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Church in the Czech Republic made of human bones: how it originated, where it is

27/12/2021 by

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In the Middle Ages, the attitude towards death was not the same as it is today. People died much earlier, due to poor hygiene, lack of health care, wars or epidemics. The almighty church served as a bridge between earthly life and the afterlife, which was always somewhere nearby. It is no coincidence that the phrase in Latin Memento mori or “remember death” has become a catch phrase. She became a kind of motto for an entire era. But those days, fortunately, are long gone. Today, the attitude towards death is completely different. And the evidence from that era today may seem wild, or at least very strange.

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A very interesting object is located in the Czech town of Kutná Hora. There is a small chapel, which, it would seem, is nothing special in appearance and should not attract. Only here every year up to 500 thousand tourists come here. The fact is that this church is one of the main attractions of the country. And its peculiarity is in a very distinctive interior. It is made entirely of human bones. To many, this may seem like an outrage against the dead. But at one time such an approach seemed very practical and there was nothing seditious about it.

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What is Ossuary?

The tourist site is most often called simply the Ossuary, although its official name is the Church of All Saints. The short name appeared as a literal translation of the Latin “ossuary”. This term Catholics called a certain room or volume for storing human remains that have turned into skeletons. When we speak of “volume,” we mean a small box. The premises can be a whole building, as is the case with the church in Kutná Hora.

Everything inside the room is trimmed with human bones. They decorate not only the walls, but even the ceiling. The chandelier-chandelier is a kind of work of memorial art, it is also made of bones and skulls. They also form arches and pyramids. And even the coat of arms of the former owners of the temple is also made of human material.

In total, the remains of tens of thousands of people were used to decorate the Ossuary; 60 thousand are officially announced. These people died centuries ago, which helps to make the internal appearance more original than creepy and frightening. Once such objects were considered natural, so the church in Kutná Hora is far from the only example of an ossuary, although it is perhaps the most famous of the rest.

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The beginning of the tradition

Researchers are quite clear about where this strange tradition came from in Europe. It all started with the Roman church of Santa Maria della Conchezione on Via Veneto. The building was built in 1631 by the Capuchin monks. The remains of the deceased brothers from the old cemetery were immediately transferred to the new ossuary. The Capuchins mainly decorated the walls of the underground crypt with bones. And the new dead were first buried in the walls or traditionally in the ground, and after 30 years exhumation was carried out, and the remains were used to further decorate the tomb. And in the vacant place they put a new deceased. So six chapels formed a whole necropolis, which was decorated with the remains of 4 thousand people.

This format has become an example for other ossuaries as well. Famous Capella dos Ossos or “Chapel of Bones” in Evora, Portugal, as well as the “Chapel of Skulls” in Kudowa-Zdroj, Poland. Moreover, the creators of such gloomy places also decorate them with very profound maxims. In the same Portugal on the walls you can read the following: “Better a day of death than a birthday” or “We, who are here, are waiting for you.”

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Formation of a cult of death

The Church does not see this as sacrilege. At the time of the popularity of the ossuaries, the attitude towards death was different. Epidemics mowed down cities and countries, people were constantly at war with each other. Against this background, thoughts about the afterlife even somehow reassured, because it promised deliverance from the torment of a difficult life. The monks, which is understandable, had a lot of time to think about this topic. And creating such decorations from bones, they reminded themselves and the pilgrims of the transience of our life, of the need to accustom ourselves to the thought of death, which will give long-awaited relief.

And the fashion for various decorations and decorations associated with death and its symbols has been formed in Europe since the middle of the XIV century. Then a plague epidemic swept across the continent, destroying half of the population. This theme is reflected in interior design as well. In the Middle Ages, it seemed natural, although today it looks wild.

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Holy Land

The history of the Ossuary can be traced back to 1278, when Abbot Heinrich from the Cistercian monastery of the Czech Sedlec visited the Holy Land. From there the pilgrim managed to return home safely, bringing with him some Jerusalem clay. He scattered the earth from the holy city across the local cemetery. The locals immediately desired to be buried in this very place. The cemetery quickly became popular not only in the vicinity, but throughout Central Europe. Rich people even offered money for the opportunity to rest in the holy land. It is quite logical that the necropolis soon overflowed. But the monks could no longer stop the flow of those who wanted to. They came up with the idea of exhuming old corpses and putting them in the script of the cemetery chapel, thereby freeing up space for new burials. So many bones have accumulated in the ossuary.

And there is an explanation for the fact that people were attracted by the clay brought from Jerusalem. The fact is that it was brought from Akeldam itself, the “field of blood” in East Jerusalem. In the Christian tradition, this place is directly related to the betrayal committed by Judas Iscariot in relation to Jesus. The disciple tried to return the thirty pieces of silver he had received to the high priests. But the churchmen refused to put money in their treasury, because they began to be considered bloody. These funds were used to purchase land. There they began to bury free of charge, first, ordinary pilgrims, and then Christian pilgrims who died in Jerusalem. It was believed that the body buried in this land disintegrated in a day, which allowed the necropolis not to overflow. True, in reality the monks simply did not bury the corpses, and when the bodies decayed, the bones were transferred to a special storage. But clay from this area began to be considered sacred, pilgrims often took the earth with them, scattering it in their cemeteries.

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Tourist object

The Ossuary and its interesting history invariably attract thousands of tourists to Kutná Hora. You can get to the chapel itself only for a fee, but since 2020, it is forbidden to photograph interiors without a good reason. The Catholic parish, to which the church belongs, still reminds of the need to honor the memory of all those buried in the building, even if the remains serve as decorations or even serve as part of a chandelier.

