On the influence of words on the genome

Something strange is happening at federal universities. The rector of the North-Eastern Federal University, Evgenia Mikhailova, holds a Doctor of Pedagogy degree, defended on the basis of a dissertation written off in slightly less than its entirety [1]. Creationism is taught at the Southern Federal University [2]. A horoscope was published in the newspaper of the Kazan Federal University; however, after some noise in the press [3], the KFU website now says: “Sorry, this material has been withdrawn from publication” [4]. And the newspaper “Ostrov.ru” of the Far Eastern Federal University has just distinguished itself.

Quoting Oksana Baturina, candidate of psychological sciences, the author of the article “FEFU scientists have exposed Russian swearing” wrote: “ Not so long ago, biologists discovered that the use of swearing is especially harmful for girls. Frequent use of swear words has a negative energy-physiological effect on the female body. When a woman swears, she provokes the production of male hormones in herself and acquires masculine features in her appearance: their hair grows and their voice deepens. Moreover, biologists have found that this even leads to a change in the DNA structure of a woman ” [5]. As a person who, in his free time from TrV-Nauka, studies the structure of DNA, I asked for a link to scientific articles in which this effect was shown, and received the following response from Maxim Barylenko, editor-in-chief of the publication: “ On the merits of your question, we contacted Oksana Baturina. She said that information about this can be found in any search engine by typing the keywords: “the effect of swearing on DNA.” Thus, we found information about relevant research conducted or conducted by Candidate of Biological Sciences P. P. Goryaev and Candidate of Technical Sciences G. T. Tertyshny. As you can see, this question exists in science ” (spelling preserved).

Everything here is wonderful at once. And a link to the famous freak, the author of the so-called wave genome theory and many other crazy theories, Peter Garyaev. (Sic! Not “Goryaev.”) And a candidate of psychological sciences, who draws scientific information from the Internet. And the editor of the university newspaper, who did not bother to understand what was being said, and simply did not feel that he had gotten into something bad.

It must be said that this material also disappeared from the site - a message is displayed at the old address: “Item not found!” [6]. But many yellow sites, as well as sites and blogs dedicated to the fight against pseudoscience, managed to reprint it, so the damage to the university’s reputation was done, and simply deleting the material cannot be cured. It would have been better to include an explanation of what happened and what steps have been taken to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

It may seem that against the backdrop of the arrest for financial abuse of the FEFU rector Sergei Ivanets and two vice-rectors that happened at the same time, this is a trifle (I note that, knowing the characteristics of Russian law enforcement agencies, I attach much less importance to these arrests than, say, the message of the Anti-Corruption Foundation [7]). But in fact, they are pieces of the same puzzle: the pseudoscience, incompetence and theft that flourish in universities are manifestations of the same systemic evils - which are too obvious to enumerate again.

M.G.

1. www.dissernet.org/expertise/mikhailovaei2000.htm

2. Gelfand M. Teaching or missionary work? TrV-Science. No. 197 dated February 09, 2016.

3. Yarkhamov I. “The secret sect of astrologers at KFU”: fighters against pseudoscience discovered “obscurantist material” on the university website // Kazan First, January 11, 2016. https://kazanfirst.ru/feed/61380

4. http://kpfu.ru/news/nauchno-obrazovatelnyj-goroskop-183804.html

5. Skoda V. FEFU scientists exposed Russian obscenities // Ostrov.ru. March 18, 2016.

6. www.dvfu.ru/newspaper/news/alma_mater/razoblachenie-russkogo-mata-v-dvfu/?PAGEN_6=2

7. Navalny A. Our big but sad victory: the Investigative Committee in 2016 arrested those whom RosPil demanded to arrest in 2011 // Anti-Corruption Foundation. March 21, 2016. https://fbk.info/investigations/post/197/