Everything you know is a little bit wrong.
Myths your teachers taught with a straight face. Medical advice your doctor swore by. Playground rumours, Mandela effects, viral nonsense the internet refuses to bury. We stamp a verdict on each one and show you the receipts.
Everyone Believes This
The myths so sticky almost everyone retells them, word for word, forever. The Space Pen NASA never needed. The Great Wall you cannot actually see from space. The goldfish that remembers just fine. This is the definitive file, and it is growing.
The Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden Was an Apple
The Bible never names the fruit; the apple was a later European add-on
'Posh' Comes from 'Port Out, Starboard Home'
A tidy shipboard acronym invented decades after the word appeared
'420' Was the Police Code for Marijuana
No such code exists; it came from five California teenagers in 1971
Greenland Is About the Same Size as Africa
The map lied to you; Africa is roughly fourteen times larger
The Amazon Produces 20% of the World's Oxygen
The rainforest breathes in nearly as much as it breathes out; the net is close to zero
The Sahara Is the Largest Desert in the World
A desert is about dryness, not sand, and Antarctica is far bigger
Most believed, most wrong
The all-time leaders in human gullibility. You believed at least half of these. So did we.
Stepping on a Crack Will Break Your Mother's Back
A superstition with no magical consequences whatsoever
If You Shave, Your Hair Grows Back Thicker and Darker
Shaving creates the appearance of thicker hair, but doesn't change growth
The MMR Vaccine Causes Autism
Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent 1998 Lancet paper was retracted after fabrication was exposed
Darth Vader Says 'Luke, I Am Your Father'
The actual line is 'No, I am your father' without using Luke's name
The Berenstein Bears Are Spelled 'Berenstein'
The author always spelled it 'Berenstain' (rhyming with 'stain,' not 'steen')
What did your class get wrong?
Tell us when you finished school. We will pull the things you were taught that have since been busted.
Your personal report card
Pick a field of error
Every discipline has its skeletons. Prepare to be disappointed in your education.
An Encyclopaedia of Error
Ye Olde Wrong Facts
Trepanning, bloodletting, the four humours. The things humanity believed before 1900, sorted by era, plus the myths that ran the longest before we caught up.
Explore the historical mythsSorted by species of nonsense
From playground myths to debunked conspiracies. We have sorted the rubbish so you do not have to.
Collections for a specific mood
Handpicked sets of wrong facts, grouped by theme.