The Question. The strangest questions about everything Text

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What is TheQuestion.ru?

TONYA SAMSONOVA

Founder of TheQuestion.ru

They talk about the financial crisis on TV. Right now, one minister of finance, one chairman of the Central Bank and several thousand graduates of the Faculty of Economics are looking at the screen, each of whom understands what she is talking about better than the presenter of the program.

The host of the program is, in fact, me. At some point, I began to realize that the people who listen and watch me are probably smarter than me. We wanted to make sure that the opportunity to speak was not with the one who was given the microphone, but with the one who knows best.

And we came up with TheQuestion.ru. A service with which anyone can ask a question and write answers to questions in those areas of knowledge in which he or she understands best. This book contains several hundred questions out of fifty thousand that experts have found answers to over the past six months.

What, in your opinion, is the most relevant Russian film?

ANTON DOLIN

Film critic

“Relevant” is different every year. Current - incredibly relevant - cinema for the turn of the nineties and zeros are “Brother” and “Brother-2”. Then these paintings lost their relevance and acquired it again. It is unknown whether it will last long or not. There is a “flickering” relevance: the fundamental irrelevance of the film “Khrustalev, the car!” Alexei German seems funny, because the picture of state violence against people now seems extremely relevant to us. But I believe that no one could imagine that it would turn out to be so, for example, in 2000.

If we talk about the most relevant films today, then, perhaps, the film “Leviathan” is extremely relevant, as are the films “Bitter!” and "Gorko-2". These films show today's Russia and try to analyze it, albeit through metaphors, but I cannot name other films that look just as carefully at the problems of how Russia is transforming.

How did it happen that the words “patriot” and “liberal” became antonyms?

ANDREY MOVCHAN

Director of Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment

This happened quite a long time ago. In the 19th century, after the upheavals of the beginning of the century (let me remind you, during the first 25 years of the 19th century, Russia experienced a successful coup that radically changed the country’s politics, a major war with Europe, which led to, albeit temporary, but the first occupation of the central part of Russia in hundreds of years, and then - to the first direct and massive contact of the Russian nobility with European civilization in hundreds of years, and, finally, the first unsuccessful attempt in the history of Russia by the army elite to change power in the country), two completely revolutionary processes for the country, but opposite in essence, took place in Russia at the same time: one was the transition from a monarchy based on a conditional “guard” (when the one who was wanted by a narrow circle of elite nobles - the military) ruled, to a monarchy based on bureaucratic institutions that do not have their own will and therefore do not threaten power with a change; the second - in the natural development of productive forces and social relations, which required, if the country did not want to lag behind Europe (and at that time it meant ultimately losing the war and disappearing), changes towards the early capitalist form of society.

In the middle of the 19th century, on the one hand, the imperial bureaucracy was formed and “ossified”, the elites lost their levers of influence, but the bureaucratic apparatus acquired them, and on the other hand, serfdom ended, “raznochinstvo” appeared and a broad mass of people participating in political discussion was formed .

Since both processes are global in nature, two groups are formed in society, each of which unites apologists for one of the processes, seeing the second as a threat.

Naturally, both groups look at the situation one-sidedly and are often poorly able to analyze the logical chains underlying the views they defend. This is how the chain “Is the noble elite, which can change power, dangerous for Russia? The Decembrist revolt is not only the last performance of the guards - it is a direct consequence of German influence at the end of the 18th century and contacts with libertarian Europe at the beginning of the 19th century? Is Russia's stability threatened by European influence? Russia has its own path, which it must follow and, perhaps, become an example for Europe and the whole world,” from which most members of the group learned only the last part: “Europe threatens Russia, Russia has its own special path.” These opponents of Europe and supporters of a special path and Slavic unity began to be called “Slavophiles,” or, since they explicitly advocated the strengthening of monarchical Russia, identifying the state with the country as a whole, “patriots.” Supporters of the second process, since they clearly saw an example for Russia in Europe, which was ahead of it in terms of modernization, and easily recalled the historical example of the modernization of Peter I based on contact with Europe, but at the same time ignored the experience of political instability that was caused by the Europeanization of Russia, advocated copying European experience, demanded “to be more liberal than Europe” and were called “Westerners” or “liberals”.

Nevertheless, the objective course of history has shown that the monarchy, even if strong and based on bureaucracy, is an obsolete form of government, and by the beginning of the 20th century it was no less dangerous for the future state than the “guards empire” a hundred years ago. The age of bureaucratic authoritarianism was very short. The idea of liberal reforms led to the success of the country that managed to carry out these reforms, and proved its effectiveness (and today, after another 100 years, it remains effective). At the beginning of the 20th century, more and more thinking people who wanted the good of their homeland took the position of sober “Westerners” - that is, they proposed not to “worship” Western Europe or act in its interests to the detriment of the interests of the peoples of Russia, but to skillfully borrow and develop the institutions of liberalism . In contrast to them, the dying near-monarchical bureaucracy rallied around the movement of the “Slavophiles,” and their attack on the “Westerners” in the public debate was based on accusing the latter of betraying the interests of Russia as a state (with which they tacitly identified themselves). As we know, the debate ended in 1917, when a narrow group of radical totalitarians seized power and, after exterminating both the former and the latter, built a new bureaucracy around a new form of monarchy.

