Urban legends of science. I recently noted one commonly, confidently asserted example of such in a series of blog comments, so as a public service I will urge any of you out there who are sure that "all human embryos start out female" to please consult an embryology text. I suppose it's an honest confusion about the nature of primordial embryonic tissue and the meaning of a phrase like "default developmental path", but dude, you were never a chick.

I note this bit of misinformation not because it's a sample of egregious, snicker-worthy scientific illiteracy in itself, but because of the number of times I've seen this faux-fact used as the foundation of (often highly amusing) speculative forays into various aspects of human psychology. (It'd be interesting to see how many more of these are out there - common but erroneous notions held by reasonably scientifically literate folks. I know I've come across others - which I can't remember right now - and no doubt hold a few of my own.)

Posted by Moira Breen at March 12, 2004 01:31 PM