"article" British scientists have found that...", where we will talk about what British scientists have found out.
British scientists have found that ducks love rain. that it took scientists three years and 300 thousand pounds sterling to discover what every villager knows.
Finding out that ducks love rain cost British taxpayers £300,000. This is exactly the amount spent by the Ministry of Environment, Food and agriculture(The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA) for research that lasted about three years, The Daily Mail reports.
Another group of scientists discovered that dogs yawn after their owners. The amazing addiction is driven by the dog's cognitive-behavioral instincts.
Experiments by scientists from University of London showed that domestic dogs begin to yawn after their owners. According to researchers, this indicates that pets tend to empathize and copy the emotions of their owners.
British scientists also conducted a study, during which it was discovered that cats prefer to use their right front paw to perform complex actions, and cats prefer to use their left. However, on average, all cats are ambidextrous, that is, they can use both the right and left front paws equally well.
By the way, there was already an article about this study -
British scientists have also found that among the ants there are also scammers and corrupt officials. Which, however, is logical, since ants are social insects with tough hierarchical system organization of life.
An unusual discovery was made by scientists from Great Britain and Denmark: it turns out that ants are also characterized by dishonest behavior and corruption. The article, in which scientists describe how ants deceive their fellows, was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Another discovery by British scientists looks almost touching: they found that nine out of ten London ladybugs suffer from a fungal venereal disease. However, sexually transmitted diseases in insects are mild.
A person can die of boredom - this is also one of the recent statements of British scientists. By the end of the study, approximately 40% of the subjects who suffered from boredom died.
Being an excellent student is dangerous for mental health. According to British scientists, schoolchildren with only excellent grades are much more likely to suffer from manic-depressive psychosis than students with average academic performance.
British scientists from Keele University conducted an experiment proving the fact that swearing and foul language can reduce physical pain. The Telegraph newspaper reported this.
Another experiment found that smiling doesn't make anyone feel better. The strange thing is that the experiments were carried out on laboratory snails and snakes.
Parents scold their children for telling lies, and they themselves tell lies on average 100 times a year, British scientists have calculated. However, there is another study that clearly demonstrates that, on average, modern man tells lies 3.5 times a day.
British scientists talk about how “British scientists” appeared
- Popular Science
Experts from the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol (UK) decided to find out where the “British scientists” come from. Here we're talking about, first of all, not about experts in different fields of science who work in the UK. The reason why many specialists conduct research that has no special meaning, but about which you can broadcast loudly. The results of an investigation into this situation were published by Andrew Higginson and Marcus Munafo in the journal PLoS Biology.
According to the authors of the project, the main reason for what happened is the grant system that operates in the country. It encourages researchers to give their projects big names and report equally big results. Moreover, these results, as a rule, have no value for science at all, or are not very valuable.
The authors of the study say that scientists should approach the study of a variety of processes objectively, trying to strengthen and build on the edifice of scientific knowledge. “However, scientists are people too, and working in organizations where everything is aimed at making money changes the way of thinking and behavior of even honest and conscientious specialists. This process takes place in equally consciously and unconsciously,” say experts.
Since the 80s of the last century, scientists have been trying to add “novelty” to the titles of their works. At the same time, only a small number of publications have important for science. Now more and more scientists are trying to devote attention not to pure science, but to their careers. Many strive to publish as many works as possible, which makes them more famous, and traveling around career ladder- more rapid. Young specialists, looking at the principles of work of experienced comrades, adopt their work model. This can be called adaptive behavior - similar phenomenon widespread in the world of wildlife and plays important role in evolution.
In their work, Higginson and his colleague Marcus Munafo used methods of mathematics and statistics. They decided to find out the success of grant applications and their results in the form of publications in scientific journals. At the very beginning of the study, the authors suggested that scientists who work with grants could use a certain general principle for your projects, allowing you to receive additional funds. It is interesting that many researchers, consciously or not, try to adjust their work methods to the methods of evaluation of the projects under consideration by the foundations that provide grants. In general, this is obvious.
