Exploring Science and Myth through the Engineering Zen Group | August 03 2026, 15:37

I remind you that I have a group called Engineering Zen on Facebook and Telegram. Recently, there have been posts about:

– How for half a century science condescendingly explained to grandmothers that colds are caused by viruses, not drafts, — and in 2022, it found a mechanism by which grandmothers were partly right.

– People who are currently walking around with plutonium in their chests. Legally, registered with the nuclear regulator, with the instruction “to be returned to the state after death.” The capsule was seriously tested: cremation, plane crash, shotgun blast. It wasn’t radiation that killed the technology.

– Old sailors who poured oil overboard during storms. Not superstition, but working physics — and from it emerged, it seems, the first measurement of the size of a molecule in history. A teaspoon of oil, a pond under London, and Benjamin Franklin. Today, the same effect captures oil spills from satellites.

– Why almost all blue in the animal world is a deception: there’s no pigment at all. Neither in the wings of the morpho butterfly, nor in the feathers of a peacock, nor in your blue eyes. Mammals do not have any blue pigment. But it’s the opposite in plants.

– How the ocean floor is mapped… by looking at its surface from space. Underwater mountains betray themselves through “bumps” on the water — it turns out the sea is not flat at all. Only about a quarter of the sea floor has been measured with a sonar to this day.

– The MRI magnet, which is turned on only once in a lifetime — and then it circles current through a ring for years, without any socket. Even at night, when the clinic is closed. But if the cooling fails — a “quench” occurs, and tons of helium burst out through the pipe to the roof within seconds.

– The theorem by which a sphere can be cut into pieces and assembled into two identical spheres. Not a trick or sophistry — honest mathematics. The catch is that these “pieces” have no volume. At all. Like the coast of Britain has no length.

– Why in a language with three words for colors, the third is always red, and blue appears last. No need to know the language — just count. And why the go signal on Japanese traffic lights is legally “blue.”

– A rescue operation going on in space right now: a robot trying to catch a falling telescope, which has neither handles nor a docking unit — it was built in an era when no one thought of such things. Racing against the atmosphere.

– Lunar dust — the main nightmare of lunar bases. Microscopic sharp glass shards that eat away space suits within hours, stick to everything due to static, and — surprisingly — smell like gunpowder.

– A hypothesis that lasted 85 years and fell during the World Cup final — from a single line on Twitter. A counterexample is verified by a student in a minute, and it’s unclear why it wasn’t found earlier.

– The illusion of “stopped clocks,” which everyone has experienced: you shift your gaze to the second hand — and it has stopped. It turns out, the brain blinds you several times a second — and then edits time retrospectively.

– Ice that does not melt at +300°C — found trapped inside diamonds from the Earth’s mantle. And its even more strange black superheated relative seems to make up the interiors of Uranus and Neptune.

– Why the ads on the stadium boards, which you see on television, physically do not exist — viewers in Brazil, Germany, and Japan see three different sponsors at the same moment.

– A piece of wire mesh that tames fire where it is bound to explode — and on which the entire century of mining labor stood. The inventor gave it to the world for free.

– And for dessert — why a giant NASA rocket is transported not on asphalt, but on river pebbles. They tried asphalt — it went “in waves, like the sea.” Personally verified, I spent an hour looking at that gravel out the window.

Join us to not miss much more interesting stuff.

Engineering Zen

P.S. There is also a group in Telegram with the same name, but there the audience has stopped growing at all and stands at about 100 people, and until I figure out how to manage this, I am temporarily giving up on it.

Exploring Forgotten Wilderness: Venturing Where Few Dare | August 02 2026, 21:44

In my childhood, it seemed there wasn’t a place where the foot of some teenager hadn’t trodden in the last seven days. If no one had clambered into someplace for more than a week, it became the most enticing part of plans for the following week. We climbed everywhere – secured territories, garages, forests, basements, attics.

Around me, where I live, there is a forest park area. There, foxes, deer, and ticks live. This area is a minute’s walk from home and you can walk there for half an hour (or even an hour – if you “guess” the direction) without encountering any signs of civilization.

