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I FIND the enormous potential of social media to share scientific knowledge across the planet fascinating. In particular, its ability to empower people to exchange anecdotal observations, which can lead to some of the most important discoveries, is a wonderful thing. So when a viral meme claiming to show the results of a student trial on genetically modified corn kept popping up on my feeds last week, it really fired up my curiosity.

This photograph, which has been shared thousands of times, shows two ears of maize stood side by side. The one on the left of the picture, labelled GMO, is almost fully intact, while the one on the right, labelled organic, is largely stripped of kernels. Above this, bold black font announces that this was the result of an experiment run by students in England that compared the impact of park squirrels munching on the two cobs. The implication of this meme is that animals have some kind of innate avoidance of GM corn, which some suggest means that humans shouldn鈥檛 eat it either.

Whatever we choose to infer from this image, as historically there have apparently been zero studies on animal feeding preferences in relation to GM food versus conventional varieties, I thought it would be a fun exercise to look into this in detail. Could the students behind it be flagging up a novel observation that merits further investigation, or is this yet another image that we should add to the rather large pile of junk science memes out there?

My first stop was to go straight to the academic databases to check if this study had been published. You would think that even if this were an informal student trial at a university, a letter to an editor might pop up at the very least. Yet this didn鈥檛 seem to be the case.

Perhaps it was a school project then? However, if so, where did the GM ear of maize come from? Currently, these can鈥檛 be legally grown in the UK, which would make finding one tricky for a group of schoolchildren, so it struck me that I really needed to take a closer look at the origin of the photo.

Through a reverse image search using a range of different internet search engines, I found that the photograph actually dates back to 2012, as part of a collection of very similar images posted by a farmer in South Dakota to an . This attribution was echoed by at least one online news article from 2013, in which the farmer in question was interviewed .

鈥淭he implication of the meme is that animals have an innate avoidance of genetically modified corn鈥�

So according to its digital paper trail, this wasn鈥檛 a photo from a trial run by students, nor was it carried out in a park or even in the UK. In fact, at some point, it appears an alternative backstory has been fabricated around this image, which isn鈥檛 a great sign. While obfuscation of its actual origin might raise a considerable red flag, it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean the results the image claims to show should be automatically refuted. So could this still be an interesting finding that warrants further investigation?

Well, let鈥檚 just imagine that the viral photo does indeed depict what it claims to, as it is always nice to assume good faith. A single side-by-side comparison of two corn varieties wouldn鈥檛 be quite the neat test it might appear to be.

That鈥檚 because there are a huge range of other distinguishing factors that could separate two randomly selected corn varieties aside from their method of breeding. Some types may contain higher levels of sugar or lower levels of fibre, for example, which could easily make them more palatable to squirrels. Without controlling for these, it would be very tricky to place much faith in the results.

What鈥檚 more, by the image鈥檚 own admission, the trial isn鈥檛 testing the single variable of the genetics of the variety, but also the growing method. With the non-GM corn having been grown using 鈥渁n old rural style鈥�, it would almost certainly have been cultivated using a different regimen of fertilisers, crop treatments and irrigation, most likely on an entirely different farm, potentially in a totally different part of the country, even the world. Not a great like-for-like comparison, then.

Finally, it almost goes without saying that the image depicts a single experiment involving two cobs and potentially just one squirrel. There is no guarantee that if it were repeated, it wouldn鈥檛 show the direct opposite results, even with the same furry participant.

So until a larger trial with a more carefully controlled design comes along, we will just have to hold our breath until we learn more about the science of crop preferences of squirrels. What we can say, though, is that it would be very difficult to describe this meme as a source of solid scientific information, despite how it frequently and confidently it is cited online.