peiyu said.
In his view, injection of vaccine can reduce mutation, because after vaccine injection, the infectivity of the population is reduced, the replication and degree of virus are reduced, the probability of mutation is reduced, the patient's condition is relieved, and the seriousness is reduced, and the chance of "immune escape" will be reduced. reduce.
"Therefore, it is recommended that everyone get vaccinated as much as possible without contraindications, and standardize the first, second and booster shots. In addition, in addition to vaccination, our routine public health measures include wearing masks and maintaining social distance. It is also important to avoid going to crowded places, because these preventive measures can also reduce infection, thereby reducing the probability of 'immune escape'." Wang Peiyu believes that standardized public health measures and vaccination, coupled with the development of effective drugs , a multi-pronged approach can finally control the new crown virus.
Nuclear heating hot water with nuclear radiation?
In the "prejudice effect" routine!
The hot water heated by nuclear energy has nuclear radiation. If the heating pipe leaks, what will be the consequences?
This is a scientific rumor that will spread widely in 2021.
According to Zhang Zhenhua, the technical director and researcher-level senior engineer of China Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., this rumor is based on the "prejudice effect" routine. For unfamiliar science and technology, the public will always draw conclusions from the initial impression, while This first impression is often a bias that lacks scientific evidence.
"The so-called nuclear radiation is also called ionizing radiation." Zhang Zhenhua said that this kind of radiation exists all the time in life, including some natural marble materials, which also have natural nuclear radiation, and the man-made nuclear facilities of nuclear power plants will also have nuclear radiation. radiation.
Will the heating water provided by nuclear power plants be radioactive?
Zhang Zhenhua analyzed the schematic diagram of the nuclear power plant, which is divided into three parts: one is the nuclear island, the other is the conventional island, and the other is the BOP supporting facilities.
Conventional island and BOP are basically the same as conventional power plants. The main difference is that the nuclear island, which professionals call the reactor building, contains radioactive substances.
According to him, the nuclear island is the primary circuit, the conventional factory building is the secondary circuit, and the third circuit is a cooling circuit. When heating the residents' homes through the urban pipe network, it is the fourth and fifth circuits, and the circuits are all isolated. That is to say, there is only the transfer of heat, and there is no exchange of the medium-water, and there will be no radioactive material entering the user's heating pipeline.
From this point of view, the rumor that nuclear energy heating water has nuclear radiation is self-defeating.
"Such rumors use the public's 'preconceived ideas' and 'would rather believe what they have than do not believe in nothing' to spread. In fact, it is selling social anxiety." Zhang Zhenhua said.
Drinking a little red wine every day can soften blood vessels?
I fell into the "improper association" routine!
As the Spring Festival is approaching, gatherings between friends and relatives will inevitably lead to a drink. During the gathering, you may hear a saying that drinking red wine every day is beneficial and harmless, and it can also soften blood vessels.
is that true?
Wu Haiyun, chief physician of the Clinical Department of Internal Medicine of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital and senior consultant of the Chinese Society of Geriatrics, told reporters that more than 60 years ago, the medical community put forward a hypothesis that wine may have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system.
Wine contains resveratrol, and resveratrol has a certain effect of lowering blood lipids. Animal experiments suggest that resveratrol may have a certain vascular protection effect, but whether it is clinically beneficial to humans has not been clear. in conclusion.
Wu Haiyun believes that this rumor contains the routine of "improper association". "When the public is faced with information of their own concern, if they make mistakes or excessive associations, they may fall into the trap of rumors. For example, some possibilities or correlations are regarded as cause and effect. nature and inevitability, information 'soils' in word of mouth."
"The 'three high' crowds can't eat egg yolks" is also a typical rumor in this regard.
"Many people don't eat egg yolks at a young age. Some people think that eating too many egg yolks will easily lead to excessive cholesterol in the body. This view is misleading." Wu Haiyun said that nearly 20 years of research has denied this statement , that is, the cholesterol level in the human blood, mainly depends on the balance between synthetic cholesterol and metabolized cholesterol in the body, and has little to do with the total amount of cholesterol ingested in the diet.
He told reporters that the statement that eating egg yolks will increase cholesterol is inaccurate. The intake of cholesterol in the diet will not have much impact on the level of cholesterol in people's blood.
