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Summary: Science and myth. From myth to logos. The most common scientific myths Human brains are divided into right-handers and left-handers

In accordance with the principles of the system approach - synchronic, diachronic and functional (or according to M. S. Kagan, subject, historical and functional, see: 93, 26) - we find manifestations of myth in various forms and content of cultural phenomena, in different eras. Mythological roots permeate almost all spheres of modern society, any sphere of modern culture. Examples of this can be found in abundance even in the field of science, which claims to be maximally rational and objective in relation to the world.

Science is based on the affirmation of the hope of reaching the truth, so that in this sense, science can also be considered to have a mythological function. Of course, belief in truth as the goal and criterion of scientific research is not the only foundation of science, as discussed above. One of the main attitudes that seduces the scientist and pushes him onto a path fraught with errors is the absolutization of this or that methodological program. Here you can find two sides of the coin: confidence in the correctness of the chosen methodology and methodology is a condition for its successful completion (although not the only condition; but overestimation, excessive confidence in this program easily leads to delusions, mythological self-deception.

As K. Popper believes, the existing idea that the discussion is fruitful only within the framework of a "conceptual framework" or some closed scientific theory is false, he calls this idea the "myth of the conceptual framework" (175, 558-593). In his opinion, the clash of different "conceptual frameworks" is much more fruitful for the development of scientific knowledge, only in this case there is a cardinal enrichment of both cultures, although psychologically such a clash seems more dramatic and unacceptable. He compares the "conceptual frame" with a spiritual prison, which many

they do not want to part, because outside it is frightening: the unknown, inside, although to a meager, but guaranteed system of satisfying needs (see: 175, 582). The discussion within the "conceptual framework", as Popper convincingly shows, aims at nothing more than substantiation of dogmas previously known, novelty is possible only in the search for new foundations for these dogmas. Only criticism from positions of a different paradigm can provide a breakthrough in the "conceptual framework" and lead to fruitful discoveries (see: 175, 591-592).

Newton's discovery and the paradigm of the mechanistic cosmos formed on its basis looked quite convincing for its time, since it met the criteria of rational determinism. The long-term authority of this paradigm reached the absolute, and any facts that contradicted it were rejected as unreliable. Until, finally, too many such facts have accumulated, in connection with which attempts were made to create a new picture of the world. With the discovery of the theory of relativity, such a picture of the world was created.

As the French sociologist G. Tarde wrote, the attitude of society to any innovation goes through three stages: first it is met with hostility and "thrown with stones", then they gradually get used to it and, finally, "throw stones" at anyone who dares to challenge this, which has become " absolute, truth. Such a fate befell the theory of relativity. Accepted at first with distrust and hostility, it gradually won the absolute majority of supporters in the public mind, so that now any attempts to doubt it are not accepted in any form.

However, any truth should not freeze. Being frozen, it runs the risk of becoming a myth. This happened once with the Newtonian picture of the world, and now - with the theory of relativity. The Petersburg scientist A. A. Denisov doubted the theory of relativity and with great difficulty published the book "Myths of the Theory of Relativity", which provoked a fierce negative reaction from many scientists who consider the theory of relativity to be the ultimate truth and fetishize it. Attempts to criticize the theory of relativity were made in

different times L. Landau, A. Logunov, Buffato and others.

One of the reasons that give rise to mythological conflicts in science is misunderstanding (see: 155, 130-132), because science, probably more than other spheres of social consciousness, is prone to paradigmization. As Polanyi noted, "by now it has become clear that modern scientism fetters thought no less than the church did" (173, 276). As a summary, one can also cite the words of S. Lem: "... Any, even the most exact science develops not only thanks to the conjectures and hopes of scientists. Development justifies only some of them. The rest turn out to be an illusion and therefore are like a myth" (122, 127) .

How and where else can traces of mythological consciousness be found in modern consciousness? Vyach. Sun. Ivanov analyzes the notes of S. M. Eisenstein on working on films and finds that in many decisions the film director relies on a spiritual and mythological basis: this, for example, is a son’s rebellion against his father, this is associative-frustration substitution, the elimination of “trauma”, this is the function of gesture , synesthesia, binary opposition, ecstasy technique, etc. (see: 85, 75-137).

