Everyone knows at least one conspiracy nut. They might be convinced by the moon landing conspiracy, believe that climate change is a hoax or they might even be a flat-Earther (they’re rare, but they’re definitely out there!) There’s even a bizarre theory circulating on social media that Australia doesn’t exist, which would make us another cog in an elaborate global conspiracy!
With that in mind, we think it’s high time to revisit three of the most popular science and moon landing conspiracy theories and look at what they tell us about scientific evidence and critical thinking. Take it away, conspiracists!
The moon landing was faked
The claim: The Apollo lunar mission never succeeded – all the video footage and photographs of the moon landing were faked by NASA to avoid international humiliation and secure funding.
STEM skills used to bust it: geology, instrument science, astronomy, physics
The evidence to the contrary: So, so much evidence.
For starters, NASA astronauts brought back samples of moon rocks (382kg worth of rocks, in fact!). Scientists from all over (including at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne) have studied these rocks, and found that their chemical composition shows that the moon might have been formed from an early collision between the Earth-moon prototype and a large planet about the size of Mars.
Check out these NASA-released images of the Apollo landing sites, taken by an orbiting spacecraft earlier this decade. They clearly show scientific equipment, the lunar rovers and footprints left by astronauts 40 years ago. What’s more, anyone with a powerful telescope and a clear view of the moon can spot the landing sites for themselves. Many independent institutions apart from NASA have confirmed this, as well as amateur astronomers.
In 2008, lunar orbiter Japan’s SELENE (known as Kaguya), captured lunar landscapes (like the Apennine Mountains) which Apollo 15 photographed over 40 years ago, and found traces of the landing plume created by the Apollo spacecraft.
There’s also plenty of counter arguments to more specific moon landing conspiracy arguments about the nature of the NASA photographs and video, such as whether the shadowing of the lunar module looks suss to the flag appearing to flutter in the “wind” while being planted. You can read the detailed explanation here.
Explore more careers in space science: NASA engineer Elizabeth Jens, plus more space exploration careers
The Earth is flat
The claim: This dates back to the archaic conception of Earth’s shape as a plane or disk (maybe balanced by four elephants on a turtle’s back, if you’re a Terry Pratchett fan…)
The spherical (elliptical if you want to be precise!) model was eventually adopted across Europe from the late Middle Ages. But modern flat Earthers claim that it’s all a conspiracy by NASA and other government agencies.
STEM skills used to bust it: Astronomy, physics, geography and a healthy dose of common sense
The evidence to the contrary: Greek philosopher Aristotle provided evidence of a spherical Earth around 330 BC, based on astronomical observations and trigonometry. During lunar eclipses, the consistent oval-shadow that the Earth casts on the moon conclusively proves that the Earth is spherical and rotating. A spherical Earth also explains why we see different constellations depending on our vantage point on the Earth.
There’s plenty of simple experiments that prove that our Earth is spherical. For instance, two identical sticks placed in different locations cast shadows of different lengths because of the different angle of elevation of the Sun. This wouldn’t happen if the Earth was flat. This simple principle was even used to calculate the circumference of the Earth by Greek philosopher Eratosthenes – check out the video here.
Plus, the higher you climb up, the farther you can see into the distance – it makes sense intuitively, and it also wouldn’t be the case if the Earth was flat. Furthermore, time zones wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for a round Earth rotating around its own axis. Check out this page for more detailed explanations.
More practically speaking, the Earth has been circumnavigated by boat (first by Magellan and Elcano in the 16th Century), and nobody fell off the planet! You can also see the curvature of the Earth on trans-oceanic flights. And finally, there are many, many, many images of Earth from space, including the legendary “Earthrise” taken from Apollo 8 in 1968. Explore more careers in space and earth observation: Space physicist Rhea Barnett, Earth science Professor Chris Turney
Climate change is a hoax
The claim: While some people contest whether humans are driving climate change (quick response: yes we are, with 99.999% certainty!), others “conspiricise” that the whole climate change phenomenon has been made up to economically derail the West.
STEM skills used to bust it: environmental science, geology, instrument science, mathematical and computational modelling
The evidence: There are some excellent sites which address pretty much every myth about climate change and provide the scientific evidence to the contrary, such as on Skeptical Science.
One of the most convincing pieces of evidence comes from the study of paleoclimatology, the study of Earth’s past climates. The microstructure of fossilised plants and chemical traces in rocks reveal how much CO2 levels have risen since pre-industrial times. The overwhelmingly strong link between increasing CO2 levels and rising global mean temperatures has been proven with computational models as well as simple calculations. This article succinctly explains three simple reasons we know why climate change is happening. You can check out NASA’s page for more evidence.
Explore more careers in climatology: Climate informatics manager Joanna Aldridge, plus 5 careers to fight global warming
Why do people continue to believe conspiracies?
Excellent question! There’s been a lot of research in psychology recently to try and drill down exactly why people continue to believe in conspiracies – even when they’re presented with irrefutable evidence to debunk them. The Flat-Earthers in Netflix’s 2018 doco Behind the Curve even remained unconvinced when their own experiments proved that the Earth is round.
Developmental psychologists have found that when people express an opinion and receive feedback (positive or negative), this actually acts to reinforce their beliefs. This suggests that it’s the reactions of others that boosts people’s sense of certainty in their opinions, rather than hard evidence.
The phenomenon of confirmation bias is another contributing factor to why people hang on to disproved beliefs. Confirmation bias is the tendency people have to embrace information that supports their beliefs and reject information that contradicts them. Plus, there’s even neurological research that links political beliefs to people’s personal identities, so an attack on strongly held beliefs is taken to be an attack on the self.
Luckily, there are also some science-backed ways to change people’s minds, including the use of specific examples and strategic language. With these tactics, you’ll be well-armed to counter anyone who’s been taken in by these conspiracy theories. But if they’re too deeply convinced, your best tactic might just be to smile and nod, or back away slowly. Science says it might not be worth the effort to try and convince them otherwise!
Author: Larissa Fedunik-Hofman
Larissa is the editorial assistant for Careers with STEM and a Chemistry PhD student. Larissa’s goal is to promote public engagement with STEM through inspiring stories.
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