But Kutná Hora is interesting not only for its Kostnitsa located on the outskirts. The town is home to a little more than 20 thousand people, but once it was the second richest city in the Czech Republic after Prague. In the surrounding mines, silver was mined, almost a third of all European. Not surprisingly, the locals got rich. And now the historical center of Kutná Hora and some objects on the outskirts, like Kostnica, are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Official website of the Ossuary in Sedlec

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Human body: 10 surprising facts

19/12/2021 by

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Man is trying to unravel the mysteries of the Universe, although there is so much unknown around him. What can we say – even our own body remains a mystery to us. We either do not know its capabilities or perceive them erroneously. The human body is capable of surprising – some interesting facts about it will prove this.

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Sweat doesn’t smell bad

The smell of human sweat is annoying, it’s useless to argue with that. It is no coincidence that various deodorants and lotions are used to muffle unpleasant odors. But our body does not emit a foul-smelling liquid. Sweat is mostly water – what kind of smell could it have? But in addition to this, acids are also part of the secretions. They are, in particular, secreted by the apocrine glands located on the chest, groin and axillary regions. Already on the skin, bacteria decompose these acids. In this case, the unpleasant smell comes just from the waste products of microorganisms, and not directly from sweat.

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Our eyes see the world upside down

This thought will not be easy to get used to. But the fact was proved by René Descartes in the 17th century. The famous physicist transferred to a paper screen an image from a cut out bull’s eye. And the picture just turned out to be inverted, but there is nothing contrary to the laws of physics in this. Light is refracted as it passes through the cornea and lens, so that the visible object is projected upside down.

But we still perceive the picture correctly – the sky is above us, and the earth is under our feet. Our brain makes the necessary adjustments. He not only glues the picture transmitted from two eyes, but unfolds it back, making it correspond to reality.

An interesting experiment was conducted in the 1890s by psychologist George Stratton. He used special glasses that turn the picture over. The psychologist wore the device for eight days. But already on the fifth day, the brain adjusted to an unusual picture for him and stopped correcting it – thus Stratton again began to see the world in its usual form. It was only when the experiment ended, and the glasses were removed, that the human brain was forced to rebuild again.

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Up to three kilograms of bacteria live in our body

It is a mistake to think that our body is our own. It is a great home for various microorganisms. In our body, the number of bacteria is three times the number of cells. But the weight of these creatures is relatively small compared to bones, muscles, tissues. A person with a height of 170 cm and a weight of 70 kg lives from 1 to 3 kg of bacteria.

But this is not all the inhabitants of our body, viruses, fungi, archaea and protists live in it. You should not be afraid of these life forms – some of them are even very useful, helping, for example, digestion. There are also bacteria that protect their “home”, our body, from other microorganisms or harmful substances. Some bacteria simply exist without causing harm, but also not helping. And the effect on the body of certain microorganisms generally remains a mystery to scientists.

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Our body produces cyanide

Cyanide is a well-known powerful poison that living things should stay away from. In fact, this is a whole group of substances. The cyanides of potassium, hydrogen and sodium prevent living cells from absorbing oxygen, which quickly leads to the death of the entire body. It is no coincidence that this substance has been used for a long time as a poison, including against pests, and chemical weapons were also created on the basis of cyanide. Only a tenth of a gram of this dangerous substance is enough to kill a person weighing 70 kg.

From this point of view, it is surprising that we constantly use cyanides, of course, in small amounts. And their source can be quite ordinary apples and spinach. And even our body produces cyanide. 100 grams of tissue contains up to 50 micrograms of a hazardous substance. Fortunately, it does not accumulate in cells, but is excreted in respiration and urine.

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A person does not have four blood types at all.

It is a fairly well-known fact that people have four blood groups. This is taught at school. It is believed that the first group (0) is present in 44% of people, the second (A) – in 42%, the third (B) – in every tenth, and the rarest is the fourth (AB), which is found in 4% of people.

But in reality, everything is much more complicated. The International Society of Blood Transfusion has counted 29 groups! The four groups known to us are determined by the AB0 and Rhesus antigens, but they are far from the only ones. Little-known antigens were usually named after the patients in whose blood they were found. And it is far from the fact that this list is final – in the future we can expect the appearance of even more blood groups.

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Fingers wrinkled from warm water are beneficial.

We often observe a slightly strange effect – as soon as we sit in the bathtub or pool, our fingers become covered with deep wrinkles. Scientists see a certain meaning in such behavior of the organism. With an increase in humidity, special mechanisms are activated that change the shape of the skin on the fingers. And all for the sake of increasing our efficiency – better grip of wet objects.

For example, if a person drowns, then in a panic he will try to grab onto anything, as long as it brings salvation. Likewise, on a slippery surface, we also try to stick to the nearest object. Scientists from the University of Newcastle have found that people with wrinkles on their skin from water are better able to stay on slippery surfaces. So nature has given us a pretty good accident aid.

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You can’t tickle yourself

Tickling is hardly unpleasant, but it is definitely uncomfortable. Feeling it, I just want to break free, twitch or just laugh. Surprisingly, there is such a reaction if you are tickled by a stranger. But if you start stroking yourself in dangerous places, nothing will happen. So does this phenomenon have a psychological basis? Who tickles, not where tickles?

Scientists suggest that the tickling response has become a gift of evolution for humans. This is how our body reacted to insects, spiders and other unsafe reptiles crawling on it. If our body is tickled by someone outside, then this is perceived by the brain as a kind of danger signal. But if you perform similar actions yourself, then nothing will happen – the brain understands who exactly affects the body.

But if a person begins to laugh or react nervously to his own tickling, then this may turn out to be a bad symptom. Such signs occur with damage to the cerebellum or with schizophrenia.

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A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s

Our hearts beat unevenly, accelerating if necessary, including from surging feelings. So is it any wonder then that women’s hearts beat on average more often – 78-82 times per minute versus 70-72 times for men. And there is a completely scientific explanation for this – female sex hormones exert their influence. They directly affect the cells of the myocardium, provoking their contraction. But for such a feature, women have to pay with more frequent cases of arrhythmias and tachycardia.

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A person produces a whole bottle of saliva per day.