In order to trace the process from writing an application to receiving a grant by the grant eaters, mathematicians studied the operating principles of grant agencies in the UK and Australia. The scientists then used the data to construct computer model, where “scientists” try to get as many grants as possible from the grant commission. As it turns out, the researchers who get the most money are those who propose small-scale projects with big words like “innovative”, “newest”, etc. The real problem with such projects is that their results are poorly verified and, for the most part, are completely adjusted to the original objectives. The effectiveness of the work of scientists taking part in such projects is very low. Only 10-40% of the results of such projects can be repeated. Consequently, most of the money is wasted and does not leave any positive mark on science."
According to scientists from the UK, the situation can be resolved. To do this, it is necessary to reduce the number of supported small projects, directing funds to support large and medium-sized projects. In addition, commissions need to respond not to the sensationalism of the proposed developments, but to the methodology and results of such work.
Average statistical power of publications published in scientific journals from 1960 to 2011
Back in 1963, Jacob Kahn, a psychologist at New York University, discovered that statistically, the result expected by the researcher occurs in only 20% of experiments performed. But in reality, almost all scientists point to positive result their research. In other words, authors simply don't talk about failure, in some cases. Paul Smaldino from the University of California and Richard McElres from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology proved that the authors scientific research still talk about their successes, hiding their defeats.
Smaldino and Richard McElres believe that the situation can only be corrected by a firm decision by foundations and scientific organizations not to provide funds to scientists and laboratories that have previously published unverified results of their research. Such organizations often present their expectations as positive results. True, this is quite difficult to do, since the grant system has existed for a long time, and its principles are ingrained in the minds of scientists.
For this reason more money and faster career advancement is achieved by those specialists who give their works great titles (the notorious “our technique allows us to defeat cancer”) and publish a large number of materials. Those organizations that try to carefully verify their results publish much less frequently and are, so to speak, in the “shadows.”
“British scientists have proven that the Earth is not round, but black and crunches on the teeth”
"British scientists have opened another box of whiskey"
“British scientists have found that the most popular message on social networks on Thursday is “Tomorrow is Friday!”
You can find an incredible amount of such jokes on the Internet. And they continue to be generated every day, despite the tediousness of the topic. Mainly because British scientists themselves never tire of coming up with new informational reasons suitable for jokes.
For example, they recently learned why the bone in the connective tissue of the penis disappeared in humans during the process of evolution, and they also found out why some pigs are optimists and some are pessimists.
It is not clear what value these works have, what motivates scientists when they undertake stupid research, and why the UK takes the leading place in the number of mentions of such absurd “discoveries”. It is worth considering this phenomenon from the point of view of meme theory. Meme is a unit cultural information transmitted from person to person. The concept was introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. “British scientists” is a full-fledged meme, and there are several reasons for its appearance.
Britain and science
The United Kingdom has always been considered the most developed and progressive place on the map of Europe. This is a country rich in both resources and people. In addition, historically it turned out that it was in Great Britain that true science began to rapidly develop. Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest universities in the world, and at the same time the most respected in our days.
The English were Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, James Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Ernest Rutherford, James Joule. This list can be continued until you get tired of talking about scientific discoveries.
IN early XIX century, during the Regency era, London was the intellectual center of the civilized world. Scientists have actively enlightened ordinary people about their discoveries, the spirit of mental revolution was in the air. In 1831 the British Propagation Association scientific knowledge convened the first meeting, at which the main postulate of this organization was adopted - promoting the development of science and working to attract national attention to it. In the same year, the first science festival was held, where scientists from various areas and shared research results with each other and with the public. Science was becoming public. Lectures by leading researchers were always sold out. This gave rise to news stories that were happily picked up by the press.
More than 70 British scientists have received Nobel Prizes. In 2016, they also received a prize in the field of physics with the wording “for theoretical discoveries topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.” It is natural that in people’s minds science is nationally assigned to the British. This is the first step to understanding the history of the “British scientists” meme.
Crucial moment
When British science has ceased to be associated with quality and has lost some credibility? This is due to changes in English system education. In the 70s–80s of the 20th century, a reform took place educational institutions, and various colleges received new status and names. At the same time, they began to have the right to conduct research. Even later, the government merged these former colleges, and 30 polytechnic institutes appeared in the country. Their programs were similar to university ones, but the diploma higher education it was impossible to get there. In 1992, they all acquired the status of universities, increasing the number higher institutions doubled in England. The number of young scientists and researchers has increased immeasurably; they have begun to compete for grants and funding.
