Why do British scientists have a bad reputation? British scientists and their useless research
British scientists have proven that not all research can be trusted. Three young people, in fact, fooled almost the entire scientific community. They wrote articles on the most meaningless topics, but framed them as real works. And they were sent to reputable magazines around the world. The most amazing thing is that many publications published them.
Do miniskirts prolong life? Do ducks like rain? Did the chicken come before the egg? Every time you read such “scientific discoveries”, you just want to ask the author: are you really serious? And now attention, the correct answer: scientists have proven that the results of such studies can be mere fiction.
The revelation of the century looks like this. Three scientists from Britain and the USA have fooled the elite of world science. They presented their crazy ideas as the results of serious research. And prestigious editors published this nonsense. Here is the response from the editor of Gender, Place and Culture. It is dedicated to the problems of feminism.
Laughter through tears. The authors allegedly determined that men should be trained like dogs and white students should be chained during lectures on the history of slavery. The more absurd the idea, the greater the chances of publication. Scientists have come to the conclusion that no one is interested in the truth anymore. They wrote about this in their appeal published on the Internet.
“The current culture dictates that only certain kinds of conclusions are acceptable - e.g. white skin or masculinity must necessarily be a problem. And the fight against manifestations of social injustice is placed above objective truth.”
One example of such social injustice in the West is the attitude towards transgender people. A cutting-edge scientific idea says that a child can decide for himself whether to be a girl or a boy. That's why the most advanced parents buy women's clothing for their sons. In the USA, uncles come to kindergartens dressed like aunts. And, according to the scientists who wrote the fake articles, main problem modern science is that research is in demand that only confirms such ideological norms. The recipe for successful publication, in their opinion, is simple.
Let’s take a current problem that is on everyone’s lips – for example, obesity. We add some very advanced idea (freedom of choice), and also add a little pinch of humor. And cook it all until it turns into a single mass. And please, a new theory is ready: “excess weight is not a problem, but a free choice of every person!” It would seem nonsense! But this is a quote from an article in the journal Obesity Research.
In total, seven works by provocateur scientists were published. This theory of the big lie did not arise yesterday, according to Russian Academy Sci. Fake articles, just like plagiarism, are like weeds in the field of fundamental research. Russian scientists are confident that such pseudoscientific works can be recognized, but only if there is a desire.
“The most striking example that I remember is when there was a dissertation on meat, which was copied, simply replacing meat with chocolate by autocorrect. However, everything else remained in place. Red meat has become dark chocolate, poultry meat has become white chocolate,” said a member of the commission to combat pseudoscience and falsification scientific research at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Panchin.
When the scientists admitted that they had deceived everyone, a scandal broke out. Some demanded that they be punished, others praised them for their courage and suggested continuing their research. True, the scientists themselves are not laughing now. For these fake publications they face dismissal from universities. This experiment may be the last in their scientific career.
The ability to create from water and sunlight The fuel emerged from successful research into separating molecules by altering 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 “Evenings” offers other, no less interesting and important discoveries of British scientists.
Bacteria killer
British citizen Alexander Fleming literally created the first antibiotics in 1928. 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 has played 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 respiratory system and other ailments.
Incredible but true
Other British scientists experimentally explained the cause of excess weight. 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.
Survival of the fittest
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 the ridiculous research of British scientists, if in connection with it we did not learn 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 the most “scientific” scientists... May 27th, 2016
It has long been noted that if the media talks about some new discovery, then almost always its authors are British scientists. Who are these people, how do they come up with ideas for the most incredible research, and who funds this research?...
The whole world is watching with delight the activities of these people. At the same time, British scientists themselves believe that the most smart people they live in England. 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 for the scientific industry and the number of people working in it, the British concluded that local scientists work much more efficiently than their overseas colleagues.
As a rule, none of us can name a single scientist or university in which this or that “great mind” works for the benefit of human science, so we doubt: do they really exist? Or maybe this is a “media image” of recent decades? After all, no matter what nonsense we read in the media, it will certainly be supported by research from British scientists.
British scientists have finally understood why drunken men have “all women who are beautiful”
The study involved students who had to... get drunk. Next, they were asked to evaluate photographs of girls who had already been “sorted” in terms of attractiveness. large group sober respondents.
Having looked closely at the photographs and analyzed the ratings given, scientists came to the conclusion that alcohol takes away from people the opportunity 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...
British scientists have proven that what is quickly raised is not considered to have fallen
Experts from the University of Manchester conducted a study to find out how dangerous it is to eat food picked up from the floor. As it turned out, the rule of 3 seconds, during which you can pick up and eat food that has fallen on the floor without fear of bacteria, really works.