We begin to feel discomfort if saliva disappears in our mouth. The body constantly produces this fluid. During the day, a volume of 0.5-1.5 liters accumulates, this is from two to six glasses of saliva. And we do not choke on it just because we swallow reflexively. But at night this can be a problem – not all people know how to do it in a dream. And the body also took care of this – less saliva is produced at night. That is why in the morning, immediately after sleep, the mouth feels dry.

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Our bodies are made of stardust

This fact has become widely replicated, thanks to the statements of the physicist Lawrence Maxwell Krauss. The atoms of our body did not appear out of nowhere – they are particles of the once exploded stars. Surprisingly, the atoms of one part of our body could belong to a completely different star than the atoms of another part of the body. There is something romantic about it – man is made of stardust. If the stars did not explode, then we simply would not be in this world. Those chemical elements that underlie life on our planet, its appearance and development: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and iron in the Universe did not originally exist. These elements appeared during the life of the stars. Their explosion helped various substances spread through space. Many believe that the gods gave us life, but scientists argue that the distant and already dead stars became its source.

Six elements form 97% of a person’s body weight: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Actually, these are the most common elements on our planet. They were born in the course of nuclear fusion in the depths of stars billions of years ago, when neither the Sun nor our planet existed at all. But not only we are made of stardust, but the whole world around us: animals, objects, sea, air, nature, mountains.

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DISCOUNT (379p → 0p) Game Homo Machina for iPhone and iPad – an exciting journey deep into the human body

11/11/2021 by

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More recently, Darjeeling Productions presented a new project called Homo Machina. This is an addicting puzzle adventure that takes you on a journey deep into the human body and immerses yourself in a unique system of nerves, vessels and valves. The game is a kind of tribute to the German obstetrician-gynecologist, popularizer of science Fritz Kahn.

Download Homo Machina for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

Your main goal is to do everything possible to ensure that the human body functions throughout the entire work for and performs daily activities. When waking up, hardly many people think about the amazing mechanics of the human body, but in Homo Machina, the process of opening the eyes and inhaling the smell of morning coffee or tea becomes the main action that, with the help of fascinating puzzles, sheds light on how our body functions.

The project is based on bright and unusual illustrations by Fritz Kahn, who is sometimes also called the “grandfather of infographics”. Kahn wrote about 20 books, in which he turned dry scientific facts into stunning surreal illustrations explaining the work of the human body in a language accessible to a common layman.

During World War II, the Nazi regime banned Kahn’s works and until recently almost nothing was known about them in academic circles. The works of the scientist were discovered by chance by the young designer Thilo von Debschitz, who, with the assistance of his sister Ula, in 2009 released a collection of illustrations “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine”. A few years later, the book caught the eye of Darjeeling Productions producer Mark Lustigman. Fully enchanted by Kahn’s Industrial Palace poster, which depicts the human body as a factory with industrial workshops, Lustigman showed the illustration to his business partner and two years later the Homo Machina project was born.

The game starts with you waking up, opening your eyes and triggering cognitive processes to get out of bed, have breakfast, get to work, and go on a date with a girl in the evening.

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The game mechanics of Homo Machina are reminiscent of the Machinarium puzzle (the iPad version came out in late 2011). In both games, you need to click on different objects to activate a particular system or solve a puzzle. Homo Machina is done in muted, warm colors inherent in Kahn’s work. Exploring the game space is fun in itself, but it’s also the only way to figure out what the next step should be. For example, players will need to click, scroll, or otherwise manipulate sections in order to open their eyes. The eye itself becomes a kind of video camera that records visual information.

But opening your eyes is just the beginning. Then you have to have breakfast and go to work. While there are several puzzles in the game that can confuse you, the working day is the longest and most stressful part of the game. After the labors of the righteous, there comes a time of rest. In this part, the game will tell you what happens in the body while listening to good music, or how the heart reacts when the main character is going on a date.

The passage of Homo Machina will only take a couple of hours, but even in this short time, it will give a lot of pleasure to all fans of adventure puzzle, regardless of age.

The game is compatible with iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 9.0 or later. The game has been translated into Russian.

Download Homo Machina for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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The Mooseman “Human” game for iPhone and iPad – atmospheric adventure based on legends and myths of ancient peoples

06/08/2021 by ALOK DAS

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Developers of indie projects do their best to stand out from the crowd – some try to combine incongruous genres, others turn to cinematography, and some create games like The Mooseman (literally translated “Human voice”).

Download the game The Mooseman “Human” for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

The Mooseman is the brainchild of two developers Vladimir Beletsky and Mikhail Shvachko. Initially, the project was conceived in a different form, but in the process the authors realized that the chosen concept could offer something more than a banal “platformer”. The game is based on the legends and myths of the ancient Komi people living in the north-west of the Perm Territory, interspersed with Sami mythology.

The developers took the task seriously: they not only studied the museum materials, but also consulted with experts in this matter. As a result, The Mooseman was born, with a mesmerizing, unusual atmosphere that permeates every moment of the hand-drawn game.

According to the plot, a long time ago a god named Yong created the world from a duck egg shell. In the endless depths of the ocean, the lower world was born, the middle one was created for people, and the upper world became the abode of the ancient gods. Hundreds of spirits live among the layers of the universe, guarding their secrets in the darkness. The protagonist of Human Beings is able to see not only the material world, but also the world of spirits. He goes on a journey through all the worlds of ancient myths in search of artifacts and clues to legends.

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The process of playing The Mooseman cannot be called difficult or deep – you slowly wander through the locations, along the way solving riddles and trying to avoid everything that could be dangerous. The game even provides auto-movement for the convenience of the players.

At the same time, it will not be boring – the game contains boss battles, where cunning will become the main weapon, not strength, or moments where you have to think carefully to unlock the gate or cross the bridge. Almost every battle or puzzle is a reference to the short stories on which the Permian Komi mythology was built. Each such episode is not only well played in terms of gameplay, but also reveals a small fragment of the plot.