So, there are virtually never any people there. And it seems almost never to be. I say almost because I have walked there after all. But there are no paths, except for those trodden by deer. There are abandoned houses that seem to be from the mid-last century, rusty remains of cars, and four years ago I even stumbled upon a relatively recent jeep, oddly covered with plywood sheets (no signs of life. Reported it to the police).

It’s uninteresting to walk there, plus there are definitely a lot of ticks. You have to dress specially appropriately. So, there are places like this in the USA – probably 99% of the territory. That is, if someone dumps a body there, if they find it, it will be in about 10 years. Along the roads, no one ever parks cars – apart from the fact that it’s not allowed, there’s also no need. Forests along the roads are quite common.

That means, really, 90% of the territory is just unknown to people. Nobody ever goes there, and if there’s anything interesting there, it’s almost certainly not going to be noticed for years. Perhaps, if people disappear, someone ends up there, but that’s only speculation.

If some homeless person sets up a tent there, no one will ever notice for sure. Mainly because a typical forest isn’t visible from 15-20 meters away due to the abundance of vegetation.

Effectively, it’s the territory of wild animals. People don’t belong there. And that’s not a bad thing. Deer, foxes, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, and many others.

It was very unusual for me. Now I’m used to it.

Grandmothers Partially Right: The Cold Truth About Catching Colds | August 02 2026, 21:03

HEY, for half a century, science condescendingly explained to grandmothers that a cold is caused by a virus, not a draft, and in 2022 found the mechanism by which the grandmothers were right after all (partly).

Background: Salisbury, 1946-1990, Common Cold Unit, 20,000 people went through it – they were infected with cold viruses and frozen (cold baths, drafts, wet swimsuits). They did not get sick more often. Next – Douglas’s work in 1968. There were 44 people, all given rhinovirus, one group sat at 4°C. No difference was found, and the article was titled “Failure to demonstrate effect”. The conclusion spread through popular books – cold has no relation to getting a cold, period.

New: In December 2022, they published the mechanism. In short. The nasal mucosa has a frontline (only discovered in 2018). Sensing a pathogen, cells throw extracellular vesicles into the nasal mucus – the authors describe this as “kicking a wasp nest”. These vesicles feature the same receptors that the virus latches onto, denser than on the cells themselves – it sticks to the dummy and doesn’t reach the cell. Then the experiment – 15 minutes at 4.4°C – and the temperature inside the nose drops by 5°C. On tissue cooled just the same, nearly 42% fewer vesicles are thrown, antiviral microRNAs in each are halved, and up to 70% fewer receptors.

Conclusion: “getting a cold from cold” is wrong, but “easier to get infected in the cold if there is someone to catch it from” is very much so. The most interesting part is what they want to make out of this. Since the swarm can be summoned, the authors discuss a spray that commands the mucosa to “kick the wasp nest” in advance.

The Invisible Merchants of Spain: The Manteros of Top Manta | July 31 2026, 18:59

Here in Spain, they are called manteros (mantas sellers)—from the Spanish word manta (blanket or cover). And the process of such illegal street vending is called top manta.

Since their activity is illegal, they have developed a rigorous system of alerts. As soon as one of the vendors spots the police, they signal (often yelling the code word “Agua!”—water). After this, all the manteros on the street in a split second gather their blankets into bags and melt into the crowd. If someone had managed to give them money – apparently, they will run together with them.

The vast majority of manteros are migrants from sub-Saharan African countries (most often from Senegal, Gambia, and Mali). They are not doing this for an easy profit: most of them are status sin papeles (without documents), making legal employment in Spain impossible.

In Spain, the police fight not only the supply but also the demand. By law, if the police catch you in the act of buying a bag or sunglasses from such a blanket, you, as a buyer, can be fined up to several hundred euros.

In Barcelona, the vendors have united into the “Union of Street Vendors” (Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes) and made a brilliant marketing move. They registered their own legal brand of clothing and footwear, calling it Top Manta. Now they produce quality sneakers and T-shirts, giving migrants the opportunity to leave the streets and work legally.