Against this background, a real “patriot” is one who calls not to forget (and, conversely, to think first of all) about the interests of Russian citizens as a whole and individually, about the stability and security of society and the country; a real liberal is one who is confident that the rule of law, a developed civil society, broad personal freedoms, and not just a powerful state, meet the interests of Russian society and protect it from internal and external threats. Both are patriotic, however, the rare true patriot today does not understand that the time of monarchies, bureaucratic machines, restrictions on freedoms, and state paternalism passed decades ago. “Patriotism” and “liberalism” are today accents that it is important not to forget to place, and only in combination, in dialogue and cooperation, can they make it possible to build a stable, progressive and strong society.

Who can you feed at the Moscow Zoo without being scolded?

OLGA VAINSHTOK

Head of External Communications Service of the Moscow Zoo

Recently, our raccoon Porthos became obese - precisely because he ate too many chocolates and cookies. He had to be put on a diet. Our veterinarian regularly treats stomach diseases that appear precisely because everyone wants to feed the animals.

Most often, people try to feed animals junk food: cotton candy, chocolates. Animals do not eat this in nature. It is clear that children wish only the best for the animal: “I will give you the most delicious thing I have - my Snickers!” Everyone does this out of good intentions and because they want to communicate, but it only brings problems to the animals.

Sometimes, however, people prepare and try to feed the animal the food it usually eats. But a lot of people come to the zoo, and even this healthy food the animal can eat much more than it needs. In the summer, up to 40 thousand people a day come to us. And if 40 thousand people come and feed the elephant a little with carrots, nothing good will happen. And if some are allowed and others are not, it is unfair. It is impossible to please all people, and the condition of the animal is most important to us.

We feed the animals well, really. They have a delicious and varied menu, it matches what they get in the wild. And not a single animal in the wild, by the way, gets dessert.

We don't have fines for feeding animals, a zoo employee or volunteer just comes up and asks you to stop doing it. We only appeal to conscience. During the May holidays, we had about 100 people walking around the zoo and watching this, in normal times - about 10 people.

The giraffe Samson needs the most “protection.” He is the worst victim of human kindness. The fact is that giraffes by nature like to live in groups. But it so happened that Samson lives alone. And he perceives people as his social group and is very friendly. But he cannot say: “I just want to be friends with you, don’t feed me,” and people, when he looks at them and lowers his head to them, decide that he wants to eat, since he looks with hungry eyes. But he doesn’t look with hungry eyes, he just longs for communication. Samson is very popular, there are always a lot of people around him, but he pays a very high price: he has regular stomach problems.

Why did it happen that the USSR was one of the leaders in civil aircraft construction, and now even the CIS flies Boeing and Airbus?

IVAN KOROLEV

PhD student at Stanford University (economics), graduate of HSE and NES

The USSR had good aircraft in terms of flight performance, but they did not pay any attention to efficiency.

For example, the Tu-154 has a specific fuel consumption of 31 grams per passenger-kilometer, while the newer Tu-204 has a specific fuel consumption of 27 g/passenger. – km. For the Airbus A-321 this figure is 18 g/passenger. – km, for Boeing 737–400 – 21 g/pass. – km. Only the Tu-214 can compete with foreign analogues: its figure is 19 g/passenger. – km, but he showed up late.

Well, don’t forget about economies of scale: Boeing and Airbus have a large base of customers around the world, they produce a lot of aircraft, so the average cost per aircraft ends up being relatively low (in aviation, the cost of developing a new models - the so-called fixed costs; with a high production volume, the average fixed costs are low). In addition, there are many used foreign aircraft on the market that are in good condition and are still reliable and inexpensive.

In short, in the USSR, domestic aircraft manufacturers could survive and even prosper due to the import ban, but this is extremely difficult on the open market.

There is nothing wrong with this, and it is unlikely that anything should be done to change the current situation: in the current situation, consumer welfare is higher than with a hypothetical ban on the import of aircraft (then air tickets would be more expensive). And without an import ban, I think it is impossible to compete with Boeing and Airbus in today’s world (the only exception is regional transportation, where large aircraft are not needed and there are smaller aircraft manufacturers, for example, Embraer and Bombardier).

Yes, and two more points:

1. Number of crew members. The whole world has been flying with only two pilots for more than 30 years, and all Soviet aircraft had a crew of 3-4 people (two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator). This means that, in addition to fuel, domestic aircraft also had higher costs associated with the need to pay salaries to extra people; in addition, it was impossible to supply them abroad (no one would look for flight engineers specifically for Russian aircraft).

2. Airbus and Boeing have a much wider range of models. We are talking about both modifications of one model and the number of models in general. In the USSR/Russia, a competitor to wide-body long-haul airliners such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 never appeared. Il-86 and Il-96 were already outdated at the time of their creation. The Airbus A340, similar to the 96th, although it is being successfully operated, was successful largely due to its unification with the A330, as well as its long flight range, but it was also discontinued four years ago precisely because of the inability to compete with twin-engine liners.

So it turns out that the Tu-204/214 is the only Russian aircraft (before the advent of the Superjet) that is not inferior to its Western counterparts. But at the same time, at the beginning of the 90s, it had not yet been completed and, as far as I heard, it suffered from childhood illnesses. And the direct competitor of the Boeing 737 had been flying successfully for more than 20 years by that time.

Do people in prison have a future?

NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA

Founder of “Zona Prava” and “Mediazone”

The only institution that in Russia can actually perform the function of resocializing a prisoner is the family.

But it happens that there is no family. If a woman was beaten by her husband for several decades and at the end of the second decade she killed him and went to prison for it, then after her release she has nowhere to go.

