There are pieces of information that we accept as fact right up until we discover that they are not true. An article over at LifeScience.com debunks some of these myths, but gives credence to others..

Being a big fan of Snopes.com, the urban legends website, I like to know the truth about something. I find it interesting, though, that people will still argue about these things even after they have been proven wrong.

For your reading and discriminating pleasure:

1. Water drains backward in the southern hemisphere.

• False. Gravity just is not strong enough to make that happen. It has much more to do with how the sink is made than the location of the sink.

2. Eating poppy seed bagels can mimic opium use.

• True. This one comes straight out of a Seinfeld episode, but there really does exist the possibility of this showing up on a drug screening. And the truly amazing thing is that it only takes two poppy seeds to make that happen!

3. Yawning is contagious.

• True. This is one of those things that seem true on the outset. It becomes even more true when it is observable in chimps as well.

4. Hair and fingernails continue growing after death.

• False. Yes, it can look that way, but that is only because you are looking at the wrong thing. Instead of looking at the hair and fingernails, try looking at the skin around those things. The skin retracts due to dehydration. It's unclear, though, why you might have a dead with which to conduct this experiment.

5. Chicken soup helps cure colds.

• True. While this can be one of those things where it is unclear what a cure actually means, chicken soup has been found to reduce congestion. Yes, grandmother really did know best.

6. There is no gravity in space.

• False. There is gravity everywhere. The real question is how much gravity. "Zero gravity" really does not quite mean that and that is probably what causes the confusion. They hit on another one as well: Space is not a vacuum. Well, not completely. There are small atoms out there. Who knew?

7. Chickens can live without a head.

• True. Interestingly, it has to do with the placement of the brain stem in chickens and that it controls the reflexes. The article mentions one chicken who lived for eighteen months with no head.

8. A penny dropped from the top of a very tall building could kill a person.

• False. Yes, it would sting, okay, but pennies just are not that big. Even from a building as tall as the Empire State Building, it just does not have that capability.

9. Adults cannot grow new brain cells.

• False. While it is true that it slows down significantly in adults (as opposed to children), brain cell growth continues into adult life.

10. Men think about sex every seven seconds.

• False. All evidence to the contrary, we actually have no clue. At this point, it is not something that can be measured. That being said, most scientists believe that is an exaggeration. No word as to whether those scientists were male or female.

Source: LiveScience.com