Science

Does a video show a man standing on the edge of the Chicxulub Crater which was formed when an asteroid slammed into the earth about 66 million years ago? No, that's not true: In follow-up comments under the post, the author says "This is an AI simulation of what it may have look like 66 million years ago". They suggest…

Did the mother of Christopher Todd Erick discover the body of her deceased son, plastinated and on display in a Real Bodies exhibit in Las Vegas? No, that's not true: The bodies on display in the exhibit originated in China. According to Imagine Exhibitions, owners of the Real Bodies exhibit, the specimen in question has been on continuous display in…

Did a viral video really show dead bodies moving on their own in a morgue? No, that's not true: The video, showing four different scenes of bodies appearing to move their legs as four different women sat next to them writing some kind of report or doing paperwork, had the typical glitches of footage generated using artificial intelligence. A specialized…

Did Sweden start using a red beet-and-starch-based, food-grade de-icing solution on a large scale to combat road icing and save birds suffering from road salt poisoning? No, that's not true: The Swedish Transport Administration website has a page that explains the the agency did not switch to a new red salt. Lead Stories found no news articles reporting such a…

Does a real photo show the moment in 1952 that a double-decker bus jumped the widening gap of the Tower Bridge drawbridge sections as it was opened to let river traffic through? No, that's not true: While a quick-thinking driver of the London number 78 line was truly celebrated for hitting the gas and jumping the gap, the viral photo…

Does a video of a large mass of floating plastic waste show a shoreline in Asia? No, that's not true: The garbage was flowing from a Guatemalan river in Central America, not Asia, and was flowing into the Caribbean. CBS News shared the video in 2022, reporting it was at the mouth of Rio Motagua, which is considered one of…

Does a real photo show a puffer parka filled with beer that can be sipped via a straw in the Tsingtao-labelled jacket's collar? No, that's not true: A major U.S. distributor of the popular Chinese beer brand told Lead Stories they have seen no such promotional product. Reverse image search shows no other photos in the wild of such a…

Did a wax figure at the "Pine Bluff Historical Museum" turn out to be a mummified real man who had been missing for years as a viral story claimed? No, that's not true: The story was written by "Muhammad Haseeb Ahmer" who first said it happened in Missouri while including key details like towns and institutions that don't exist. A…

Does an often reposted viral video show a timelapse of "16 hours of spinal cord development" in a human embryo? No, that's not true: The video actually shows the development of the nervous system of a zebrafish as recorded by researchers from Wisconsin. The video is often reposted without that bit of information omitted, leading many people online to believe…

Did two men break into the penguin exhibit at the San Diego Zoo and did they dress up the animals as surfers? No, there's no evidence for that: A viral Facebook post had an image that did not match the layout of the penguin exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. The zoo itself did not issue any statements on their…

Did the Henry Ford Health system withhold from publication a study that compared the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children, despite that study being statistically sound? No, that's not true: medical research experts reviewed the data and found a mismatch between comparison groups that made comparisons invalid. The Henry Ford Health system said its internal review of the draft paper…

Does a video clip show new footage of the Comet 3I/ATLAS? No, that's not true: This video did not originate from any research astronomy agency monitoring the interstellar comet. It is uncredited footage showing a microscopic single-celled organism, a paramecium. The mislabeled video appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @BGatesIsaPyscho on Oct. 27, 2025. The post…

Does a video posted on TikTok show Hurricane Melissa as it is making landfall in Kingston, Jamaica? No, that's not true: These clips show storms which happened around the world, some fairly recently, and some years in the past. One clip remains unidentified, of the fifteen others, none shows Hurricane Melissa. The miscaptioned video montage (archived here) was published by…

Does a video clip show a timelapse of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, released on July 15, 2025, by NSF's NOIRLab and the University of Hawaii? No, that's not true: The authentic image of the comet released by astronomers looks nothing like the video clip circulating on social media. Rather than showing an interstellar…

Does a viral video show authentic clips of four "Evangelical" pastors preaching against conservative positions on the border wall, guns, abortion and oil drilling? No, that's not true: The clips are lifted from an online account that describes itself as "Using AI to show a parallel universe." None of the quotes from the sermons in the video were found in…

Was Fox News host Brett Baier correct when he declared Chicago has "the highest murder rate of all the big cities" during an interview with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker? Yes, if you compare US cities with official populations over 1 million. Pritzker asserted Chicago ranks below 30th, but did not provide a citation for that number. Lead Stories found that…

Did CNN report the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has contacted Earth, as a viral social media post declared? No, that's not true: There's no such report on CNN.com. CNN has not used the chyron "IT'S GETTING SERIOUS" on any of its reports about 3I/ATLAS, which was first spotted in July 2025. The claim was made in an October 22, 2025 X…

Did the United States have no children's hospitals in the 1960s and 1970s, when comedian Rob Schneider was a child? No, that's not true: The first children's hospital was opened in Philadelphia in 1855, with 26 operating by 1895, according to an academic paper. Hospitals opened in the 1960s include St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. The claim originated…

Did researchers discover a shocking display of primate intelligence when a band of chimps in the Congo began wearing masks to hide their faces when they were raiding local markets? No, that's not true: This story appeared spontaneously on social media from an account bearing the disclaimer, "story (noun) - an account of imaginary or real people and events told…

Did Nicole Sirotek get a 4 a.m. call from the husband of a pregnant woman dying of liver failure after she took a large dose of Tylenol to disprove President Donald Trump's declaration that acetaminophen causes autism? Here's what we know: Sirotek, who Lead Stories has previously fact-checked for COVID misinformation, posted the anecdote on social media September 24, 2025,…