Science Myths A Lot of People Still Believe & The Strange Story of the Polygraph

Can trees fight crime? Apparently so - at least some types of crime. Although no one is exactly sure how. Listen and I’ll explain. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/04/trees-crime-cincinnati-philadelphia-ida-b-wells-chicago/ Is it true that a goldfish has a 3 second memory? Or that lightning never strikes the same place twice? Of course, you know water conducts electricity, right? Actually no. In fact none of those things are true. There are so many myths in science that people believe and we are going to debunk several of them with my guest science writer Brian Clegg. Brian has written over 40 science books, one of which is titled Lightning Often Strikes Twice: The 50 Biggest Misconceptions in Science (https://amzn.to/41sY3jK) I’m sure you’ve seen a polygraph machine in movies or television shows. It is supposed to be able to tell if someone is lying. But does it really work? If it is so accurate, why are the results of polygraph tests not admissible in court? If it is so inaccurate, why is it still used? The story of the polygraph or lie detector is an interesting one. Joining me to explain it is Amit Katwala an award winning journalist, a senior writer at Wired and au…