Science

Did residents of Cape Coral, Florida, take to painting their roofs blue following numerous sightings of planes utilizing "Green Laser Technology," as claimed in a post circulating on social media? No, that's not true: The satellite imagery of Cape Coral, Florida, in the post dates back to a period after September 29, 2022, when Hurricane Ian impacted the area. Through…

Did a megalodon shark, thought to be long extinct, attack and sink a charter fishing boat off the coast of South Africa as described in a video on social media? No, that's not true: The dramatic scenes in a video, filmed to appear like vacation footage by friends with a hand-held camera, was actually a scripted pseudo-documentary for the Discovery…

Is the moon a machine that is filled with computers? No, that's not true: The moon is a rock with a metallic core, according to NASA, the agency that has studied the moon and outer space for decades. The United States has landed men on the moon, and there have been multiple countries around the world that have sent spacecraft…

Did Joe Rogan, in an episode of his podcast, say that a U.S. Navy ship was attacked by a megalodon? No, that's not true: Narration that sounds like Rogan telling a tale of a Navy ship being ambushed by an ancient, giant shark is covered by images other than any showing Rogan's mouth, so that viewers can only hear the…

Does HIV medication weaken the immune system and worsen the condition and can the body reverse HIV/AIDS by itself? No, those claims are not true: An infectious disease expert told Lead Stories that HIV medication, known as antiretroviral therapy, strengthens the immune system by reducing viral load and helping it function better. The body cannot typically reverse HIV/AIDS by itself.…

Did Joe Biden let slip that there is a "right roof" with a certain color that will protect a home from being destroyed by lasers or directed energy weapons during wildfires as some conspiracists suggest? No, that's not true: In a video clip of Joe Biden speaking in Brownsville, Texas, he does say how in the aftermath of a wildfire…

Does a viral video of a "green laser" authentically show a beam igniting a Texas wildfire that started in late February 2024? No, that's not true: The clip was posted two months before the blaze. It was first published in a social media account of a person describing themselves as a "video creator" who made no references to Texas…

Does the "cause to every disease" originate in the colon, as a video on Instagram suggests? No, that's not true: Scientific literature shows that there is a relationship between gut health and both the management and prevention of certain diseases, but it is not accurate to say that all diseases are caused by the colon or gut, a spokesperson for…

Will the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse entirely obscure the sun for eight North American towns named Nineveh, as claimed in a video on TikTok? No, that's not true: Only two of the eight places named Nineveh mentioned in the video -- Nineveh, Indiana, and Nineveh, Ohio -- will experience a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The other…

Does a meme on social media prove that footage of astronauts jumping on the surface of the moon must be fake because they come back down to approximately the same place? Wouldn't an astronaut who jumped up for one second come down many feet away from where he took off because the moon is rotating and has no atmosphere? No,…

Is COVID-19 vaccine shedding real, meaning it can spread from person to person? No, that's not true: The COVID-19 shots authorized for use in the United States do not contain the live virus and therefore cannot replicate in the body or be shed. Additionally, infectious disease experts told Lead Stories that there's no credible scientific evidence supporting the claim. The…

Does hyperbaric oxygen therapy cure cancer? No, that's not true: The Food and Drug Administration has not approved such therapy as a cancer treatment. In fact, the agency has been refuting this claim for over a decade. The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on February 24, 2024. The caption began: Dis-ease is a illusion and once…

Is exposure to radium beneficial to human health, as a post on Instagram implies? No, that's not true: Radium is recognized by public health experts as a known carcinogen or cancer-causing agent. While it is true that radium was historically touted in the 20th century for its supposed health benefits and used in a variety of products at the time,…

Does a video show Dr. Oz being attacked on TV for promoting a supposed three-day diabetes cure? No, that's not true: The footage that purports to be of Dr. Mehmet Oz being beaten up on a TV set stage was a live broadcast of a Ukrainian journalist brawling with a pro-Russian politician. The image of Oz with an apparent black…

Does a photograph show the son of Dr. Sebi on trial, purportedly for "spreading health secrets?" No, that's not true: The image of a man in an orange prison outfit is not a real photograph of the "son" of Dr. Sebi, whose real name was Alfredo Bowman and who was not a doctor but who was known for promoting questionable…

Does mercury generate "free energy" as a post on Instagram claimed? No, that's not true: Mercury is a metal that can "conduct electricity in ways similar to copper," an industrial chemist told Lead Stories and the clips shown in the video on Instagram are "all demonstrations of electromagnetism," not energy production. Furthermore, an inorganic chemist told Lead Stories that mercury…

Are solar flares not real, thus incapable of disrupting telecommunications networks, as a post on Instagram suggests? No, that's not true: Solar flares are well-documented bursts of electromagnetic energy emitted by the sun during geomagnetic storms, and a large body of evidence proves they exist and have far-ranging effects. Flares disrupt radar, gps and other radiowave-based systems, according to recognized…

Is the cyanocobalamin found in B12 supplements harmful to humans? No, that's not true: Cyanocobalamin is a synthetic form of vitamin B12 used to treat vitamin deficiencies; it is converted into active forms of B12 in the body. The small amount of cyanide released during this process is negligible and not harmful, a nutritional expert told Lead Stories. The claim…

Does a post on social media that claims the HAARP ionospheric heater is all over the world show an authentic photo of one? No, that's not true: It's a photo of a long-abandoned Soviet-era radar in Ukraine. Before the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion, the area, which had been evacuated due to high radiation levels after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, was…

Is it true that the Lunar Roving Vehicle could not have fit inside the Lunar Module on the Apollo 15 mission, meaning moon missions after that were faked, as a post on Instagram suggested? No, that's not true: The Apollo 15 mission was a 1971 space program that genuinely landed the Lunar Module on the moon with the Lunar Roving…