And then there is such a family that it would be better not to exist. Which rather pushes the released person to commit a relapse than vice versa.

Therefore, the family cannot always help someone who has just been released. There are two other true institutions of resocialization. Both, unfortunately, do not actually function in Russia.

The first is the state. Provides support to the prisoner both while serving his sentence (education, obtaining professions in demand on the labor market, developing creative skills) and after release (assistance in finding a job, purchasing housing, establishing useful social connections). But this is in theory. In practice, this does not work in Russia.

Breaking free is harder than it seems. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, the government helps an elderly prisoner find a job after his release, but even so he finds it difficult to fit back into society after a long sentence. And he commits suicide.

In Russia, no one will place a prisoner in a store.

If you have connections, acquaintances, connections, they can probably accept you. On a general basis, they will not accept it. The release certificate turns into a wolf ticket. As in the novel by Sheldon and the series of the same name “If Tomorrow Comes” - where the main character, having gone through prison, after several unsuccessful attempts to get a job, decides to live by robberies.

In the absence of assistance from the state, the ex-prisoner returns to the environment from which he came, and, as a rule, soon returns back to prison. You understand this when, six months after her release, your former cellmate calls you and whispers into the phone in despair that from endless humiliation, hopelessness and emptiness, she again began to inject herself with salts that destroy a person - they suck him out like a sponge.

The second institution of resocialization is NPOs. There are several stages of NPO work on resocialization:

1. During the deadline.

NGOs work with prisoners during their sentences, organizing educational programs, lectures, master classes, seminars, theater and art groups. NGOs are establishing interaction between prisons and nearby institutions - students are able to enter the prison to conduct lecture courses there. One of my good friends, an Occupy Wall Street activist in New York, is doing this kind of work. Those arrested for graffiti are taught how to paint graffiti on canvas, and are also told where to organize their first graffiti exhibition.

Neighborhood residents are invited to theater performances and art exhibitions, an activist from the American NGO Rehabilitation Through Art told me, and this is done so that these people begin to accept prisoners as the same people, so that they have a chance to look at the prisoner differently : Look, he can not only steal, but also stage Shakespeare and paint a picture. When a prisoner is released, he will not go out into a hostile environment, but into people who see him not only as a criminal, but first and foremost as a human being.

2. Preparation for release.

In Holland, some NPOs receive from the state the right to take on part of the correctional functions: positive convicts have the chance to spend the last year of their sentence not in a state prison, but in a private house rented by the NPO - with ordinary rooms, beds, kitchens. Without supervisory staff, without government officials, without shoulder straps. I have been in two such houses. The conditions are better than at my home. During the year that the prisoners have been living in this house, NGOs have been helping them find work and housing. They are liberated by arranged people.

3. After release.

NGOs work with recently released former prisoners. If necessary, they are provided with a roof over their heads. In New York, I was in one of these organizations. They are looked for work and helped, if necessary, to learn the language. They help restore the rights violated in prison - they connect with NGOs and lawyers who help those released to conduct legal cases against prison administrations, and lead them to journalists.

In vast Russia there are literally several organizations that help prisoners. There is “Sitting Rus'”, there is a prison unit “For Human Rights”, there is a “Center for Assistance to Criminal Justice Reform”, there is a “Zone of Law” and “Agora”, a few more names. But none of these organizations focuses specifically on the problem of resocialization. We provide targeted help; we can hardly talk about systemic financial assistance. Why? Lack of resources.

Providing prisoners with housing and food for the first time and hiring personnel responsible for resocialization is a large-scale project. The funds of Russian NGOs, forced to survive in spite of the state, are not enough for this. And it will be even less - see the law on “undesirable organizations”, under which we ourselves all potentially face six years in prison.

Bottom line: people who have been in prison certainly have a future. But they, like all of us, sometimes need a helping hand. Will there be someone who will lend a hand? In a country where no one is systematically involved in the resocialization of prisoners (neither the state - it doesn’t need it, nor NGOs - the state burns them out) this is a matter of chance.

Quotes 2

hnosti. All these fish are classic entomophages, that is, animals that feed on insects. Even if there is no mass emergence, beetles, ants and grasshoppers from nearby fields inevitably end up in the water, where they become prey for these fish. At the same time, fish cannot collect insects from the surface completely silently; you will definitely hear it. It is especially easy to detect dace - this fish has a lower mouth, and in order to pick up a fly from the surface, it has to turn its belly up, as a result of which a characteristic wet “click” is heard. It is worth noting that loud sounds when feeding are created by small fish; seasoned specimens feed much more quietly. Bleak, rudd - visual contact. In the warm season, both of these fish prefer to stay in the very surface layer; they are easy to spot by the circles they leave on the water. The rudd is also distinguished by its bright fins. Bream, silver bream, white-eye, bluegill are nocturnal. All these fish lead a rather secretive lifestyle during the day. It is easier to detect their presence in a reservoir at night, when they rise to the surface and “play” - they jump out of the water. Large bream does this very loudly, sometimes it seems as if something big was thrown into the water. But there are also very secretive fish, whose presence in a reservoir is very difficult to verify. It happens that people live next to a river or lake for years and do not suspect that these fish are found in it. Such species, for example, include pike perch, bersh, eel, gudgeon, rotan. Only targeted fishing can help you find these fish in a pond.

