An example of a common alternative conception (misconception) being reflected in public science discourse,
"And for example, a grain of salt contains millions of atoms, so imagine if you are eating a crisp or something you will be eating billions of salt atoms. So it is really very tiny, but as you know atoms make up everything, right. It's the basic building block of matter."
Dame Pratibha Gai, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at York University was being interviewed by Prof. Al-Khalili on an episode ('Dame Pratibha Gai on training atoms to do what we want') of The Life Scientific.
I am sure Prof. Gai knows that salt is an ionic compound, and so does not contain atoms – but is using the term ion generically (to include molecules, ions). Atoms, as such, do not make up everything as there are no atoms in salts or in metals (or, strictly, in covalent compounds as complete atoms no longer exist as distinct entities in a molecule).
The reference to 'salt atoms' (there are no such things as salt atoms or salt molecules) reflects the common misconception that salt is composed of NaCl units which are (or act like) discrete molecules.
Read about the nature of alternative conceptions
Read about some examples of science misconceptions
Read about historical scientific conceptions
