Terman, like a mother hen, did not take his eyes off his charges until the end of his life. He tracked their life path, tested, measured and analyzed, noted academic achievements, monitored the development of family relationships, collected information about all illnesses, recorded the state of psychological health, and diligently documented any promotions and job changes. He wrote for his pets letters of recommendation for employment and admission to graduate school. He continuously consulted them and recorded everything that happened to them in thick red notebooks entitled “Genetic Study of Geniuses.” Terman became a real celebrity. (At least to the extent that a short, stooped, bespectacled psychologist can become a celebrity.) He was constantly quoted in the press and invited to radio shows, and he used his popularity to once again provide evidence of his theory, which produced at that time bombshell effect: a person's intelligence is measured with the same accuracy as his height, and the resulting readings make it possible to predict his future achievements.

“There is nothing more important in a person than his level of intelligence, except perhaps his morality,” Terman once said. He was convinced that it is people with high IQs who “are capable of moving forward science, art, education, public administration and social well-being in general.” As the subjects grew older, Terman collected new information about their achievements. When his students were still in high school, he wrote enthusiastically: “Read any newspaper article about any competition held in California, and in the list of winners you will definitely see the names of one or more members of our talented group.” He invited literary critics to compare samples of the literary works of his creatively gifted wards with the early works of famous writers. And they could not find any differences. All signs pointed to a group with "heroic" potential. Terman was confident that termites were destined to become the future elite of the United States.

Today, many of Terman's ideas continue to shape our perception of success. Schools offer gifted programs. To enter prestigious universities, a mandatory test for intellectual development (like the American Scholastic Aptitude Test) is required. Based on the same beliefs, high-tech companies such as Google or Microsoft meticulously assess the level of cognitive abilities of potential employees: they believe that people who score the maximum number of points in an IQ test have the highest potential. (At Microsoft, candidates are known to be bombarded with questions designed to gauge their smarts, including the classic, “Why are manhole covers round?” If you don’t know the answer, you’re not smart enough to work at Microsoft.) If I had magical powers and offered you to increase your IQ by 30 points, you wouldn't refuse, would you? You would hope that this would help you achieve greater success. When we hear about someone like Chris Langan, we can't help but feel as awestruck as Terman felt when he met Henry Cowell nearly a century ago. A genius has an amazing mind. Without a doubt, no one will be found who could stop him.

But such a judgment is not entirely correct. Terman made a mistake. He was wrong about his termites, and if he had met young Chris Langan, studying Foundations of Mathematics at age 16, he would have been wrong again for the same reason. Terman did not take into account that talent requires favorable opportunities, that origin matters no less than ability. Moreover, Terman misrepresented the “talent” element of the success equation—a mistake we continue to make today.

One of the most popular intelligence assessment tests is called Raven's Progressive Matrices. It does not require language skills or special knowledge as it measures abstract thinking abilities. A typical Raven test consists of 48 tasks, and each subsequent one is more difficult than the previous one. IQ is calculated based on the number of tasks completed correctly.

Here is a typical question often included in the Raven test.

Did you get the point? I think the majority figured out what was what. The correct answer is C. And now one more question. The last and most difficult in the test.

The correct answer is A. But I must admit, I could not answer it, I suppose, like most readers. True, Chris Langan would most likely give the correct answer: when we talk about people with a brilliant mind, we mean that they crack such tasks like nuts.

Numerous studies have been conducted to establish the relationship between the results of an IQ test such as the Raven Matrices and success in life. People with scores on the lower end of the scale, below 70, are considered mentally unfit. Average score – 100 points; That's about what you need to score to enter college. To pass fairly difficult graduate school exams, you will need to score at least 115. In general, the higher the score, the more you will study, the more likely you will be more money You will earn money and - believe it or not - you will live longer.

But this is precisely where the trap lies. The relationship between success and IQ only exists up to a certain level. Once you reach an IQ of approximately 120, any subsequent additional points do not provide any significant advantage in life.

“It has been proven that a person with an IQ of 170 still thinks better than a person with an IQ of 70,” wrote British psychologist Liam Hudson. – This is also true when comparing closer numbers, say, IQs of 100 and 130. But when comparing people with high IQs, this rule loses its force... An accomplished scientist with an IQ of 130 has the same chance of winning a Nobel Prize as scientist with an IQ of 180.”

In other words, according to Hudson, the value of IQ is equivalent to the value of height in basketball. Does a person 167 cm tall have a real prospect of becoming a professional player? No. To even think about a career as a professional basketball player, you need to be at least 183 or 185 cm tall. And all other things being equal, 187 cm is better than 185 cm and 189 cm is better than 187 cm. But after a certain level, centimeters no longer play a significant role. A 203 cm tall basketball player is not by default a better player than someone who is a few centimeters shorter than him. (After all, Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time, was 6-foot-1.) A basketball player just needs to be tall enough—the same goes for intelligence.

The TV show One Against a Hundred reported that Einstein's IQ was 150 and Langan's was 195. That is, his IQ is 30% higher than Einstein's, but no one is going to claim that Langan is 30% higher. cleverer great scientist. This is just funny. We can only say that in objectively complex areas, such as, for example, physics, they both, without a doubt, enough smart.

However, the idea that IQ has a threshold value contradicts our beliefs. We are conditioned to believe that, say, Nobel Prize winners have the highest possible intelligence; as if they scored top marks on college entrance exams, won every scholarship imaginable, and demonstrated such brilliant talent in high school that they were coveted by the most prestigious universities in the country.

But let's take a look at the list of universities that have graduated the last 25 American Nobel Prize winners in medicine:

Antioch College

Brown University

University of California, Berkeley

University of Washington

Columbia University

Case Institute of Technology

Caltech

Harvard University

Hamilton College

Columbia University

University of North Carolina

DePauw University

University of Pennsylvania

University of Minnesota

University of Notre Dame

Johns Hopkins University

Yale university

Union College, Kentucky

University of Illinois

University of Texas

College of the Holy Cross

Amherst College

Gettysburg College

Hunter College

No one would argue that this list represents the very best higher education institutions in America. Of course, there are Yale and Columbia universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But there is also the College of the Holy Cross, and Gettysburg College, and DePauw University. That is, this is a simple list good educational institutions.

