A science story, huh?

Is NYU a scientist?

I felt a huge, but I was so...

And I just thought, well...

It was that golden moment.

Because science was on my side. Hey, everyone, I'm Ben Lilly, and welcome to the Story Collider, where we bring you true stories of how science has affected people's lives.

This week's story is from Anika Risi. The story was recorded in January 2013 at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

The theme of the event was, behind the scenes.

I came here tonight to make a confession.

I'm not proud of what I'm about to tell you. I came here tonight to make a confession.

I'm not proud of what I'm about to tell you, and really, after all these years, it would be easier to just let the lie stand and allow the world to continue believing what it so clearly wants to accept is true, but I can't do that.

When I consider Lance Armstrong, and when I look at my nieces and the babies of my friends,

and I think about the kind of world that I want them to grow up in,

I know that I have to come clean and set the record straight.

So here it is.

The major scientific discovery reported in my fourth grade science project. Those breakthrough findings were completely fabricated. It was a fake. Everything that you have believed

for the past 24 years about what causes hair to tangle is based on a lie.

A lie that I conjured out of thin air and rendered and colored pencil.

I'm sorry, but I can explain.

Like probably most scientists and most liars and fakes, I was motivated by the desire to impress girls.

I wanted to be popular.

Popularity was a major concern for me in third and fourth grade because I didn't have a lot of it.

...