True, only products industrial production high in salt and sugar and low in water. But pasta, fruits, vegetables, bread should not be picked up from the floor, as even after 3 seconds dangerous bacteria appear on them.
British scientists have calculated total weight Earth's population - 287 million tons.
The average adult weighs 62 kg, and in the USA this figure is a third higher, that is, Americans are the heaviest. If the average adult weight worldwide were the same as in the United States, it would be equivalent to an increase in population of one billion people.
British scientists have found that women itch 23% more often than men for genetic reasons.
And although experts only experimented on laboratory mice, the researchers are confident that the situation is exactly the same in females and males of Homo sapiens.
According to Jeffrey Modgil, a pain geneticist at Canada's McGill University, the mechanisms that provide such a difference between the sexes have not been thoroughly studied, but are apparently associated with the activity of gonadal hormones - estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Another shocking discovery by researchers from Foggy Albion has finally explained to those suffering from excess weight what their problem is. During a scientific experiment, British scientists were able to establish that thin people, as a rule, eat less than overweight people.
British scientists have studied the musical tastes of parrots
Scientists from the University of Lincoln gave gray parrots a set of rhythmic songs from the repertoire of U2, Joan Baez and the reggae team UB40 to listen to. The parrots liked the music: the birds tried to move to the beat and even sang along, using, among other things, a stock of human words.
And Bach's cantatas made the parrots relax and start preening their feathers. It is curious that parrots are not averse to listening to dance pop, but only if it is not electronic. Electronic pop music without a voice made them stressed.
British archaeologists, led by Professor Andrew Wallos-Handrill, studied the contents of a sewer in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum
Scientists collected feces in 770 containers with a total weight of 10 tons, analyzed and found out what people who lived 2 thousand years ago ate. It turned out that the common people from Herculaneum ate quite well: fish, vegetables, eggs, olives, nuts, shellfish, fruits.
British researchers are scratching their heads over how to make cows pollute the air less.
UK authorities are concerned about methane emissions from cows and sheep. Scientists have been tasked with finding ways to reduce these emissions from livestock.
The UK government has allocated a budget for research in which scientists are trying to find a diet for cows that is less conducive to flatulence - they will be switched to more easily digestible foods: white clover and butterfly.
British scientists advise those who want to get rid of excess weight, have an affair on the side
According to Dr. Craig Jackson, professor of psychology at the University of Birmingham, cheating puts pressure on a person, increases stress levels, and as a result, the person begins to panic, lie and hide something. And all this leads to an increase in the level of cortisol and adrenaline, due to which the heartbeat accelerates and the body begins to burn calories. As a result of the study, representatives of the fair half of humanity lost up to 5 kg in weight, and the stronger sex - up to 3.
British scientists have discovered why men become dumb
The study found that those men who spend time communicating with beautiful women, a little dumber, those who hang out with the worst of the fair sex.
The likely reason for this is that men use their brains to the fullest, and there is no longer enough of it to solve other mental problems.
British scientists spent 300 thousand pounds sterling on studying the interaction of ducks with water
Over the course of three years, they found out what types of swimming ducks prefer. As a result of this long-term study, they were able to find out: ducks really like to swim in rainy weather. It's funny, but the study was commissioned by the British Department of Agriculture (DEFRA).
British scientists made an incredible discovery in 2003:
they found that at least 9 out of 10 ladybugs in London suffer from fungal venereal diseases. It turns out that when ladybugs return from wintering, they begin to lead a promiscuous sex life, as a result of which they acquire a whole bunch of sexually transmitted diseases.
This figure is much higher than all other UK cities. “We think high air pollution is to blame,” says London-based researcher Greg Hurst. He says ladybugs eat aphids, and there's no better environment than dirty air, for aphids cannot be found.
For five years, scientists from Britain “struggling” to develop chewing gum, which does not stick to anything, including asphalt
Scientists estimate that London's public utilities spend around £100,000 annually scraping chewing gum from the capital's streets. They finally found a formula for non-stick chewing gum.
British researchers have tested: if you yawn near a dog, then with a high degree of probability she will also yawn.
Therefore, dogs have some basic abilities for empathy and sympathy. Thus, scientists from Birkbeck College London suggest that dogs are able to “read” and understand the emotions of their owners.
Biologist Roger Wotton from University College London came to the sensational conclusion that angels in paintings and frescoes by European artists are not able to fly
The scientist said that the painted angels have too large bodies that are not covered with feathers. In addition, their muscular system is not developed enough for flight. What outraged him most was the implausibility of Giotto's one-winged angel.