With such a mass of works, attention was given to those that were more suitable “to the topic of the day”, had novelty and were beneficial to someone. In the 90s, the media was full of headlines about strange scientific research.
In The Guardian from 1993, you can find the following article: “Cot death risk is lower among babies who do not sleep alone.” In The Independent, 1996: "Male fish are being 'feminised' by river pollution." BBC September 1998: “Passionate sex aids pregnancy.”
It's all about money
To this day, the UK Government, political groups and private organizations fund science very well. Only from the outside European Union the amount of material support for British scientists was about $1.2 billion per year (however, the UK may lose this pleasant tradition with Brexit).
Deliciously crispy pieces of paper in your wallet are in themselves a good incentive for any activity. And if this is also seasoned with the possibility of getting a high score in the citation index scientific articles, then the scientist can no longer dream of anything else, except perhaps the salvation of the world.
This is precisely what was named as the reasons for the appearance of low-quality scientific articles in a recent study by British scientists.
The more citations scientific article in publications with a high impact factor (a numerical indicator of the importance of the journal), the “newer” the research, the higher the chances that this work will receive grants and material support from interested parties.
The researchers who created mathematical model problems of “bad” articles, and suggested ways to improve the situation. First of all, according to them, it is necessary to increase the requirements for statistical samples and procedures for processing results. Some reputable journals have already begun to act in this direction.
Some studies are even commissioned by commercial companies. One day, information appeared in the British press about new job scientists, which dealt with the common myth of the “five-second rule.” This everyday saying states that a product picked up from the floor after five seconds is not considered contaminated with bacteria. Scientists said that this rule is observed, but not on all products. The Daily Mail, where the article was published, later explained that the "research" was sponsored by cleaning product manufacturers. Moreover, the text advised readers to change the “head” of the mop every three months to minimize the risk of infection dangerous bacteria. When they tried to find the authors of the article, it turned out that behind the whole group there is the name of only one person - Katie Les, an employee of the technology laboratory at Manchester City University. It was not possible to contact her.
It is especially convenient to speculate in this way in the field of statistics. This science does not care what subject to take for study. Statistical analysis It is quite easy to carry out, so it can be assigned to students and the result will be a term paper written according to all the rules of a scientific article.
Illiterate journalists
When scientists are asked directly why their work looks so stupid, they like to answer this way: journalists are to blame. And it cannot be said that they are wrong. This is the third factor in the appearance of the meme.
The Citizen (1950), “Scientists have found magic in color”
In the 19th century, England was the center of development not only of science, but also of journalism. At this time, interest in the press increased significantly among representatives of various segments of the population. Publishers and journalists targeted the working class, and by mid-century the English press began to become mainstream. Even the first hints of “yellow” publications appeared. For example, in the 60s and 70s, the weekly Vanity Fair magazines were popular, where they published pictures similar to comics and there was a gossip section. And in 1874, the weekly World: A Magazine for Men and Women appeared, offering readers critical material written by “gentlemen and scholars.” Thus, the topic of science, popular due to the unprecedented number of achievements and discoveries, began to be covered in low-quality publications.
The results of many studies are still often misunderstood and misinterpreted. In addition, journalists do not disdain “yellow” headlines and materials in pursuit of traffic.
On the Internet you can find the following text, for example: “In the far corner of the Universe there was a planet where precious stones literally fall from the sky, according to the results of a study by a group of astrophysicists from the University of Warwick (UK).” In fact, the gist of the news was that astronomers using the Kepler telescope had found a planet that may contain clouds of the mineral corundum. Its varieties are ruby and sapphire.
The meme owes its stability to the following reasons: the important role of Great Britain in the development of science; educational reforms last century; large share English scientific publications in the general mass; features of grant policy in the country, as well as orders from commercial organizations; distortion of research results due to lack of understanding by journalists.
For now, British scientists can't escape the stereotypical joke. And we can only wait for the next funny headlines.
The design uses a portrait of the British scientist Isaac Newton by Gottfried Kneller.
The ability to create fuel from water and sunlight came after successful research into separating molecules by changing the photosynthetic function of plants. The algae will produce hydrogen, which will become the basis of the fuel. However, when the whole world will switch to energy produced using this method is anyone’s guess, but for now “Vecherka” offers other, no less interesting and important discoveries British scientists.