If we delve into the roots, in the etymology of words, we can find that almost all of them go into the mythological consciousness of ancient eras. The well-known linguist V. I. Abaev wrote about this: “Any word of our speech, before getting a modern everyday meaning, went through a complex semantic history, leading us ultimately to the initial word-creative efforts of a person. From every word that we use, looks at us not forty centuries, but at least forty millennia. the routine of everyday language practice, some word cow should have been more awe-inspiring to us by its overwhelming antiquity than all the Egyptian pyramids. To recreate to the end the history of at least one word means to join in revealing the secret of all human speech and thinking "(138, 6). As an example of such an etymological deepening into the semantic "cellars" of some general concepts and words of the Russian language, one can cite books

V. V. Kolesova "The World of Man in the Word of Ancient Rus'" (104) or V. M. Mokienko "Images of Russian Speech" (151).

Any axiom of rational consciousness, any figure of formal logic is the result of thousands of years of experience in using initially hypothetical, but then verified by experience, I remained indisputable, self-evident truths of ordinary common sense. "Or do you not believe that in man there are abysses so deep that they are hidden even from himself, in whom, however, they dwell?" asked Augustine rhetorically,

The revival of another form of mythological consciousness can be considered the process of spreading astrology observed today. The objective experience of analyzing the significant coincidence of psychological characteristics with their "stellar" prototypes does not allow us to reject astrology as completely devoid of meaning. Another thing is that this meaning can be interpreted in different ways. The matter is connected, of course, not so much with the actual influence of the stars, although they cannot be discounted, but with the impact on the Earth's biosphere of closer space neighbors - the planets of the Solar System, their mutual arrangement, which creates stable rhythms of various states of the bioenvironment, which, in in turn, and influence the character of people, their genetic prerequisites. So, it is suggested that the different phases of the moon at the time of conception affect the sex of the unborn child. Constellations are only mythological symbols of these differing states of the biosphere, and therefore are used by astrology.

As Z. Freud noted, "the main task of culture, its true justification is to protect us from nature" (281, 104). In this understanding of culture, the main emphasis is on normativity in social relations as opposed to physiology. Culture provides, according to Freud, the elevation and ennoblement of the soul, which "over time so slowly and difficultly separated from the body" (181, 107). As we have already noted, modern psycholinguistics has established that human consciousness is multilayered, deepest of all are ancient

shie, mythological layers (see: 220). As P. A. Florensky figuratively said about this, the task of religion is to pacify this irrational "fiery hell", the tongues of which lick the upper layers of consciousness. The irrational abysses of consciousness cannot be fully comprehended by verbal-conceptual means, other languages ​​are needed, symbolic sign systems, about which G. Hesse wrote in the novel "The Glass Bead Game". The mythological components of consciousness and subconsciousness saturate our culture and social consciousness with spiritual meanings, enrich them with diversity. Mythology contributes to the formation of hopeful images of the world, it is an inexhaustible arsenal of spiritual values ​​of mankind, accumulated over the centuries-old history of society. We have already turned in the form of a wave. The peculiarity of the wave is that it conveys movement without moving the material. She draws him into the movement, but does not carry him away. This is clearly seen in the field of cereals. The wind shakes the ears, the waves run across the field, but the ears themselves only sway, but remain in the same place. The same is true of the waves on the pond, although there is an illusion of water movement. In fact, the water only oscillates up and down and rotates slightly, Myth can be likened to a wave in the sense that the created mythologeme, when moving in history (in time), is filled at each new stage with new content. Myth as a form passes to another society, which fills the ancient mythologems with new meaning. Therefore, the myth can be considered a "kumatoid" (the term of M. A. Rozov) or "kymatoid" (from the ancient Greek "κυμα" - wave).

Truth and myth are two opposite sides of the value picture of the world, they are complementary and can turn into each other. Truth can turn into myth, and myth can become reality. “All that we call evil,” said Goethe, “is only the reverse side of goodness, which is just as necessary for its existence, just as the zona torrida must burn, and Lapland be covered with ice, in order for the temperate zone to become possible.” Therefore, attempts to get rid of myths and start living without them are inappropriate: "No matter how you treat mythology, any criticism of it is always just preaching a different, new mythology," wrote A. F. Losev (133, 194). And further:

“If I am religious and believe in other worlds, they are a living mythological reality for me. If I am a materialist and positivist, then dead and mechanical matter is a living, mythological reality for me, and I am obliged, as a materialist, to love it and bring sacrifice my life to her. No matter how I think about the world and life, they are always a myth and a name for me, whether the myth and the name are deep or shallow, rich or not rich, pleasant or hateful "(133,194-195).