Therefore, egg yolk will increase cholesterol, and "three high" people cannot eat egg yolk, which is another scientific rumor.
Do astronauts get fat as soon as they arrive at the space station?
I fell into the "subjective inference" routine!
It has been more than three months since the launch of the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft, and the three astronauts have successfully carried out a number of tasks such as exiting the capsule and teaching in space.
Not long ago, attentive netizens discovered that the three astronauts who appeared in the video have become fat.
Some netizens guessed, is this the food of the space station too good?
"The truth is not like that." Jiao Weixin, a professor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University and a member of the Professional Committee of Return and Reentry of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, said that the reason why the three astronauts looked "fat" was because the astronauts were exposed to the pressure on the space station. Facial puffiness due to the influence of microgravity.
Factors such as food, exercise, etc., do not quickly cause such changes.
He told reporters that on the surface of the earth, the gravity felt by the human body is the gravity of the earth.
The altitude of the space station flight is about 400 kilometers above the surface of the earth, where the astronauts hardly feel the effect of gravity, and the environment they are in is microgravity.
"On the ground, blood flows to the legs and lower body. But in microgravity, because there is no gravity, the blood starts to collect in the head. This causes the astronaut's face to be puffy, also known as puffy syndrome, Because most of their blood is in the upper body," Jiao Weixin said.
In his opinion, "As soon as astronauts arrive at the space station, they get fat." This rumor contains a "subjective inference" routine. Due to the lack of systematic understanding of cutting-edge technology, conclusions are drawn through subjective imagination, which breeds rumors.
"The Beidou satellite navigation system will be dropped frequently", which is also a typical rumor in this regard.
Jiao Weixin said that the Beidou locator and the Beidou satellite navigation system are not the same concept.
The latter is a satellite navigation and positioning system, and the so-called "Beidou products" on the market are often only the products of a certain enterprise and cannot represent the Beidou system.
What is certain is that there is no problem with the Beidou system, and there is strict real-time monitoring, and there is no possibility that the satellite will be dropped and the signal will be interrupted.
"Netizens should avoid subjective inferences, 'seeing is not necessarily true'. When major hot events occur, they need to wait for more authoritative evidence to confirm." Jiao Weixin said that it is precisely because the Beidou system is famous and has a good reputation, the people are very Pay attention, the phenomenon of using the high-tech name of "Beidou" to flicker occurs from time to time.
The more natural snowfall during the Winter Olympics, the better?
In the "inertial thinking" routine!
In the opinion of experts, inertial thinking often affects people's thinking, and the mindset will affect people's scientific and rational pursuit of true knowledge, especially for those phenomenon-level hotspots that have received widespread attention. It is more prone to bias and wrong conclusions in the interactive communication of .
"The more natural snowfall during the Winter Olympics, the better" is a typical rumor of "inertia thinking".
Many people think that the use of artificial snow in high-profile Winter Olympics is a last resort due to insufficient natural snowfall, but the opposite is true - for high-profile Winter Olympics, artificial snow is not a backup solution, but the main solution .
In areas where there is snow all year round and the amount of snowfall is extremely abundant, artificial snow is still used on the tracks of the winter events.
"At this time, natural snowfall is a 'burden', and even during the competition, everyone does not want natural snowfall." Zhang Kai, a professor at the School of Astronautics of Beijing Institute of Technology, told reporters that the advantage of artificial snow is that the snow quality is more controllable. The formation time is short, the growth is fast, and the shape of snowflakes is basically the same.
In particular, high-quality "ice-like snow" has high hardness and is not easy to be damaged. It can ensure that the surface of the snow track is not deformed when the athletes turn at high speed. No matter how many players appear, the state of the snow track is the same and relatively perfect.
In contrast, the natural snowfall is relatively soft, and the athlete's snowboard is very easy to fall into the snow, causing accidents such as rollover and emergency stop.
Therefore, if there is snow during the event, the soft natural snow will cause the "mirror-smooth" track to fall short.
Therefore, if there is a real "no beauty", the staff will immediately use the snow compressor to re-compact the snow track and carry out emergency refurbishment of the track.
"Therefore, the rumor 'the more natural snowfall during the Winter Olympics, the better' is false. In fact, there are many rumors in our life that we are accustomed to believe, and this is also the scary part of such rumors." Zhang Kai Say.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui Source: China Youth Daily