this salad. Yes, add some capers in addition to pickles. It will be delicious! For a main course, I suggest making chicken skewers. It's very simple: marinate the chicken fillet for at least an hour. There are excellent Thai mixtures, or you can simply sprinkle it with curry. Cut into small pieces, attach to skewers and stick in the oven. It will be ready very quickly. And it's convenient to eat. Well, just before your guests arrive, make guacomole. The main thing here is a ripe avocado, otherwise nothing will work. This sauce takes about two minutes to prepare: throw four diced ripe avocados into a blender, squeeze out three cloves of garlic, squeeze out the juice of one lime and add salt. Then blend in a blender until you get a homogeneous cream. Taste to see if there is enough salt and lime. Place in small, deep bowls and place next to corn chips. Make sure your girlfriends don't fight over this sauce. There were precedents at home. Just like food, it is better to distribute alcohol evenly throughout the apartment. And don't forget about soft drinks. And lots and lots of colorful disposable tableware. All! You are the king of house parties!

The Question. The strangest questions about everything Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Gleb Pavlovsky and others

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Title: The Question. The strangest questions about everything
Author: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Gleb Pavlovsky, Alexey Venediktov, Oleg Kashin, Olga Vainshtok, Andrey Rostovtsev, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Jamie Oliver, Anton Dolin, Team of authors, Evgeny Chichvarkin, Andrey Kuraev, Mikhail Idov, Mikhail Kozyrev, Maxim Krongauz, Victor Shenderovich, Anatoly Wasserman, Yuri Knyazev
Year: 2016
Genre: Other educational literature, Entertainment

About the book “The Question. The strangest questions about everything" Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Gleb Pavlovsky and others

– Are crocodiles ever kind?

– Who actually won the presidential election in 1996?

– Can the brain run out of memory space?

– Why do pellets appear in the navels?

– What was it like to study in a Soviet school?

These and other questions were asked by users of The Question service, and over the past year, every day we have been looking for those who will give answers.

This book contains 297 of the strangest questions. We don't guarantee that you will become smarter if you read the answers, but at least you won't regret the time spent.

The book can cause acute attacks of curiosity.

On our website about books you can download the site for free without registration or read online the book “The Question. The strangest questions about everything" by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Gleb Pavlovsky and others in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. You can buy the full version from our partner. Also, here you will find the latest news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.

Quotes from the book “The Question. The strangest questions about everything" Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Gleb Pavlovsky and others

Good coffee is specialty coffee and freshly roasted. The coffee should be roasted no more than three to four weeks ago. The ideal coffee is in the first two weeks of its life after roasting. Specialty coffee is coffee carefully collected and processed by hand. The higher price per kilogram that the farmer receives allows him to spend more time collecting and processing each kilogram. Time is spent picking only ripe coffee berries from the tree, then separating the bad berries from the good ones, and so on. This care ultimately results in the brighter, purer taste we get from our cup of coffee.
In Moscow, specialty coffee roasters include Doubleby, Camera Obscura and us.
2. Tasty water is water with the appropriate level of mineralization. Regular water bought at the supermarket is usually not suitable. To maximize the taste of the coffee itself, you need to use water of the appropriate parameters. The pH of the water should be neutral, that is, around 7.0. Water hardness is usually determined by the amount of calcium and magnesium: their total content should not exceed 70–80 mg/l. There are many more nuances, but this is enough for home brewing coffee.
3. Scales are needed to measure the number of grams of coffee and water used. If for some reason you don’t like the recommended brewing recipe, you can change it by decreasing or increasing the amount of coffee or water, and for this you also need to know how much of one or the other was used last time.
4. A thermometer is necessary to know the temperature of the water used for brewing coffee. If you brew coffee with 95 degree water and 85 degree water, the taste of the coffee will be very different. To start, the easiest way is to start brewing coffee with water at 93 degrees, and then lower the temperature if you need to influence the taste. If you don’t have a thermometer, the simplest thing is to bring the water to a boil, immediately turn it off and wait three minutes.
5. To experience the full palette of taste that good coffee has, it is best to take an Aeropress or one of the pourovers (hario, v60, chemex, kalita). The AeroPress is perfect for home use: it is easy to handle, made of plastic, and therefore is not susceptible to falling or being transported over a distance.

Candidate of Medical Sciences, therapist
There are diseases in which sugar consumption should be completely eliminated (for example, severe forms of diabetes). In the absence of such health problems, there is no need to completely give up sugar. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate, and our brain really needs carbohydrates for it to work well and quickly.

There are diseases in which sugar consumption should be completely eliminated (for example, severe forms of diabetes). In the absence of such health problems, there is no need to completely give up sugar. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate, and our brain really needs carbohydrates for it to work well and quickly.
This does not mean that you need to eat refined sugar in pieces, but in limited quantities sugar does not harm us. And, for example, for children whose brain load is very high, sugar is generally indicated: that is why there is an abundance of it on the menu of children's educational institutions - buns, cheesecakes, sweet cereals. It is completely possible to give up sugar, but technically it is quite difficult, because sugar is found in fruits and even some vegetables. In theory, nothing particularly bad will happen to you, but under heavy stress - physical or mental - a lack of sugar threatens weakness, absent-mindedness, rapid fatigue and even neurosis.

