Fried truths

What a sensation! Finally, scientists were able to unravel one of the mysteries of the Universe! Based on the results of long-term experiments, irrefutable evidence was obtained that nothing in the world can outrun a beam of light. “No matter what we tried, the best specialists not only from Russia, but also from other countries were involved in conducting the experiments,” says one of the authors of the revolutionary discovery. — The Skolkovo Foundation created a department for overcoming the light barrier, which brought together the most promising young specialists. Thanks to the joint efforts of theorists and practitioners, we can finally debunk all speculation and assumptions and boldly say: the speed of light is the highest possible speed of movement in this world.”

Above is a fragment from a hypothetical story that could easily be aired on one of the federal television channels. A mind-boggling mystery of nature, years of fruitless attempts to penetrate the secret of the universe, a brilliant guess, preferably from domestic experts, and its resounding success, which changes our ideas about the structure of the world - these are the typical components of a film about science, which producers are not afraid to release in prime time. Such a film even has a chance to count on a decent rating - especially if the film is preceded by an appropriate trailer.

Masterpieces tailored according to this scenario, of course, belong to the entertainment genre and are easily perceived even by the public, whose vital interests lie as far as possible from science. Moreover: citizens perfectly remember information presented in the form of intellectual fast food and, unnoticed by themselves, incorporate it into their system of ideas about the surrounding reality. Seasoned with intriguing details, emotionally rich stories from television settle in the minds much more firmly than boring and clearly disliked paragraphs from school textbooks. As a result, those who like to while away the evening in front of the screen themselves do not notice how the world around them is filled with yetis, flying saucers, harmful mold and vindictive water, changing its structure depending on the relative position of Taurus and Mars on the full moon.

The sepulchral voice of the presenter, gloomy music, dim interiors of mysterious institutes and the obligatory white coats of their employees are considered bad manners among scientists and serious science journalists. This noir paraphernalia almost inevitably means that now the audience will be told about another half-hypothesis or pseudoscientific research. But despite the constant calls not to believe the nonsense uttered by yet another “Honored Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences” or “author of dozens of international patents,” the audience still greatly favors fried science-pop and savors with pleasure each new creation by the masters of creating “stunning foundations” of television masterpieces.

At the same time, science purists for some reason stubbornly do not notice that the techniques that pseudo-scientific screenwriters and directors have been honing for years carry enormous educational potential. It is believed that a high-quality film about research should introduce the viewer to it as simply as possible, but without deviating from scientific truth. These boring rules are long outdated! Down with dull correctness and strict consistency - the crowd craves sensations.

The average consumer of television content does not care that the authors of the film presented the material coherently and without logical errors. He wants it to take his breath away and have something to share with his work colleagues or friends over a glass of beer. Anyway, in a week he will completely forget how exactly scientists realized that the speed of light is constant, but here’s the idea that thanks to this circumstance, Einstein deduced the famous E = mc2, and physicists from the Manhattan Project created the atomic bomb (especially if you accompany this place in the film with footage destruction of Hiroshima) will remain in his mind for a long time. Of course, it would be much better if citizens clicking the remote control in search of something interesting learned the entire chain of reasoning that the best minds of humanity painstakingly built so that one day television and other useful things would be invented. But this goal is only achievable in an ideal world, and on planet Earth there is enough confidence that the speed of light is maximum. Instead of believing that in secret laboratories this limit has long been overcome, but inert academicians are hiding the great breakthrough from the people.