Visually, The Mooseman is admirable. The game is hand-painted, and the dark art design and well-chosen soundtrack only enhance the mystical atmosphere.

For fans of projects with a more active gameplay, “Chelovek” may seem like a boring game, albeit with a stylish visual design. But for those who appreciate aesthetic pleasure, The Mooseman will give you many pleasant minutes, allowing you to plunge into the mysterious atmosphere of the legends and myths of the Komi peoples.

The game is available on the App Store. To download it, you need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7.0 or later.

Download the game The Mooseman “Human” for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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Why does human growth stop at a certain point?

11/05/2021 by ALOK DAS

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Our childhood is a time of unrestrained spiritual and physical growth. In just a couple of decades, the human body changes as never before in later life. But at some point, growth stops. What is the trigger and when does this process finally stop? The body is not guided by passport data, but listens to some of its own signals. So, when and why does ours stop growing and how can we generally influence this process?

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The human body grows according to a complex program, variations of 300 genes are responsible for this. You can even calculate this process in advance and understand to what level a person will grow. The formula is not particularly difficult – you need to add the height of the mother and father, add 13 centimeters for boys, or subtract 13 centimeters for girls. The resulting number must be divided by two. So you can find out approximately what kind of growth nature has laid down by genes in a person. Of course, this value is only approximate.

This rule, like any other, has its exceptions. Yes, and a person can spur this process by helping nature. Parents of tall children can only shrug their shoulders, and periodically change their children’s wardrobe. But small boys and girls are often tried to be given to specific sports: swimming, basketball, volleyball in the hope of spurring the growth of the body and compensating for the lag behind their peers. Does this really help, or are there other, more powerful possibilities to correct genetics?

A very important point is nutrition. It is known that children growing up in unfavorable living conditions eat appropriately, undernourished or simply receiving few calories relative to their more successful peers. Those, however, have another problem – an excess of calories is also harmful, giving rise to obesity and a number of concomitant diseases. High-calorie foods include butter, sour cream, lamb, milk, fatty cheeses, as well as kids’ favorite hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs and sweets. It is not surprising that many modern children are tall and at the same time obese.

The growth is also influenced by such an unexpected factor as the psychological situation in the family where the child is being brought up. It turns out that constant stress can directly affect the growth of a young person. The third factor that should be taken into account is the diseases present at such an important period. The most telling case is growth hormone deficiency. A delay in development can also occur due to chronic diseases: heart disease, kidney disease, bronchial asthma. The body simply does not find enough resources to allocate them both for growth and for fighting a serious illness. Another disease, an excess of growth hormone, can also play a role. This situation is manifested due to a benign tumor of the pituitary gland. As a result, a person can grow much higher than what was originally laid in him by nature.

The sport factor should not be discarded either. But here everything is not so simple. It is already known that intense physical activity slows down the growth of the body.

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Parents often wonder how they can influence the growth of a child. If he does not have any chronic diseases that affect the rate of development of the body, then he must attend to high-calorie nutrition and reduce the level of stress. It is important to get moderate physical activity, at least it generates appetite. But, again, we repeat, all ideal conditions only help to realize what is predetermined by genetics. Think of drugs like anabolic steroids. They significantly accelerate the growth of muscle tissue, which is abused by some athletes. But children certainly do not need such drugs – they can significantly affect their health.

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When does a person’s growth stop?

In a person’s life, several main periods of growth can be distinguished at once. The first begins in the womb, the next occurs a year after birth, the third – at 6-8 years old, and the last – during puberty, that is, at 13-16 years old. Nature is in a hurry to grow the body by the age of 18-19, by the time of childbirth. It is at this age that the main body growth stops. So this process stops either physiologically at the right time, or as a result of a serious illness, or because of unfavorable external factors.

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Goosebumps, why fingers wrinkle from water and other facts about the human body

22/03/2021 by ALOK DAS

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The human body is a complex system in which everything is interconnected. The body reacts differently in different circumstances, and many of these reactions are so common that people very rarely wonder why this is happening.

Why does the skin on my fingers wrinkle in the water?

Hairless areas of the skin react in a special way to water. Unlike the rest of the body, the skin on the fingers, toes, palms and feet becomes wrinkled after being in water. According to one of the scientific theories, this is the result of adaptation – fingers with wrinkles and bumps are better at holding dry and wet objects.

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Why does the “brain freeze” effect occur when eating cold food?

Most people have probably experienced an unpleasant headache after a few sips of a cold drink or ice cream. Hypothermia of the brain (brain freeze) occurs due to the fact that when eating chilled food, the vessels in the back of the throat begin to contract intensely from the cold, and then expand again when the temperature of the tissues becomes higher. This triggers a nerve response, which causes the headache.

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Why does trembling occur?

The appearance of tremors in the body occurs for various reasons, one of them is the body’s reaction to cold. In this case, shivering becomes a defense mechanism against hypothermia. Under the influence of cold, muscles begin to contract frequently, producing muscle energy, thereby raising the body temperature to normal.

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Why does human growth increase in space?

It was noticed that during a long stay in space, the growth of astronauts increases, and after returning to Earth, it returns to a normal state. Scientists explain this phenomenon by the fact that on Earth, under the pressure of gravity, the vertebrae shrink, and in zero gravity, the gaps between the vertebrae expand and the spinal column stretches, and with it the growth of a person increases.

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Why do joints hurt when the weather changes?

Some people can predict changes in the weather from knee pain. This may be due to the fact that with the onset of cold weather, the nerve endings in the tissues around the joints become tense and stiff.

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Goosebumps or why goose bumps appear?

Goose bumps are small pimples at the base of the hairline on human skin that occur in cases of emotional stress (adrenaline rush), or when the body is cold. This condition is explained by the fact that the human body does not have a large amount of hair and the contraction of the miniature muscles associated with each hair, which occurs when goose bumps appear, is not as effective for warming as in animals.

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The human brain works at 10%. True or myth?

