Can you spot a scientific hoax?
I saw on UNEASYsilence yesterday a post on making water “magnetic”. Water, of course, isn’t magnetic because it doesn’t have any magnetic materials in it. The post linked to a couple folks who claimed to be able to infuse enough iron into the water using lemon or lime juice and spinach leaves (spinach is has a lot of iron). There was even a YouTube video about it (which is no longer available). Hey I was interested in this. I though, hmm I could try this. Sounds fun. Last night I went back to the post to look at the video (that’s when I learned it had bee removed) and read the comments. Those who had seen the video all screamed (in a cyber sort of way) FAKE!!!
What’s the science lesson here? Question everything. Look at the facts. Tap into what you already know. Make a hypothesis on whether it might be true or not. Then examine the evidence. Pretty simple. So while I originally wanted to post about how cool it would be for water to be pulled by a magnet, now I’m posting a greater lesson. The lesson of how science works. That’s good science.
tags: science education, science hoaxes
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