The science 2023, March

Seventy-five years ago, the United States began the massive use of the insecticide DDT. In 20 years, he has reduced the number of deaths from malaria by hundreds of thousands a year. But then a book by an environmental activist against the drug was published in the States. It misrepresented the scientific facts, but it worked: Insecticide use plummeted. Malaria, accordingly, took off. The total number of victims of the DDT ban is measured in at least millions. Unfortunately, this story was just the beginning. Similar

For many centuries, doctors and scientists have tried to figure out what functional role certain organs play in the human body, at first glance, including the most useless of them: the appendix, coccyx, scalp or male nipples

How did birds come about? Dinosaurs, Archeopteryx, or the therapods?

Non-carbon life forms and alternative biochemistry include life based on silicon and oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus, nitrogen and hydrogen

For some reason, it is believed that the world of the future will be free of crime. But will the time come when it will be possible to solve any crime, and there will not be a single crime that could not have been prevented? Will the police of the future be capable of this?

Today we will talk about passenger aircraft and their safety. The focus is on aircraft such as the A321, Boeing 737, A380 and many others

Usually, only solar, wind and the like are called renewable energy. They are also considered to be the safest and most effective in the fight against global warming. However, according to a number of scientific papers, uranium should also be called a renewable energy source. In the case of using fast neutron reactors, they can provide the current level of energy consumption by mankind for billions of years ahead. Let's try from the point of view of science to figure out what kind of energy, on

Warming is helping the planet's main forest - home to 10% of all existing species - but biofuels are threatening it. This unpleasant truth is politically incorrect, so the media turns it upside down. Let's try to figure out how it came to this

The ancient period of our history laid the cultural foundation of the modern world. The language of the Roman Empire - Latin - formed the basis of many modern languages. Latin and ancient Greek languages have become a source and material for the formation of new terms in all areas of science. The myths and legends of the Ancient World are known to millions of people. How well do you know this period of history? Check it out?

The past is gone, the future has not yet come, and only the present is with us in the same moment. But why is the order of events this way? Why doesn't tea spilled tomorrow leave a stain on the carpet yesterday?

Every meeting with something unusual, unexpected, strange causes surprise. With something that does not fit in your head, even if it is a strictly proven scientific fact

You can often hear statements by astrophysicists and cosmologists that extremely distant regions of the Universe are moving away from us faster than the speed of light. But what exactly does this mean? Do they mean that there are objects in the Universe that can exceed one of the most fundamental quantities

Let space flights have long been a familiar thing. But do you all know about space launch vehicles? Let's disassemble it in parts and see what they consist of and how they work

"Advertising controls us and makes us buy more and more" - sounds like another conspiracy theory. However, scientists confirm that this is largely true. Knowing how perception works can actually convince a person to buy something that he doesn't need at all

Naked Science assessed the starting positions of the "racing" teams, looked closely at the "cars" and estimated the chances of success

The excess mortality rate from the coronavirus epidemic in Russia this November is two thousand people a day. In the Battle of Stalingrad, there were about the same, and this means that the country will experience a colossal decline in population by the end of the year. Huge mortality rates are typical for other countries, so the need for a vaccine in the world is, without exaggeration, enormous. Moreover, we have these drugs themselves and the ability to produce them in large quantities. It just looks like none of this will help us. Parse

Scientists often say that anything can happen in an infinitely large universe. However, observations, calculations and simulations show that in star systems, planets always revolve around a star in the same plane and in the same direction. Finding out why this is happening

The huge Eurasian ice sheet at the end of the last ice age melted in hundreds of years, not millennia, as was previously thought. It turns out that the West Antarctic shield, equal in size, can disappear in a similar time, dramatically changing the appearance of the planet. Let's try to figure out what this means for the near future of humanity

The passengers of the Mayflower, which arrived on the shores of the New World in 1620, were the first settlers to establish a permanent colony in North America. Almost 400 years later, Elon Musk presents the project of the new Mayflower, the passengers of which are to establish a colony on the Red Planet

We select the main directions of the future expansion of mankind within the solar system. Where and why will the first inhabited bases appear, and where will they never be?