The development of mankind consists in the accumulation of experience in the development of the world. The boundary of what has been assimilated is expanding, its differentiation is deepening and becoming more complicated, abilities are being formed more and more subtly to differentiate and comprehend various phenomena of the world, the social and natural environment. This is "progress", which has an ambiguously positive meaning, since integrity is lost. Social life is organized rhythmically. Rhythms permeate all forms of human activity. These rhythms are set by the pace of time, the movement of the planets, seasonal changes and biological processes in the body of each person. In accordance with the level of development of the productive forces in society, production and other social relations take shape. The forms of these relations arise unconsciously, but, repeating themselves in the rhythm of social functioning, they are fixed not only in consciousness, but also materialize in various cultural phenomena. Being conscious, forms of activity and behavior acquire the value of reliable ways to meet social needs, so society seeks to preserve them, consecrates them with a halo of tradition, relies on them to achieve both goals. Habits, norms, traditions, on the other hand, facilitate the functioning of society, rhythmize its life. A person easily learns the rhythms of this functioning and often painfully reacts to external attempts to change these behavioral patterns.

Cultural phenomena are formed as functional values. Their task is to facilitate and streamline activities. Inclusion in a stable rhythm of this activity is ensured by the creation in social memory, in the mind of a guiding norm,

model-example of behavior and life activity. The rhythm of functioning consists of three stages: the emergence of a need, the search for means of consumption, and consumption (satisfaction of a need). When a need is satisfied in the same way, there is no need to look for a means to satisfy it, so the path from the need to its satisfaction is accelerated and facilitated. If at the moment there is no usual means of satisfying the need, the orienting reflex and the search activity that has grown on its basis help to find a new means, which enriches the culture of consumption, which has an arsenal of techniques, ways and means of satisfying needs. Needs are also enriched, which meet the burden of the means of satisfying the complication of the needs themselves - there is an expanded reproduction of needs. It should be noted that if the existing stereotypes of consumption dominate in the sphere of material needs, the expansion occurs relatively slowly, then in the sphere of spiritual needs this process of renewal occurs much faster, since here the means of satisfying needs relatively quickly lose their attractiveness and since the psychological law of necessary renewal operates. required diversity (ectropia). The well-known physiologist, academician P. V. Simonov created an information theory of emotions, in which interest in information is associated with the degree of its novelty.

Society, as a social organism, is constantly striving to capture the objective rhythms of functioning and adapt to them, and then norms arise, established, generally recognized ways to meet social needs, which are then introduced, imposed on all members of society in order to maintain the achieved level of consumption.

There are, as Ya. E. Golosovker noted, two dialectical laws: the law of "constancy-in-variability" and the law of "variability-in-constancy". The first law is inherent in nature, the second - in culture (see: 59, 124). At the same time, the norm itself already contains a contradiction: it simultaneously denies, rejects, restricts, prohibits some norms of behavior and

activities and stimulates, encourages others. The accumulation of information in scientific and practical experience - in the public mind or the development of productive forces in the material sphere - sooner or later leads to a contradiction between the need for sustainable functioning of society within the framework of this paradigm and an excess of information, the need to expand and update the culture of consumption with new means. Consciously or unconsciously approaching the management of its development, society criticizes its outdated norms, rhythms of functioning and influences their creative development. There is a reassessment of values, restructuring. Noshe norms, having taken shape, get used to social practice, get used to them, adapt, however, it is necessary to constantly see their change under the influence of the environment and the growing potential for renewal and creatively anticipate the moment when the progressive, stimulating function of this norm dries up in order to remove it and work out a new norm, more perfect, more in line with the changing needs of social life.

Mythology not only creates a hopeful, teleologically constructed picture of the world, but also ensures its authenticity, its transformation into a valuable absolute, into a basis for evaluating other phenomena and facts, the value of which is already established depending on the attitude towards mythological values. This picture of the world can be turned both to the future and to the past. In Judaism and Christianity, Adam's stay in the Garden of Eden is the original mythologeme, on the other hand, the kingdom of God (paradise) and salvation are in the future.