Below is a list of institutions of higher education that have graduated the last 25 American Nobel Prize winners in chemistry:

City College of New York

City College of New York

Stanford University

University of Dayton, Ohio

Rollins College, Florida

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Grinell College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

McGill University

Georgia Tech

Notes

Another social phenomenon is associated with relative age. Barnsley and two colleagues found that students who attempted suicide were mostly born in the second half of the school year. Scientists explain this by saying that poor performance provokes depression. The effect here, however, is not as noticeable as in sports.

In relation to this group of the 1830s. another discovery was made. Sociologist Wright Mills analyzed the biographies of the American business elite from the colonial period to the 20th century. In most cases - and this is not at all surprising - successful businessmen came from privileged families. The only exception? Group 1830s That's how significant the advantage of being born in this decade turned out to be: it was the only period in American history when people from very humble beginnings were able to amass enormous fortunes. Mills writes: “This year - 1835 - best time throughout the history of the United States for the birth of boys from poor families, if these boys were aimed at great success in business."

This IQ test was developed by Ronald Heflin, who has an unusually high IQ. Here is one of the questions in the “Verbal Analogies” section: “Teeth is to a chicken as a nest is to ...?” If you want to know the answer, unfortunately, I can’t help you - I don’t know it!

To get an idea of ​​what kind of teenager Chris was, look at the description of Child L, whose IQ was in the same 200 range as Langan's. The description is taken from the research of Leta Hollingsworth, a psychologist who was one of the first to study exceptionally gifted children. As this description makes clear, an IQ of 200 is very, very high.

“Young L.’s erudition, his desire for academic precision and scrupulousness amazed the imagination. This strong, energetic guy received the nickname Professor. His abilities and attitude towards learning earned him the respect of both teachers and students. He was often assigned to give hour-long lectures on special topics: the history of clocks, ancient theories of engine construction, mathematics and history. To illustrate the principles of timekeeping, it is made from all sorts of things like tape reels typewriter made a clock with a pendulum. The homemade clock was demonstrated to him at the educational lecture “Time and its measurement.” His notebooks were an example of scientific work.

In his opinion, at lectures on the topic “ Vehicles“ Not enough attention was paid to land travel. But he agreed that limited time did not allow for the topic to be fully explored. However, he insisted on becoming familiar with the theories of ancient people. As an additional independent project, he made drawings and detailed descriptions the first versions of engines, locomotives and other things... At that time he was only 10 years old.”

The round lid cannot fall into the hatch, no matter how hard you try. The rectangular lid may fall through if you tilt it slightly to one side.

Here's what one of the leading experts in the field of intelligence measurement, Arthur Jensen, wrote in 1980 in his book Bias in Mental Testing: “The four most socially and personally significant threshold areas on a scoring scale with a high degree of probability distinguish between people who, due to general mental abilities, can or cannot attend a regular school (IQ about 50), can or cannot master subjects secondary school(IQ about 75), may or may not be able to cope with an academic or college preparatory program in high school (IQ about 105), may or may not graduate from an accredited top-tier college with grades that qualify them for admission to vocational school or graduate school (IQ about 115). In other cases, IQ is relatively unimportant in the context of ordinary professional aspirations and criteria for success. This does not mean that there are no significant differences between the intellectual abilities of a person with an IQ of 115 and 150, and even more so with an IQ of 150 and 180. However, IQ differences at the top of the scale are not as significant as the threshold areas described above, and are generally less significant for success in the generally accepted sense, rather than certain personality and character traits.”

End of free trial.

Candidate of Biological Sciences K. MIKHAILOV.

At first glance, a bird's egg is designed very simply. In fact, it is a complex organism, the most famous scientists of the past thought deeply about its perfect “device”. Let us take a close look at this miracle of nature. The egg contains the secret of life, the secret of its fulfillment.

A chicken egg on the twelfth day of its development.

Before becoming an egg, the egg travels a long way in the body of a bird.

As the mass of a bird's egg increases, the pore area in the shell also increases.

This is what the pores in the shell of an extinct relative of the ostrich, the Madagascar epiornis, look like under high magnification (20x magnification).

Pores in the shell different birds have different structure and length; the longer the pores, the thicker the shell.

Hatching turtles, like all reptiles, have special “egg” teeth that they use to cut through the leathery covering of the egg.

The chick has a special egg tubercle on its beak, which it uses to break through the shell.

This is how crocodiles hatch.

Over 21 days of incubation, the chicken embryo gradually switches to breathing atmospheric air.

Science and life // Illustrations

The evaporation of water through the pores of the shell in different birds depends on the type of nest.

Nest of a shore swallow.

Partridge nest.

Gray-cheeked grebe's nest.

Gray heron nest.

Emperor penguin hatches her egg right on her paws.

A hoopoe nest in a crack in a masonry.

Arctic tern nest.

Dove's nest.

From egg to egg

Let's break the shell of a chicken egg - we do it so often! Under the shell we find a dense, parchment-like white film. This is the subshell membrane. Underneath is a gelatinous mass of white, through which the yolk shines through. The yolk is where the egg actually begins.

An unripe egg is an egg covered in a thin shell. The development of the egg occurs in a tangle of conflicting demands, which are gradually reduced to a single denominator and lead to the successful birth of a full-fledged living being. It is necessary to shift the balance slightly, remove one of the minor components, weaken one of the functions, and life in the egg will cease.

In a bird's ovary, several membrane-coated eggs, called follicles, mature simultaneously. They ripen at different times. The mature egg, which has accumulated yolk reserves, breaks through the follicle membrane and falls into the wide funnel of the oviduct. This is where fertilization occurs. Now the egg has a long way to go: it takes 24 hours to “dress” itself in all the egg shells.

The first shell is protein. The protein substance is secreted by special cells and glands. Layer by layer it is wound around the yolk in the long, “main” section of the oviduct. This takes about five hours, after which the egg enters the “isthmus” - the narrowest section, where it is covered with two more shells - the subshell. At the exit from the “isthmus” the egg makes its first stop, which lasts five hours. Here the egg swells, absorbs water and enlarges, reaching its normal size. The shell membranes stretch more and more on the swelling egg and eventually tightly cover its surface. Finally, the egg passes into the last section of the oviduct, into the so-called “shell gland”. There, a shell is formed within 15-16 hours. When the complex process of shell formation ends (see "Science and Life" No. 11, 1997), the egg leaves the mother's body and begins an independent life.

