Science Versus Myth

Are vampires real? What is an out-of-body experience? Are crop circles proof that aliens exist? HowStuffWorks explores what is real and what is urban legend with this collection of Science Versus Myth articles.

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Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, allegedly roams the forests of the Pacific Northwest, yet it has eluded the cryptozoology community for decades.

By Nicole Antonio

Déjà vu is used to describe the feeling that you experienced a situation before. What causes this phenomenon? It’s not a glitch in the matrix, but most of our knowledge on the subject is still theoretical.

By Yara Simón

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are seemingly supernatural events that some people have when they're at the brink of death. Find out who typically has them and how people have tried to explain them.

By Ed Grabianowski

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You may have noticed that we're all constantly traveling into the future. But what if you were interested in dancing through the fourth dimension more deftly than the next guy? How might you do that?

By Kevin Bonsor & Robert Lamb

Looking forward to instantaneous travel? The Star Trek teleporter is one step closer to reality. Scientists have now teleported a laser beam. Could humans be next?

By Kevin Bonsor & Robert Lamb

Ever wonder why we start our year on the first of January? Or why we have January and the other 11 months in the first place? Find out all about time.

By Marshall Brain

If you were to fly west around the world, fast enough so that you crossed one time zone every hour, would you stand still in time?

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A report declassified in late February 2007 under the UK's Freedom of Information Act reveals that Britain's Ministry of Defence has been testing psychics. Find out why.

By Julia Layton

Numerology says everything in the world is dependent upon the mystical properties of numbers. But critics aren't so sure.

By Tracy V. Wilson

When you're alone in a strange room at night, it's easy to believe that noises, shadows and chills are proof that spirits of the dead are there with you. Learn some possible explanations for the phenomena most often attributed to ghosts.

By Tracy V. Wilson

To understand the universe better, scientists from all over the world are going to harness the power of an enormous machine -- the Large Hadron Collider.

By Jonathan Strickland

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Decades before you ever heard of the Higgs, this multinational particle physics lab was smashing its way to answers about how the universe worked. Pop inside CERN just as half of the world's particle physicists do every year.

By John Perritano

You're talking with a group of people when, with no apparent warning, everyone stops talking. Is it just an awkward silence or a pregnant pause? Or is this silence something more?

By William Harris

When you're a kid, this frightening rumor burns through the playground like wildfire. After all, what could be worse than your own eyes exploding out of your head? But does it have any truth to it?

By Amy Hunter

Though they're indispensable to any construction project, nails have a nasty habit of getting hammered into thumbs and puncturing tires. Is a rusty nail even more dangerous?

By Molly Edmonds

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Real-life haunted houses make us hide under the covers and sleep with one eye open. Learn about the spooky history of these real-life haunted houses.

By Cristen Conger & Jonathan Atteberry

We'd by lying if we said that the sight of the Grim Reaper standing by our bedside, scythe in hand, wouldn't scare the daylights out of us. How did this well-known personification of death become so frightening?

By William Harris

Blood-sucking vampires and brain-munching zombies tend to hog all the undead credit, but we think ghouls deserve a macabre article all their own. Read it -- if you dare.

By Robert Lamb

Made of plain pine or shaped like a shoe, mourners may inter them, suspend them or set them ablaze. How much do caskets and coffins differ?

By Allison Wachtel & Desiree Bowie

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According to most pet psychics, you communicate with your pets telepathically all the time, without even knowing it. Learn about the controversies associated with animal communication.

By Tracy V. Wilson

Leap years only come around once every four years. So, why are they so rare and who decided we need them anyway?

By Marianne Spoon

You may know that the ancient Egyptians used embalming in mummification. But they weren't the first to embalm their dead, nor were they the last. In fact, it's still being done today.

By Elizabeth Sprouse

Dragons have captured imaginations -- and their fair share of maidens -- across the globe. But are they more than mythological?

By Laurie L. Dove

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The speed of light is like that annoying friend who beats you at every game. What would happen if humans one day surpassed the cosmic speed limit?

By William Harris & Patrick J. Kiger

It's one of those fantastic things you may have wished for at one point, like, say peace on Earth, but would a world full of cures be radically different from the one we know, or not so much?

By Susan L. Nasr