When it comes to strange symptoms associated with stress and other exertion, it is difficult to understand where it came from and why, for example, your hand is going numb. Let's try to figure it out

Angara is a new family of launch vehicles being developed in Russia. Its first representative made its first flight on July 9, 2014. Well, we get to know the "personal data" of the whole family - with the background of their appearance and with relatives abroad

Recent scientific work claims that by the end of the century, half of the sandy beaches "will almost disappear", and refers to what appears to be satellite photos. A slightly earlier study in a scientific journal of the same publication says that beaches are growing quite quickly - and also refers to satellite images. And the same ones. How do scientists do this and what will happen to the beaches in reality? Let's try to figure it out

The Earth has all the necessary conditions for the development of intelligent life. However, if somewhere near us there is another developed civilization, then it is located at a distance of several light years. But this does not mean at all that such a situation is a rule for the Universe

The quantum world is often contrary to common sense. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once said: "I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics." Quantum teleportation is just one of such strange and seemingly illogical phenomena

Seven hundred million light-years virtually nothing - this is the most terrifying place in the observable universe

We hear more and more success in the use of artificial neural networks. Here they paint pictures, here they write poetry. Creative and self-taught, won't they take on our work soon?

Time travel is one of the most intriguing science fiction concepts. But it raises many questions - both for physicists and philosophers - and can also lead to various paradoxes. "The paradox of the murdered grandfather" is one of them

The earth is inhabited by monsters. They crave every opportunity to break through and populate neighboring planets. It is impossible to predict all the tricks that they are ready to perform for this. It remains to methodically deal with attempts to penetrate, leaving them as few chances as possible. Ideally - none, but the ideal, as we know, is unattainable

Not so long ago, the head of Planetary Resources, Chris Levitsky, promised that in the 2020s, for the first time, humanity will receive valuable mineral resources outside the Earth. Naked Science figured out who, what and on what basis will be mined in space

Why is evolution going faster on the islands? This question is answered by biologist Alexander Markov

Ever since the right technology came along, we started looking for life around other stars. But colleagues in the intellectual shop were never found. Maybe the point is that they are not there? If so, why?

Satellite imagery shows that abandoning plowing in the United States leads to higher yields while lowering costs. Russia, where this method was created, almost does not use it today. We figure out why this happened and how it is better than traditional plowing

The largest planet in the solar system has been in the spotlight over the past few days. And there is a logical explanation for that - from day to day the automatic interplanetary station "Juno" will moor to it. In this regard, NASA decided to imagine what it would be like to visit Jupiter

Alexander Myasnikov, head of the Information Center for Monitoring the Situation with Coronavirus, said that "the virus seems to be filtered through our immune forces, every time it enters another organism, it goes a little weakened." In this regard, he expects the wave of infection to retreat "by itself." However, a number of scientific studies - and the experience of the Spanish flu pandemic - point to a different, less benign scenario. Let's try to figure out what science thinks about a certain decline in the number of

Over the past 136 years, July 2016 has been the hottest month on the planet. This year is predicted to be the hottest in history. And this dynamic will continue. Is there a reason to sound the alarm? Or is it that what we call abnormal weather is actually a common occurrence. After all, temperature highs and lows, hurricane winds and floods have happened before. Naked Science looked into the climatic past of our planet and found some weather anomalies that may tell us something about

Two million years ago, the planet entered a state of highly unusual instability. Time after time, she wiped out the ecosystems of Africa from the face of the earth, which is why our ancestors again and again found themselves in a difficult situation. Seventy thousand years ago, their number decreased tenfold - another, completely unexpected factor struck. A couple of hundred thousand years ago, not only humanity, but in general all terrestrial species could die from an even more destructive force. 12.9 thousand years ago, many people died and millions

Imagine that you are walking on a planet illuminated by a red sun. There are no sunrises or sunsets here

We all remember the words of Tsiolkovsky: "The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but you can't live in the cradle forever!" A century has passed since the moment when this was said. But how do you build yourself a new home in space? And are there ways to transform lifeless worlds in the space desert into new oases of life?

From 2064, the number of people will begin to decline - and this process may be irreversible. One of the authors of the corresponding scientific work directly points out: if nothing changes, in a few centuries humanity will die out. However, there are worse things than extinction. A different scenario is much more likely: the world will be populated by those who can reproduce in new cultural conditions. Unfortunately, a significant part of modern Europeans, Americans and, possibly, other peoples will be ousted from the first pages of history