The embryo, which begins to develop in the egg after fertilization, is a complex self-organizing system; its development is carried out according to a given program. This program is embedded in the hereditary material passed on from generation to generation. However, error-free deployment of information encoded in chromosomes is possible only under certain conditions that are created inside the egg.

The embryo develops - continuous problems

The processes that occur during the development of the embryo can be compared to the construction of a house or, even better, a fortress, since the embryo is fenced off from the outside world by a strong wall - the shell.

When building a house, building materials and energy are required. The building material for the embryo is high-molecular organic compounds - proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is a kind of “ore” from which a growing organism draws building blocks, primarily amino acids and sugars, in order to build its own proteins and carbohydrates from them.

The fuel is the same carbohydrates and fats. To burn them, oxygen is needed, which enters the embryo through the pores in the shell. But that's not all. In the process of building the body of the embryo, “construction slag” and waste from fuel combustion are formed - nitrogenous substances and carbon dioxide that are poisonous to the body. They must be removed from the growing organism and its immediate environment. As you can see, there are many problems. How are they resolved?

Nutrients are stored in advance in the egg: the yolk is essentially a storehouse of food reserves. As the embryo develops, the yolk is consumed so actively that by the time the chick hatches, almost nothing remains of it - it, as they say, dissolves. So, the problem of energy and building materials has been solved.

But where to put toxic substances? Good for fish and amphibians. Their egg - the egg - develops in an aquatic environment and is separated from the water only by a layer of mucus and a thin membrane. In this case, the “slag” is discharged directly into the water and easily dissolves. Therefore, fish and amphibians do not emit urea, like mammals, but highly soluble ammonia.

But what about birds (and crocodiles, and turtles), whose eggs are covered with a dense shell and develop not in water, but on land? They bury waste directly in the egg, in a special “garbage” sac called an allantois. The allantois is connected to the circulatory system of the embryo and, together with “waste,” remains in the egg after the chick has hatched and left the egg. The breakdown products are released in a dry, poorly soluble form (otherwise they could poison the embryo) - this is not urea or ammonia, but “dry” uric acid.

In the eggs of reptiles and birds there are other embryonic membranes besides the allantois, in particular the amnion. This shell forms a thin film over the developing embryo, as if including it, and is filled with a special liquid. In this way, the future chick forms its own “water” layer inside the egg, which protects it from possible shocks and mechanical damage. Why not a moat with water around the walls of the fortress? You never cease to be amazed at how wisely everything is arranged in nature.

How is the “fuel” issue resolved? How does oxygen enter the egg? And how is carbon dioxide removed from it? Everything here is amazingly thought out, down to the smallest detail. The shell is penetrated by numerous narrow tubes - pore, or respiratory, channels, simply pores. There are thousands of pores in the egg, through which gas exchange occurs: oxygen enters, carbon dioxide leaves. But that's not all. In order to quickly deliver oxygen entering through the pores to the tissues of the growing embryo, a special respiratory organ is formed in the egg, similar to the placenta in mammals. This is the chorioallantois - a complex network of blood vessels lining the inside of the egg.

But one more problem remains: how to deliver water to the embryo? It is necessary for its developing tissues, and without it the embryo cannot develop normally. Different animals solve this problem in different ways. In snakes and lizards, for example, eggs absorb water from the soil. In this case, the egg increases in volume by 2-2.5 times. But in lizards and snakes, the eggs are covered with an elastic fibrous shell, while in birds they are encased in a shell shell. And where can you get water in a bird’s nest? There is only one thing left to do: stock it up in advance, while the egg is still in the oviduct. This is what the egg white is used for.

Well, are all the problems solved now? No, it just seems like it. The development of the embryo proceeds in a tangle of contradictions and problems. The successful implementation of a new life is truly an incredible process, sliding along a razor blade, between two abysses. The solution to one problem immediately gives rise to another. For example, pores in the shell allow the embryo to receive oxygen. But precious water evaporates through the pores. Therefore, water is stored in the protein with a “reserve”, and evaporation is used for special needs. Thanks to this partial evaporation of water, a free space is gradually formed at the wide pole of the egg, which is called the air chamber. By this time, the chick switches to active breathing with the lungs. The “chamber” accumulates air, which the chick fills its lungs with after it breaks through the shell membrane with its beak. Oxygen here is still strongly mixed with carbon dioxide, so that the chick, about to begin an independent life, gradually gets used to breathing atmospheric air.

How does an egg breathe?

So, a bird’s egg “breathes” thanks to the pores in the shell. Oxygen enters the egg, and water vapor and carbon dioxide are expelled. If there are many pores and the pore channel is wide, then gas exchange occurs quickly. If the pore channel is long, that is, the shell is thick, gas exchange is slow: the thicker the shell, the slower, since the exchange is hindered by the viscosity of the air. Therefore, in a thick shell the pores should be wide, and in a thin shell they should be narrow.

Despite the peculiarities of gas exchange, the oxygen concentration in the blood of embryos of a wide variety of birds is quite constant. This is the requirement of their physiology. Consequently, the speed at which air enters the egg must be no less than a certain threshold value.

It would seem that it would be simpler, let there be as many pores as possible and they be as wide as possible - there will be enough oxygen, and carbon dioxide will be removed perfectly. But let's not forget about water. During the entire incubation period, the egg can lose no more than 15-20% of the water of its original weight, otherwise the embryo will die. In other words, there is an upper limit to increasing the rate of gas exchange. The optimal solution for a given number of pores and their other quantitative characteristics should be specified already during the formation of the shell.

The larger the egg, the faster oxygen must enter it. This is due to a pattern: the volume of the egg (and the mass of the embryo, and its need for oxygen) grows in a cube, but the surface area of ​​the egg grows only in a square. The size of the egg varies in birds from one gram in a hummingbird to a kilogram in an African ostrich - the volume of such an egg is about one and a half liters. And among the Madagascar apiornis, relatives of ostriches, which became extinct in the fifteenth century, the volume of the egg reached eight to ten liters!

How does the shell cope with all these difficulties? This question was first raised thirty years ago by the American professor Herman Rahn. Later, research by specialists from various laboratories around the world confirmed that the rate of gas exchange through the shell (or gas conductivity of the shell) actually increases with increasing egg size. However, the dependence turned out to be not directly proportional. With a tenfold increase in egg mass, the permeability of the shell to oxygen increases only 6.5 times. In this case, the length of the pore channels, that is, the thickness of the shell, does not decrease (this would reduce the strength of the shell), but also increases, although more slowly. But the number of pores in a six-hundred-gram rhea ostrich egg is 18 times greater than in chicken egg, weighing sixty grams.

For clarity, all these relationships were presented in the form of correlation equations, as well as graphically, in the form of the corresponding equations of correlation lines. This is not a formula for the exact calculation of some unknown quantity, but only some ideal “rules of behavior” of interrelated quantities presented in the language of symbols, which we would actually observe if equal conditions were always met in nature. In our case, such equal conditions are the difference in gas pressure across the shell, or, ultimately, the pressure of water vapor inside the nest.

In nature, “other equal conditions” are not always met, and therefore the interrelated quantities of interest to biologists do not behave as well as they should according to the given correlation equations. The figure shows that all actual values ​​of shell gas conductivity in eggs different types birds do not lie exactly on a straight line. All of them, to one degree or another, turn out to be exceptions to the ideal rule. The ideal relationship between the mass of the egg, the gas conductivity of the shell and the total number of pores in the shell, given by the graph, would be fulfilled if all the eggs were incubated at the same altitude above sea level and under the same “normally dry” conditions, which we set in the experiment. But this never happens. If a bird nests in central Russia and places the nest in a “normally” ventilated place - on tree branches or openly on the ground, then for the shells of this bird’s eggs the numerical ratios will be close to the ideal rule. If eggs develop in wetter or drier conditions, then the actual ratios will differ markedly from the ideal.

For example, the eggs of some bird species lose water somewhat faster than they would under "normally dry" conditions. What does it mean? Yes, the eggs of such species hatch in excessively humid conditions. This occurs in shore swallows, kingfishers, bee-eaters, petrels that nest in holes, in weed hens that lay eggs in plant incubator heaps, as well as in birds that nest in hollows. Ventilation in burrows and hollows is unimportant, so as the eggs hatch, the humidity increases due to water evaporation, the oxygen content decreases, and the carbon dioxide content increases. We have to increase the throughput of the “gas barrier”. The conductivity of the shell in the eggs of shore swallows that nest in burrows is significantly higher than that of killer whale swallows that make open nests, although the size of the eggs in both species is almost the same.

The gas permeability of the shell is also increased in those birds that build nests close to the water or even afloat - on heaps of branches, algae, and leaves. These are loons, grebes and coots.

Using correlation equations, scientists can predict in advance the developmental patterns of eggs of a particular species. This is important in cases where you need to breed birds in captivity, for example in a zoo, or raise chicks in an incubator. Rahn's equations are also used in paleontological research. Having calculated the volume, and from it the initial mass of a certain dinosaur egg, the gas permeability of the shell is calculated using the equations of this egg, expected for “normally dry” conditions. Then, by counting the number of pores, measuring their cross-section and the thickness of the shell, the actual value of the shell permeability of a given egg is calculated. By comparing the actual value with the expected value, it is possible to establish how the conditions for the development of eggs of certain dinosaurs differed from the usual conditions for the development of eggs in bird nests. And then we can make a firm conclusion that diplodocus and brontosaurs laid eggs in wet sand, and tyrannosaurus eggs developed in much drier conditions (see Science and Life No. 5, 1997).

Baby ostrich hatches

Other dangers await the chick inside the egg: if the pores in the shell are not covered with anything from above, then the pore channels act as capillaries, and water easily penetrates through them into the egg. And microbes get into the egg with water - rotting begins. Only some birds that nest in hollows, such as parrots and pigeons, have pores that are not covered by anything. In most birds, the top of the egg shell is covered with a thin organic film - cuticle. The cuticle does not allow water to pass through, but oxygen and water vapor pass through it unhindered.

But the cuticle has its own enemy - mold fungi. The fungus devours the “organic matter” of the cuticle, and thin threads of its mycelium quickly penetrate through the pore channels into the egg. In birds that do not keep their nests clean (herons, cormorants, pelicans), as well as in those that make nests on water, in liquid mud or in mouldering heaps of vegetation (this is how the floating nests of great grebes and other grebes, mud cones of flamingos are constructed) and nest-incubators for weed chickens), there is a kind of “anti-mold” protection. The shell of these birds has special surface layers of inorganic matter rich in calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. This coating protects the respiratory channels well not only from water and mold, but also from dirt, which interferes with the normal breathing of the fetus. This coating allows air to pass through, since it is permeated with microcracks inside.

Finally, the chick has passed all the developmental difficulties and is ready to be born. And again he faces a problem. The breaking of the shell is a very important event. Even the thin but elastic fibrous shell of a shellless reptile egg is not easy to cut through. For this purpose, embryos of lizards and snakes have special “egg” teeth, sitting, as teeth should, on the jaw bones. With these teeth, baby snakes cut through the leathery shell of the egg, like a blade.

A chick ready to hatch does not have such teeth. But there is another device: an egg tubercle, a horny outgrowth on the beak, with which the chick tears the subshell membrane before breaking through the shell. But Australian weed chickens do not have any egg tubercle; their chicks break the shell with the claws on their paws.

It turned out that those who use the egg tubercle also do it differently. A group of English biologists, led by Professor R. Bood from the University of Bath, discovered that the chicks of some groups of birds pierce numerous tiny holes around the circumference of the egg at its wide pole and then, pressing, squeeze out a section of the shell. Others punch only one or two holes in the shell, and it cracks like a porcelain cup.

It all depends on mechanical properties shell, and its properties depend on the details of the internal structure. It is more difficult to get rid of a “porcelain” shell than a viscous one, but it also has a number of advantages. In particular, a “porcelain” shell can withstand large static loads - try evenly squeezing a seemingly fragile crystal glass around the circumference. It won't be easy to break it this way. The same thing happens with eggs when there are a lot of them in the nest and they lie in a “heap”, one on top of the other, and the weight of the incubating bird is not small, like in many chickens, ducks and especially ostriches. The shell of an egg during incubation can withstand heavy loads.

