If you were a child of the '80s like me, you're familiar with the following scene. You put in a Nintendo game and power up the system. Some weird pixelated thing appears on your screen; maybe there's sound, maybe not. The game is not playing.

What do you do? Take the game out and blow on it, obviously (kids who grew up with Xboxes are looking at the screen like I'm insane).

So, did your seemingly-magical breath actually make the games work?

No. In fact, your breath probably helped corrode the game and make it even worse.

It turns out that the game wasn't working not because dust or dirt were interfering with the connection, but rather because the pins were not lining up between the game cartridge and console.

Click here for the full scientific explanation.

But you know what? I have my old-school NES, and the next time I have a problem with a game, I'm still going to take it out and blow on it. What the hell does science know, anyway?