A truly excellent short documentary from 53 years ago (in Russian). Highly recommended viewing. It features a bald man who perplexes a young woman with various follies. The original title is “Physics at Half Past Nine”. Tsentrnauchfilm, 1971. Scriptwriter and director: S. Raytburt. Raytburt, incidentally, received an award at the Venice International Film Festival for “The Development of Reflex Activity in Ontogeny”. It’s a shame that almost all his films are unavailable online.
Tag: science
Echoes of Ancient Egyptian Innovations in Modern Science | May 10 2024, 23:23
A very interesting podcast about Ancient Egypt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc
There, Viktor discusses how over thousands of years, at least two scientific disciplines—astronomy and medicine—were systematically developed in Egypt. In another segment, the host asks Viktor what he would do if he had a time machine. Viktor answered that he would like to hear how the speech of a king sounded (because we do not understand how the speech of the ancient Egyptians sounded, although we are familiar with their writing).
And here’s what I thought. Indeed, given a time machine, what could we bring back from the past that would be truly useful in the present? Obviously, 100% of Egyptian astronomy is useless to us from a scientific standpoint. But it’s a different story with medicine.
The fact is that the discovery of drugs is now largely done by trial and error (scientifically called “high-throughput screening” or HTS). HTS is a process of automated testing of a large number of chemical compounds for activity against a specific biological target (often a molecule, frequently a protein). The “hits” are then analyzed, followed by many more tests on organisms, where 99% are filtered out for various reasons. And there is hope that eventually, this will lead to a working drug.
Thus, in ancient medicine, things were simpler ethics-wise, and they immediately tested on humans. Take a poisonous mushroom and feed it to the sick in the hope of curing them. If the patient died, but (hypothetically) his hair grew, then it would make sense to give half the dose to someone who needed hair. Oh, he died too. So, next time we give a quarter.
So, it is generally useful for modern medicine to look back at ancient books.
One notable example is the development of artemisinin, a drug against malaria, inspired by an ancient Chinese text. Under the leadership of Tu Youyou, the team analyzed about 2000 ancient recipes and based on 640 selected prescriptions, they produced 380 extracts, which were tested on animals. In 1971, one of these, artemisinin, showed good antimalarial properties. It was manufactured from the plant Artemisia annua, following a recipe from the third part of Ge Hong’s book “Zhouhou Beiji Fang” (“Emergency Prescriptions at an Elbow’s Reach”), dating back to AD 340. Tu Youyou and her team isolated artemisinin from the plant, which proved to be very effective against malaria. This discovery earned Tu Youyou the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
About Egypt, look it up. Viktor Solkin is very knowledgeable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc
Echoes of Ancient Wisdom: The Evolution of Science and Medicine in Egypt | May 10 2024, 23:23
A very interesting podcast about Ancient Egypt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc
There, Viktor discusses how, over the course of thousands of years, at least two scientific disciplines — astronomy and medicine — systematically evolved in Egypt. And in another segment, the host asks Viktor what he would do if he had a time machine. Viktor answered that he would like to hear how the speech of a king sounded (because we do not know what the speech of the ancient Egyptians sounded like, though we are familiar with their writing).
And it got me thinking. Indeed, given a time machine, what could we bring back from the past that would actually be useful today? Clearly, 100% of Egyptian astronomy is scientifically useless to us now. But it’s a different story with medicine.
The fact is that the discovery of drugs nowadays largely occurs through a trial-and-error method (scientifically called “high-throughput screening” or HTS). HTS is a process of automated testing of a large number of chemical compounds for activity against a specific biological target (often a molecule, frequently a protein). Subsequently, “hits” are analyzed followed by many more tests on organisms, where 99% are filtered out for various reasons, in hopes that this eventually leads to a functioning drug.
In ancient medicine, ethical considerations were simpler, and they tested directly on humans. Let’s take a poisonous mushroom and feed it to the sick in hopes of curing them. If the patient died but, hypothetically, grew hair, then that mushroom should be given, but in half the dosage, to someone who needs hair growth. Oh, he died too. Next time, we give a quarter.
Thus, it’s generally beneficial for modern medicine to look into ancient books.
One notable example is the development of artemisinin, an anti-malarial drug, inspired by an ancient Chinese text. Led by Tu Youyou, the team analyzed about 2000 ancient recipes and from 640 selected prescriptions, they produced 380 extracts tested on animals. In 1971, one of these, artemisinin, was found to have good anti-malarial properties. It was derived from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), based on a recipe from the third part of Ge Hong’s book “Zhouhou Beiji Fang” (“Emergency Formulae at an Elbow’s Length”), dated to AD 340. Tu Youyou and her team isolated artemisinin from the wormwood, which proved to be very effective against malaria. This discovery earned Tu Youyou the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
And about Egypt, do watch. Viktor Solkin is very knowledgeable.
Global Variations in Finger Counting Practices | May 06 2024, 20:55
It turns out there are differences in how people count on their fingers (there’s even a term for it — dactylonomy). It could easily give you away as a spy 🙂
In Russia and countries of the former USSR, counting to ten on fingers starts by bending the pinky of the left hand and progresses sequentially to the bent thumb of the right hand. However, when it’s necessary to visibly show a number, the hand clenches into a fist and then opens first with the index finger, followed by the middle, ring, pinky, and thumb.
But in the American convention, for example, counting starts with the index finger. The thumb is kept pressed against the palm to show numbers from 1 to 4, and only extended (along with all four fingers) to indicate the number 5.
In countries like Germany, France, Italy, and others, it seems that locals generally start counting with the thumb (=1), adding one finger for each subsequent number up to five.
In Eastern countries, such as Iran, they often begin with the pinky of the right hand, and finish with the thumb. But these are all linear systems.
In Japan, however, the finger counting system is reversed. Instead of showing numbers by raising fingers, it’s the fingers that are hidden in the hand that indicate the number. It starts with the thumb and hides the subsequent fingers in the hand, counting upwards until a closed palm shows the number five.
In China, counting up to five is more or less the same as in the West, but after six it becomes peculiar; there are special configurations indicating 7, 8, 9, 10.
The way to show “2” might lead to misunderstandings if someone accustomed to the Chinese method sees the German “two” with a thumb and index finger, because it would mean “8” in Chinese finger counting (see below). I find it very fascinating (and useful!) that you can count up to 10 in Chinese using just one hand!
When showing the number “2” in the UK the American way (with the index and middle fingers), be careful not to turn your palm inward toward yourself, as this gesture is perceived (or used to be perceived, but who knows whom you’re dealing with) as an insult in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Discovering Free Bio Sludge Fertilizer at the Local Water Treatment Plant | May 06 2024, 18:35
Near our house, there’s a water treatment plant. It receives sewage water from all over the city. Today, I decided to stop by to see what those bags near the entrance were about. It turns out, they’re giving away free fertilizer, bio sludge. Essentially, it’s a by-product of the sewage water treatment process, and, apparently due to its by-product nature and relatively small quantities (and clearly the impossibility of scaling these volumes), they’re distributed for free. If you consider buying such fertilizer, there is a sign that suggests taking no more than 5 bags if possible. However, critics point out a slight potential toxicity of these fertilizers – apparently, they contain a slight exceedance of PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl sulfonates – chemical compounds also known as “forever chemicals” due to their durability and resistance to decomposition in the environment). But on the other hand, for fertilizing lawns, this isn’t really an issue, even if it exists.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 