Welcome to The STEM Sessions Podcast. I am your host, Cody Colborn
Decided to try something different with this episode
- It’s a live fact checking of a meme about honeybees
- Point is to show how easy it is to verify stuff you read on the internet
- I copied over the statements from the meme
- Opened a search engine
- Opened Audacity, set up the mic, and hit record
There is no editing in this episode
- I left in the stammering, the mispronunciations, everything
- So the run time is how much time I spent searching for information and evaluating it
- Including the few minutes I chat before starting my search, I spent a little over 23 minutes
In the name of full disclosure, I typed in my search queries before starting the recording
- I did this because it’s difficult to type with the microphone set up
- And because I didn’t want the dead space of me typing
- So I guess add another minute or two to the total if you want to get technical
This is The STEM Sessions Podcast Episode 30 – Give Me Some Sugar, Little Honey Bee
Many times this year, a honey bee meme has found its way into my social media feeds
- There are 11 so called facts in this meme about honeybees
- First read, I could tell a lot of them were nonsense
- Some were technically true, and maybe one or two are meaningfully true
- I’m cynical and skeptical about everything these days, and have a finely tuned BS detector
- Oddly though, the phrasing and buzzwords that made me skeptical are the same phrasing and buzzwords that will lead people to believe they’re reading true statements
So to show everyone it only takes a few minutes to evaluate the truthiness of memes, I’m going to do fact check in real time right now
- My guess is I’ll be able to sufficiently dissect these 11 bullet points in around 15 minutes
- Let’s get started
Did you know that one of the world’s first coins had a bee symbol?
- One of the first is open to interpretation
- What do you consider one of the first coins to be?
- Certainly early coins had bee symbols
- First coins around 650 BCE
- Coins with bees dated to 350 BCE
- Answer: True in spirit
Did you know that honey contains live enzymes?
- Yes, honey contains enzymes
- But “live enzymes” is meaningless – enzymes are not alive
- Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts in a chemical reaction
- So perhaps the question should be more does honey contain useful enzymes
- Answer: Misleading, but true
Did you know that in contact with a metal spoon, these enzymes die? The best way to eat honey is with a wooden spoon; if you can’t find one, use a plastic spoon.
- Again, enzymes can’t be killed, because they’re not alive
- Proteins can be denatured, and rendered useless, but they’re not alive
- Metal ions can bind to sites within the enzyme molecular structure, which may disrupt bonding and change the shape
- But your typical stainless steel spoon does not shed ions – it’s popular for its non-reactivity
- Copper might
- But honey won’t be on the spoon long enough to matter
- Answer: False
Did you know that honey contains a substance that helps the brain work better?
- This may be true, but again, how are we defining “work better”
- Several NIH articles show some positive effect on brain health, but those effects aren’t exclusive to honey
- Answer: True
I’m lumping the next three together because they really point to same information:
- Did you know that honey is one of the few foods on earth that alone can sustain human life?
- Did you know that bees saved people from starvation in Africa?
- That a spoonful of honey is enough to keep a man alive for 24 hours?
- These are all silly statements
- It can be a good energy boost because it’s sugar
- But it contains no protein, no fat, little other nutrients needed for life
- Sure, temporarily sustain life – see above
- You can survive for 24 hours quite easily with consuming zero calories
- You can survive several weeks with little calories
- So it’s meaningless to say honey has saved people from starvation, but let’s look at the math
- Human male needs 2000 calories to maintain weight, but can survive weeks or months on less
- Tablespoon of honey has 64 calories
- To lose one pound, you need a caloric deficit of 3500 calories over a given time period
- A diet of one tablespoon of honey per day, means you’ll lose 1.1 pound every two days
- Without that tablespoon of honey per day, you’ll lose 1.2 pounds per day
- The honey is meaningless
- Answer: False
Did you know that propolis produced by bees is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics?
- Again, “most powerful” is probably up to interpretation
- Propolis does have anti-microbial properties
- But most powerful is inaccurate
- Answer: Misleading, but true
Did you know that honey has no expiry date because it’s already been digested?
- Honey keeps a long time, but I don’t think its long shelf life has much to do with already being digested
- It’s long shelf life is due to its lack of water content and high acidity, both of which deter bacteria from growing
- Same reason dried foods have a long shelf life
- Answer: False
Did you know that the bodies of the world’s greatest emperors were buried in gold coffins, then covered in honey to prevent putrefaction?
- It’s been known that honey was used in mummification for that reason
- But the gold coffins part, again, is just to produce oos and ahs
- Answer: True
Did you know that the term “Honeymoon” (honeymoon) comes from the fact that the bride and groom consumed honey for fertility after their marriage?
- No idea about this one, but I’m skeptical
- Honeymoon goes back to 1540s, probably earlier
- Honey part refers to the sweet feelings the newlyweds have for each other
- Moon refers to how long the super sweet feelings usually last – about a month or one moon cycle
- Answer: Probably false
Did you know that a bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1000 flowers and produces less than a teaspoon of honey, but for her it is the work of a lifetime.
- Work bee lives 30-60 days, so I guess 40 is technically accurate
- Visits 50-100 flowers in one collection trip, multiple trips per day
- Up to 5000 flowers a day, so 1000 flowers in lifetime is really low – maybe the meme meant 1000 flowers in a day
- Citations range from 1/12 of a teaspoon to 1 tablespoon
- Answer: Sort of true
Out of 11 statements, six are false, two are misleading but true, and three are true or mostly true
- Not a good breakdown
Thank you for listening to this episode of The STEM Sessions Podcast; researched, written, and produced by Cody Colborn. Shownotes can be found at thestemsessions.com. Feedback and corrections are always welcome.
If you received value from this episode, and wish to give some back, please visit thestemsessions.com/valueforvalue for ways to support the podcast.
Please remember, STEM belongs to everyone. We should not allow it to be siloed or gate-kept by experts, policy makers, or talking heads. Bias is found in every message, so always verify what you read and what you’re told.
Until the next episode, stay curious.