04/03/2021 by ALOK DAS

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Man is the pinnacle of evolution. It is difficult to argue with this, since no living creature has the same complex thinking. In addition, as you know, we still do not fully realize all the potential inherent in us by nature. There is a popular opinion that a person uses no more than 10% of the capabilities of his brain.

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Are our possibilities really endless, and the whole problem is only in overcoming the invisible and incomprehensible barrier put up by whom? In fact, in this case we are talking about another beautiful legend. Some people call it Albert Einstein himself.

How did the legend come about?

It is widely believed that our brain does not use all of its volume. One has only to “reconfigure” it, as the “superman” will be born. And this idea is at the heart of many science fiction films and books. But what is the unused part of the brain? Are you talking about its potential or physical limitations? How does our brain work, and can we make it work at full capacity? It’s no secret that some people are phenomenal when it comes to memory and math. It seems tempting to discover some superpowers in yourself.

The legend of the hidden powers of the brain may have also originated from the work of William James and Boris Sideis. At the end of the 19th century, they tested their theory of accelerated development on the son of Boris. William Sideis became a child prodigy with almost the highest IQ in history. The genius himself also believed that people have hidden opportunities, you just need to learn how to fully use your brain.

And the phrase about using 10% of our mental abilities appeared in the preface to Dale Carnegie’s book already in 1936. At the turn of the century, thanks to science, mankind began to rapidly discover a lot of new things, it seemed that our brain also harbors hidden possibilities.

There is another reason for the appearance of such a legend. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientists actively studied the capabilities of the brain. But the functions of its individual parts turned out to be so complex that neuroscientists did not fully understand the purpose of the departments. And the statement “at any given time we use only 10% of our brain” has slightly changed and formed a beautiful myth. Even today science, although it has understood the functionality of most parts of the brain, does not know everything about the interaction of cells that is the cause of disorders and complex behaviors. It remains a mystery how the teamwork of departments generates consciousness. After all, no single center of conscious activity has been found.

And the beautiful legend was successfully used by enterprising businessmen who began to actively distribute manuals, courses and lessons on revealing the true potential of the brain. Journalists and businessmen exploited quotes from William James. Although he did not give any numerical estimates, but reasoned about the unrealized potential due to the lack of motivation and laziness. 2/3 of the world’s population still believes in the created legend.

An estimate of 90% also appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Scientists have found that the brain is 90% glial cells. But why they are needed – then no one knew, they were simply considered useless. But today it has become clear that cells are a kind of routers, providing communication between neurons. In those same years, scientists discovered that at different times, certain parts of the brain are active, but the whole brain does not work. Moreover, if this happens, then the person experiences an epileptic seizure. Such a state is clearly not like the appearance of superpowers. And the whole point is that those neurons that are supposed to be silent are activated – overexcitation is transmitted to the muscles, which shudder in convulsions.

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Is the human brain working at 10%? Scientists answer

Today neuroscientists sneer at how we use only 10% of our brain power. A person uses almost all parts of this organ, which are active, depending on what we are doing. There are other very obvious reasons as well. Evolution is a kind of “scissors”, eliminating unnecessary things in living organisms. But our brain is an important consumer of energy and oxygen. Although an organ weighs only 2% of body weight, it consumes up to 20% of all energy. If 90% of the brain was “asleep”, then people with less brain size would have an evolutionary advantage. Natural selection over time would simply eliminate individuals with a waste of energy. Yes, and it is not clear how and why nature could in general form such a large brain that a person does not need to survive. Among other things, an enlarged skull carries an increased risk of death at birth. All these factors would cause the extinction of people with a large unused part of the brain.

Modern diagnostic tools: MRI and tomography, make it possible to observe the work of the brain live. It is obvious that he is constantly in activity even at the time of our sleep. And “dead” zones can appear only as a result of physical damage to the organ. Scientists have found that our brain is not a single center, but is divided into departments. Each has a specific function. It took many years to study them. But now it is known that there are no such departments that do nothing at all. Neuroscientists know about the death of extra neurons and the connections between them. This, again, is subordinated to natural logic – to destroy the meaningless. If 90% of the brain were inactive, then upon dissection, massive cell degeneration would be detected. But this is not noted.

Scientists have long stopped trying to uncover the very 90% of the brain’s capabilities. It is obvious that at the moment of maximum intellectual tension in every person, the brain is used at 100% of its capabilities. This implies that at the moment of our rest, the brain is not working at its maximum capacity, nevertheless, it continues to monitor the state of organs and is ready to immediately activate.

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Can the brain be taught to work more efficiently?

And if our brain doesn’t have a secret storeroom, then can’t we make it work better? Excitation of all available neurons is a dangerous thing, but the efficiency of the organ can be increased. It turns out that at birth, the human brain has more neurons than an adult. But there is still no connection between them – the child is just learning to see, hear, talk. And new skills form connections between neurons, improving the performance of a specific part of the brain. But such connections are formed precisely in childhood. It is no coincidence that Mowgli children are never able to adapt to modern society. And a child who has not seen anything since birth (for example, due to cataracts) will never learn to see, even if the cause of the problem disappears.

There is an important period during which neural connections are formed. And if the brain does not learn certain actions at this moment, then this will never happen. This applies not only to sight, but to hearing, taste, motor skills, and smell. Only training, which is actively used in childhood, can make the brain work better. If you take care of the brain and do not load it, then in the future it will not be able to perceive many new things. That is why the role of the school is so important, and our children adapt much faster than us to new conditions, requirements and technologies. It is necessary to train the brain from childhood.

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Interesting facts about the human body that you might not know about

17/01/2021 by ALOK DAS

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Man tries to unravel the secrets of the Universe, although there is so much unknown around him. What can we say – even our own body remains a mystery to us. We either do not know its capabilities or perceive them erroneously. The human body is capable of surprising – some interesting facts about it will prove this.

