Tuesday, October 20, 2009

What can you rely on?

One thing I appreciate about college science classes is their brutal honesty, granted, it complicates things a little bit and can be discouraging- "Now this is what we're teaching you, but in next year's class you'll learn about all of its inaccuracies and the exceptions to these 'rules'"

There are three "facts" that in the last few years I've learned aren't true, and it's been, sigh, disillusioning.

1) Pluto isn't a planet.
2) Brontosaurus, one of the few dinosaurs I could name, is not actually a dinosaur. (that said, does anyone know if apatosaurus is the same thing by a different name?)
3) There aren't just boys and girls. Not even just boys, girls and hermaphrodites- there's also androgen insensitivity (AIS) and pseudohermaphrodites.

I sure hope I didn't burst anyone's bubble.