QUEENTERESTING

CHOCOLATES CARROTS clock AIRPLANE snowflakes

Actually Factually contains the truth behind childhood beliefs about everything from science to human nature...

Factually: Eating chocolate gives you spots.

Actually: Eating a small amount of chocolate can fight spots. Hormones, not chocolate, instruct the glands that produce the oils in your skin which trap dirt and cause spots.

Factually: Carrots help you to see in the dark.

Actually: It's a deliberate lie from World War Two. British pilots were shooting down more German planes than usual thanks to a new long-distance radar. To keep the radar secret, the Government spread a rumour that pilots had been put on a high-carrot diet to improve their night vision.

Factually: Goldfish have a three-second memory.

Actually: Goldfish can remember how to repeat what they did up to 11 months later. But claiming they can't remember what's on the other side of the bowl may make us feel better about putting them in one.

Factually: Bats are blind.

Actually: Some have better sight than humans. But good sight hardly matters in the dark. Bats rely on echo location system to find their way.

Factually: Chameleons change colour to match their background.

Actually: They can't mimic all colours, but they do have four layers of skin containing pigments which can produce black, white, blue, yellow, green and red combinations. Stress, anger, fear or calm make them change colour.

Factually: Heinz have 57 varieties.

Actually: There are thousands. The labels boast of 57 because founder Henry Heinz thought the numbers five and seven were special.

Factually: Ostriches hide their heads in the sand.

Actually: If this were true the birds would suffocate. The idea may come from the fact male ostriches dig nests with their beaks.

Factually: London's Big Ben is a famous clock.

Actually: Big Ben isn't the clock - or the tower - but the name of the largest of the clock's five bells.

Factually: Cows breaking wind add to global warming.

Actually: Their burping is the main problem. It emits methane gas.

Factually: Lightning never strikes twice.

Actually: It often does. Tall buildings have lightning rods to take the current into the earth because they are at risk.

Factually: Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Actually:He never set foot there. He is thought to have landed in the Bahamas, thinking it was India.

Factually: The Wright brothers invented the aeroplane.

Actually: They were pipped to the post 55 years earlier by English engineer John Stringfellow who, with his partner William Samuel Henson, built a steam-driven plane which flew just over nine metres.

Factually: Lemmings jump off cliffs.

Actually: This event was "captured" on camera in 1958 Disney film White Wilderness. Further investigation found the film crew took the animals there and herded them off the cliff to provide a sad ending.

If you're feeling disillusioned, at least some facts you might think are myths are actually true...

Factually: No two snowflakes are identical.

Actually: In 1885 Wilson Bentley of Vermont took photos of 5,000 using a microscope - and none was the same.

- Actually Factually: Mind-Blowing Myths, Muddles and Misconceptions, by Guy Campbell

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