But how were young apiornis born if they were immured inside a “capsule” with one and a half centimeter armor? It’s not easy to break such a shell with your hands. But in nature everything is provided for. The pore canals inside the shell of the Epyornis egg branch, and in one plane, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the egg. A chain of narrow grooves-notches is formed on the surface of the egg, where the pore channels open. Such a shell will easily crack when the chick presses on it from the inside with its egg tubercle. Isn’t that what we do when we use a diamond cutter to make notches on the surface of the glass, making it easier to split along the intended line?

So, the chick hatched. Despite all the problems and seemingly insoluble contradictions. He passed from non-existence into existence. Started new life. Truly, everything simple in nature is complex in its implementation. Let's think about this the next time we take a simple chicken egg out of the refrigerator. An egg that contains the secret of life.

Chicken meat has special benefits due to its unique composition. You need to know how to prepare it correctly in order to preserve all the positive properties of the product. Before use, you should familiarize yourself with the contraindications and possible harm of chicken meat.

Compound

Chicken is the most common poultry. It is grown in almost every country on earth. No type of meat contains as many substances important for the human body as there are in chicken. It is low in fat and high in amino acids, and contains virtually no carbohydrates or cholesterol.

The product is rich in vitamins and minerals. Among them:

• vitamins A, B1, B2, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, E;
• potassium;
• sulfur;
• sodium;
• magnesium;
• iron;
• zinc;
• calcium;
• phosphorus;
• chlorine.

Chicken meat contains amino acids:

1. Tryptophan. Converts to serotonin, causing mental relaxation. If a person does not have enough tryptophan in the blood, he is susceptible to frequent depression, insomnia, anxiety and headaches.
2. Leucine. The amino acid is an activator of muscle growth and plays a special role in protein synthesis.
3. Lysine. Increases mental and physical activity, strengthens nails and hair, and is important for the body’s immune system.
4. Valin. The substance makes up about 70% of all proteins in the body. It is necessary for tissue growth and repair, normal functioning of the liver and gall bladder, and corrects the balance of amino acids.
5. Isoleucine. Its deficiency leads to headaches, fatigue, decreased appetite, and nervousness.
6. Purin. Provides energy exchange and fills cells with oxygen. Its lack in the blood can cause joint diseases.
7. Taurine. The amino acid is used in medications for the treatment of eye diseases, tissue restoration and regeneration.
8. Arginine. Plays an important role in male reproductive function, improves fertility, increases the quality and quantity of sperm.

Calorie content of chicken meat

Chicken meat is considered dietary. The number of calories in a product depends on how a particular part of the carcass is prepared:

• considered the lowest calorie fillet , which contains only 113 kcal,
• in hams 180 kcal,
• in pulp without skin - 241 kcal.

Beneficial properties for the body

The benefits of chicken largely depends on how the bird was raised and how it was prepared.

Homemade chicken meat has the following beneficial properties:

• normalizes metabolism;
• has a positive effect on the functioning of the reproductive organs;
• improves vision;
• restores strength;
• improves blood circulation;
• strengthens teeth and nails;
• relieves stress and depression;
• maintains normal blood pressure.

1. For those who often catch colds. People with reduced immunity need to consume chicken broth. The amino acids it contains fight viral and colds.
2. For children. Even infants are allowed to give chicken pate and steamed meatballs. Meat promotes the growth and development of a child.
3. Diabetics. Chicken increases the amount of polyunsaturated acids and regulates blood sugar.
4. To old people. Consumption of the product helps reduce the risk of developing many age-related diseases.
5. Pregnant and lactating women. The vitamins contained in chicken are simply necessary for the nutrition of the expectant mother and her baby. They have a positive effect on the functioning of the genital organs.
6. Athletes. Chicken contains a sufficient amount of protein - the building material for muscles. People who are characterized by increased physical activity need to include boiled breast in their diet every day. Broth makes the body more resilient.

The product is also recommended to be included in the diet of people who suffer from the following pathologies:

• obesity;
• hypertension;
• nervous overstrain;
• gout;
• anemia;
• gastrointestinal ulcers;
• polyarthritis;
• stroke;
• cardiac ischemia;
• joint diseases.

Regular consumption of chicken meat helps strengthen the nervous system, improves the condition of the skin and hair, and helps relieve stress during menstruation in women. The positive effects of the product extend to other body systems.

Digestive system

The functioning of the digestive system is characterized by disturbances in the form of heartburn and heaviness in the stomach. Even those who lead a healthy lifestyle may experience gastrointestinal disorders. Therefore, you should choose easily digestible foods, especially for children and people with stomach diseases.

Chicken is considered a fairly easy to digest food and does not create any digestive problems. Chicken broth makes the stomach work even with reduced secretion. Poultry meat is indicated for gastrointestinal diseases, excess weight, it improves the human condition with gastritis, duodenal ulcers, and attracts excess acidity.

The immune system

Scientists have found that the immunity levels of many people have decreased markedly. The reasons for the weakening of the body’s protective functions lie in poor ecology, bad habits, the use of medications and many other factors. Therefore, it is important to maintain the condition of the immune system.

Chicken broth is very useful for strengthening the immune system and enriching the body with proteins. It must be consumed during colds, ARVI, influenza. Meat saturates the body with essential elements and creates a protective barrier against external microbes and viruses. It has been proven that people who regularly eat chicken are less susceptible to colds than those who eat beef or pork.

Heart and blood vessels

About 42% of all heart attacks occur between the ages of 50 and 59 years. There are more men than women among the patients. Young people are especially susceptible to heart muscle diseases. Therefore, you should think about your health and nutrition from an early age.

Taurine, which is part of chicken meat, normalizes heart function, nicotinic acid reduces the risk of heart attacks and helps quickly recover from illness. Chicken lowers blood cholesterol levels and fights atherosclerosis. Chicken broth promotes the active work of the heart muscle, strengthens blood vessels, and increases their elasticity. All this has a positive effect on blood pressure levels.