In conclusion, let us cite N. A. Berdyaev’s wonderful words about the role of myth in history: “In the deepest sense of the word, history is a created myth. Myth is the most essential and real content of history, some of its primary event, its first life ... Medieval papal theocracy. The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Great French Revolution - all these bright moments of historical creativity were based on a myth and drew their creative energy from this myth.

finally stop historical creativity. Myth is the great dynamic force of history, it is not "about something", "something", not about history, but history itself, its internal creative energy. It would be impossible to make the Great French Evolution without the myth of freedom, equality and fraternity, of the rights of man and citizen, of the modern state of nature. the Renaissance would have been impossible without the humanistic myth. Let these myths be exposed by history, let their pathos be killed by further historical process - they made history, and history is incomprehensible without them. At the heart of the myth is a deeper reality than at the basis of all the revelations of historians - the reality of the creative human spirit ... Each era needs its own living myths that create history, it cannot live on old myths. And our era needs new myths. Creative historicism presupposes an appeal to the dynamic forces of history, to living energies, and not to authoritative traditions; creative historicism is turned not to ossified myths, but to the mystery of historical creativity, to the living myth-making of history" (33, 132).

Thus, we can determine: mythological consciousness is a way of emotional reflection, which, on the verge of conscious and unconscious, organizes the installation of value conditioning (axiology) in mastering the world and in expressing the results of this mastering in mythological symbols (names), later - in religious dogmas, artistic images, political images, illusions and ideals..

In the system of culture, mythological consciousness, expressed in a symbolic form, performs the function of ordering, overcoming entropy through endowing a person with hope, teleological organization of human behavior and activity in his pursuit of ideals, thereby ensuring a higher degree of adaptation, adaptation, fitting into the environment. The myth is like a wave, it passes through the culture, bringing diversity and life in the area of ​​peace, monotony and boredom, activates human activity, thereby acquiring the significance of high value for humanity.

Conquering 8848 meters of this incredible protrusion on the face of the Earth is one of the greatest achievements in the life of some people, but it would be wrong to call this peak the highest mountain in the world. This title belongs to Mauna Kea, a volcanic peak in Hawaii with a summit at an altitude of 4205 meters.

But wait, you say, this is much less than the height of Everest. In fact, this number only indicates the height above sea level - most of this peak goes to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Together with it, the height of the mountain reaches 10,000 meters, which makes it the highest mountain on the planet. Technically, Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, but certainly not the highest mountain on Earth.

Great Wall of China seen from space


This man-made structure is impressively massive, no doubt, but is it big enough to be seen from space? This question is asked only on Earth: many astronauts have confirmed that it cannot be seen from space with the naked eye, and, of course, not from the surface of the Moon.

This myth burst into popular culture in the 18th century - before humans actually went into space - but calculations have shown that trying to see a wall from the moon is like trying to see a human hair from three kilometers away. Being over 20,000 kilometers long, the Great Wall of China is only six meters wide, which is too thin. , who said they saw the wall from space, simply confused this object with a river, in particular, with the Grand Canal of China.

The color red infuriates the bulls


We've all seen bulls charging at someone waving a red rag in front of their snouts. The expression "like a bull at the sight of a red rag" has also become popular to describe someone's anger. To be fair, bulls are color blind. It is not the color that angers the animal, but the sweeping movements of this material. The MythBusters placed three effigies with rags of different colors in front of the bull. And they proved that the bull rushes to the rag that moves, regardless of color.

Chameleons can take on any color


Approximately 69% of adults believe this, but despite what we know from childhood, a chameleon cannot take on a plaid color or imitate a wallpaper pattern. The chameleon has an extraordinary ability to change color, but this color mostly depends on the mood of the lizard, changes in body temperature or for the purpose of communication, and not on the environment.

For example, they are able to become dazzling white in direct sunlight to reflect heat, or turn dark in cool weather to absorb light, and the male can decorate himself with colored patterns, signaling readiness for mating. You should also know that the outer layer of the chameleon's skin is transparent: they change color with the help of layers of chromatophore cells, which contain various pigments, which form an impressive palette.

Lightning will never strike twice in the same place.


Oh, hit, and how. Trees and tall buildings often get hit by lightning, who don't really care where to strike. In fact, the US National Weather Service reports that the Empire State Building is struck by lightning 25 times a year. Once, during one thunderstorm, she received eight lightning strikes in half an hour.

Of course, the main purpose of this idiom is to encourage people to try to do something more than once - word of mouth says that a bad experience is unlikely to be repeated. But this is absurd to some extent. Roy Sullivan entered the Guinness Book of Records as the man who was struck by lightning seven times in different places, and Tsutomu Yamaguchi was even hit by two of the two nuclear bombings aimed at killing people in the history of mankind - in Nagasaki and in Hiroshima.

Human brains are divided into right-handers and left-handers


You have probably heard that people are artistically inclined and bad at mathematics, because they are left or right hemisphere dominant, but how true is this? I'm sorry, but you can no longer blame one side of your brain for your inability to calculate square roots in your head.

The conventional wisdom is that the right hemisphere dominates in creative people, while the left hemisphere dominates in more prudent and pragmatic people. This is a great way to categorize personality traits, but research has found no evidence that individuals are left or right brains for these traits.

The University of Utah conducted a two-year study of more than 1,000 people whose brains were monitored as they completed various tasks. Although scientists have found that the left and right parts of the brain are responsible for different functions (language on the left, attention on the right), neither is superior to the other. So the truth is that both halves of the brain are equally active.

We only have five senses


Sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. These feelings were categorized by Aristotle himself and believed that this was it. But he was wrong. Although many consider this to be our ultimate set of feelings, the truth is that we have many more, at least twenty. We use the main five every day, but you do not even suspect how deep your susceptibility is.

For example, we have the ability to feel the temperature, the ability to balance while skiing - what does this refer to? What about hunger, thirst, orientation during movement or a sense of space?

Without these senses, we would be quite primitive - so to say that we have only five senses would be unscientific. Each feeling can be broken down into smaller categories. For example, there is nociception (sense of pain), proprioception (knowledge of the orientation of one's limbs), and perception of time. We respond to a wide variety of effects on our body, our brains have a wide range of receptors. Keep this in mind.

In the Middle Ages, people thought the earth was flat.


One common myth is that in the Middle Ages people thought the earth was flat. It is believed that Christopher Columbus sailed to the horror of his contemporaries, who believed that sailing beyond the horizon meant falling from the edge of the Earth, but this is not so. People realized that our planet is spherical hundreds of years before the voyage of Columbus. The ancient Greeks accepted this as a fact, the Christian church too, Ptolemy's Geography spoke about this in the 2nd century.

Where did this myth come from? It is widely believed that in the 18th and 19th centuries this myth became widespread as part of the disputes between religion and science. Anti-religious writers have used this myth to attack religion, arguing that the church claimed the earth was flat when, in fact, science was the truth. A biography of Columbus written by Washington Irving gave a misleading view of how prominent members of the committee discussing Columbus's proposal doubted his claims of a spherical Earth. Popular culture has since propagated the convenient notion that medieval people ignorantly thought our rounded world was flat.

We only use 10% of our brains


We would like to think that the brain is only working at 10%, and the rest of it is waiting to be filled, like a hard drive. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and this myth has been dispelled by science. Hollywood movies like Lucy do nothing to dispel this myth, portraying a world where unlocking the remaining 90% of our brains can help us learn languages ​​in seconds or become instant experts in everything from martial arts to mechanics. But this is second-rate fiction (because it is not based on scientific data). We use our brain to the fullest, all the time.

At any given time, we are processing so much information that neurons and synapses fire throughout the brain almost indefinitely. Any function or task that we constantly perform stimulates different parts of the brain; An MRI scan performed by neurologists confirmed that this most important organ of ours works fully even when performing the most trivial tasks.

Do not forget also about brain injuries. Even a small blow to the head can cause severe brain damage. If 90% of our brains were dormant, we could completely cut off our “non-working” part and live on. But the brain is a more flexible and integral organ, so it won't work, and you know it.

Finally, the last counter-argument against the myth is evolution. Nature is such that an efficient system that has a gigantic excess of gray matter that takes up extra space in our skulls would have drawn conclusions for itself long ago. The brain consumes a lot of energy (about 20% of our total energy), so draining so much healthy food for nothing would make no biological sense.

There is an opinion that this myth about 10% was born from the preface to Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Journalist Lowell Thomas wrote of Harvard psychologists who, while studying a child genius in 1890, concluded that the brain must have untapped reserves: "Professor William James of Harvard said that the average person uses only ten percent of his mental faculties." However, it is clear that James was referring to ten percent "mental energy."

The myth continued to evolve as a romantic idea of ​​human potential and what we could achieve if we unlocked its potential. Also, this idea fits perfectly into books and films.