Absurdist Reactions to Government Promises in Crisis | July 30 2026, 16:20

“Once on TV appeared a deathly pale Finance Minister and declared:

— The financial crisis will not affect us. Because. I am telling you for sure.

The population, knowing the nature of official statements, silently swore and went to stock up on salt, matches, and sugar.

The next day, an utterly bewildered Minister of Trade appeared on TV and said:

— The stocks of bread and basic necessities allow us to proudly state, that there is no threat of hunger or shortages. Here are the figures.

— Oh! – said the population and bought even more flour and cereals.

The Minister of Agriculture, for emphasis, danced on the podium and joyfully announced:

— Unprecedented harvest! Hopes for export! We are reviving! The storerooms are bursting!

— Really now! – the population was horrified and ran to convert their savings into foreign currency.

— Real estate prices will fall! A penthouse for every student! In the near future! – declared the Minister of Construction, unflinchingly.

— What’s happening, huh? – the population wailed and rushed to purchase kerosene, kerosene lamps, wood, and coal.

— A modern army on a contractual basis. As early as tomorrow. And grenades of a new system. The likes of which the world has not yet seen. – stated the Minister of Defense solemnly. – Well, why not? We have plenty of money. Reserves, supplies, and a surplus in general.

— Mom!… the population squeaked and began digging dugouts.

Everything is AWE-SOME! Do you understand? AWE-SOME!! – the President insisted. – We could have built communism today. The only thing stopping us is there’d be nothing left for us to do. So, you can sleep peacefully! It doesn’t get more stable than this! Pensioners are buying caviar by the bucket! I foresee a qualitative leap and bound. And quantitatively – it’s simply a run! Taking seven-league steps towards prosperity and abundance. The Caribbean is getting closer. From here we shall threaten the world. One hundred and thirty tons of roses from each flowerbed. We will even have to reduce dairy production. The cows cannot carry the udders. The population is outraged by the cheapness. South America is asking to join us as a state farm. Hurrah!

— What on earth are you cooking up, you beasts?! – the population screamed and just in case, changed into all their clean clothes…”

Zhvanetsky. Link in comments

The Art of Beauty Marks in Historical European Portraiture | July 28 2026, 06:34

It is interesting that the artist did not hesitate to place a black beauty spot on the temple of the hawthorn seller in this painting. At that time, it was a very typical accessory. They were applied to cover skin defects and quickly became an essential element of makeup. The black color of the beauty spot fabric created a strong contrast, visually emphasizing the aristocratic paleness and whiteness of the face, and also drawing attention to the eyes. In Europe (including Spain, where Lorenzo Tiepolo worked), there was a complex “language of beauty spots”. Depending on where the piece of fabric was attached, it conveyed a specific message to suitors.

But they probably would not have understood piercings and tattoos 🙂

The CIA’s Secret Role in Promoting American Avant-Garde Art | July 28 2026, 05:15

Today I learned that the popularity of American avant-garde worldwide turns out to be the result of a CIA program—at least in part. During the height of the Cold War, starting in 1950, the CIA secretly funded magazines, concerts, and exhibitions throughout Europe through the “Congress for Cultural Freedom” and front organizations (the most famous being the Fairfield Foundation). The idea was simple: to demonstrate that the free West produces bold experimental art, while the USSR produced only state-controlled socialist realism. For example, when London’s Tate Gallery couldn’t afford the “New American Painting” exhibition in 1959, a “generous patron” Julius Fleischman suddenly appeared—though the funds actually came from the intelligence budget.

The most astonishing fact is that the artists themselves had no clue. Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, who came from the left-wing bohemia of the 1930s, despised the government and the era of McCarthyism, and would have considered it insulting to work for the intelligence. The CIA didn’t propose: they didn’t pay the artists or dictate anything, they simply “promoted them in the dark,” paying for the infrastructure of fame through two or three layers of intermediaries. It reached the point of absurdity. While one hand of the government secretly transported their canvases across Europe as a symbol of American freedom, the other—the FBI and conservative congressmen—kept files on the modernists and branded their art as “communist smears.”