Harmful properties and contraindications

Despite the significant advantages of eating chicken, there are some negative aspects, including:

1. Fatty tissue of the skin. It contains harmful substances for the body. It is not recommended for people with liver problems, excess weight and poor skin.
2. Poor quality products in the store. Sometimes store-bought meat contains hormones and antibiotics. Manufacturers may treat it with chlorine. This product is harmful and even dangerous.
3. Possibility of poisoning. If chicken has been poorly processed, eating it can cause bacteria to grow in the intestines.
4. Bad cholesterol. Too high of its content in the body can be caused by eating fried and smoked chicken.

Cannot be abused smoked meat, it promotes the development of malignant tumors. The fact is that during the smoking process, natural smoke contributes to the accumulation of carcinogens in the product, which enter the body. Sometimes harmful substances are used during such processing: phenol, acetone, formaldehyde.

As for contraindications, chicken meat should not be consumed by people who are allergic to chicken protein. The broth should not be given to children under 2 years of age. For feeding a baby you should only use poultry. If this is not possible, you should carefully process purchased meat.

Women who follow a diet based on animal proteins should not overuse chicken meat. This can cause ovulation problems and lead to infertility. There is no need to completely abandon the product, because it also contains important elements necessary for the normal functioning of the body. It is recommended to consume no more than 80 g of chicken meat per day.

How to choose the right chicken meat

To determine a quality product, it is recommended to pay attention to the following points:

1. Old chicken has harder bones and grayish meat.
2. A young bird has elastic meat that is white with a yellow tint. The skin should be light pink. It is better to avoid buying meat that is too red.
3. The appearance of the meat should be pleasant: no entrails, feathers, blood, or damage.
4. To determine the freshness of meat, you need to press on it with your finger. If the hole immediately levels out, then the product is unspoiled.
5. The product should not smell rotten. It is not recommended to purchase meat with seasonings; this usually “masks” the unpleasant odor.
6. You should examine the packaging. It should indicate shelf life and be marked “without chlorine.”
7. An unnaturally large size of a chicken may indicate that it is being fed modified foods and hormones. Such a bird cannot be purchased.

It is important to know how to properly store chicken meat. A chilled product can be kept in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days, and a frozen product in the freezer for up to 1 year, provided that the temperature in the chamber is from -20 degrees. Chilled chicken is healthier than frozen chicken. In addition, it is softer and more delicate in taste.

What's the best way to cook chicken?

Chicken is considered one of the universal foods. Delicious soups, interesting appetizers, and hearty main courses are prepared from it. Poultry meat is budget and affordable. Therefore, most housewives choose his name.

Each part of the carcass is useful in its own way; it is chosen depending on the dish that they want to prepare:

1. To get a rich broth you will need wings, legs or the whole carcass.
2. Chicken breast fillet is suitable for boiled meat.
3. A good kebab is made from chicken thighs. Many people like to grill wings.
4. The lungs are boiled and stewed, and fresh liver can be fried in a frying pan and then stewed in sauce.
5. Salads are usually made from breast; legs and legs are also suitable.
6. Jellied meat will be made from chicken feet. This is a very healthy product containing collagen, a protein necessary for bones and tissues.

To prepare chicken broth, boil the chicken for 10-15 minutes and drain the water. Then it is boiled in new water for about an hour and brought to readiness according to the recipe. Chicken pieces are cooked for 30-40 minutes.

Delicious and popular chicken dishes are prepared in different countries around the world. For example:

1. Spicy salad with vegetables and chicken is preferred in Mexico.
2. In India they prepare salad with chicken and avocado.
3. In Thailand, it is customary to prepare traditional Tom Yang soup with spicy seasonings.
4. Georgian Chikhirtma turns out very tasty, despite the easy recipe for this soup.
5. A savory and filling dish is the Spanish Chicken and Sausage Noodles.

Best chicken dishes

Easy julienne

The recipe for this julienne will please any housewife with its ease of preparation, and lovers of proper nutrition will be delighted with the lightness of the dish, since some of the usual ingredients are replaced with natural yogurt.

Ingredients:

• chicken fillet (300 grams);
• natural yogurt (200 milliliters);
• champignons (400 grams);
• onion (1 piece);
• cheese (100 grams);
• salt pepper.

Cooking steps:

1. Heat a frying pan, add onion. Fry over low heat in olive oil until it turns golden brown.
2. Chicken fillet, cut into small pieces, is placed in a frying pan.
3. Pre-cleaned mushrooms are added to the onions and chicken and fried for 15 minutes.
4. Add spices to the pan to taste.
5. Pour yogurt into the pan, bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
6. The resulting julienne is laid out in cocotte makers and sprinkled with grated cheese.
7. The cocotte makers are placed in an oven preheated to 200° for fifteen minutes.
8. Served hot.

Chakhobili

Perhaps this is one of the most famous and delicious dishes of everyone’s favorite Georgian cuisine, which is based on chicken meat. Surely everyone has tried it, but not everyone has done it on their own. It is very easy to prepare chakhobili at home. The recipe is quite simple and memorable the first time.

Ingredients:

• chicken leg or thighs;
• carrots (1 piece);
• bell pepper (1 piece);
• tomato (2 pieces);
• tomato paste (2 tablespoons);
• salt (1 teaspoon);
• pepper;
• spices and herbs.

Cooking steps:

1. The onion must be peeled, cut and fried in a saucepan.
2. Pre-washed chicken meat is added to the onions.
3. After this, peppers and carrots are added. It is recommended to cut the pepper into small cubes. The chicken-vegetable mixture is fried in a saucepan for 10 minutes.
4. Tomatoes are cut into large pieces and added to the saucepan.
5. Next you need to add tomato paste.
6. Add salt, pepper and spices. Pour some water.
7. The dish needs to simmer for about 40 minutes until cooked.

Juicy breast with mushrooms and spinach

An interesting and unusual dish that easily dispels the myth that chicken fillet is dry and bland meat.

Ingredients:

• chicken breast (2 pieces);
• spinach leaves (400 grams);
• champignons (150 grams);
• mozzarella cheese (100 grams);
• salt pepper.

Cooking steps:

1. In a heated frying pan, chopped mushrooms and spinach leaves are fried in olive oil. The mixture of champignons and spinach must be fried until all excess liquid has evaporated.
2. Spices are added to taste.
3. It is recommended to wash the chicken fillet in advance, and then make deep diagonal cuts in the breasts.
4. The cuts must be filled with spinach and champignon filling.
5. The breasts are sprinkled with grated cheese and baked for about 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180°.