In Moscow, I graduated from the journalism department of Moscow State University, and am now studying for a master's degree at City University London (Cass Business School). Plus, during my studies at the Faculty of Journalism, I studied for several months as an exchange student at the Dutch Windesheim University of Applied Sciences. I can say that a Russian “specialist”, a Western “bachelor” and a “master” are three completely different stories.
Russian education loses in that it has little control over the level of education of students: you study for a whole semester, and then in an exam you have to answer two questions out of, for example, 60. In Holland and England, I took 10-12 sections per semester, and during the exam I was guaranteed to receive a question on each of the topics covered. That is, passing an exam when pure luck saves you, as has happened to everyone in Russia at least once, is impossible in Europe. Moreover, unlike Russia, there is absolutely no human participation: in borderline cases, the assessment is almost always interpreted not in favor of the student, regardless of whether he took an active part in discussions at seminars or simply silently wrote his notes somewhere in the last series (in some cases, the teacher may warn at the first lecture that, for example, 10% of the grade for ALL students will depend on the degree of participation in the seminars).
Secondly, Western universities try to make a student’s stay in higher education as comfortable as possible (this is due to the fact that part of the rating is determined by the level of student satisfaction). In Russia, a lecture is most often when a teacher stands at the department for an hour and a half and reads a deeply theoretical course; the student is encouraged to adapt to this system and learn to understand the teacher and complex theoretical concepts by ear.
In Western universities, the basis of the lecture is slides prepared by the teacher, where all the educational material is already presented in the form of notes, often with pictures and sometimes with some kind of video on the topic. On the one hand, greater involvement of students in the educational process is guaranteed, plus the educational material is actually chewed on. On the other hand, and the Western press now often writes on this topic, students begin to think that what is on the slides is all the educational material for the course. In addition, slides aggravate the problem of clip consciousness, when it is difficult for people to concentrate on one task or one text for a long time, and it is difficult to evaluate different facets of a problem.

Well, just before your guests arrive, make guacomole. The main thing here is a ripe avocado, otherwise nothing will work. This sauce takes about two minutes to prepare: throw four diced ripe avocados into a blender, squeeze out three cloves of garlic, squeeze out the juice of one lime and add salt. Then blend in a blender until you get a homogeneous cream. Taste to see if there is enough salt and lime. Place in small, deep bowls and place next to corn chips.

Recently, physicists and psychologists agree that instrumental reason has no limits to development. But there are concerns that the development of the humanitarian mind is fundamentally limited by the basic properties of our thinking and even our brain. If this is so, then at some stage of technology development (according to special calculations, this stage may begin in the 21st century), earthly civilization will certainly destroy itself, having failed to reach the cosmic stage of development. It is possible that this is the lot of any planetary civilization.

Today, hearing hysteria about genetically modified foods and other new problems (which contributed to the strategic liberation of humanity from the thousand-year curse of hunger), I remember the paraphrase of the consummate humorist Winston Churchill: “He who does not regret the past has no heart, but he who yearns to return to it , he has no head.”

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Answers to which we are not looking, because perhaps we do not consider them important or simply take them for granted.

For example, have you ever thought about why we smell a specific smell when it rains or why we cry when we cut onions?

There were logical answers to several similar questions.

1. Why do old books smell so bad?

In short, several hundred volatile organic substances contribute to the smell. In 2009, a study was conducted on this topic, the results of which were published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

According to him, volatile organic compounds enter the air from books, and more specifically from the decaying components of which they are composed - paper, ink and glue.

2. How are seedless grapes grown?

Most fruits today do not come from seeds, but from cut branches. A small part of the vine or a branch is cut, cultivated and placed in the ground, after which roots and leaves begin to grow from it.

Some seedless grapes still contain seeds, but they are very small. In general, most types of grapes contain seeds, but not all of them form the hard shell we are used to.

3. Why don’t we see pigeon chicks?

Perhaps because we don't often look into their nests. Pigeons do not leave their nests until they are fully grown. In addition, when the pigeon is old enough to leave the nest, it is almost impossible to distinguish it from an adult pigeon.

4. Why does it smell so nice when it rains?

This scent is called Petrichor. This is the word they decided to use to describe the smell in the air that remains after the rain has passed. It was invented by two Australian scientists in 1964.

The term Petrichor was formed by combining the Greek words petra ("stone") and ichor ("ichor" - the liquid flowing in the veins of the Greek mythological gods).

It is worth noting that in the creation of this aroma, one of the main roles is played by the organic compound geosmin (geosmin - from the gr. “smell of earth”). This organic substance is nothing more than a waste product of various microorganisms, including cyanobacteria and actinomycetes.

5. Why do we cry when we cut onions?

When cutting an onion, the structure of its tissues is disrupted, the cells are torn, which in turn leads to the release of sulfonic acid, which turns into thiopropionaldehyde-B-oxide- it is he who brings tears.

In addition, these acids condense into the form of thiosulfite, which gives onions their characteristic odor.

It is worth noting that education thiopropionaldehyde-B-oxide As a result of cutting the onion, it reaches its peak 30 seconds after the first cut.

Tears are a protective reaction of our body, which begins to produce a weak solution of sulfuric acid.

Our brain “informs” the tear glands that it is time to secrete a large amount of fluid, which should wash away the irritating substance.

The more onion tissue is damaged, the more gas is produced and the more liquid the body produces, i.e. more tears.

The onion reaction is a kind of defense mechanism against pests.

6. How much gold does a gold ring lose when we wear it?

According to a 2008 study published in the journal Gold Bulletin, the average gold ring loses about 0.12 mg of gold each week.