According to British scientists, men prefer to marry brunettes
They believe that brunettes take better care of their appearance, cook better and support perfect cleanliness in the house.
They surveyed 1000 men, and it turned out that 54% would choose a brunette as a wife, 16% would prefer a blonde, and 30% do not consider hair color to be significant at all when choosing a life partner.
Brilliant thoughts come closer to night
British scientists have found that inspiration is most likely to come to a person at exactly 22:04. During the study, experts interviewed 1,436 people. It turned out that 92% of them do not feel inspired at all after noon, as a result of which 16:33 was recognized as the most useless time of day. But the most inspiring time was 22:04
A scientist at Trinity College, Cambridge, named Rupert Sheldrake, devoted his career to studying the phenomenon of telephone telepathy.
Rupert suggests that people have the ability to guess who is about to call them, even before the phone rings. In his first study, 63 people took part, and in 45% of cases, the subjects were actually able to predict who exactly would contact them by phone in the near future. In his next works, Rupert plans to prove the existence of SMS telepathy.
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 important issue, since a huge amount of money is spent on research, the results of which 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 select studies that answer important questions and have good methodology, rather than those that lead to surprising findings 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 is 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 to it to improve their capabilities.
To do this, scientists took the rules that the UK (UKREF) and Australian (AER) grant agencies use and used them to create computer model, in which the typical “career” scientist tried to format his research in such a way as to consistently achieve success in submitting applications to a virtual “grant committee.”
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-checking the conclusions of 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 a product of the grant system itself, which condones those people who carry out high-profile experiments on a relatively small scale, with an extremely low level of 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-sized studies aimed at finding new knowledge with large studies aimed at confirming those findings. Our calculations suggest that scientists would begin to do this if regulatory bodies and committees driven not by sensationalism, but by the quality of the 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.
Scientists at the University of Leeds, England, have found the answer to a question that has troubled women and men for centuries: where exactly is the line between too modest and 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 too 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 son's daughters are again closest to the grandmother.
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 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.
How less clothes The wear 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 is more likely to get married. It is known that the health of married people is better and they 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, amateurs revealing outfits have sex more often, which, according to 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 has the most positive effect on health.
The smartest scientists live in the UK.
British scientists are the most productive in the world. According to the study, the UK ranks second after the US in the number of scientific discoveries and developments made per year. Comparing this with the amount of funding for the 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 has decreased significantly compared to previous years.
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 to 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, swear words help most of all those people who usually do not use profanity. 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 the ice water for 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. At the same time, the greatest effect was achieved by those who usually rarely use obscene expressions.
A person can become seriously ill in their sleep.
Sound, 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 You can also curl your jaw. 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 of British Columbia came to this conclusion. 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 rate them in terms of sexual attractiveness. All photographed people had different facial expressions 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 pay more attention 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 invented original way get rid of old ones 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.
Among the ants there are also scammers and corrupt officials.
"First, when studying social order What is striking about societies of ants and bees is their cooperativeness, 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. "We previously thought that ants were an exception, but our 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 oldest joke of man.
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. Approximate 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 drunk men, as popular wisdom says, are less demanding of women’s appearance. The study involved students, the male half of whom had to... get drunk. After such an exciting stage scientific work they were asked to rate photographs of girls who had already been “sorted” in terms of attractiveness by a fairly large group of 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 from people the opportunity 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 that can wake up from any, 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 alarm, howling wind and a fly or mosquito buzzing over your 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 crying 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 men, awakened by some extraneous sound, then cannot fall asleep for a long time, tossing and turning in bed and suffering.
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 chemicals, in particular the amino acid tannin, relieve stress and calm the negative electrical activity of the 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 a chemical process in the human body, during which consumed alcohol breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. Scientists took identical portions of the same thing alcoholic drink, saturated them with oxygen to varying degrees and gave them to drink to the volunteers participating in the experiment. 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.
sources
How MEM appeared - "British scientists" January 29th, 2015
Based on common sense, British scientists should not be a meme or a media virus. First of all, they exist. Secondly, they are quite normal people, no worse and no better than other scientists. There is no particular reason to single them out from the world community of scientists.
On the Internet, “British scientists” are synonymous with researchers working on completely insane, idiotic and pseudoscientific projects of absolutely no practical value.
British scientists have found that: food quickly picked up from the floor is not considered dropped; that 9 out of 10 ladybugs in London suffer from fungal venereal diseases; that the majority of drivers who violate traffic rules are latent homosexuals. They also found that the average person eats seven spiders in their sleep; bumblebees can catch maniacs; and cats think that a person is a big cat.
