Rats, mines, tuberculosis and other unpredictable things connected with each other (14 photos)

What do dogs and Velcro have in common? And between painting and nuclear weapons? If you say that it’s nothing, you will be very mistaken. In fact, without some things, others simply would not exist.





It is about them that we will discuss in our material. Be prepared to dramatically expand your horizons and stock up on a couple of mind-boggling facts to support smart conversations.

Roller coaster and piety.



At the end of the 19th century, inventor LaMarcus Thompson gave the Americans the largest amusement park - Coney Island. The purpose of its creation was not at all to entertain the people. In fact, in this way Thompson tried to distract them from the popular entertainment of that time - visiting brothels and saloons.

Instead, local residents were offered a ride on high-speed carriages among stunning scenery and a dose of adrenaline. Thompson's plan worked - over time, Americans became more pious. After the slides, tired and happy, they went home.

Vikings and advertising.





Many years ago, the Scandinavian navigator Erik the Red founded the first settlement in Greenland. Having discovered a new land, he called it “Green”. Without knowing it, at that moment Eric used one of the most effective and popular marketing techniques, which is still actively used today: “the right name is the first step to success.”

The thing is that the name “Green Land”, the appropriateness of which is still being debated to this day, was invented by Eric the Red in contrast to the white ice of his homeland. He thought that in this way he would be able to attract as many colonists as possible to the new land, and he turned out to be absolutely right. A year later, dozens of ships with settlers moved to Greenland (literally translated as “Green Land”). That's what the correct name means!

Dogs and Velcro.



“Well, what could be the connection here?” - you ask. And she is! And the answer will greatly surprise you.

It turns out that Georges De Mestral was inspired to invent Velcro fasteners by walking with his dog. Returning home, the man decided to examine under a microscope the burdock thorns that kept clinging to the fur of his four-legged friend. This observation prompted him to use a similar principle in the textile industry.

So, after decades of research, through trial and error, De Mestral created Velcro fasteners for shoes, for which we are very grateful to him.

Sun and sneezing.



Did you know that on average every fourth person on the planet sneezes when looking at the sun? But this is not even interesting, but the fact that this feature is inherited.

The urge to sneeze from sunlight occurs due to irritation of the retina, which leads to such a reaction. A similar reaction can occur when the needle is too close to the eye or when the stomach is full.

Printers and fingerprints.



Did you know that most laser printers come with their own fingerprints? These special marks (often called “yellow dots”) represent a digital watermark and store information about the device serial number, date and time of printing. If you look closely, all over the page, in places where the text is located, you can see small yellow dots at a distance of approximately 2.5 mm from each other.

These tags are intended to help in the fight against counterfeiting. In addition, there are known cases where, thanks to these tags, crimes related to data leakage were solved. Similar technologies are now being developed for 3D printers.

Olympic Games and Art.



We are accustomed to the fact that the Olympic Games are exclusively sporting competitions that have nothing to do with art. This is not entirely true. In the mid-20th century, art competitions dedicated to sports themes were held as part of the Olympics. Thus, the founder of the games, Pierre de Coubertin, wanted to strengthen not only the physical, but also the spiritual condition of their participants. Olympic art competitions were held from 1912 to 1948. Medals were awarded in a variety of fields, from painting to architecture and music.

Pink color and masculinity.



Now, when choosing things for a newborn boy, you will probably give preference to the color blue. But in the past, blue, on the contrary, was associated with girls, and “girly” pink, as many of us used to think, was considered a shade of “masculine” red and was traditionally intended for boys. The color that suited both sexes was white.

However, over time, under the influence of various factors (not without active feminist movements), dramatic changes occurred in the distribution of colors between the sexes. When it became possible to determine the sex of a child, with the help of advertising, marketers tried to convince mothers to urgently stock up on a wardrobe of the “right color” for their future baby. So, pink finally “passed on” to the girls, although, as scientists assure, the children themselves do not care what color clothes they are wearing. Stereotypes that “pink is for girls and blue is for boys” are formed in children only in an environment where this artificial division is present.

Pigeons and cancer.



American scientists were able to teach pigeons to recognize malignant cells from histological images. This became possible thanks to two features of these birds - a complete lack of imagination (unlike people, birds do not tend to “think out” something) and enhanced color perception.

During the experiment, scientists fed pigeons according to a certain system (when the bird found the correct answer, it was given a treat), and after a month of training, each pigeon gave the correct conclusion in 80% of cases. Surprisingly, analysis of the overall result showed an accuracy of 99%.

Telegraph and grief.



Few people know, but Samuel Morse, the creator of Morse code, was a pretty good drawer in his time. He had every chance of becoming a great artist, but, as fate would have it, the man became famous in another field.

One day, Morse was absent from home for a long time, and the only way to communicate with his family was by mail. First, he received news that his wife was ill, but was recovering, and three days later another message fell into his hands: it said that his wife had died suddenly.

When, seven years later, Morse had a chance conversation about the possibility of transmitting messages at a distance using electricity, he became very interested in this idea. 12 years later, in 1844, the first message was sent in Morse code from Washington to Baltimore with the words: “Wonderful are Thy works, O Lord.”

Rats, mines and tuberculosis.



Giant hamster rats are considered Tanzania's most valuable workers, thanks to their amazing intelligence and sense of smell. These animals are used to search for mines and to diagnose tuberculosis. An unusually keen sense of smell helps rats detect tuberculosis in the early stages of development. And some animals even undergo a special training program and become HeroRATS (literally “hero rats”) - they are sent to look for explosives in “hot spots”.

Captcha and old books.



An indistinct set of characters, which we used to call captcha, serves not only to confirm the user, but also for more noble purposes. It turns out that some of the words in the pictures are excerpts of phrases from old newspapers and books that the computer could not parse. Only a person can cope with such a text.

When the user answers the captcha, the gaps in the digital versions of the books are finally filled in with the missing words. Every day, Internet users around the world solve about 200 million of these “microtasks.” Marvelous!

Tights and speed skating.



Thanks to the ingenuity of the Soviet speed skater Viktor Kosichkin, the “age of nylon” began in Soviet sports. He recalled: the realization that synthetics works wonders came to him at the World Championships in Davos. There Kosichkin performed in the second group, so in the evening he encountered a big problem - the cold interfered with a normal race.

The athlete wondered how to solve this issue. He didn’t have any spare clothes, so he went into the locker room, where at that time there were German and American women, and asked them for “some kind of dress.” The amazed girls gave him tights. “Damn, they’re too small!” - thought Kosichkin, but then he cut them off and pulled the upper part over his legs.

Painting and nuclear weapons.



After the first use of nuclear weapons, new isotopes appeared in the world - strontium-90 and cesium-137. These two substances are found in trace amounts in paintings painted after 1945 because the vegetable oils used to make the paints absorbed them from the soil.

That is why it is now almost impossible to fake paintings by old masters. When tested, radiation testing will show that the paints do not contain these isotopes.

Thank you all for your patience and watching) Have a nice weekend!!!