this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When I was a kid in the 80's, my sister and I found an old World Book Encyclopedia from the 50's that someone in our neighborhood was throwing out, so we brought it home. It had some interesting "facts" in it. E.g., did you know that guinea pigs are perfect as subjects for scientific research because they're unable to feel pain? 1950's worldbook did!

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

That's the cool thing about knowledge. We learn new things all the time. 70 years from now, things we think are true today will be laughed at as ignorant and naive.

Like an old Sears catalogs, old encyclopedias are fun snap shots into the past and worth the read.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Uhhhh there is no way that is true

[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 4 points 17 hours ago

I mean, I don't have the encyclopedia anymore, so I guess I can't really prove it to you. But it was sort of my introduction to the idea that not everything in an encyclopedia is necessarily true, so it's pretty memorable for me. I recognize the irony of using another encyclopedia here, but Wikipedia mentions in the History section of its Pain in Animals article, "Researchers remained unsure into the 1980s as to whether animals experience pain." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_animals#History ) I obviously don't know the story about how the line ended up in World Book, but I know they employ fact checkers for every line in the book, so presumably in the 50's the line reflected some kind of scientific consensus, as bizarre as that sounds now.