Sharks don't get cancer


You may have heard this not very popular but enduring myth that parents tell their children when they visit an aquarium. Unfortunately for our fish brothers, they are not immune to this disease - and they get cancer. Even sadder is that many people have fallen for this and started killing sharks for "medical" purposes in order to study and extract "healing" extracts.

The misconception dates back to the 1970s, when scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered that cartilage stops the growth of new blood vessels in the tissue, a key characteristic of malignant tumors. Since the skeletons of sharks are composed almost entirely of cartilage, it is not surprising that the attention of scientists has been riveted to sharks. The scientists also found that sharks had a reduced chance of developing the disease and began exposing them to high levels of carcinogens, to no avail.

The disaster began when Dr. William Lane garnered media attention with his book Sharks Don't Get Cancer. After questionable clinical trials, he claimed remarkable results from shark cartilage research. Without much thought, Lane opened his own business and began selling shark cartilage pills as an alternative cancer treatment. The FDA conducted clinical trials of the pills and found that they had no effect at all. Further research smashed the theory to smithereens, and in 2004, scientists at the University of Hawaii found many tumors in a wide variety of sharks, rays and their relatives, as well as tumors in the cartilage themselves.

A year of a dog's life is equal to seven years of a human's life.


Many of you have thought so far that one year of a human life is equal to seven years of a dog's life. 50% of adults believe in this myth, which has nothing to do with science. A dog's age equivalent depends on its size and breed, and also varies with its life stage.

Let's go back to 1268 to find the source of the myth, which began with the age of a dog being equal to a human being at a ratio of 9 to 1. They say that people lived up to 80 years old, while dogs lived up to 9 - although we will have to try to find 80-year-old people living and dead in those days. Centuries later, scientists refined the average life expectancy of humans and dogs to 70 and 10 years, respectively - hence the seven-year rule was born.

This is where the logic ends. Since dogs can breed as early as one year old, the 7:1 rule would mean that humans start breeding at age 7 and live to be 150. The myth is clearly not true. Further studies have shown that dogs mature 15 to 20 times faster in the first year, and large dogs age faster than small dogs in subsequent years.

How to calculate the equivalent of the age of your dog in relation to a person? The chart below will help you.


y-axis: human age equivalent

x-axis: dog age

Decryption: normal weight for an adult dog (in pounds and kg)

In various fields of science, there are things that seem to be well-known facts. However, in fact, all of them turn out to be nothing more than myths and delusions. A recent study found that as many as 82 percent of people are wrong about at least one scientific issue. Here are the most common myths that many take for truth.


The wonders of science brought to Las Vegas

Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place

It is rather a saying, which should be understood in an allegorical sense. On the contrary, there are objects that, due to certain properties, attract lightning. So, in the 103-story New York skyscraper Empire State Building, lightning strikes up to 25 times a year. Once, during a thunderstorm, the building was struck by lightning eight times in half an hour!

The Great Wall of China can be seen from space

This myth was born in the 18th century, when space flights were still very far away. Modern astronauts claim that it is impossible to see the wall even from orbit with the naked eye. Although the Great Wall of China is over 20,000 kilometers long, it is only six meters wide. Those who allegedly saw it from space most likely confused it with the Grand Canal of China, which is much wider, experts say.

Red makes the bulls furious

As you know, matadors during bullfights wave a red rag in front of the bulls to infuriate them. But if they were to wave cloth of any other color, the result would be the same: these bovines are simply color blind.

For the sake of experiment, three stuffed animals were placed in front of the bull, providing them with rags of different colors. It turned out that the animal is running towards the scarecrow, whose rag is moving... In the arena, the bull reacts not to color, but to the movements of the matador.

Chameleons can change color at will

It's not exactly a myth. It's just that in the body of chameleons there are special cells - chromatophores, which, depending on the situation, produce one or another pigment. But this does not mean at all that the change of color depends on the desire of the reptile.

As a rule, this is influenced by the environment. So, when a lizard is exposed to direct sunlight, it can become blindingly white to reflect heat. In cool weather, chameleons, on the contrary, darken to absorb light. When a male chameleon meets a female, he may decorate himself with colorful patterns, which signals that he is ready to mate.

Humans have only five senses

It is easy for us to list them: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. In fact, a person has more than twenty sense organs. So, one of them helps us to feel changes in temperature, the other - to keep balance, the third - to navigate in space ... Special receptors are also responsible for hunger, thirst, pain.