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Sweat doesn’t smell bad

The smell of human sweat is annoying, it’s useless to argue with that. It is no coincidence that various deodorants and lotions are used to muffle an unpleasant scent. But our body does not emit a foul-smelling liquid. Sweat is mostly water – how can it smell? But besides this, acids are also part of the secretions. They are, in particular, secreted by the apocrine glands located on the chest, groin and axillary regions. Already on the skin, bacteria break down these acids. At the same time, the unpleasant odor comes just from the waste products of microorganisms, and not directly from sweat.

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Our eyes see the world upside down

This thought will not be easy to get used to. But the fact was proved by René Descartes in the 17th century. The famous physicist transferred an image from a cut out bull’s eye onto a paper screen. And the picture just turned out to be upside down, but there is nothing contrary to the laws of physics in this. Light is refracted as it passes through the cornea and lens, so that the visible object is projected upside down.

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Up to three kilograms of bacteria live in our body

It is a mistake to think that our body is our own. It is a great home for various microorganisms. There are three times the number of bacteria in our body. But the weight of these creatures is relatively small compared to the bones, muscles, tissues. A person with a height of 170 cm and a weight of 70 kg lives from 1 to 3 kg of bacteria.

But this is not all the inhabitants of our body, viruses, fungi, archaea and protists live in it. You should not be afraid of these life forms – some of them are even very useful, helping, for example, digestion. There are also bacteria that protect their “home”, our body, from other microorganisms or harmful substances. Some of the bacteria just exist without causing harm, but also not helping. And the effect on the body of certain microorganisms generally remains a mystery to scientists.

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Our body produces cyanide

Cyanide is a well-known powerful poison that living things should stay away from. In fact, this is a whole group of substances. The cyanides of potassium, hydrogen and sodium prevent living cells from absorbing oxygen, which quickly leads to the death of the entire body. It is no coincidence that this substance has been used for a long time as a poison, including against pests, and chemical weapons were created on the basis of cyanide. Only a tenth of a gram of this dangerous substance is enough to kill a person weighing 70 kg.

From these positions it is surprising that we constantly use cyanides, of course, in small amounts. And their source can be quite ordinary apples and spinach. And even our body produces cyanide. 100 grams of tissue contains up to 50 micrograms of a hazardous substance. Fortunately, it does not accumulate in cells, but is excreted in respiration and urine.

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A person does not have four blood types at all

A fairly well-known fact is that people have four blood groups. This is taught at school. It is believed that the first group (0) is present in 44% of people, the second (A) – in 42%, the third (B) – in every tenth, and the rarest – the fourth (AB), which is found in 4% of people.

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Fingers wrinkled from warm water are beneficial

We often observe a slightly strange effect – as soon as we sit in the bathtub or pool, our fingers become covered with deep wrinkles. Scientists see a certain meaning in such behavior of the organism. With increasing humidity, special mechanisms are activated that change the shape of the skin on the fingers. And all for the sake of increasing our efficiency – better grip of wet objects.

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You can’t tickle yourself

Tickling is hardly unpleasant, but it is definitely uncomfortable. Feeling it, you just want to break free, twitch or just laugh. Surprisingly, such a reaction is present if you are tickled by a stranger. But if you start stroking yourself in dangerous places, nothing will happen. So, does this phenomenon have a psychological basis? Who tickles, not where tickles?

Scientists suggest that the tickling response has become a gift of evolution for humans. So our body reacted to insects, spiders and other unsafe reptiles crawling on it. If our body is tickled by an outsider, then this is perceived by the brain as a kind of danger signal. But if you perform similar actions yourself, then nothing will happen – the brain understands who exactly affects the body.

But if a person begins to laugh or react nervously to his own tickling, then this may be a bad symptom. Such signs occur with damage to the cerebellum or with schizophrenia.

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A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s

Our hearts beat unevenly, accelerating when necessary, including from surging feelings. So is it any wonder then that women’s hearts beat on average more often – 78-82 times per minute versus 70-72 times for men. And there is a completely scientific explanation for this – female sex hormones exert their influence. They directly affect the cells of the myocardium, provoking their contraction. But for such a feature, women have to pay with more frequent cases of arrhythmias and tachycardia.

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A person produces a whole bottle of saliva per day

We begin to feel discomfort if saliva disappears in our mouth. The body constantly produces this fluid. During the day, a volume of 0.5-1.5 liters accumulates, which is from two to six glasses of saliva. And we do not choke on it just because we swallow reflexively. But at night this can be a problem – not all people know how to do it in a dream. And the body also took care of this – less saliva is produced at night. That is why in the morning, immediately after sleep, the mouth feels dry.

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Our bodies are made of stardust

This fact began to be widely replicated, thanks to the statements of the physicist Lawrence Maxwell Krauss. The atoms of our body did not appear out of nowhere – they are particles of the once exploded stars. Surprisingly, the atoms of one part of our body could belong to a completely different star than the atoms of another part of the body. There is something romantic about it – man is made of stardust. If the stars did not explode, then we simply would not be in this world. The chemical elements that underlie life on our planet, its appearance and development: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and iron did not exist in the Universe from the very beginning. These elements appeared during the life of stars. Their explosion helped various substances spread through space. Many believe that the gods gave us life, but scientists argue that the distant and already dead stars became its source.

Six elements form 97% of a person’s body weight: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Actually, these are the most common elements on our planet. They were born in the course of nuclear fusion in the depths of stars billions of years ago, when there was neither the Sun nor our planet at all. But not only we are made of stardust, but the whole world around us: animals, objects, sea, air, nature, mountains.

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DISCOUNT (299p → 149p) Homo Machina game for iPhone and iPad – a fascinating journey deep into the human body

27/09/2020 by ALOK DAS

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More recently, Darjeeling Productions presented a new project called Homo Machina. This is an addicting puzzle adventure that takes you on a journey deep into the human body and delves into a unique system of nerves, blood vessels and valves. The game is a kind of tribute to the German obstetrician-gynecologist, popularizer of science Fritz Kahn.