Bacteria killer
British citizen Alexander Fleming in 1928 literally created the first antibiotics. Before him, scientists had already assumed that such substances could exist, but it was Fleming who, as a result of experiments, discovered that some of the colonies of staphylococci he had grown were infected with ordinary mold. In each of them there was an area in which there were no bacteria. From this, the British scientist concluded that mold produces a substance that kills bacteria. The result was the first modern antibiotic.
Moving the planet
Despite the fact that life without the Sun is impossible, it also brings problems to the inhabitants of the Earth. The activity of the star is increasingly creating serious disasters on our planet. In this regard, scientists from the University of Sussex proposed moving the Earth away from the aggressor - for example, into the orbit of Mars. The Red Planet, however, will have to be blown up. In this case, most living beings, of course, will die, but scientists believe that the fittest will survive. There is another option - to move to Mars, but scientists seem to like the option of destroying the planet better.
British scientist
British medical scientist Thomas Willis discovered diabetes mellitus in 1674. In addition, his research played an important role in the development of ideas about anatomy, neurology and psychiatry. Thomas invented his own opium tincture, which he used to treat disorders of consciousness, kidney stones, colic, vomiting, diseases of the respiratory system and other ailments.
Unbelievable but true
Other British scientists experimentally explained the reason for the appearance overweight. After the experiment, it became clear: thin people eat less food than fat people. It took other colleagues three years and £300,000 to prove that ducks love rain.
The strongest survives
About the role of Charles Darwin in modern science there is no need to argue. Although Darwinism is now disputed by some scientists, it laid a solid foundation for our knowledge of human origins. Natural selection implies an increase in the number of individuals with maximum adaptability to the environment. Judging by the number of discoveries that British researchers advertise, British scientists are better than anyone else at surviving in our harsh world.
Happiness is in food
Although excess weight can cause health problems, we all know that when you're angry, you need to eat. At the same time, joy and peace immediately arise. British scientists have also proven this. By the way, the list of foods that bring happiness is topped by French fries. Followed by chocolate, cookies, cakes, pastries and caviar. In addition, British scientists from the University of Bristol have proven that people with a high body mass index behave calmer than slender subjects. However, “VM” does not advise running and stuffing yourself with eclairs - worry about your health.
Father of the Internet
In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee discovered something that people no longer seem to be able to live without. He became the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners is the author of many other developments in the field of information technology.
British scientists found out where British scientists came from
Researchers from Exeter and Bristol decided to find out how the grant system affects science. It turned out that the UK very often allocates funds for high-profile and sensational developments, but in reality the value of such discoveries is zero. Thus, British scientists have found out the reason for the appearance of ridiculous studies.
Annoying faucet
The last discovery could be attributed to ridiculous research British scientists, if in connection with it we had not learned a completely unobvious fact. This time, out of curiosity, bright minds decided to find out where the sound of a dripping faucet comes from. Using ultra-high-speed cameras, hydrophones and microphones, they discovered that the noise was not caused by the water hitting the bottom of the sink, but by the vibrations of an air bubble that the drop pushed under the surface of the water.
British scientists are a character in Internet folklore, and specifically Russian. And a note on the Internet that begins with the words British scientists must be absurd, otherwise it will deceive the reader’s expectations. British scientists are like a media virus, but only a special, strange one, based on reality, pretending to be reality, but distorting it.
And so the British scientists themselves found out why “British scientists” are synonymous with researchers working on completely crazy, idiotic pseudoscientific projects that have absolutely no practical value.
Famous "British scientists" and their useless research are the product of a flawed system for allocating funds and assessing the scientific utility of research, mathematicians say in a paper published in the journal PLoS Biology.
"This is an important issue because a huge amount of money is spent on research whose results cannot be trusted. Many of the high-profile discoveries that such scientists claim very often turn out to be false, but at the same time they are often published and discussed. We believe that funders should choose those studies that answer important questions and have good methodology, rather than those that lead to surprising conclusions and interesting interpretations,” said Andrew Higginson from the University of Exeter (UK).
Higginson and his colleague Marcus Munafo from the University of Bristol (UK) came to this conclusion by analyzing the success of grant applications and their “results” in the form of scientific publications, using methods of mathematics and statistics.