Light chicken soup

Hearty, but at the same time very light chicken soup will be an excellent choice for lunch. Fresh herbs will give it a unique and rich aroma, and the most delicate taste will not leave anyone indifferent.

Ingredients:

• water (3.5 liters);
• chicken legs (3 pieces);
• chicken fillet (0.5 pieces);
• vermicelli (2/3 cup);
• chicken egg (2 pieces);
• half an onion;
• carrots (1.5 pieces);
• potatoes (2 pieces);
• Bay leaf;
• cilantro;
• dill;
• pepper;
• salt.

Cooking steps:

1. Eggs must be boiled first.
2. Cook the chicken over high heat. Watch for foam formation. Gradually reduce the heat. Leave to cook for about 1.5 hours over low heat.
3. While the chicken is cooking, you can start preparing the roast. A grated piece of carrot and chopped onion should be fried in vegetable oil until golden brown.
4. The remaining carrots and potatoes must be cut into cubes.
5. It is necessary to remove the breasts earlier than the legs, as they take longer to cook. The chicken breast removed from the pan is cut into cubes.
6. When the legs are ready, they also need to be removed from the pan.
7. Add potatoes to the broth and cook until half cooked.
8. After this, add carrots to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes.
9. Next, chicken meat, bay leaf and frying are added to the vegetables and broth. The soup needs to be salted.
10. The meat, vegetables and frying are cooked for about seven more minutes, then the vermicelli is poured into the pan.
11. As soon as the vermicelli is ready, remove the pan with the soup from the heat, add black pepper and herbs.

Conclusion

Before preparing your next chicken dish, Important points to remember:

1. We must not forget about the harmfulness of fried and smoked chicken. It is better to choose boiled, stewed or steamed meat.
2. You need to know how to consume the product in moderation and not overeat.
3. It is best to combine the product with vegetables and herbs. This will only improve digestion.
4. You should carefully select chicken meat in the store and subject it to careful processing.
5. For weight loss, it is best to eat drumstick, thigh or breast. You cannot get better from them if they are steamed or boiled.
6. Chicken is a real salvation for people with vascular pathologies.
7. To get the maximum benefit from the product, you need to remove the skin before use.
8. It is better to drain the first broth; you can get rid of it along with it. harmful substances contained in meat.

Many families regularly prepare chicken dishes. She is the basis huge amount recipes and a nutritious addition to your daily diet. Despite the harm, if consumed correctly, chicken meat will only bring benefits.

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In relation to this group of the 1830s. another discovery was made. Sociologist Wright Mills analyzed the biographies of the American business elite from the colonial period to the 20th century. In most cases - and this is not at all surprising - successful businessmen came from privileged families. The only exception? Group 1830s That's how significant the advantage of being born in this decade turned out to be: it was the only period in American history when people from very humble beginnings were able to amass enormous fortunes. Mills writes: "This year - 1835 - is the best time in the history of the United States for the birth of boys from poor families, if these boys were aimed at great success in business."

This IQ test was developed by Ronald Heflin, who has an unusually high IQ. Here is one of the questions in the “Verbal Analogies” section: “Teeth is to a chicken as a nest is to ...?” If you want to know the answer, unfortunately, I can’t help you - I don’t know it!

Here are the options for another student. They are even more interesting than Poole's options. Brick: to break windows during a robbery, to measure the depth of a well, ammunition, a pendulum, for carving exercises, for construction, to demonstrate Archimedes' principle, an element of abstract sculpture, ballast, a weight for submerging objects in water, a hammer, a device for knocking mud off shoes , material for laying out the path, a stand, a wedge to hold the door open, a weight on the scale, a stand for the leg of a wobbly table, a paperweight that can be used to close the entrance to a rabbit hole.

New Haven is home to Yale University, considered one of the most prestigious in the world (LI A. - Ed.

students

American organization that unites senior officials of the country's largest companies

white shoe company

In one of his articles, legal scholar Eli Wilde analyzes in great detail how it happened that the vicissitudes of fate turned into real luck for Jewish lawyers. Wilde does not claim that Flom and his ilk were simply lucky. Luck is winning the lottery. But an opportunity presented itself to them, and they took advantage of it. As Wilde writes: “Jewish lawyers were lucky and helped themselves. This is the most accurate formulation. They turned the circumstances to their advantage. An element of luck was the reluctance of “white shoe” firms to get involved with hostile takeovers. However, the word “luck” does not take into account effort, work, imagination and active use of opportunities - everything that does not lie on the surface and therefore is not so obvious.”

I work with his agency JanklowNesbit. That is why I was able to find out the history of the Janklow family.

In this case, it is undoubtedly impossible to dismiss the cultural argument - the Jews’ belonging to a “nation of books”, which attaches great importance to education. The apparel industry has paid tribute to Friedman's mother's quick thinking. But what did she use this intelligence for? She began taking children to Carnegie Hall, purposefully choosing those areas of knowledge that would optimally prepare children for future professions.

David Fisher's book Albion'sSeed: Four British Folkways in America vividly illustrates the idea that cultural heritage leaves a long historical trace. If you read my first book, The Tipping Point (Gladwell M . Turning point. - M.: Williams, 2006), then remember that the story about Paul Revere was borrowed from Fisher’s work “Paul Revere's Ride”. In The Seed of Albion, Fisher lists four waves of emigration from Britain to America in the first 150 years after its discovery. First: the Puritans who moved from East Anglia to Massachusetts in the 1630s. Second: royalist indentured laborers from southern England who arrived in Virginia in the mid-17th century. Third: Quakers from the northern regions of central England, who settled Delaware in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. And finally, the inhabitants of the border regions who settled in the Appalachian region in the 18th century. Fischer makes a brilliant case for the fact that these four cultures - sharply different from each other - characterize these four regions to this day.

Many years ago, a journalist named Holding Carter described his time on a jury trial as a young man. Here's how Reed writes about it:

“The case of a hot-tempered gentleman who lived near a gas station was tried before a jury. For several months, he was constantly being teased by her customers and the idle people hanging around the gas station. And this despite numerous warnings on his part and the well-known tough temperament of this gentleman. One morning he emptied both barrels of a shotgun at his tormentors, killing one, mutilating another and hitting a third... When the judge asked the jury to reach a verdict, Carter alone found the accused guilty. As another juror put it, “He wouldn't be a real man if he didn't shoot those guys.”

