SCIENCE · Feb 17, 2026 Bacteria can contaminate dropped food in under one second. Claim: The "five-second rule" — the belief that food dropped on the floor is safe to eat if picked up within five seconds — prevents the transfer of harmful bacteria to food. TOTAL BS
SCIENCE · Feb 15, 2026 Stacking about 5×10³⁰ bacteria end-to-end gives roughly 1 billion light-years. Claim: If all the world's bacteria were stacked on top of each other, the resulting column would stretch approximately 10 billion light-years. MOSTLY BS
SCIENCE · Feb 15, 2026 Humans have roughly similar numbers of bacterial and human cells. Claim: Approximately half of the cells in the human body are non-human cells, primarily composed of microorganisms such as bacteria. HARDLY BS