NITU
Hello! Meet the first spring hit parade of the most media scientific developments of Russian universities. Let me remind you that the rating is made monthly (this is January, but February). This project was launched on the one hand to popularize Russian science, on the other – we wanted to understand what scientific developments receive a good press and evoke resonance in the Russian media.
Briefly recall the criteria that we follow when drawing up the rating. In places, studies are based on the simplest and most verifiable principle – the number of reprints of the original message. The number of reprints is determined with the help of the information and analytical system of monitoring and effective analysis of Russian media “Medialogiya”.
Only Russian developments and only developments of researchers from higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation fall into the rating.
Another important clause – according to the principle “do not mix immiscible” – the achievements of scientists working in the humanities are not presented in the rating. The reasons are clear – it’s already clear that any research on pensions in the media plan will break everyone, like Tuzik’s hot-water bottle. On the same we do not include a variety of monitoring, measuring the subsistence minimum, etc. Studies carried out with known periodicity.
Okay, meet the most popular scientific developments in March in the media:
10. The request of the cell is not fed
At the tenth position of our hit parade, the study of MSU physicians who proved the beneficial effect of a light diet in the treatment of cancer. Cancer cells grow uncontrollably and multiply, absorbing a large number of nutrients. Therefore, more and more often doctors try to combine traditional chemotherapy with a light diet provoking a lack of nutrients, which is most strongly felt by cancer cells. Employees of Moscow State University have analyzed more than 200 scientific sources about such therapeutic approaches. According to university doctors, their analysis fully confirmed the promise of a “dietary” trend in oncology.
10th place, 84 publications
9. “And thirty knights of the beautiful …”
Scientists of Sevastopol State University decided to replicate Ichthyandra, who can breathe under the water. More precisely, it is necessary to breathe not water, but a special liquid saturated with oxygen and pumped into the lungs. The idea is not new at all, but so it is not up to the mind. To finalize it, a laboratory of experimental life support systems for biological objects specially created in SevGU for this project was assembled. What specific objects – it is not difficult to guess, given that the project is being funded, along with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, by the State Foundation for Advanced Studies under the Military Industrial Commission. These objects periodically organize battles without rules at the bottom of the Sevastopol dolphinarium, which personally can be attested by experts rating TOP-NAUKA from the NITU “MISiS.”
9th place, 88 publications
8. The new chemistry of the capital
Chemists of the Lomonosov Moscow State University studied the state of the metropolitan environment in an original way and significantly expanded the list of detectable substances settling on the capital. As a consequence, the snow samples taken in March last year brought a lot of curious. As the authors of the article write, the new technique “allowed us to identify and define such new substances as iodinated substances, polychlorinated anisoles and even nickel-containing organic complex, which we did not expect to find in the samples.” All the mass media massively propagated warnings about new contaminant substances and finally took the study to the 8th place in the rating of TOP-SCIENCE from the NITU “MISIS”
8th place, 88 publications
7. Beauty is a terrible muck!
In the seventh place of our hit parade – research assistant of the Omsk State Pedagogical University Svyatoslav Knyazev, who won a grant to fund the research “Development of technology for obtaining mucus and coprolites of earthworms of Siberia for their application in medicine and cosmetology”. Simply put, a Siberian scientist is developing a technology for obtaining cosmetics from earthworm feces. The final products are “mucus, gel enriched with products of lumbricide isolation, and masks based on activated clay in the form of coprolites.” However, this is not the only muck that is used in cosmetology.
7th place, 95 publications
6. “Happiness suddenly, in silence …”
Where beauty is, there is happiness. It is precisely with happiness and the fight against depression that a Russian-Swedish study is being conducted by Prof. Svetlana Ivanova of the Tomsk Polytechnic University and Professor Anton Lunen of the University of Groningen. According to their hypothesis, the lack of happiness in the modern world is due to the fact that the balance between two ancient models of behavior is violated: search-rewarding and stress-avoiding. The formula of happiness deduced by the professors was reprinted by more than 100 publications, although I remember that another toastmaster from the bearded anecdote offered to drink for the balance between rewarding and avoiding: “So that we have everything, and we did not have anything for it!”
6 place, 111 publications
5. The next link between the exchange of fats in the body and longevity was discovered by an international group of scientists from Russia, China, Germany, France, Germany, USA and South Africa under the guidance of Professor Skoltekh Philip Haitovich. According to scientists, the push to study was a long-standing problem – why, despite the steady increase in the average life expectancy of a person, the maximum life expectancy remains constant and is 100-115 years. Of no less interest are the data obtained by the researchers – a list of fats (lipid) of 35 mammal species. Previously, the evolution of the lipid was studied for only four species. Perhaps, it was this part of the research that prompted the media to replicate the scientific work so much that it fell into the rating of TOP-SCIENCE from the NITU MISIS.
5th place, 120 publications
4. Play, the hormone!
Scientists from the Higher School of Economics, the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics, the Higher Normal School (France) and the University of Indiana (USA) Learned that alcoholism can be caused by an imbalance arising in the work of the “joy hormone” – dopamine. The main function of this hormone is the transmission to the brain of signals about positive or negative consequences. Alcohol knocks down the setting, so its stimulus is always conveyed as having a motivational and behavioral importance. According to scientists, their research is an important step towards the possibility of treating alcoholism. If it is possible to “force” the dopamine to work in a balanced way, we can talk about a real breakthrough.
4th place, 124 publications
3. Baba-Yaga – polyethylene leg
“Bronze” in the March ranking of TOP-SCIENCE receives the development of researchers from the NITU “MISiS”, the Russian oncocenter named after Blokhin And the State Plant of Medical Preparations. They managed to create bone implants for reconstructive surgery based on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. In terms of “strength / own weight” products from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene are superior even to steel, but until now it has not been possible to impart to the polymer the porous structure necessary for complete imitation of bone tissue. The problem was solved using methods of solid-phase mixing, thermo-pressing and washing in subcritical water. As a consequence, 100% of implanted implants successfully took root.
3rd place, 137 publications
2. Cabbage nanoshoshkad
“Silver” rating TOP-SCIENCE went to scientists from the FEFU, who presented their own development – “nanoshokolad” with the addition of sea kale. According to the developers, the main advantage of their product is not in laminaria, but in cooking technology. Cocoa beans and algae are crushed to nanometer sizes, for which chocolate and received a prefix “nano-“. The small diameter of the particles increased the digestion by the body of the beneficial substances of seaweed, and at the same time provided the news with greater permeability to all kinds of media.
2nd place, 207 publications
1. PrintZilla removed competitors
Meet the winner of the March rating TOP-SCIENCE! The first place was occupied by the development of engineers of the NITU “MISiS”, who created the largest 3D printer in Russia. The presentation of the device took place in early March at the University Center for Educational Support. The giant 3D printer, called PrintZilla, has a printable area of 0.8 × 0.8 × 2.0 meters and allows printing objects ranging from key fobs to furniture. PrintZilla, assembled by the team of the digital production laboratory FabLab, can be used for the production of plastic products with complex geometry and, as we see, significantly promotes the brand NITU “MISiS” in the media.
1 place, 217 publications
Also in March, Russian scientists made gold nanoparticles with antibacterial properties, reduced the weight of aircraft by one third, presented prostheses for cats, created a quadrocopter for diamond prospecting and a laboratory for the study of happiness, proved the connection between migrations Frogs and the magnetic field of the Earth and dealt with a number of equally important problems. However, the media responded to this news to a lesser degree.
April will bring new discoveries, which we will describe in early May. Stay tuned!