As scientists say, they tried to understand whether there was any defining principle in the assessment research projects that scientists propose to sponsors, or there are no such criteria. If such a principle exists, then scientists will consciously (if they are careerists) or unconsciously adjust their scientific interests and research under it to improve its capabilities.
To do this, the scientists took the rules used by the UK (UKREF) and Australian (AER) grant agencies and used them to create a computer model in which the typical "career" scientist tried to format his research in such a way as to consistently achieve success in applying to a virtual “grant commission”.
As these calculations showed, the most successful virtual “careerists” put forward relatively small projects with high-profile tasks and a modest scope, the purpose of which was research in new areas of science, and not re-verification of conclusions previous studies, their continuation or large-scale studies with “uninteresting” results.
The problem is that such experiments and projects, due to their extremely small scale, very often lead to erroneous results or incorrect interpretation of the findings. On average, only about 10-40% of such studies turn out to be correct, which means that the money spent on such grants very often goes to waste.
Accordingly, it can be said that the famous "British scientists" are the product of the grant system itself, which condones those people who carry out high-profile experiments on a relatively small scale, with extremely low level reliability and statistical significance. Therefore, Higginson and Munafo propose to reform the system by shifting the focus from “small” research to medium and large projects.
“The best thing for science would be if we began to combine medium-scale research aimed at finding new knowledge with major studies aimed at confirming these conclusions. Our calculations suggest that scientists would do this if regulators and committees were guided not by sensationalism, but by the quality of methodology and results,” concludes Higginson.
British scientists once found that British scientists are the smartest. And this is not a newspaper joke at all, such a study was actually carried out. Here is a selection of the most interesting and absurd things that British scientists have been doing.
Bowling is dangerous to your health.
This research took about two years and 250 thousand pounds sterling. Scientists have found that while playing bowling, children or teenagers can start running along the lanes and end up getting stuck in the mechanism that sets the pins. The publication notes that such cases have not been recorded previously, however, according to scientists, there is a high probability of such situations occurring. In addition, the Health, Safety and Health Administration report also noted that adults would be at just as high a risk if they decided to walk down the lane and knock down a pin with their hand.
To be successful with men, a woman must expose 40% of her body surface.
University scientists English city Leeds found the answer to a question that has vexed women and men for centuries: where exactly is the line between being too modest and being too frivolous? women's clothing. The study is based on observations made by four researchers who secretly observed patrons of the city's largest nightclub from a balcony located above the dance floor. The study's authors observed how many men approached girls asking them to dance, dividing the girls by the amount of clothing they were wearing. According to research, the ideal ratio of bare skin to clothing is 40:60. At the same time, women who were naked were less successful than women who were dressed too modestly.
Pets pollute the planet more than cars.
British scientists Brenda and Robert Weil published a book with the shocking title “Time to Eat Dog?” This phrase came to us from the times when people conquered Antarctica. In cases where food ran out, travelers had to eat sled dogs. The authors address the reader with a message: at the moment when Natural resources depleted, pets become a luxury that, for the sake of the planet, we cannot afford. According to the Weils' calculations, on average each dog needs 164 kg of meat and 95 kg of grain per year. To produce these products, 0.84 hectares of area is required (1.1 hectares for a German Shepherd).
According to scientists, to build and drive an SUV for 10 thousand km, energy in the amount of 55.1 gigajoules is required. And one hectare of land can produce energy equal to 135 gigajoules per year. In other words, the polluting impact of a car on environment two times lower compared to a dog. Similar equations apply to other pets. It turns out that a cat consumes as much energy (in terms of hectares - 0.15) as a large van, a pair of hamsters with 0.28 hectares is comparable to a plasma TV, a red fish (0.00034 hectares) consumes energy as two mobile phones.
British scientists have realized why grandmothers exist.
A large-scale study in villages in Japan, Ethiopia, Gambia and Malawi, cities in Germany, England and Canada was carried out by anthropologist Leslie Knapp together with colleagues from the University of Cambridge. An article about the research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Having collected some historical data and studied the features modern life, Leslie Knapp proposed the X chromosome "grandmothers hypothesis". A meta-analysis in the study found that grandmothers who live close to their grandchildren influence the survival rate of their grandchildren. According to anthropologists, after reproductive age, women are able to better protect their genes, that is, the inherited parts of DNA. Losing the opportunity to care for her own children, the woman switches to caring for her grandchildren. At the same time, she passes on the accumulated experience to her grown children.