We only use 10 percent of our brains

Many people are convinced that "unblocking" the rest of the brain will immediately make us geniuses: we will acquire unusual abilities, learn dozens of languages, be able to do complex mathematical calculations in our minds ...

But in reality, we use the brain to one hundred percent. Even in one second, he has to process such an array of information that he has to use most of the neural connections. Performing any task stimulates different parts of the brain. So the statement that our brain has almost unlimited reserves that need to be “awakened” is something from the realm of fantasy, not science.

The abilities of people depend on which hemisphere of the brain they have more developed.

It is believed that people who are prone to creativity, the right hemisphere dominates, and those who are prone to the exact sciences - the left. Scientists from the University of Utah decided to test it. Over the course of two years, they asked 1,000 volunteers to perform various tasks while recording their brain activity. But they did not find any evidence that there is a connection between the activity of one or another half of the brain and the results of solving tasks.

Evolution is often perceived as the "improvement" of living organisms. But biology knows many examples when everything happened exactly the opposite - in a relaxing environment, animals degrade very quickly, losing adaptations for survival. For dodos, this was the cause of extinction. Evolution is change and adaptation to the environment, but not necessarily a "step forward".


The behavior of the human body in space is a separate list of myths. No, the human body will not explode and turn into ice in a matter of seconds, and the blood will not boil. In twenty seconds, there will be loss of consciousness due to lack of oxygen, and death in one and a half to two minutes. But if the poor fellow was rescued before then, he has a good chance of surviving.


The North Star is by no means the brightest star in the sky. It is not even in the top 10 in terms of brightness, only in the top 50, being in 46th place. We are simply accustomed to focusing on the North Star in a historical aspect. The brightest star visible from Earth is Sirius.


The five-second rule (or "quickly raised does not count as falling") is more of a children's urban legend than a scientific myth. However, this "rule" is not only wrong, but extremely unsafe. Malicious microorganisms fall on food that has fallen to the ground instantly, without waiting even a second, let alone five.


The dark side of the moon, firmly rooted in popular culture, doesn't really exist. Of course, there is a certain area of ​​the Moon that is not visible from the Earth, but it is illuminated by the Sun no worse than the side we are used to (and therefore the correct term is "the reverse side").


Brain cells are the subject of yet another series of "scientific" misconceptions. For example, it is believed that nerve cells do not regenerate, and in adults, neurons stop dividing altogether. This is a pure lie, brain cells continue to grow and change throughout life.


A coin, even falling from a height of several hundred meters, is not capable of causing serious harm to a person standing below, no matter what a common myth tells us. Even if it is not blown away by the wind, it will leave a small bruise on the skin of the “victim” at most.


Friction heat from meteorites or spaceships entering the atmosphere is a popular misconception. In fact, heating occurs due to the compression of the air surrounding such a fast moving object (that is, the aerodynamic drag of the medium). At the same time, if meteorites fall to Earth, they are usually not hotter than ordinary stones.


Lightning that never strikes twice in the same place is a fiction that can destroy someone. Lightning is quite capable of striking twice at the same point, especially if it is a tall tree or the spire of a building.


The “lack of gravity” that allows astronauts to float in zero gravity is complete nonsense. All objects orbiting the Earth, including the ISS, do not “float”, but continuously fall around it precisely due to the force of gravity, which remains the same. But even if you move away from any large cosmic bodies at a decent distance, gravity will still not disappear anywhere, although it will weaken considerably.

It would seem, how do all these sets of fictional "facts" survive in a world where the Internet exists? It seems that their authors and lobbyists are simply playing on human psychology.

Most of the myths you have most likely heard in one form or another - deadly coins dropped from skyscrapers, people bursting in space, non-regenerating nerve cells ... Of course, in fact, they have nothing to do with science.

The American journal "Live Science" published the opinion of scientists about the most popular "scientist" myths. The exposure session showed that most of the myths are just myths, i.e. errors. But some turned out to be more tenacious and withstood the test with a scalpel, ruler, thermometer and chronometer.

Myth #1.

There is no gravity in space A very strange myth that could arise only among the most simple-hearted citizens - by the way, the magazine does not indicate in which countries and societies this myth that there is no gravity in space originated. Why, then, does the Earth not fly away from the Sun, and the Moon - from the Earth? Apparently, the myth arose due to observations of weightlessness inside spacecraft, but in fact both astronauts and all objects in these vehicles regularly fall to Earth. But they fly around the planet in a horizontal direction, and this fall is imperceptible. According to the well-known formula, the force of attraction really noticeably decreases with distance, but never disappears. Here is an example: some small planets revolve around the Sun and cannot fly away from it anywhere, although they are at a distance hundreds of times greater than the Earth.