Chemist Georg Steinhauser, who is the author of the study, writes: “The most gold is lost while relaxing on the beach, where the ring is exposed to the abrasive influence of sand.”

7. Why does garbage smell worse in hot weather than in cold weather?

Most garbage consists of organic material - fruit and vegetable peels, leftover food, etc. This material begins to decompose, releasing an unpleasant odor that signals that it is no longer edible.

If the environment is fairly warm, organic material will decompose faster. We are also less sensitive in cold weather, so when warm weather arrives, the stench from the garbage becomes stronger.

8. Why don't penguins fly?

The bird, on the path of evolution, apparently had to choose which skill would be more useful to it: to be able to fly well or to swim well.

This idea was put forward by scientists whose research was published in 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the study, penguins cannot fly because their bodies are more adapted to diving than to flying.

"To learn to fly, they need to grow big wings, and to dive better -increase the size of the torso. But if both conditions are met, then flight becomes impossible,” explains Robert Ricklefs, study co-author and ornithologist at the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

9. Why is it difficult to sneeze with your eyes open?

It's worth noting first that if you decide to deliberately leave your eyes open when you want to sneeze, they will not pop out of their sockets. And even if If this happened, then closing your eyelids could not help you avoid it.

In fact, when we sneeze, we close our eyes simply because the reflex is triggered. When your brain sends the signal to sneeze, part of it tells you to close your eyes.

10. Why do people walk forward and not sideways?

If crabs walk like this, why don't people do it? Even if we need to go left or right, we still turn and move in front.

One reason may be the fact that walking sideways uses as much energy as running forwards.

A study published in the journal Biology Letters in 2013 found that walking sideways requires more energy because it requires you to stop after each step to take the next step.

11. Why are some people covered with freckles and others are not?

Freckles contain the pigment melanin. Most freckles are caused by the same gene that causes red hair - MC1R.

The cells in the skin that produce melanin are called melanocytes. MC1R makes a protein that lives on these cells and tells your body what melanin to create.

In darker-skinned people, melanocytes are more likely to produce one type of melanin, eumelanin. People who produce more pheomelanin have paler skin and more freckles. By the way, such people do not tan very much, i.e. in the sun, their skin almost does not change color, since pheomelanin - unlike eumelanin - does not protect a person from ultraviolet rays.

12. Why does even the smallest speck of dust in the eye create a very unpleasant sensation?

Your cornea, the front most convex transparent element of the eyeball, has many nerve endings.

If you get dust in your eye and then start rubbing it, you are simply rubbing the dust on the surface of the cornea, which worsens the situation, making the pain worse. You can also inadvertently press too hard on a speck of dust and it will go into the cornea.

Instead of rubbing your eye, try blinking - in most cases this helps.

We offer a selection of interesting questions, the answers to which will make our world clearer and more interesting.

1.Do artificial gravity technologies exist?

Yes. According to the general theory of relativity, the forces of gravity and inertia are fundamentally indistinguishable. The g-force you experience in a car, on an airplane, or on a merry-go-round is the same artificial gravity. Moreover, the carousel, unlike a car and an airplane, can maintain “centrifugal” gravity for an unlimited time. All that remains is to make the space station in the form of a carousel, and it will have artificial gravity.

This is how the pioneers of astronautics imagined cities in orbit. However, such stations are not being built yet, since this is associated with many technical problems. All other “gravity generators” are science fiction, and not very scientific.

2.What will happen to a spider if it gets into the web of another spider?

Most likely, he will be eaten. However, he may survive if he turns out to be much larger than the owner of the web. Then the owner will break the threads holding the unwanted prey so that the alien falls out.

3.How did the witch hunt begin?

On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull against witches, giving broad powers to the Inquisition. Innocent VIII led a far from righteous lifestyle, did not hide his illegitimate children and, apparently, hoped to earn the mercy of heaven in another way - by fighting witchcraft.

Inquisitors Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Institoris, future authors of the reference book defining witchcraft atrocities and ways to combat them “The Hammer of Witches,” while hunting for the devil’s minions in German cities, encountered opposition from local authorities. Then the zealous Dominicans sent a complaint to the Pope in Rome. He heeded their request and issued a bull that gave the inquisitors unlimited powers and the ability to attract secular authorities of any locality to assist them and called on them to devote all their efforts to eradicating witchcraft.

The bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (“With all the strength of the soul”) marked a new stage in the activities of the Inquisition. The resulting terror throughout Europe lasted for several centuries. In the 17th century, the city council of Regensburg seriously feared that, due to the zeal of the Inquisition, there would soon not be a single woman left in the city. Surprisingly, the decree of 1484 has not been formally annulled by the Catholic Church to this day.

4. Is it possible to swing on a swing in zero gravity?

You can’t use regular ones. A swing is a pendulum that swings under the influence of gravity. If this strength is not there, then you cannot swing. However, you can come up with a spring or magnetic swing. You can swing on them in zero gravity if you move the body movements with the required frequency to shift the center of gravity in one direction or the other.

5.What is a smoking room?

Luchina. The smoking room is a smoldering ray, it gave its name to the children's game. The players passed the board from hand to hand, saying: “Alive, alive, smoking room, thin legs, short soul,” etc. Whoever had the torch in his hands lost, lost. Over time, a smoking room began to be called a person who seemed to have disappeared, but suddenly showed up again.

6.Are there immortal beings?

There are potentially immortals. There are no creatures that cannot be killed. But for some, death is not a natural and necessary end to life. Thus, the life cycle of bacteria and many other single-celled organisms ends with division; as a result, two equivalent organisms are formed, also capable of unlimited reproduction. Plants, including higher ones, also have potential immortality, since they can restore an entire organism from individual parts.

In Sweden, a spruce tree is known that grew back from its roots several times over 9.5 thousand years, and in California an entire oak grove was discovered that was once a single tree that grew back many times after fires over 13 thousand years.

7. Did ancient people have caries?

Yes. An examination of the remains of 52 people who lived 13,700–15,000 years ago on the territory of modern Morocco showed that 49 of them had signs of caries, and many had severely damaged teeth. True, this incidence of the disease was unusually high for that time. Scientists attribute this to the specific nutrition of this tribe, in whose diet a large share was made up of acorns and other seeds. In communities that ate fewer carbohydrate foods, tooth decay was less common.

8. Do animals kiss?

Yes. Animals quite often touch each other with their lips or beaks, expressing affection or affection. However, for a full kiss you need soft and moving lips. Only some mammals have them, including monkeys. Many of their species kiss for real during family and social contacts, sometimes mutually. In most other mammals, kissing is performed by licking or light biting.

9.Why do surgeons clean their hands with 70% alcohol and not 96%?

This is enough for sterility. Alcohol at a concentration of 70 degrees disinfects almost as effectively as 96 degrees, and it tans the skin less. In addition, 70-proof alcohol is cheaper.

10.Why are there pimples on cucumbers?

These are the remains of thorns. Many species of wild cucumbers are covered with impressive thorns. They prevent animals from eating the fruits before the seeds ripen; then the thorns dry out and break off. However, in the ancestors of the cultivated cucumber, growing in a humid tropical climate, the spines were transformed into organs through which excess water was discharged in droplets. Thus, all that remained of the thorns were tubercles.

11.What exploded in the Big Bang?

False vacuum. According to modern concepts, empty space (vacuum) can be in different energy states. Our familiar space appears to be the lowest energy state of vacuum. However, before the Big Bang, the vacuum could have been in a much more energetic state, called a false vacuum. According to the theory of cosmological inflation, this state is unstable. It was the decay of the false vacuum that could become the source of energy for the Big Bang.

12. How does a baby whale not suffocate if it is born in water?

He is quickly pushed to the surface. Cetaceans do not have hind limbs, and the pelvic bones are reduced and not connected to each other and to the spine, so the birth canal consists almost of soft tissue. Childbirth goes very quickly. The baby whale appears tail first, the head comes out last. Immediately after birth, the mother or other members of the pack push the newborn to the surface of the water so that it can take a breath. Mammals also give birth to sirens in water.

13. Is it true that a person’s nose grows throughout his life?

No. Nose growth usually ends by age 18-20. Subsequently, only its shape changes due to a decrease in the firmness and elasticity of the skin or under the influence, for example, of dehydration of the body. But in some pathological processes in adults, the concentration of hormones that regulate growth increases. In these cases, the nose and ears may actually become enlarged.

14.How far does the laser pointer shine?

Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. On a wall illuminated by the sun, the spot from the pointer is difficult to see even from 10 meters, and at night it is visible from a hundred meters away. If the beam hits the eye directly, it can blind from 10 km. The maximum distance from which a pointer signal can theoretically be seen in space in the absence of interference is hundreds of thousands of kilometers. At a million kilometers, due to the divergence of the beam, too few photons would reach the eye.

15. How do the police differ from the gendarmerie?

Gendarmes are military men. The phrase gens d’armes is translated from French as “people with weapons.” In France, the gendarmerie is part of the armed forces and reports to the Ministry of Defense. That is, these are military personnel performing police tasks. In addition, the gendarmes are entrusted with responsibilities related to the armed defense of the country.

The police are a civilian formation subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It ensures public order in the broad sense of the word. In modern Russia, the analogue of the gendarmerie is the internal troops.

16.Where is “in the middle of nowhere”?

No one knows where, but obviously very far away. Once in this phraseological turn the word “Kulizhki” was used, which gradually began to be replaced by “Kulichki”. Back in the 19th century, this replacement was considered erroneous. So, in Vladimir Dahl’s explanatory dictionary it says: “In the middle of nowhere (incorrectly: in the middle of nowhere), I don’t know where.” “Kulizhka” is a diminutive of “kuliga”.

In the eastern dialects of the Russian language, this word meant cleared, uprooted or burned forest for arable land. Kulizhki were, as a rule, located outside the villages, on the outskirts; these were swampy places, and, moreover, according to popular beliefs, inhabited by evil spirits. By the way, Moscow also has its own “kulizhki” (more precisely, Kulishki): this is the name of the area of the current Slavyanskaya Square and Solyanka, where there were once fish and salt auctions (hence the name).

When the word “Kulizhka” began to fall out of widespread use, the expression was rethought and turned into “in the middle of nowhere.” However, its meaning has not actually changed: and in fact, where can you find the devil with Easter cakes? According to some linguists, initially the expression “to hell with the middle of nowhere” was an answer to the question: “Where are you going?” Superstitious people avoided answering this question directly, so as not to cause trouble on the road.

17.Who made the parachute?

In 1783, the Frenchman Louis-Sébastien Lenormand made the first successful parachute jump, confirmed by witnesses. Lenormand jumped from the 15-meter tower of the observatory in the city of Montpellier, using a parachute with a wooden frame that he designed.

18.When was the first dollar printed?