Only in a culture of honor would a hot-tempered gentleman consider murder a fitting response to a personal insult. And only in a culture of honor will a jury come to the conclusion that murder under the given circumstances is not a crime.

Wanting to get confirmation of the phenomenon of “southern origin,” Cohen conducted several experiments, and the results were the same each time. “Once we irritated students with constant pestering. They came to the laboratory, where they were asked to draw a picture from their childhood. A dummy participant in the experiment sat in the laboratory and got on everyone’s nerves. He did everything to get the test subject: he crumpled up his drawing and threw it into the trash can, hitting the student, took his pencils and did not give him back, called him a moron, said: “I will write your name on the board,” and wrote “ jerk". The northerners first let off steam, and then at a certain point calmed down. Southerners rarely flared up right away. But at a certain point they left the northerners far behind. They exploded and behaved much more aggressively.”

Hofstede refers to a study conducted several years ago that compared German and French factories belonging to the same industry and with approximately the same production volume. In French factories leadership positions occupied an average of 26% of employees; in German - 16%. In addition, French leaders senior management received significantly more than their German counterparts. According to Hofstede, this comparison reveals differences in cultural attitudes toward hierarchy. The power distance index in France is twice as high as in Germany. Unlike the Germans, the French favor and support hierarchy.

If you're interested, take a look at the list of the five highest and then the five lowest IDV pilots by country. If we compare this list with the statistics of plane crashes, the direct relationship becomes obvious.

1. Brazil

2. South Korea

3. Morocco

4. Mexico

5. Philippines

The five lowest IDVs:

16. Ireland

17. South Africa

18. Australia

19. New Zealand

Many examples can be cited as proof. Researcher Erling Bou calculated that Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan perform roughly the same in math, around the 98th percentile. The US, England, France, Germany and other Western industrial countries rank somewhere between the 28th and 36th percentiles. This is a big gap. One of the first to put forward the idea that Asians have a higher IQ than the rest of the world's inhabitants was the British psychologist Richard Lynn. He developed an intricate theory based on an evolutionary explanation that included the Himalayas, a very cold climate, ancient hunting methods, brain size and special vowel sounds.

Lynn's theory, however, was crushed by other specialists, who demonstrated that his arguments were not indicative, since urban residents with high level income. James Flynn, probably the world's leading IQ expert, has come up with a very interesting counter theory. According to him, for historical reasons, the IQ of Asians was lower than the IQ of Europeans. In other words, they demonstrate superiority in mathematics not because of IQ, but despite it. Flynn outlined his thoughts on this topic in the book Asian Americans: Achievement Beyond IQ, 1991

about French rural life

Two small additions. If you're surprised that China isn't on this list, keep in mind that mainland China is not yet participating in TIMMS. However, the high rankings of Taipei and Hong Kong suggest that mainland China would likely perform equally well.

You may wonder: what is happening in the north of the country, where historically there was a culture of growing not rice, but wheat, in many ways similar to Western Europe? Are the people in this part of the country just as good at math? We do not know. According to reports by psychologist James Flynn, the vast majority of immigrants in the West - people who are strong in mathematics - come from southern China. The Chinese students who graduated with honors from MIT are predominantly descendants of the Pearl River Valley. According to him, Chinese Americans with the lowest results are the so-called residents Sy-i region, who lived along the edges of the Pearl River valley, “where the soil is not so abundant, but Agriculture not so developed."

Much has been devoted to the study of Asian “perseverance.” scientific works. One example is a study conducted by Priscilla Blincoe. She asked large groups of Japanese and American first-graders to complete a very difficult puzzle and timed the time when the children lost interest in the task. American children did not last longer than 9.47 minutes. Japanese children lasted an average of 13.93 minutes - about 40% longer.

capital of Jamaica

main newspaper countries

Related information.

Modern representatives of toothy birds include penguins, which have pseudo-teeth, the purpose of which is to hold food and then grind it. Other modern representatives of birds with teeth are domestic geese, which have a number of small teeth, as well as the serrated bowerbird (Australia), which has a beak shaped like horny barbs. But from a scientific point of view, the listed features are not teeth.

But don't rush to leave. Birds have teeth. True, there is only one and that is temporary. There is also such a thing as an egg tooth (or egg tubercle), which is formed in chicks that have not yet hatched from the egg. It develops in the upper part of the beak and is necessary for the chick to independently break through the shell. This is a real tooth. But after hatching, the tooth disappears as unnecessary.

Thus, adult birds do not have teeth as such, consisting of dentin and enamel.

Why do birds have no teeth?

Modern birds, as we have found out, do not have teeth, since they are not necessary for the bird. The role of teeth is played by a sharp bony beak, which crushes food into small pieces. Birds swallow pieces without chewing.

In 1861, the bones of a prehistoric bird, Archeopteryx, were found in Germany. After studying them and comparing them with similar finds, scientists suggested that many modern birds most likely descended from predatory theropod dinosaurs. Theropods are a type of dinosaur that walked on only two legs. One of the most famous representatives is the Tyrannosaurus rex.

However, it still remains a mystery how and why birds lost their teeth during the process of evolution. To find the answer to this question, the researchers decided to study the genes responsible for the formation of teeth in birds of different orders. Genes are parts of special molecules that store all the information about the body: from appearance to the diseases of even the most distant ancestors. It turned out that all these birds have the same changes in genes associated with the formation of dental tissue and enamel. These changes, also called mutations, could arise for various reasons and then be inherited by offspring. Exactly the same mutated genes were found in other vertebrates that do not have teeth, such as anteaters and turtles. Thanks to this discovery, scientists were able to conclude that most bird species had one common ancestor. What kind of animal it was remains to be seen.

Thus, a subclass of “Toothed Birds” is distinguished, which are currently considered extinct.

Do birds swallow stones?

In order for the swallowed food to be well crushed in the stomach, some birds specifically swallow small pebbles and other hard objects (otherwise known as gastroliths, or stomach stones), which help to further crush and grind the food inside one of the sections of the stomach under the influence of gastric juice.

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