35 False 'Facts' That You Wrongly Believe (And 1 That You Should)

25. You Will Get Arthritis From Cracking Your Knuckles

No you won't! Arthritis is an inflammation of the joints. There are at least seven diseases that specifically result in joint inflammation and associated discomfort, as well as up to twenty other conditions that can result in similar symptoms. "Cracking" of joints has never been found to be a contributor to any of them, nor to any other related or unrelated joint ailment. The clincher with this old chestnut is that when you're "cracking" your knuckles - or your back, your neck, your shoulder, elbows, feet or anything else you choose to crack - you're not actually "cracking" anything. You are doing something a bit funky with your joints but, again, there's no conclusive evidence to suggest that it contributes to any of the diseases or conditions commonly associated with Arthritis or joint pain. The "cracking" sound that's heard when we "crack" our knuckles is nothing more than redundant gasses being jettisoned from the fluid surrounding a joint. When pressure inside the joint chamber becomes too great and more room needs to be made for the joint to comfortably move, the chamber opens and gasses escape. What sounds and feels like a "crack" is really more of a "pop" - the high-powered hiss of the gas shooting out of the joint chamber. So even if you hear a snap in among all that crackling and popping, cracking your knuckles won't do anything to increase your chances of developing Arthritis.

24. Goldfish Have A Memory Of Only A Few Seconds

No, actually a goldfish's memory lasts far longer than that. It's long been purported that the memory span of a goldfish ranges from as little as 3 seconds up to as long as 7 seconds. Films like Disney's Finding Nemo have done little to dispel the myth, despite the fact that Ichthyology - the study of fish - has long known it to be untrue. In fact it seems increasingly likely that it was little more than a goldfish owner's desperate ploy to avoid the guilt of knowing they'd left a defenceless goldfish to swim around and around in a tiny glass bowl. In 2008 an Australian schoolboy found that goldfish could be conditioned to behave in specific ways in as little as three weeks. The same goldfish had virtually instant recall of the required behaviours even after not performing them for a week or more. A research fellow from Sydney's Macquarie University said at the time that, based on more than a decade of observing fish behaviour, it was clear that goldfish could retain environmental information for a year or more. A 2009 research project found that goldfish were trained to associate a specific part of their environments with tiny electric shocks and were certainly able to remember to avoid that part of the tank for at least 24 hours. But as long ago as 2003, research had already established that goldfish can not only remember for at least three months, they can differentiate between colours, shapes and sounds, they can learn specific actions and they can also remember exactly when to implement those actions for a specific result. So the next time you're about to accuse someone of having a memory like a goldfish, stop and think: a "sieve" could actually be a better - and harsher - analogy to use.