Myth #2.

Our brain works at 5%

Someone once somewhere came up with and wrote that we use our brain either by 5, or by 10%. First, it is not clear, 5% of what? Masses? Or volume? That this is not true has been known since the century before last, when doctors described dozens of cases of catastrophic brain damage, in which, however, our "organ of thought" functioned perfectly normally. The last case was observed recently in India, when a patient (!) came to the hospital, supporting with his hand a steel crowbar that pierced his head through and through. The crowbar was pulled out, the holes were patched up, and the next day our Indian was already regularly standing at the counter and selling spices. He was not stupid at all and traded, as before.

Secondly, this myth was also refuted experimentally, by the method of magnetic resonance imaging. The pictures show that at the moment of solving a problem (for example, about a wolf, a goat and cabbage), almost all parts of the brain are involved.

Myth #3.

Chewing gum clogs the stomach

Tightly sticking to clothes and furniture, chewing gum served as the basis for the myth of its long digestion in the human stomach - as much as seven years. It is strange that the propagators of the myth did not think of how this strange period of time could be measured. Mark, perhaps, that first gum with something? With what? And other gum these seven years not to chew? And although scientists from Living Science claim that the gum is simply digested in a few days, we believe that everything is even simpler. Why digest? She, being small in size, will herself come out in a known way.

Myth #4.

Life after death

We are talking about the posthumous growth of hair and nails, just some kind of horror. Moreover, there are supposedly eyewitness accounts. For example, when the grave of Nikolai Gogol was opened at the Danilovsky cemetery, the mystic writer found very long fingernails and toenails, as well as strongly grown hair. However, a myth immediately arose that Gogol was buried alive, which, by the way, he was very afraid of. However, there was no premature burial or post-mortem growth of hair and nails. Everything is explained quite simply - after the physical extinction of the body, it also dries out, so that the hair and nails simply seem longer. And in the case of Gogol, moreover, they were quite long even during his lifetime.

Myth #5.

You can run away from the rain

There is a myth that if you run in the rain, you will get less wet. Something like the fact that raindrops do not have time to fall on you. Nonsense, of course - just a runner will get to cover sooner and get less wet due to less time spent in the rain. So this myth is, in a way, true. It's funny that under certain conditions - the angle of incidence of drops, their size and flow density - you can even get more wet when running than when walking in the same time!

Myth #6.

Yawning is contagious

And that's not a myth. The imitative effect has been preserved in Homo sapiens from its ancient ancestor. And since this ancestor became the ancestor of not only man, but also great apes, then modern apes begin to yawn in chorus when at least one of the members of the tribe yawns. Scientists even believe that monkeys mimic each other. And we have rather an imitative effect.

Myth #7.

Buns with poppy seeds - a drug

The poppy seeds on the bun do contain opium. This is no longer a myth, but not entirely true either - in the sense that a chemical analysis in the blood of a person who has eaten a couple of rolls will undoubtedly detect opiates, but their amount will be such that there will be no narcotic effect in any case. But if you scrape together a poppy from a dozen buns ... Maybe something will be felt.

Myth #8.

thoughts about sex

Allegedly, a man thinks about sex every seven seconds. You don’t even need to refute it, because it’s impossible to check this nonsense. The author of this article, for example, did not think about this matter for about an hour, since at that time he was writing the article.

Myth #9.

Killer force of gravity

If you throw a coin from a skyscraper, then it can kill your enemy. Nothing like that, the wind will wind the coin, because of the windage, the air will resist it and in the end it will most likely fall far from the same force. The magazine "Live Science" recommends using brick, and a skyscraper is not even needed, three or four floors are enough.

Myth #10.

What fell and what didn't

A quickly picked up item (the log says five seconds after being dropped) does not count as dropped. But scientists remind that bacteria from the floor pounce on a sandwich or a piece of cake immediately, in the first fraction of a second. And as a result, the believer in this myth eats a whole colony of pathogenic microorganisms. But you and I, in Russia, know that all this is nonsense and nothing terrible, we just need to quickly raise it. And the linguistic charm of the construction "A quickly raised thing is not considered to have fallen" confirms that we are dealing not with a myth, but with the truth.