Download Homo Machina for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

Your main goal is to do everything possible to ensure that the human body functions throughout the entire working day and performs daily activities. Waking up, hardly many people think about the amazing mechanics of the human body, but in Homo Machina, the process of opening the eyes and inhaling the smell of morning coffee or tea becomes the main action, which, with the help of fascinating puzzles, sheds light on how our body functions.

The project is based on bright and unusual illustrations by Fritz Kahn, who is sometimes called the “grandfather of infographics”. Kahn wrote about 20 books, in which he turned dry scientific facts into stunning surreal illustrations that explained the work of the human body in a language accessible to a common layman.

During World War II, the Nazi regime banned Kahn’s works and until recently almost nothing was known about them in academic circles. The works of the scientist were accidentally discovered by the young designer Thilo von Debschitz, who, with the assistance of his sister Ula, in 2009 published a collection of illustrations “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine”. A few years later, the book caught the eye of Darjeeling Productions producer Mark Lustigman. Fully enchanted by Kahn’s Industrial Palace poster, which depicts the human body as a factory with industrial workshops, Lustigman showed the illustration to his business partner and two years later the Homo Machina project was born.

The game starts with waking up, opening your eyes and triggering cognitive processes to get out of bed, have breakfast, get to work, and go on a date with a girl in the evening.

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The game mechanics of Homo Machina are reminiscent of the Machinarium puzzle (the iPad version came out in late 2011). In both games, you need to click on different objects to activate a particular system or solve a puzzle. Homo Machina is done in muted, warm colors inherent in Kahn’s work. Exploring the space is fun in itself, but it’s also the only way to figure out what the next step should be. For example, players will need to click, scroll, or otherwise manipulate sections in order to open their eyes. The eye itself becomes a kind of video camera that records visual information.

But opening your eyes is just the beginning. Then you have to have breakfast and go to work. While there are a few puzzles in the game that may confuse you, the working day is the longest and most stressful part of the game. After the labors of the righteous, there comes a time of rest. In this part, the game will tell you what happens in the body while listening to good music, or how the heart reacts when the main character is going on a date.

The passage of Homo Machina will only take a couple of hours, but even in this short time, it will give a lot of pleasure to all fans of adventure puzzles, regardless of age.

The application is available in the App Store at a price of 299 rubles. The game is compatible with iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 9.0 and later. The game has been translated into Russian.

Download Homo Machina for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”

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How many GB of memory can the human brain remember?

06/08/2020 by ALOK DAS

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The volumes of information stored by computers are already so large that a person can feel himself somehow flawed. Indeed, how many megabytes or gigabytes can be stored in our brain? Is it possible to compete with voluminous electronic storage?

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How much memory can the human brain hold?

In fact, our brains are capable of storing huge amounts of information – scientists are talking about a million gigabytes. But the ability to remember is not always useful; for creative people it can even become a problem.

Our brains are powered by 100 billion neurons, each of which is in contact with thousands of fellows. As a result, about 100 trillion ties are formed. But only a billion neurons are involved in long-term storage of memory. And if we assume that each neuron ensures the presence in the brain of a certain unit of information, then its volume will seem to be strongly limited and clearly finite. But memories are formed using the connections of neurons and their networks, not the nodes themselves.

Each neuron has an outgrowth that allows communication with other cells, increasing in size upon contact for better perception. In the course of a study by scientists from the Salk Institute, it was decided to describe these formations in numbers, given their size. When studying the part of the rat brain, which is responsible for memorizing visual images, we observed the “transmitter” (axon) and two “receivers” (spines). Taking the same information, the spines are similar in size. But taking into account possible changes in the dispatch, it was possible to count 26 variants of these processes. Based on this, it was possible to calculate the amount of information that can be stored in our memory – about a quadrillion bytes or a million gigabytes.

Obviously, we cannot fully use this resource – it is no coincidence that people constantly forget something, sometimes dates, sometimes places. And this behavior of our memory is considered normal, while outstanding abilities for memorization are not perceived otherwise than as a phenomenon. You can remember at least Kim Peak, who became the prototype of the hero of the movie “Rain Man”. This American remembered up to 98% of all the information received. A scientific article was even published about an unusual person that tried to explain the phenomenon. Scientists suggested that the man, due to the absence of the corpus callosum between the hemispheres, formed non-standard neuronal connections, which led to extraordinary abilities.

Kim Peak:

by the age of seven he knew the Bible by heart;
at the age of 18, read and memorized the complete works of Shakespeare;
was able to read a standard book page in 8-10 seconds;
by the end of his life he kept in memory the contents of about 12 thousand previously read books.

In the meantime, there is no need to know about it. ”

The Chinese Chao Lu remembers 67,980 digits of pi after the decimal point, calling them for 24 hours. And the autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire, in the smallest detail from memory, depicts pictures of megacities, which he looks at from a height for several minutes.

Stephen Wiltshire draws from memory Singapore seen from above, 2014

True, record holders in memorizing numbers do not consider themselves unique people, attributing success to hard training, and not to the physiological characteristics of their body.

But if our potentialities are so great, why do we constantly forget something or do not remember everything at all? Scientists say that there is no need to focus on the numerical capacity of memory – you just need to understand its enormous potential. There is much more information stored in our memory than we can imagine. And these are not only persons, events, facts, but also the main functions of life: movement, speech, emotions, perception. It is difficult to go from a simple calculation of the strength of connections and the size of spines to a description of all the processes in which neurons are involved. Most likely, our brain, when perceiving the world around us, simply does not have time to record everything. That is why not everything is remembered. The brain has left a thin tunnel between feelings and memory. We can say that the limitations of our memory are not due to its overflow, but due to the maximum download speed. There is also an explanation for why we forget something. The fact is that our memory does not depend on how much we want to preserve something in it, but on the number of associated associations. If an important event or date does not have sufficient connections with other important and already stored information, then it will not be easy to recover the data.