A woman passes on about 31% of her genes to her own sons' daughters. Sons' sons inherit only 23% of their grandmother's genes. Grandchildren by daughter (of both sexes) are approximately in the middle - 25%. If we talk about the X chromosome, then the son's sons have nothing to do with their grandmother at all (they receive their X chromosome from their mother). The closest to the grandmother are again the son’s daughters.
The myth of Santa Claus owes its existence to hallucinogenic mushrooms.
English scientists believe that the myth of Santa Claus traveling on flying reindeer owes its appearance to hallucinogenic mushrooms that the inhabitants of Lapland loved to indulge in. It is known that the story of Santa Claus was born in Lapland, in the north of modern Finland. Lapps lived there, who, as scientists found, quite often drank the urine of deer that ate fly agarics. IN laboratory conditions Scientists have obtained a powerful hallucinogenic substance from these mushrooms. It is no wonder, scientists believe, that the Lapps imagined flying deer, which then turned into the legend of the good Santa Claus. Scientists explain the bright red robe of the New Year's character with the color of a hallucinogenic mushroom. The red and white color of the fly agaric turned in the inflamed imagination of people into an old man in a red caftan with a white beard.
Miniskirts prolong life.
The less clothes a woman wears, the longer she lives - British scientists came to this interesting conclusion under the leadership of anthropologist Sir Edwin Burkhart. More than 5,000 women over 70 years old took part in the study. The result of the analysis amazed anthropologists: the less clothing the respondent wore, the more likely she was to live to an old age.
Scientists have several theories to explain this relationship. First, clothing contains residue from chemicals used during cleaning and washing, which, when reacting with sweat, can form compounds that penetrate the skin and negatively affect health, including the development of cancer. Secondly, a woman in revealing clothes attracts men and has more chances marry. It is known that health family people they live better and live longer than single people. Third, women who wear minimal clothing are exposed to natural factors, affecting longevity. Fourthly, according to British scientists, such ladies are more open, intelligent, independent and take more care of themselves. Fifthly, lovers of revealing outfits are more likely to have sex, which, from the point of view of researchers, is another beneficial factor affecting longevity.
Communication reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke and flu.
Social activity is as important to maintaining a person's health as exercise, diet or medication. The results of a study by British and Australian scientists are published by the London newspaper Daily Express. Active communication within various social groups and teams helps reduce the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke and even influenza. The publication cites the results of a study by Professor Jolanda Jetten from the Australian University of Queensland, according to which enthusiastic conversations at the table, including in restaurants and cafes, increase brain activity, which is the most in a positive way affects health.
The smartest scientists live in the UK.
British scientists are the most productive in the world. According to a study, the UK ranks second after the US in terms of scientific discoveries and developments made during the year. Comparing this with the amount of funding scientific industry and the number of people working in it, we can conclude that British scientists work much more efficiently than their overseas colleagues.
The study, based on a count of the number of scientific papers, their influence in the world of science and the frequency of citations, found that between 1997 and 2001 the UK produced 9.4 per cent of scientific publications, accounting for 12.8 per cent of the most cited papers. For comparison, the figures for Germany are 8.8 and 10.4 percent, Japan - 9.3 and 6.9. Although the United States has gone far ahead in terms of total volume - 35 and 63 percent, the efficiency of American scientists compared to previous years decreased significantly.
Blueberries protect against senile dementia.
British scientists have found that daily consumption of blueberries or a blueberry milkshake improves concentration and prevents the development of senile dementia. For the research, scientists invited 40 volunteers aged 18 to 30 years. The subjects drank a glass of blueberry milkshake every morning and followed the diet prescribed by doctors. During the day they did several physical exercise, during which the level of concentration of attention was monitored. After a few weeks, the berries were removed from the volunteers’ diet. As a result, the concentration level of the experiment participants after two hours of exercise decreased by 15-20 percent.
Cell phones kill bees.
Cell phone radiation has an extremely negative effect on bees, leading to the collapse of the colony and even their mass extinction. British experts led by Dr. Daniel Favre came to this conclusion. Scientists conducted an experiment by placing a working mobile phone under the hive. It turned out that bees become very anxious if there is an incoming call on the phone. They gather in a swarm, and after the signal is interrupted, they calm down.
In previous experiments, a phone left near a hive led to the collapse of a bee colony and the mass extinction of bee colonies. Radiation from mobile communications kills 43% of bees, while, for example, pesticides kill only 3% of these insects. The fact is that cellular networks under the GSM protocol operate at frequencies from 800 to 1200 MHz. Bees communicate at these same frequencies and, most importantly, navigate. Cellular networks “clog” the channel, and disoriented bees cannot find the place where they live and feed.
It's good to swear from time to time.
British scientists report that sometimes swearing is good for your health. Moreover, swearing helps most of all those people who usually do not use profanity in their speech. In particular, strong words have a pronounced analgesic effect. The researchers conducted an experiment in which 70 students participated. They had to keep their hands in ice water as long as possible. When it became completely unbearable, they were asked to use obscene language. At this time, scientists measured the activity of their brain centers and other body reactions. As it turned out, the participants in the experiments who cursed were able to keep their hands in the water longer than those who could not utter these words. Wherein greatest effect those who usually rarely use obscene expressions achieved it.
A person can become seriously ill in a dream.
Good healthy sleep can lead to serious illnesses. British scientists came to this conclusion. In particular, sleeping on your back is fraught with asthma and heart problems, since in this position the body is poorly supplied with oxygen. If a person sleeps on their side, this can lead to early formation of wrinkles. And if the sleeper assumes the “fetal position,” he risks migraines and problems with the cervical spine. The neck will also suffer when sleeping on your stomach. In addition, in this position the sleeper’s hands will go numb, and in certain cases the jaw can also become twisted. Those who like to sleep in an embrace will begin to experience pain in their back, neck, legs, and arms. British scientists did not consider other options for sleeping positions.
Women like gloomy men.
Women are more attracted to men who are moody than men who look happy. Scientists from the University came to this conclusion British Columbia. A group of thousands of volunteers took part in the study. They were asked to look at photographs of people of the opposite sex and evaluate them from the point of view sexual attractiveness. All photographed people had different expression faces associated with manifestations of emotions (from a wide smile to eyes lowered to the floor).
Psychologists assessed the first impression of sexual attractiveness of the images. It turned out that women are more attracted to gloomy, concentrated faces. They don't like smiling, cheerful men. Scientists believe that women associate a man’s gloomy appearance with his status, wealth, reliability, and ability to provide for a partner and children. But a smile indicates weakness and defenselessness. In turn, men more attention They are drawn to smiling, joyful women, since representatives of the stronger sex prefer ladies who are easier to make contact and obey.
Old mobile phones should be buried in pots with plants.
A group of British scientists has invented an original way to get rid of old mobile phones. They suggest not throwing them away, but burying them in pots with plants. Elements of a cell phone biochemically decompose over time. Together with the soil, they create favorable conditions for the growth of certain plants. Sunflowers grow best in a pot with a telephone. Scientists have not yet determined whether the phone model affects the growth rate of plants.
There are also scammers and corrupt officials among the ants.
“The first thing you notice when you look at the social structure of ants and bees is how cooperative they are,” says Bill Hughes from the University of Leeds. “However, if you look closely, you will notice that they are also characterized by conflicts and fraud - and in this they are very similar to human society. Previously we thought that ants were an exception, but ours genetic analysis showed that their society is rife with corruption, particularly royal corruption.” Scientists compared the inequality that is present in anthills with what happens in hives where drones and ordinary bees live. Ants, like bees, have their own carriers of “royal genes”. Dr. Hues and Jacobus Boomsma from the University of Copenhagen found that the daughters of some fathers become “queens” more often than others. In addition, ants carrying special royal genes have the ability to fool their relatives and deprive them of the opportunity to leave offspring.
The most ancient joke person.
Scientists from Great Britain have found the world's oldest joke text. It is noteworthy that this discovery allows us to conclude: humor “below the belt” was no less popular in ancient times than it is today. Researchers from the University of Wolverhampton have determined that the oldest joke was recorded in 1900 BC. It belongs to the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq. Rough translation: “This has not happened since time immemorial for a girl to fart while sitting on her husband’s lap.”
Excess alcohol leads to mutations in DNA.