The dollar (from the German taler) was declared the monetary unit on July 6, 1785 by the Continental Congress. In the beginning, the dollar was a silver coin. And in 1861, the first banknotes came into circulation, printed on special linen-cotton paper with green ink. One edge of the bills was uneven. The mint kept a spine, the opposite edge of which was an exact copy of a banknote of a certain series. It was used to establish the authenticity of the banknotes.

In August 1862, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began work. Four women and two men in the basement of the main Treasury building began sorting and stamping $1 and $2 bills that were printed by private companies. Government money printing began in 1863, and by 1877 all US currency had been printed by the Bureau.

Today in the United States there are banknotes in circulation with a date of issue no earlier than 1928 - in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 dollars. However, banknotes worth more than $100 are prohibited from being exported outside the country. $10,000 bills have not been printed since July 1944, and by the end of the 1980s there were only 348 of these bills in circulation. In 1969, the US Treasury announced the cessation of further issuance of banknotes in denominations above $100. The last $2 bill was printed in 1976.

The front side of the $500 bill features a portrait of McKinley, 25th President of the United States; the $1,000 bill features Stephen Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President; the $5,000 bill features James Madison, 4th President; dollar bill - financier Samon Portland Chace.

The commonly used “buck” comes from buck (English) - deer. It was deer antlers or skins that served as the monetary equivalent in Great Britain. This word took root in the New World, since the British also settled in it.

19.Does a hedgehog change its spines?

Yes, gradually. A hedgehog loses a certain number of quills throughout the year. And when a hedgehog awakens from hibernation, it loses about a third of its needles, in the place of which new ones immediately begin to grow. Therefore, the animal is not defenseless. If a hedgehog's spines fall out faster than they grow back, then most likely he is sick.

20. Why does Chomolungma have a second name - Everest?

Because the first was not known to surveyors. In the 19th century, the British carried out geodetic surveys in the Himalayas. They could not enter the territory of Nepal, which was then closed to foreigners, and took measurements from India at a distance of more than 200 km from the Nepalese peaks.

At that time, Kanchenjunga on the border of Nepal and India was considered the highest mountain. But in 1852, Indian mathematician Radhanath Sikdar, based on measurements made by the British, calculated that the mountain, codenamed Peak XV, should be higher than Kanchenjunga. She needed to be given a name by which the world would recognize her.

Not knowing the Tibetan name of the mountain (Qomolungma), the head of the geodetic survey of British India, Andrew Waugh, named the peak in honor of his predecessor in this post - George Everest.

21.When did light appear?

During the Big Bang, but did not become visible immediately. Visible light is electromagnetic radiation in a certain range of wavelengths. Radiation has existed in the Universe since the very moment of the Big Bang, but in dense hot plasma photons could not move freely: electrons constantly absorbed them and emitted them again, the matter was opaque.

Light began to spread freely through space only 300,000 years later, when the temperature of the universe dropped, electrons merged with nuclei, and the gas became mostly transparent. The light emitted then is now visible as cosmic microwave background radiation.

22.Where did the asteroid fall that supposedly killed the dinosaurs?

Near the Yucatan Peninsula. The crater with a diameter of 180 km was formed by the impact of an asteroid 65 million years ago. According to one hypothesis, the dust and soot it raised reduced the flow of sunlight and heat. The death of plants led to the extinction of dinosaurs. But many paleontologists point out that the extinction began long before the asteroid hit. And even a serious catastrophe would not have led to the rapid death of the dominant fauna if dinosaurs had not experienced evolutionary competition from mammals.

23. If diamond is the hardest material, then how is it processed?

Diamond. First, jewelers must study the structure of the stone to understand how to process it. Cutting the crystal in the direction of greatest hardness is practically useless. It is sawed in the direction of less hardness, usually using a very thin (hundredths of a millimeter) circular saw, into the blade of which diamond chips are pressed.

So, in essence, the diamond is cutting the diamond, albeit very slowly, over many hours. Recently, lasers have also been used for cutting. Stones are cut and polished using discs containing the same diamond dust. Unfortunately, up to half of the original weight of the diamond is lost during processing.

24.What is Baikal famous for?

Lakes are bodies of water with slow water exchange, occupying about 1.5% of the land surface, which are characterized by the absence of a direct connection with the World Ocean. Hydrogeologists believe that there are about 5 million lakes on Earth, the total water reserve in which is 230 thousand km 3, of which 123 thousand km 3 is fresh.

On a global scale, the supply of drinking water in Lake Baikal, located on the territory of Russia, is 1/5 and exceeds the volume of water in the five Great Lakes of North America combined. In order to imagine how large the water reserve of this lake is, it is enough to say that to fill the lake basin, the deepest point of which lies 5-6 thousand m below ocean level, all the rivers of the world would have to drain water here for 300 days.

Baikal is one of the oldest lakes on the planet. Its age is estimated at 25 million years. Despite such a respectable age, he shows no signs of aging. 336 rivers flow into Baikal, but the main role in the water balance of the lake, namely 50% of the annual influx of water, is played by the waters of the Selenga River. Once in Baikal, its upper 50-meter layer is repeatedly cleaned by the epishura crustaceans (endemics to Lake Baikal) that live in it, is saturated with oxygen and settles for years.

Water exchange in the northern basin of the lake occurs with a periodicity of 225 years, in the middle - 132 years, in the southern - 66 years, which makes it suitable for use as drinking water without any additional purification.