And with age, the state of the cardiovascular system begins to influence the work of the brain. The capillaries of the brain are gradually destroyed and supply cells with oxygen worse. The hippocampus, which is responsible for memory functioning, becomes especially vulnerable. That is why people in old age find it more difficult to solve cognitive tasks and lose memories as a mechanism. At the same time, our entire storehouse of a quadrillion bytes remains unchanged, only access to it becomes difficult.

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DISCOUNT (379р → 229р) Human Resource Machine for iPhone and iPad – an exciting programming simulator

16/07/2020 by ALOK DAS

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Studio Tomorrow Corporation is known to the general public for its sensational projects Little Inferno and World of Goo. After their release, gamers with increased interest follow the developer’s releases, and, it seems to us, not in vain.

Download Human Resource Machine for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

In 2016, the studio released a non-standard Human Resource Machine puzzle for iPhone and iPad, which also managed to surprise users with its extraordinary approach to genre conventions.

In the game, we have to, regularly completing the proposed tasks, move up the career ladder in order to ultimately take the chair of the company director. You will have to start with little things, but as you progress through the difficulty of the puzzles will increase, and towards the end you will have to try pretty hard to unravel another riddle.

Let us explain what kind of puzzles the user will face. The developers themselves called their game a programming simulator. This is explained by the fact that in order to solve puzzles, the user will have to compose complex action algorithms. It will start with a simple one – to create a sequence of manipulations for transferring boxes from one conveyor to another – but with each new level the tasks will become much more complicated. Solving puzzles, which are orders of superiors, we will all higher up the career ladder. Our goal is to become a big boss.

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To solve puzzles, we are often provided with an unusual set of tools. For example, to multiply numbers, a player will have two options: addition and subtraction. To solve such problems it is not necessary to know mathematics or have programming skills – you can unravel puzzles by trial and error. Moreover, there are no restrictions on solution options in the game.

Basically, the player will have access to several commands: inbox – raise the box, outbox – lower it onto the conveyor belt, add – add a number, sub – subtract the number, jump – loop the process. Using these simple steps, you will have to compose algorithms to solve far from the easiest problems. However, everyone will be able to cope with them, it is enough just to figure out what the player wants and what are his capabilities.

Like all products of the studio Tomorrow Corporation, Human Resource Machine for iPhone and iPad is endowed with nice graphics, funny characters, stylish music and signature jokes.

Download Human Resource Machine for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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Neural Networks for Dummies: Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Mind

16/06/2020 by ALOK DAS

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The phrases “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning”, “artificial neural networks” in recent years are increasingly heard in the reports of scientists and news media, and conspiracy theorists sound the alarm, predicting an imminent uprising of cars in the near future. How soon the electronic processor will surpass the human brain and whether it is worth attacking the washing machine now – we understand further in the material.

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Neural networks in simple words

Avoiding complex formulations and piles of terms, the neural network is most easily described as a device that functions on the principle of the human brain. Neural networks can be of various types (convolutional, recurrent, direct distribution, etc.), differ in the type of task (analysis, forecasting, pattern recognition, etc.) and in structure, but in any case it’s a mathematical model presented in the form of software and hardware and aimed at learning to draw conclusions from updated data like a person making a life decision.

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What is the difference between a regular program and a neural network?

The main difference between a neural network and a regular computer program is the ability to learn. That is, the result of the operation of a neural network can be based on data that did not exist at the training stage.

A brief history of the emergence of neural networks

People began to think about the construction of neural networks with the development of neurophysiology. The more information scientists received about the processes taking place in their own brains, the wider the prospects were for neural networks. Until the end of the 20th century, the main problem was the lack of serious data arrays – researchers mainly had to work with texts, build semantic language maps, teach programs to recognize syntactic structures, etc.

Everything has changed with the advent and spread of the Internet. Today, huge amounts of data are available for training neural networks, including multimedia libraries. Thanks to this base, people can invest less effort in creating programs using the learning ability of neural networks. For example, a huge amount of labor hours of linguists and programmers was invested in PROMT translation software, while the Google Translate service in the near future will be able to provide a better result with much less effort on the part of the authors, based on a gigantic database of texts.

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Examples of neural networks

Artificial intelligence and neural networks have already quite firmly entered our lives. During testing in 2012, the chat bot “Eugene Gustman” imitating an Odessa boy managed to convince more than 20% of experts that he was a real person. After 3 years, “Sonya Guseva” deceived 47% of the judges. The effectiveness of such a neural network in Internet marketing, for example, is difficult to overestimate.

Remember, in the movie “I, the Robot”, where the hero of Will Smith asked the car if she could compose a symphony or create a masterpiece of art? In 2016, scientists at Hakodate University in Japan created a program that independently wrote the book, “The Day a Computer Writes a Novel.” This book entered the finals of the literary contest, surpassing 1,450 human authors.

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Near future

Futurologist Ray Kurzweil said that full-fledged artificial intelligence will be created by people in 2029. Many find this assessment too pessimistic. Already in 2022, IBM and the Swiss Polytechnic of Lausanne promise to show a functioning model of the human brain. To understand the scope, the following numbers can be given:

The average brain is 8.6 billion neurons;
Each neuron can have an average of about 2 thousand processes;
Altogether, this is about 150 trillion synapses;
Conventionally, each synapse is thousands of molecular triggers;
Roughly speaking, the human brain consists of 150 quadrillion transistors, while in the most powerful artificial processors the number of transistors barely exceeds 10 billion.

Of course, while the working frequency of the organic brain is much inferior to the machine.

However, the human brain has natural limitations. It requires a lot of energy to work (up to 20% of all calories burned by the body), and the size cannot be increased many times. In the case of a man-made device, these limits can be neglected and create a much larger analogue with any energy consumption. Actually, a person with all the desire will not be able to realize the scale of the network with a million neurons (this is how to imagine the size of a galaxy), and if their number increases by a thousand times, then it will be rather difficult to predict the capabilities of such a system.

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