These are not anecdotes, but headlines from official press releases from various scientific institutes in Britain. The information is often so curious that you want to know: how did they establish this?
This issue was taken up... by British scientists themselves.
British scientists have found that sometimes they produce fantasies instead of scientific discoveries. Colleagues from Cardiff University revealed where the catchy and sometimes ridiculous headlines in articles based on the works of British and (not only) scientists come from. They proved that most false sensations are born not on the keyboards of journalists reporting the news, but in the minds of those who compose scientific press releases: it is PR people who invent sensations.
Or rather, the staff of Cardiff University. It turned out that sometimes the most insignificant research, after processing by those who compose press releases, changes beyond recognition. But it really attracts the attention of journalists, and subsequently of readers, says Dmitry Zykov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Science and Life magazine. Hence the inflated sensations that sell well.
“Sensation is a good, interesting thing, a lot of attention is paid to it. People tend to greatly exaggerate the significance of what they suddenly unexpectedly learned about. This is a purely psychological effect: oh, how unexpected, how interesting. Often sensations appear, as they say, from the heart. People just didn’t understand what they were being told,” explains Zykov.
In these cases, the scientists themselves say the classic thing: the journalists did not understand anything and distorted everything. In fact, failure occurs throughout the entire chain. At first, scientists did not convey the main idea very clearly; the writers of the press release exaggerated it and drew incorrect conclusions, on the basis of which they gave false advice. And then the journalists fell for the sensation and, without checking with other sources, amplified it and released the news under a catchy headline. The reader read, believed and even began to follow the advice.
But there is doubt that initially everything was intended only for sensation, notes the chairman of the RAS commission on combating pseudoscience, Evgeniy Alexandrov. A certain interest cannot be ruled out, since this is typical of Western scientists. “They crave attention, maybe attracting some funds,” says Alexandrov.
IN Russian science this is impossible. There is no need for our scientists to make a name and money from populism. And, as the expert says, there is an almost scientific explanation for this.
“We have always had science in the warm hands of the state; we had no need to communicate with the press. And after the end of the arms race, they became poor with money, and they, so to speak, rushed to the panel to sell products. And maybe they got spoiled,” says Alexandrov. - This is less typical for us. In our country, sensations are generated in the media.”
British scientists- 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- a kind of media virus, but only a special, strange one, based on reality, pretending to be reality, but distorting it.
Here are some real examples:
British scientists have found that ducks love rain. It took the kingdom's scientists three years and 300 thousand pounds to discover what every villager knows.
Scientists from the British capital began studying the preferences of domestic ducks in order to find out what role water plays in the lives of these birds and what particular methods of bathing ducks like best. Three years continuous operation, a lot of money has been spent, and now, in the study of the burning problem, the fat point has finally been reached - birds prefer a shower that imitates rain.
Elephants turned out to be the only “all-wheel drive” animals in the world
Elephants, unlike other four-legged animals, use all four legs for both acceleration and braking. This conclusion was reached by a group of scientists led by John Hutchinson from the British Royal Veterinary College. Hutchinson and his colleagues' paper on elephant gait was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Summary The conclusions reached by the researchers are reported by AFP.
As part of the study, six young Indian elephants were taken with at different speeds on a platform with sensors recording the force with which the animals pushed off the ground with each leg. It turned out that both the front and hind limbs of elephants receive the same load when moving at different speeds and with different accelerations. This gave scientists reason to liken elephants to four-wheel drive cars.
In other four-legged animals, the functions of acceleration and braking are distributed between the front and hind limbs: when accelerating, as a rule, the hind legs/legs receive more load, and when decelerating, the front legs/legs receive more load.
British scientists: Drivers spend a year of their lives parking
British scientists have concluded that on average, drivers spend 25 minutes parking every day, reports the Daily Mail.
Scientists have suggested that with such a time commitment, drivers spend 152 hours a year on parking, and if we assume that a driver can drive a car for 50 years, it turns out that he spends at least 11 months of his life just parking the car.
The researchers also note that drivers in the UK spend an average of 120 pounds ($190) per year on petrol when searching for a parking space.
After surveying almost nine thousand British drivers, scientists came to the conclusion that almost half of those surveyed are so shy that they are ready to give up a parking space if they notice another car behind them, especially for women.
Another 44% of respondents admitted that they had lost their car in a parking lot at least once.
Let us recall that last year the British mathematician Simon Blackburn developed a formula that can be used to calculate the parameters of an ideal parking lot.
sources
http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2220063
http://lurkmore.to/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D1 %83%D1%87%D1%91%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5
http://elementy.ru/lib/431893
And a little more about popular MEMES: for example, and here and of course The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