As researchers write in the journal Nature, acetaldehyde, a byproduct of ethanol processing in our bodies, can lead to catastrophic DNA damage. And we would die from the very first glass if the cells did not have a two-step defense system: the first includes enzymes that neutralize acetaldehyde itself, the second is a set of proteins that take upon themselves the emergency repair of damaged DNA. Scientists experimented with pregnant mice in which both systems were turned off - in such animals, even a small single dose of alcohol led to the death of the fetus; Moreover, the death of blood stem cells was observed in the adult mice themselves.
Scientists were prompted to check the effect of alcohol on DNA by two groups of information. Firstly, people suffering from Fanconi syndrome, a severe hereditary disease, are extremely sensitive to alcohol. In these patients, the proteins responsible for DNA repair do not work, as a result of which acetaldehyde causes irreversible damage to genes, and this leads to blood diseases and cancer. On the other hand, people with congenital alcohol intolerance are highly susceptible to esophageal cancer, and their acetaldehyde neutralization system does not work. In both cases, the consequences of alcohol intake are expressed in diseases affecting the molecular genetic apparatus of the cell.
Why are drunk men less demanding of beauty?
British scientists sometimes take on the most unexpected topics. This time they wanted to know why drunken men, as they say folk wisdom, are less demanding on the appearance of women. The study involved students, the male half of whom had to... get drunk. After such an exciting stage of scientific work, they were asked to evaluate photographs of girls who had already been “sorted” in terms of attractiveness. large group sober respondents. It goes without saying that there was no sensation: the assessments of drunken volunteers turned out to be less strict. Having looked closely at the photographs and analyzed the ratings given, scientists came to the conclusion that alcohol takes away people’s ability to adequately assess the symmetry of a face (after all, as you know, the more symmetrical a face is, the more beautiful it seems, based on current standards). Well, the vagueness of the lines always gave everything a certain mystery... That, in fact, is the whole story.
Men and women are awakened by different sounds.
Many mothers, tired of constantly getting up at night and soothing a crying child, begin to hate their husbands, sleeping peacefully next to them and, it seems, completely unable to hear the piercing baby roar. This hatred, as British scientists have proven, is in most cases completely groundless. It turns out that nature has tuned our body to perceive very specific sounds in our sleep, so men really don’t hear the crying of their tiny offspring.
For representatives of the fairer sex, children's sobs are the most annoying sound one of those that can awaken you from even the deepest sleep. For men, he is not even in the top ten. The most effective “alarm clocks” for the stronger sex are car alarms, the howling of the wind and a fly or mosquito buzzing over the ear.
Enormous sex differences in the perception of sounds during sleep were revealed during an experiment with measurements of the level of brain activity. It was carried out simply: subjects immersed in sleep were “played” various noises, while simultaneously taking an encephalogram. It turned out that any woman reacts sharply to a child’s cry and wakes up, even if she herself is not a mother. At the same time, nature has also provided a compensatory mechanism: representatives of the fair sex fall asleep much faster after sudden night “wake-ups”. But the men, awakened by some extraneous sound, then they can’t fall asleep for a long time, they toss and turn in bed and suffer.
Tea helps in the fight against nightmares.
In research, experts have found that those who drink more than one cup of tea a day have a 50% reduction in the risk of unpleasant dreams compared to those who practically never drink this drink. Scientists cannot say exactly why this happens. However, they believe that the active ingredients contained in tea chemical substances, in particular the amino acid tannin, relieve stress and calm negative electrical activity brain.
A way has been found to reduce hangovers.
Scientists have found a way to reduce hangovers after drinking alcohol - to do this, saturate them with oxygen. According to British media, this discovery was made by scientists from National University Chungnam in the South Korean city of Daejeon.
It is known that oxygen is involved in chemical process in the human body, during which consumed alcohol breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. Scientists took identical portions of the same alcoholic drink, varying degrees they were saturated with oxygen and given to the volunteers participating in the experiment to drink. After some time, the scientists asked the subjects about their feelings and measured the alcohol content in their blood. It turned out that those who had a higher oxygen content in their drink felt better and had less alcohol in their blood.
The leader of the experiment, Professor Kwan Il Kwon, said that after drinking an oxygenated alcoholic drink, the alcohol content in the blood plasma decreases faster than after drinking a drink with a normal oxygen content. The scientists, however, did not specify what kind of drink they used in the experiment and how oxygen affects its taste.
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