Over time, even the information that for a very long period of time is true, can undergo drastic changes. For example, earlier believed that doctors should wash their hands before surgery. However, science is developing very rapidly, and human development is not in place. Here are the facts familiar to you from school. But today it is old information that has been disproved. 1. Old fact: Pluto - the planet.
The new fact is that Pluto is not a planet.
Until then, some people believed that after Uranus there is another, the ninth planet - Pluto. This opinion was common in the late 19th century.
In 1906, the famous scientist Percival Lowell (Percival Lowell), who founded the observatory named after himself, has launched a research project whose main objective was the discovery of the mysterious planet.
In 1923, Clyde Tombaugh, a young researcher (Clyde Tombaugh) discovered the planet "X". He was instructed to scrutinize all moving objects and to compare them with images of the starry sky.
As a result, 23-year-old man presented to the experts Harvard College Observatory their discovery.
The name of the new planet gained thanks to 11-year-old girl from England (Pluto - Roman god of the underworld). Thus, Pluto was included in the composition of our Solar System.
However, in 2003, we are told, representatives from NASA, one astronomer have discovered beyond Pluto's much larger object, which he decided to give the name of Eris.
This event has generated a lot of contentious issues, chief among which was the - so the planet can be called a planet? However, a more detailed analysis the information available, the researchers came to the conclusion that neither Eris or Pluto are not really planets.
2. Old fact: the hardest natural material on earth - it is a diamond.
New fact: the most solid in the world of matter - is cubic boron nitride.
On the ground, there are two substances that are harder than diamond. We are talking about boron nitride (stronger than a diamond of 18 per cent) and Lonsdale (harder gemstone 58 percent).
But these substances are quite rare in nature. However, to be perfectly honest, the authors of this study have not been able yet fully prove their calculations in practice.
Thus, the discovery of truth is only in theory.
It is worth noting that there is another contender for the title of the solids. Researchers chemical densified boron nitride particles to create a "super hard CBN».
It was pretty simple, because they just divided them into its constituent components. As a result, this has led to the fact that women throughout the world began to order wedding rings made of this material, because such ring exactly scrapie Union forever.
3. Old fact: the evolutionary link between man and other primates is lost forever.
New fact: A "Ida».
Scientists say that "Ida" - is the most important, previously missing link in the chain of evolution from ape to man. In 2003, German paleontologist Jørn Hurum (Jorn Hurum) and a team of researchers have discovered well-preserved remains of ancient, dating back at least 47 million years.
Remains named Ida. This ancient primates and thus became the transitional missing link in the evolutionary movement of ape to man and the lemur, a distant relative of humans.
Scientifically it called Ida «Darwiniusmasillae», which literally stands for "the essence of Darwin's Messel." Skeleton individuals like the skeleton of a lemur, she also present common characteristics with primates such as located separately thumb, short limbs, a complete lack of claws.
Thus, Ida helped fill a huge gap that existed in the theory of evolutionary development.
4. Old fact: Fold a sheet of paper of all sizes in more than seven times impossible.
New fact: The record - 11 times.
This rumor is very long lived in the scientific community, as well as in the arts. It was able to dispel the usual schoolgirl from California. Gellivan Britney (Britney Gallivan) and a few enthusiasts bought a great big roll of toilet paper for $ 85 and managed to fold it 11 times.
Clever girl realized that those who tried to deny it the old fact, changed the direction of the fold of the paper. Pupil even managed to derive an equation made up, taking into account the thickness and width of the particular paper.
In 2006, Britney made a speech at the convention of teachers of mathematics, and a year later was awarded a degree in ecology. Now, she often appears in the known transmission channel Discovery «Mythbusters».
5. Old fact: The only man-made structures, noticeable from space - is the Great Wall of China.
New fact: In fact, many buildings erected by man seen something like from space. But formally, such statements have never been true. Such rumors are walking from the end of the 30s of the 20th century.
Despite the Chinese astronaut in 2003 still managed to disprove this myth. According to NASA Yang Liwei (Yang Liwei) said that was not able to see the Great Wall from space.
Following the announcement, the network began to be made public in a variety of shots, saying that under certain conditions, you can still see the outline of the wall. Moreover, it was said that you can also see the main roads of major cities, the lights of cities, airports, bridges, reservoirs and airports. Speculation that the moon is also possible to see the earth structures were only ridiculous speculation. According to a member of the crew Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean (Alan Bean), the only thing that can be seen from the moon - is a huge blue ball, immersed in a cloud with yellow spots deserts and green islands of vegetation.
It is likely that the talk about the visibility of the earth from outer space objects mean the Earth's orbit, but that's another story, which is to space is irrelevant.
6. Old fact: There are only five classifications of species of kingdoms: plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and protozoa.
New fact: Today, all the evidence suggests that biological kingdoms, and at least eight.
Each year, opening new kinds of living beings. The more, the harder it is to refer them to a particular realm. In addition to those already mentioned kingdom it was revealed kingdom "archaea", which was previously combined with the kingdom of bacteria.
At first glance it may seem that the ancient bacteria (Archaea) are treated just like other single-celled (eubacteria). But in fact, when we look, everything is much more complicated.
There are very complex systems, eubacteria divide into two large kingdoms.
Source: