This book will change the way you think about genius and success. Useful and harmful products for teeth

Candidate of Biological Sciences K. MIKHAILOV.

At first glance, the bird's egg is very simple. In fact, it is a complex organism, the perfect "device" of which was deeply thought by the most famous scientists of the past. Let us and we take a close look at this miracle of nature. The egg contains the secret of life, the secret of its realization.

Chicken egg on the twelfth day of its development.

The egg goes a long way in a bird's body before it becomes an egg.

With an increase in the mass of a bird's egg, the area of ​​pores in the shell also increases.

This is how the pores in the shell of an extinct relative of the ostrich, the Madagascar Aepyornis, look like this under high magnification (an increase of 20 times).

The pores in the shell of different birds have a different structure and length; the longer the pore length, the thicker the shell.

Hatching turtles, like all reptiles, have special "egg" teeth with which they cut through the leathery covering of the egg.

The chick has a special egg tubercle on its beak, with which it breaks through the shell.

This is how crocodiles hatch.

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

Science and Life // Illustrations

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

The nest of the coastal swallow.

Partridge nest.

Gray-cheeked toadstool's nest.

Gray heron nest.

The emperor penguin incubates its egg right on its paws.

Hoopoe nest in masonry crevices.

Arctic tern nest.

Dove's nest.

From egg to egg

Break the shell of a chicken egg - we do it so often! Under the shell, we find a thick white film like parchment. This is the shell shell. Beneath it is a gelatinous mass of protein, through which the yolk shines through. The egg actually begins with the yolk.

An immature egg is a thin-coated egg cell. The development of the ovum proceeds in a tangle of conflicting requirements, which are gradually reduced to a single denominator and lead to the successful birth of a full-fledged living being. It is worth slightly shifting the balance, removing one of the insignificant components, weakening one of the functions, and life in the egg will cease.

In the ovary of a bird, several oocytes, covered with a membrane, - follicles, mature at the same time. They ripen at different times. A ripe ovum, which has accumulated yolk reserves, breaks through the follicle membrane and falls into the wide funnel of the oviduct. Fertilization takes place there. Now the egg has a long way to go: for 24 hours it "puts on" all the egg shells.

The first shell is protein. 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 - sub-shell. At the exit from the "isthmus" the egg makes its first stop, which lasts five hours. Here the egg swells, sucks in water and grows, reaching its normal size. The shell membranes are more and more stretched on the swelling egg and eventually tightly envelop its surface. Finally, the egg passes into the last section of the oviduct, the so-called "shell gland". There, within 15-16 hours, the shell is formed. 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 that 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 down from generation to generation. However, the 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 take place during the development of the embryo can be compared with the construction of a house or, even better, a fortress, since the embryo is fenced off from the outside world by a strong wall - a shell.

Building a house requires building material and energy. Building material the embryo is served by high-molecular organic compounds - proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is a kind of "ore" from which the growing body draws building blocks, primarily amino acids and sugars, in order to build their own proteins and carbohydrates from them.

The same carbohydrates and fats are used as fuel. 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 slags" and waste from fuel combustion are formed - nitrogenous substances and carbon dioxide, toxic 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 solved?

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

But what to do with toxic substances? Good for fish and amphibians. Their egg - the roe - develops in an aquatic environment and is fenced off from water only by a layer of mucus and a thin membrane. In this case, "slags" are removed directly into the water and dissolve easily. Therefore, fish and amphibians do not secrete urea, like mammals, but highly soluble ammonia.

But what about birds (both crocodiles and turtles), in which the egg is covered with a dense shell and develops not in water, but on land? They dispose of waste directly in the egg, in a special "trash" bag called allantois. Allantois is associated with circulatory system the embryo and together with the "slags" remains in the egg after the chick has already hatched and leaves the egg. The decay products are released in a dry, poorly soluble form (otherwise they could have poisoned the embryo) - this is not urea or ammonia, but "dry" uric acid.

In the eggs of reptiles and birds, there are other embryonic shells besides allantois, in particular the amnion. This shell overgrows the developing embryo with a thin film, as if it includes 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 shock and mechanical damage. Isn't it a moat with water around the walls of the fortress? You never cease to wonder how wisely everything is arranged in nature.

How is the "fuel" issue resolved? How does oxygen get into the egg? And how is carbon dioxide removed from it? Everything here is surprisingly thought out, 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 them gas exchange is carried out: oxygen enters, carbon dioxide leaves. But that's not all. In order to quickly deliver oxygen entering the pores to the tissues of the growing embryo, a special respiratory organ is formed in the egg, similar to the placenta in mammals. It is chorioallantois, a complex network of blood vessels that line the egg from the inside.

But one more problem remains: how to deliver water to the embryo? It is necessary for its forming 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 sheath, while in birds they are encased in a shell. And where in the bird's nest to get water? There is only one thing to do: stock it up in advance, while the egg is still in the oviduct. This is what the egg white is for.

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

How an egg breathes

So, the bird's egg "breathes" thanks to the pores in the shell. Oxygen enters the egg, while water vapor and carbon dioxide are discharged outside. If there are many pores and the pore channel is wide, then gas exchange takes place 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, narrow.

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

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

The larger the egg, the faster oxygen must enter it. This is due to the regularity: the volume of the egg (and the mass of the embryo and its need for oxygen) grows in a cube, and 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 Aepyornis, relatives of ostriches, which became extinct in the fifteenth century, the egg volume reached eight to ten liters!

How does the shell cope with all these complexities? This question was first posed 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 the gas conductivity of the shell) actually increases with an increase in the size of the egg. However, the relationship was not directly proportional. With a tenfold increase in the mass of the egg, 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, albeit at a slower rate. But the number of pores in a six-hundred-gram nandu egg is 18 times more than in a 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 represented in the language of symbols, which we would actually observe if equal conditions were always fulfilled in nature. In our case, such equal conditions are the pressure drop of gases through the shell, or, ultimately, the pressure of water vapor inside the nest.

In nature, "other equal conditions" are not always observed, and therefore the interrelated quantities of interest to biologists behave not as well as they should according to the given correlation equations. The figure shows that all actual values ​​of the gas conductivity of the shell 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, as it were, exceptions to the ideal rule. The graphically ideal relationship between egg weight, shell gas permeability and total pores in the shell would be fulfilled if all eggs were incubated at the same altitude and under the same "normally dry" conditions, which we set in the experiment. But that 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 eggshell of this bird 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 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 fact that the eggs of such species incubate in excessively humid conditions. This occurs in shore swallows, kingfishers, bee-eaters, petrels that nest in burrows, weed chickens that lay their eggs in incubator heaps, and birds that nest in hollows. Ventilation in burrows and hollows is unimportant, therefore, as the eggs hatch, the humidity increases due to the evaporation of water, the oxygen content decreases, and the carbon dioxide content increases. It is necessary to increase the throughput of the "gas barrier". The shell conductivity in the eggs of burrowing shore swallows is significantly higher than in open nesting orcas, although the egg sizes of both species are almost the same.

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

Using correlation equations, scientists can predict in advance the developmental features of eggs of some kind. This is important when 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 particular dinosaur egg, the equations calculate the gas permeability of the egg shell, expected under "normally dry" conditions. Then, by counting the number of pores, measuring their cross section and shell thickness, calculate the actual value of the shell permeability of the egg. By comparing the actual value with the expected one, 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 Brontosaurus 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 lie in wait for the nestling inside the egg: if the pores in the shell are not covered by anything from above, then the pore channels work like capillaries, and water easily penetrates through them into the egg. And with water, microbes enter the egg - rotting begins. Only a few birds nesting in hollows, such as parrots and pigeons, have their pores uncovered. In most birds, the egg shell is covered on top with a thin organic film - cuticle. The cuticle does not allow water to pass through, and oxygen and water vapor pass through it unhindered.

But the cuticle has its own enemy - mold. The fungus devours the "organic matter" of the cuticle, and the thin filaments of its mycelium quickly penetrate through the pore channels into the egg. In birds that do not maintain cleanliness in their nests (egrets, cormorants, pelicans), as well as those who make their nests in the water, in liquid mud or in heaps of vegetation (this is how floating nests of grebes and other toadstools, mud cones of flamingos and incubator nests of 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 phosphate. Such a coating protects the respiratory channels well not only from water and mold, but also from dirt, which interferes with the normal respiration of the embryo. This coating allows air to pass through, since inside it is permeated with microcracks.

Finally, the chick has passed all the difficulties of development and is ready to be born. And again he has a problem. Breaking the shell is a very important event. Even the thin but elastic fibrous shell of a shellless reptile egg is not easy to cut. For this, the embryos of lizards and snakes have special "egg" teeth, which sit on the jaw bones, as it should be for teeth. With these teeth, snake babies cut through the leathery shell of the egg like a razor blade.

The chick, ready to hatch, does not have such teeth. But there is another adaptation: the egg tubercle, a horny outgrowth on the beak, with which the chick breaks the shell membrane before breaking the shell. But the Australian weed chickens have no egg tubercle, their chicks break the shell with their claws on their paws.

It turned out that those who use the egg tubercle also do it differently. A group of British biologists, headed by Professor R. Bood from the University of Bath, found that chicks of some groups of birds pierced numerous tiny holes around the egg's circumference at its wide pole and then, pressing down, squeezed out a section of the shell. Others punch only one or two holes in the shell, and it cracks like a china cup.

It all depends on mechanical properties shell, and its properties - from the details of the internal structure. It is more difficult to get rid of "porcelain" shells than from viscous ones, but it also has a number of advantages. In particular, "porcelain" shells can withstand large static loads - try to squeeze a seemingly fragile crystal glass evenly around the circumference. Breaking it up in this way won't be easy. The same 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. When incubating, the egg shell can withstand heavy loads.

But how did the young Epiornis were born if they were walled up inside a "capsule" with one and a half centimeter armor? Such a shell is not easy to break with your hands. But in nature everything is provided. The pore canals inside the shell of the epyornis egg branch, moreover, in one plane, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the egg. On the surface of the egg, a chain of narrow grooves-notches forms, into which the pore channels open. Such a shell will crack easily when the chick presses on it from the inside with its egg tubercle. Isn't that what we do when we apply notches on the surface of the glass with a diamond cutter, making it easier to split along the marked line?

So the chick has hatched. Despite all the problems and seemingly insoluble contradictions. From non-being passed into being. Started new life... Indeed, everything that is simple in nature is complex in its embodiment. Let's think about this when we take out a simple chicken egg from the refrigerator again. The egg that contains the secret of life.

were born in the 1820s, they were too old: your thinking was formed even before the civil war under the influence of the old way of life. But this short nine-year period is ideal in every way. All 14 people from the above list had foresight and talent. But beyond that, they had a tremendous opportunity, the same as that of hockey players and footballers born in January, February and March1. [Joey and Bill Gates.

1 With regard 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 surprising at all - successful businessmen came from privileged families. The only exception? Group of the 1830s. This is how significant the birth advantage turned out to be in this decade: it was the only period in American history when people with a very humble start were able to put together huge fortunes. Mills writes: “This year - 1835 - the best time throughout the history of the United States to give birth to poor boys if those boys were aiming for great business success. "]

Okay. Let's do a similar analysis for computer tycoons like Bill.

Silicon Valley veterans will tell you that the most significant date in the history of personal computers was January 1975. It was then that Popular Electronics magazine published an article about a unique unit called the Altair 8800. It cost $ 397. This ingenious device could be assembled at home by yourself. The title of the article read: “TECHNICAL BREAKTHROUGH! The first minicomputer in the world to supplant industrial models. " For readers of Popular Electronics, the real bible in the field software and computers, this headline became a sensation. Until that time, computers were overwhelming, expensive machines, like those that stood in a computer lined with white tiles.

the center of the University of Michigan. For many years, computer fanatics have dreamed of the day when anyone can buy a small and inexpensive computer for personal use. And now the day has come.

If January 1975 was the beginning of the era of the personal computer, who is in the most advantageous position? As in the case of John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, of course, not those who at the time of the beginning of the revolution were already aged. Only the young are free and daring enough to promote new ideas. “If by 1975 you were already at a respectable age, then, most likely, right after college you started working somewhere in IBM, and if people start with IBM, it is extremely difficult for them to get used to the new world,” says Nathan Mayerwold. years in senior management positions at Microsoft. “If you worked for a multibillion dollar giant computer company, you probably thought: why bother with these pathetic little computers at all? And this view of the computer industry had nothing to do with a revolutionary new approach. On the good life these people have earned. Another thing is that they didn’t have a chance to get fabulously rich and have an impact on the whole world ”.

If you graduated from college for a few years in 1975, and you had at least some programming experience, you have most likely already been hired by IBM or another traditional computer company. You belonged to the old world. Just got a home. We got married. You are expecting a child. You're in no position to give up a good job and a pension for some mythical $ 397 computer. So, cross out everyone who was born before, say, 1952.

But you shouldn't be too young either. By 1975, you should already be in an advantageous position, and for that you need to have time to graduate from high school. So, exclude everyone born after 1958. In other words, by 1975 you should have been young enough to realize the coming revolution, but not yet at the age when

people get heavy lifting. You are somewhere between 20-21, that is, you were born in 1954 or 1955.

I propose to test this theory. Let's start with Bill Gates, the richest and most famous of Silicon Valley's tycoons. When he was born?

Gates' best friend at Lakeside was Paul Allen. He also spent all his free time in the computer class and sat up late at night in the offices of ISI and C-Cubed. He founded Microsoft with Bill Gates.

The third richest person at Microsoft is Steve Ballmer, the company's CEO and one of the most respected figures in the computer industry.

Let's not forget about Steve Jobs, Apple founder Computer, a man no less famous than Gates. He didn’t come from a wealthy family like Gates, and he didn’t attend the University of Michigan like Joy. However, one does not need to dig deeply into his biography to find out that he also had his own Hamburg. Steve Jobe grew up in Mountain View, California, south of San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley. The area was inhabited by engineers from Hewlett-Packard, one of the most influential technology companies both then and today. As a teenager, Steve wandered endlessly through the Mountain View flea markets, where tech enthusiasts and jack of all trades sold all sorts of parts. Jobe grew up breathing in the scent of the very business in which he would succeed so much.

Here is a paragraph from the book Accidental Millionaire, one of Jobs's many biographies, that gives an idea of ​​his childhood.

He attended evening meetings of Hewlett-Packard specialists. They discussed the latest innovations and advances in electronics, and Jobe, in his characteristic manner, elicited a lot of additional information from the engineers. One day he called Bill Hewlett, one of the founders of the company, to buy some parts. He got the parts he needed and even managed to get himself a job for the summer. He worked on a conveyor line and was so impressed by it that he decided to design his own ...

Wait. Did Bill Hewlett share spare parts with him? Like the story of Bill Gates, who at thirteen got unlimited access to the terminal. It’s the same as if you were fond of fashion, and your neighbor was Giorgio Armani. When was Steve Jobe born?

Eric Schmidt is another pioneer of the computer revolution. He ran one of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley - Novell, and in 2001 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer.

I will not, of course, argue that all Silicon Valley tycoons were born in 1955. Not all, as well as not all business tycoons in the United States were born in the mid-1830s. But the presence of a certain pattern is obvious, and our reluctance to talk about it is surprising. We pretend that success depends entirely on personal qualities, but the stories we have reviewed show that it is not so simple.

These stories tell about people who have had a unique opportunity to work hard and who have not dismissed it. About people who grew up at a time when society rewarded hard work. Their success is not solely due to them. This is a product of the world in which they grew up. In other words, their success is not due to some mysterious factors known only to them. It has a rationale, and if we can understand

this logic, just think what tempting prospects will open before us!

We must not forget about Bill Joy. If he was a little older and had a chance to suffer with punch cards, he would study natural sciences. Bill Joy, the legend of the computer industry, would be Bill Joy, a biologist. Had he been born a couple of years later, the tiny window that gave him the opportunity to develop code for the Internet would have been closed. Bill Joy, the legend of the computer industry, again could well have become Bill Joy, a biologist.

After studying at Berkeley, Joy became one of the four founders Sun Microsystems and one of the main software developers in Silicon Valley. And if you still think that the place and date of birth do not matter at all, here are the dates of birth of the rest of the founders of Sun Microsystems:

KNOWING THE IQ OF ONE BOY WILL BE LITTLE FOR YOU IF YOU HAVE BUSINESS WITH A WHOLE GROUP OF SMART BOYS "

In the fifth episode of the 2008 season, the American intellectual television show One Against a Hundred invited a man named Christopher Langan as a special guest.

One Against One Hundred is one of many television shows that have emerged in the wake of the phenomenal success of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Its main participants are a hundred ordinary people, the so-called crowd. Each week they enter into an intellectual duel with a specially invited guest. There's a million dollars at stake. The guest must be smart enough to

outplay a hundred people, and few were more suited to the role than Christopher Langan.

“Today the crowd is going to have a fierce fight,” came a voice-over. - Meet Chris Langan, who is considered by many to be the most smart person in America!" The camera pans over to a stocky, high-cheeky man in his fifties. “The IQ of the average person is one hundred. For Einstein, it was one hundred and fifty. Chris has a hundred and ninety-five. Currently, his great mind is busy with the theory of the origin of the universe. But can such an outstanding intellect be able to defeat the crowd, will Chris manage to take a million dollars from her? Watch "One against a hundred"! " To thunderous applause, Langan took the stage.

- You don’t think that it is necessary to have a high intellect to win in our game? - asked the show host Bob Sadget, looking at the guest with curiosity, as if he were a specimen for laboratory research.

- I suppose he could rather interfere, - replied Langan.-To have a high IQ, you need to specialize, study in depth a certain area of ​​knowledge, without wasting your time for trifles. But now, looking at these people - he looked around the crowd, merry sparks sparkled in them, betraying his attitude to this venture - now I think that I will be able to win.

In the last decade, Chris Langan has gained an extraordinary fame for himself. He became a living embodiment of genius, a real celebrity. He is invited to news programs, they write about him in magazines. Director Errol Morris made a documentary about him. The 20/20 television program brought in a neuropsychologist to measure Langan's IQ, but his numbers were too high to be measured accurately. On another occasion, Langan was offered a test designed specifically for gifted people. He answered all but one question1. ["This IQ test was developed by Ronald Heflin, the owner of an unusually high IQ. Here is one of the questions in the Verbal Analogies section:

"Teeth refer to a chicken like a nest to ...?" If you want to know the answer, unfortunately, I can’t help you with anything - I don’t know it! ]

V Chris had been talking for six months. At the age of three, he loved to listen to Sunday radio programs, when the announcer read humorous stories. Chris followed them through the text and learned to read on his own. At the age of five, he asked his grandfather about God

and was very disappointed with the answers received. |

V school, he could come to a lesson in a language that he had never learned before, for two or three minutes before the teacher arrives, leaf through the textbook and master the test brilliantly. As a teenager, he worked on a farm and was deeply interested in theoretical physics. At the age of 16, he began to study the famous fundamental work of Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead "Principia Mathematica". And on the SAT (Academic Ability Exam), he scored the highest score despite falling asleep while testing.

Chris's brother Mark said about his summer daily routine: “At first he did math for an hour. Then the French hour. Then he studied Russian. Then he took up philosophy. And so every day, without exception. "

“Young L.'s erudition, his thirst for academic accuracy and scrupulousness amazed the imagination. This tough, energetic boy was nicknamed the Professor. His ability and attitude towards learning have earned the respect of both teachers and students. He was often assigned to give hour-long lectures on special topics: the history of watches, ancient theories of engine design, mathematics and history. To illustrate the principles of chronometry, he made a clock with a pendulum from all sorts of things like tape spools of a typewriter. Home-made watches were demonstrated to him at the informative lecture "Time and Its Measurement". His notebooks were an example of scientific work. ]

On the set of One Against One Hundred, Langan was calm and confident. Low voice. Glitter in the eyes. He did not ponder the questions in

searching for the correct option, did not return to previous proposals to reformulate them. Oa did not stumble or stumble in words, but struck sentence after sentence. They flew from his lips clearly, like soldiers on parade. He easily beat off the questions Sajet was throwing as if they were sheer nonsense. When his winnings reached $ 250,000, Langan decided that the risk of losing the entire amount far outweighed the potential benefit from further gambling. He stopped abruptly: "I'll take the money." He firmly shook Sadzhet's hand and left the game as the winner, as, however, do all geniuses. Or not?

This happened shortly after the end of the First World War. Lewis Terman, a young professor of psychology at Stanford University, met a teenager named Henry Cowell. He grew up in poverty and from the age of seven he practically did not receive an education, since he did not know how to get along with his peers. At the same time, he worked as a janitor in a school that had a single classroom. This school was located near the Stanford campus. However, Cowell often took a break from work to secretly play the piano. And he played just brilliantly. Terman specialized in assessing intelligence; he is responsible for the development of the standard IQ test, the Stanford-Binet test, which has been passed by millions of people around the world in half a century. Terman decided to measure Cowell's intelligence. He assumed that this

In his opinion, in the lectures on the topic "Vehicles" not enough attention was paid to land travel. But he agreed that the limited time does not allow for the full disclosure of the topic. However, he insisted on acquaintance with the theories of ancient people. As an additional self-sustaining project, he made drawings and detailed descriptions the first variants of engines, locomotives and other things ... At that time he was only 10 years old. "

the boy is extremely gifted. But he was not just gifted. His IQ exceeded 140, a level close to genius.

Terman was jubilant. How many more rough diamonds like this could be found, he asked himself.

And Terman began to search. First I found a girl who learned the alphabet at nineteen months, then another one who read Dickens and Shakespeare at four years old. Found a young man who was kicked out of law school because the professors didn't believe he was recreating long passages from legal opinions but from memory.

In 1921 Terman made the decision to make the study of gifted people his life's work. Having received a solid grant from the Commonwealth Fund, he assembled a team of specialists and sent them to primary schools California. Teachers named the best students who were asked to take an intellectual development test. Those in the top ten percent passed the second test; those who scored more than 130 points performed the third. Based on the overall results, Terman selected the most talented and intelligent. By the time the study was completed, he had tested about 250,000

pupils of primary and secondary schools and singled out about 1470 children, whose IQ was equal to 140-200. This group of young geniuses was named "Termites" and became the object of one of the most famous psychological research in history.

Terman, like a brood hen, did not take his eyes off his charges until the end of his life. He tracked their life paths, tested, measured and analyzed, celebrated academic achievements, monitored the development of family relationships, collected information about all diseases, recorded the state of psychological health, diligently documented any promotions and job changes. He wrote letters of recommendation for his pets for employment and admission to graduate school. He continuously consulted them and recorded everything that happened to them in thick red notebooks entitled "The Genetic Study of Geniuses." Terman has become a real celebrity. (At least to the extent that a short, stooped, bespectacled psychologist can become famous.)

was continuously quoted in the press and invited to radio shows, and he used his popularity in order to once again prove his theory, which produced the effect of an exploding bomb at that time: a person's intelligence is measured with the same accuracy as height, and the obtained readings make it possible to predict his future achievements.

“There is nothing more important in a person than the level of his intellect, except perhaps for morality,” Terman once said. He was convinced that it was people with high IQ who “are able to move 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 enthusiastically wrote: "Read any newspaper article about any competition that was held in California, and you will definitely see the names of one or more members of our talented group on the list of winners." 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 difference. All signs pointed to a group with potential "heroic character." Terman believed that termites were destined to become the future elite of the United States.

But this judgment is not entirely correct. Terman made a mistake. He was wrong about his termites, and if he had met the young Chris Langan, who was 16 years old in Foundations of Mathematics, he — for the same reason — would be wrong again. Terman did not consider that talent requires opportunity, that parentage matters as much as ability. Moreover, Terman perverted the element of "talent" in the equation of success - a mistake we continue to make to this day.

One of the most popular tests for assessing intelligence is called Raven's progressive matrices. It does not require language

Both in terms of body structure and the nature of many physiological processes, chickens are very different from all other farm animals. The skin of the chickens is covered with down and feathers. There are no sweat and sebaceous glands in it, with the exception of one - the coccygeal gland. Due to the absence of sweat glands and the presence of feathers, chickens can only transfer part of the excess heat generated in the body through the skin. Therefore, the transfer of heat to the external environment occurs largely due to the evaporation of water from the body during respiration. The bones of chickens are thin, but very strong. Unlike mammalian animals, the bone marrow in chickens, like in other birds, is not found in all tubular bones. Some of them have free air cavities, communicating through special air sacs available only in birds with the lungs and further with the external environment. All this provides the ease of the bird in flight, which was necessary for them in the wild. Air purity is very important for poultry. Deep penetration of air into the bird's body, that is, through the lungs into air sacs of considerable volume, if it is saturated with harmful gases, is very dusty and, together with the smallest dust particles, carries microbes and viruses into the respiratory tract, creates conditions for the occurrence of acute diseases, and, above all, diseases of the respiratory tract.

Chickens do not have teeth, and the food is frayed not in the mouth, but in the muscular stomach. The role of teeth is played here by a very dense cornea (cuticle) and pebbles swallowed by chickens, coarse gravel, etc. Chickens have large paired kidneys, but no bladder. Urine is excreted in the feces. Unlike other animals, the bird also lacks the abdominal septum separating the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. From the sense organs of chickens, hearing and sight are very well developed. But at dusk and at night, chickens do not see well. However, this does not prevent them, getting used to the poultry house and the location of the feeders, to eat feed even at night in the absence of lighting. Smell, taste and touch are relatively poorly developed. Still, chickens react strongly to any changes in the composition of feed and their quality. An important feature of chickens is a higher normal body temperature (40.5-42.0 ° C) than other animals. This is due to a more intensive metabolism in the body. Therefore, for a normal exchange, chickens require much more fresh air per 1 kg of their weight.

Chickens are characterized by very fast growth and development. As a result of this, already at the age of 5-6 months, they reach puberty, that is, the ability to lay eggs and give offspring. But with early maturity, the preservation of high and long-term subsequent productivity of chickens is possible only if good conditions for feeding and keeping them are created.

The development of a bird's embryo occurs in the mother's body only at the earliest stages and for a very short period - from the beginning of fertilization of the egg to the laying of the egg. Further development the embryo, right up to the hatching of the chick from the egg, occurs already outside the mother's body, during external environment(in an incubator or under a brood hen). This made it possible to achieve a very high fertility of chickens, since the formation of an egg in the body occurs within a short time (about 24 hours), that is, much faster than the development of an embryo. Getting 220-250 eggs from chickens a year has become a common occurrence, and some chickens lay up to 350 eggs and even more. The peculiarity of the breeding of chickens is also very important because it allows chickens to be hatched in incubators in large batches at once, which is convenient and profitable in the conduct of the industry.

Chickens are also characterized by some other features that are of great importance in the practice of poultry farming. Chickens are referred to as polygamous birds. This means that a male - a rooster - mates not with one, as, for example, in pigeons, but with many female chickens, without forming a permanent family, which contributes to their more successful economic breeding and significant savings due to the keeping of a small number of males. Moreover, chickens are brood birds. Unlike chicks (pigeons, etc.), their young hatch from eggs more developed, it is covered with fluff and after a few hours begins to independently search for and consume food, which is also very important for mass breeding of chickens.

Each chicken, like any animal, is a complete animal organism. All organs and tissues are interconnected in it. For the normal life of the chicken, it is important, however, not only the consistency in the work of individual parts of the body, but also certain relationships with environment... Indeed, in order for a hen to live and lay eggs, it must receive food, water, air and adapt to external factors. These relations of the organism with the environment largely determine the structure of the bird, the features of its external organs and body parts, and integumentary tissues.

The food you eat can affect the health of your teeth, both for the better and for the worse. The bacteria that live in the mouth feed on sucrose and starch and convert the sugary and starchy foods you eat into acid, which leaches minerals from the tooth enamel, leading to tooth decay over time. In addition, bacteria, along with particles of food and saliva, participate in the formation of plaque - a sticky thin film that covers the surfaces of the teeth. Acidic foods also damage tooth enamel, while hard foods can lead to tooth breakage. Products useful for teeth on the contrary, they strengthen tooth enamel, fight plaque and microorganisms in the oral cavity.

Harmful products

Sweet foods and drinks are the worst food for teeth. Sweets, cookies, cakes, pastries and other confectionery products contain a large amount of refined sugar, which remains on the teeth until it is removed from them. The bacteria feed on this sucrose to form acid, which promotes the formation of tooth decay.

Sugary soda is again bad for your teeth as it contains a lot of sucrose. So if you are used to sipping soda slowly, you are constantly exposing your teeth to sugar. In addition to sweeteners, soda contains phosphoric and citric acids, which destroy tooth enamel, so even diet sodas are not safe for your teeth.

Caramel and other gummy candies are bad for teeth, not only because of the sugar they contain, but also because they stick to the teeth and act on them for a long time. Lozenges also spend a lot of time in the mouth, as they require long absorption. Therefore, the less time the sweets are in the mouth, the better for the teeth.

Dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots, and prunes also stick to your teeth due to their sticky texture. And since when fruits are dried, the concentration of sugar in them increases, then they act on the teeth like sweets.

Starchy foods create a breeding ground for plaque. Foods such as bread, croutons, chips, french fries, pretzels, and pasta, as a rule, remain in the mouth for a long time, as they easily stick to the teeth and get stuck between them, serving as a source of nutrition for microorganisms. In addition, it should be borne in mind that during the preliminary process, which begins already in the mouth through enzymes in the saliva, even unsweetened starchy foods begin to be converted into sugar.

Acidic foods and drinks eat away at the enamel that protects your teeth, which over time increases your risk of tooth decay. Although citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, and grapefruits have a ton of useful properties for health, the juice they contain is bad for your teeth. To reduce the harmful effects, acidic foods should be eaten quickly, preferably with a different meal.

Alcohol and some medicines can cause dry mouth. Saliva, meanwhile, plays an important role in the prevention of tooth decay, as it washes away food and plaque from the teeth. Also, substances contained in saliva help fight the increased acidity in the oral cavity caused by the vital activity of bacteria. If your mouth is dry, you need to take extra steps to keep it hydrated. For example, you can drink more fluids throughout the day or chew chewing gum to promote salivation.

Healthy foods

Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables stimulates salivation and cleanses teeth, which is the best natural defense against tooth decay and gum disease. Because saliva contains trace amounts of calcium and phosphate, it helps to restore minerals washed out of teeth due to exposure to bacterial acids. Juicy fruits and vegetables also contain a lot of water, which compensates for their sugar content.

Milk, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products are beneficial for maintaining healthy teeth and gums. Dairy products help teeth in several ways, firstly, they cover the tooth enamel, thereby protecting it from decay, and secondly, they are characterized by a high content of calcium and phosphorus, which contribute to the remineralization of teeth. In addition, cheese stimulates the production of saliva, which fights plaque.

Plain water, green and other herbal teas without sweeteners are beneficial for dental health. Green and black tea contain polyphenols that inhibit bacterial growth and reduce dental waste. Tea also helps fight the problem of bad breath. Water is essential for maintaining healthy teeth as it is the main component of saliva.

Foods containing calcium and phosphorus as well as vitamins A, C and D, are part of a healthy diet and are beneficial for the teeth. These include chicken, beef and other meats, eggs, fish, tofu, potatoes, spinach, green leafy vegetables, beans, and whole grains. Many nuts, including peanuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts are also rich in vitamins and minerals to help protect your teeth.

Sweet and acidic foods are best consumed during main meals, as a large amount of saliva is produced during this time, which helps to flush food particles from the teeth and minimize the effects of acid on enamel. Sweetened and sour drinks should be drunk with a straw towards the back of your mouth to avoid damaging your teeth. After eating foods that are harmful to your teeth, rinse your mouth with water to stop the harmful effects of food on them.

Always brush your teeth twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste that strengthens the enamel, and floss your teeth at least once a day. Chew sugar-free gum after meals to increase salivation and remove food particles from your teeth.

"IF CHILDREN WERE BORN IN A MIXED UNION, THEY BECAME FREE"

1

On September 9, 1931, a young woman named Daisy Nation gave birth to twin girls. She and her husband Donald were school teachers in the tiny village of Heerwood in central district Jamaican St. Catherine. The girls were named Faith and Joyce. When Donald was informed that the twins were born, he fell to his knees and entrusted their lives to the Lord.

The Nation family lived in a small house built on land that belonged to the Heerwood Church of England. There was a school next door, a long building propped up on concrete piles. Sometimes up to 300 children were crammed into it, and sometimes it was barely two dozen. The material was memorized by repeated repetition. Children read aloud and retell what they read. The writing exercises were performed on a slate board. Whenever possible, lessons were held outdoors, under the mango trees. As soon as the students got too naughty, Donald Nation would start walking around the class and waving a belt, forcing the children to go to their places.

He was a prominent man - reserved and dignified - and a great book lover. His small library contained collections of poetry, the novels of Somerset Maugham, and the works of the philosopher Joad. Every evening with his best friend As Archdeacon Hay, an Anglican pastor who lived across the hill, he sat on the veranda and contemplated the problems of Jamaica. I read the newspaper every day, following the war raging in Europe. His wife Daisy, née Ford, was from St. Elizabeth County. Her father owned a small grocery store. Daisy, who had two more sisters, was famous for her beauty.

When the twins turned eleven, they received a scholarship at the St Hilda Boarding House near the north coast. It was an old Anglican private school built for girls from the families of English priests and planters. After studying at a boarding school, the sisters entered University College London. Soon after, Joyce was invited to celebrate the 21st birthday of a young mathematician named Graham. While reciting the poem, he forgot the words, and Joyce felt sorry for him - although she had no reason for pity, because this was the first time she had seen this young man. Joyce and Graham fell in love, got married and moved to Canada. Graham became professor of mathematics, and Joyce became a successful writer and family doctor... They settled in the village, built a wonderful house on a hill and gave birth to three sons. Graham's last name was Gladwell. He is my father and Joyce Gladwell is my mother.

This is the story of my mother's journey to success - and it's not entirely true. Not that it was fiction, the facts are all real. But this story is too short, so much is overlooked. It’s wrong in the same way that it’s wrong to talk about Bill Gates without mentioning the computer at Lakeside, or to look for the origins of Asians' mathematical abilities, not to mention the culture of rice cultivation. This summary is not about the many opportunities presented to my mother, nor about her cultural heritage.

2

In 1935, when the mother and her sister were four, South African historian William McMillan, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, visited Jamaica. Macmillan was far ahead of his time: he was seriously concerned about the social problems of the black population of South Africa and came to the Caribbean to speak on the same topic.

Macmillan was most concerned with the education system. Schooling - if that can be considered what happened in a wooden shed next to my grandparents' house - ended at the age of 14. Jamaica had no public high schools or universities. The teenagers who showed academic ability studied additionally with the headmaster and, if they were lucky, entered the teacher training college. Those with more ambitions had to look for ways to enter a private school, and after that - to a university in the USA or England. However, there were few scholarships and the cost of private schools was very high. "The bridge between elementary and high schools," Macmillan wrote in his angry, accusatory book Warning from the West Indies, "is narrow and wobbly." The school system did nothing to help the poorest segments of the population. He continued: “It should be noted that schools tend to deepen and exacerbate social differences". If the government does not begin to provide its people with more opportunities, he warned, terrible things will happen.

A year after the book was published, riots and riots swept through the Caribbean. In Trinidad, 14 people were killed and 59 were injured. In Barbados, 14 people were killed and 47 injured. Violent strikes paralyzed life in Jamaica, resulting in a state of emergency declared. The panic-stricken British government turned to Macmillan's recommendations and, among other reforms, awarded scholarships to all young people wishing to enroll in private schools. Scholarships began to be awarded in 1941. My mother and her twin sister took exams a year later. Thanks to this, they received a secondary education: they were born two, three or four years earlier, and they will not see an education. My mother's life turned out the way it did, thanks to the year of her birth, the 1937 strikers and W. Macmillan.

I wrote that my grandmother, Daisy Nation, was famous for her beauty. But in reality this is an imprecise and insufficient description of it. After all, the main thing in Daisy should be considered that she was a strong personality. It is entirely her credit that my mother and her sister went to St Hilda. My grandfather was a man, albeit educated and personable, but dreamy and unadapted to life, fascinated only by books. If he made any plans for his daughters, then, without having either energy or foresight, he would not have been able to bring them to life. But my grandmother possessed energy and foresight. School "St. Hilda" was her idea: the daughters of the richest families in the area studied there, and she saw what they gave a good education... Her daughters didn't play with the neighbors' kids. They read. Latin and algebra were required to enter school, so Archdeacon Hay studied with the girls.

“If she were asked then what she dreams of for her children, she would answer that she dreams that we would leave Jamaica,” recalls the mother. “It seemed to her that we had nothing to do in Jamaica. And if such an opportunity presented itself to you, and you did not miss it, then, in her opinion, the whole world opened before you. "

When the exam results for the scholarship came back, it turned out that only my aunt had received it, and my mother had not. And this is another fact that the first version of the story is silent about. Mom remembers her parents talking while standing in the doorway. "We do not have money". They paid for their first semester tuition and bought a uniform, but that ended their savings. What to do when it's time to pay for the second semester? They could not send only one daughter to study. Grandmother didn’t want to hear about it. She sent both of them - and prayed - and at the end of the first semester, it turned out that one of the students had won two scholarships. One of them was given to my mother.

When it came time to go to university, my aunt received what is called the Centennial Scholarship. Its name is due to the fact that it was approved a hundred years after the abolition of slavery in Jamaica. There was only one such scholarship awarded annually to public school graduates, a testament to how deeply the British held the memory of the abolition of slavery. The award went to the best boy and the best girl in turn. It so happened that my aunt applied for one of these "girls' years." She was lucky. My mother is gone. She had to pay for moving to England, renting a room and studying at the university. So that you can imagine the frightening amount of this amount, I will only say that the scholarship received by my aunt was equal to the salaries of both her parents. At that time, student loans were not available, and banks did not offer loans to school teachers working in the villages. “If I asked my father,” says the mother, “he would answer that we have no money.”

What did Daisy do? I went to a nearby town to see the owner of a Chinese shop. The Chinese make up a significant part of the population of Jamaica and since the 19th century. play a major role in her business life. No wonder the Jamaicans call any store a Chinese store. Daisy went to Mr. Chance's Chinese shop and borrowed from him. Nobody knew exactly how much, but the amount must have been huge. And no one knew why Mr. Chane agreed to lend her money, unless, of course, you consider the fact that she was Daisy Nation, regularly paid the bills and taught Chance's children at Heerwood School. Chinese children in Jamaican schools had a hard time. The guys teased them: "The Chinese eat dogs." Daisy, an island of kindness in a sea of ​​hostility, was loved and respected. Perhaps Mr. Chanet felt indebted to her.

“Did she tell me what she was going to do? I didn't even ask, - the mother recalls. - It just happened the way it happened. I applied and was accepted. In my actions, I completely relied on her, not even realizing it to myself. "

Joyce Gladwell owes her education first to W. Macmillan, then to a St. Hilda student who turned down the scholarship, and finally to Mr. Chance. But most of all - Daisy Nation.

3

Daisy Nation was born in northwest Jamaica. Her great-grandfather, William Ford, was originally from Ireland and arrived in Jamaica in 1784 because he had a coffee plantation there. Soon after arriving, he bought a slave and made her his mistress. Ford spotted her at the docks of Alligator Pond, a fishing village on the south coast. This woman came from the East African Igbo tribe and, according to family tradition, was incredibly beautiful. They had a son named John. He was, as they say today, a mulatto, colored, and from that moment on, all subsequent generations of Fords were counted among the colored population.

During slavery in Jamaica, white landowners often took African women as their mistresses. The Caribbean islands in those years turned into one huge slave colony. The ratio of blacks to whites was over ten to one. All over the island it was hard to find even a few grown white women. In the 1700s. 19 out of 20 white men had dark-skinned lovers. One British planter in Jamaica - known for recording his sexual exploits in detail - has slept with 138 women in his 37 years on the island. They were all slaves, and, as you might guess, few agreed to this of their own free will.

In the American South, before the Civil War, sexual relations between blacks and whites, on the other hand, were highly frowned upon. Laws were passed prohibiting black and white cohabitation; the last of these were overturned by the US Supreme Court only in 1967. A planter who lived openly with a slave was socially ostracized, and any descendant of a mixed union remained a slave.

Other customs reigned in Jamaica. Whites viewed mulattoes as potential allies, a buffer layer between themselves and huge amount slaves. Daughters, born in unions of African slaves and white men, were highly regarded as mistresses, and their children, whose skin was even lighter in color, climbed the social and economic ladder even higher. Mulattoes rarely worked in the fields; they performed lighter chores around the house. They had a better chance of getting freedom. Many mulatto mistresses, according to the will of the rich white people, received a substantial inheritance, and therefore a law was even passed in Jamaica limiting the size of the inheritance to 2,000 pounds (a colossal amount at that time).

“Arriving in the West Indies with the intention of settling there for some time, the European considered it necessary to acquire a housekeeper or mistress,” he wrote in the 18th century. one observer. - He had plenty to choose from: blacks, yellow-skinned, mulattos, mestizo, each of which cost 100-150 sterling ... four years were sent to study in England. "

It was in such a world that my great-grandfather John Ford was born. Only one generation separated him from the ship with slaves, he lived in a country for which the name "African correctional colony" would be best suited, and at the same time was free man who have all the opportunities for education. He married a woman who combined the blood of Europeans and the Arawak, a local Indian tribe. They had seven children.

“These people - people of color - had high status,” says Orlando Patterson, a Jamaican sociologist. - By 1826, they enjoyed all civil liberties. By and large, they received civil liberties at the same time as Jamaican Jews. They could vote. They had the right to do everything that the white inhabitants did - and all this within the framework of a society that remained slave-owning.

Most of them aspired to become artisans. Remember, Jamaican sugar plantations are strikingly different from the cotton plantations of the American South. Cotton is predominantly an agricultural crop. The crop is harvested in the field, and processed somewhere in Lancashire or in the north of the country. Sugar is an agro-industrial culture. The plant should be located right next to the field, as sugar begins to lose sucrose literally a few hours after harvest. Like it or not, the sugar factory needs to be built nearby, and it requires workers. Barrels, carpenters, stokers - often it was the people of color who were hired for these works ”. Unlike the cotton industry, the sugar industry needed a whole class of skilled artisans, and the colored ones filled that niche.

In addition, the English elite were only interested in their own plantations, making a profit and returning home to Great Britain. The British did not have the slightest desire to remain in a country they considered hostile. They were not going to build a new society there. And this mission - with all the possibilities it contains - was also entrusted to the people of color.

“By 1850, Kingston was mayor of color,” Patterson continues. - As well as the founder of the Daily Gleaner. These colored from the very beginning rose to the very heights of their professions. Whites did business or run plantations. And colored people became doctors, lawyers, school principals. The bishop of Kingston was a brown-skinned man. They, not being an economic elite, were a cultural elite. "

Below is a breakdown by two categories of Jamaican professionals - lawyers and members of parliament - for the 1950s. The breakdown was done according to the skin tone. "White and light" refers to people who are either completely white, or - more likely - with black roots that are no longer so obvious. "Olive" is one tone, and "light brown" is one tone darker (although the difference between these two shades is noticeable, as a rule, only to Jamaicans). It should be remembered that in the 1950s. blacks made up up to 80% of the total population of Jamaica, with a ratio of five to one to the colored population.

Just look at the advantage given to the colored population by the admixture of white and the presence of ancestors who did not work in the fields, but in houses that received civil liberties in 1826, who were valued, and not enslaved, and who achieved heights in significant professions instead of to be tied to sugarcane fields. And all this made life much easier for their descendants two or three generations later.

Daisy Ford's ambitious plans for her daughters did not come out of nowhere. She accepted the inheritance in the form of privileges. Her older brother Rufus, with whom she lived as a child, was a teacher and educated person. The second brother, Carlos, went to Cuba, and on his return to Jamaica opened a garment factory. Her father, Charles Ford, was engaged in wholesale trade agricultural products, and her mother, Anne, belonged to the Powells, another educated family of color who was rapidly climbing the social ladder. Colin Powell, who was born two generations later, belonged to the same Powells. Uncle Henry owned real estate. Grandfather John - the son of William and his African mistress - was ordained a priest. No fewer than three members of the vast Ford clan have received a Rhodes scholarship. While my mother owed her success to W. Macmillan, the 1937 strikers, Mr. Chance, and her mother Daisy Nation, Daisy Nation owed her sense of purpose and foresight to Rufus, Carlos, Anne, Charles, and John.

4

My grandmother was an outstanding woman. But we should not forget that the beginning of the confident ascent of the Ford family was laid by an immoral act: William Ford saw my great-great-great-grandmother in the slave market in Alligator Pond, wanted her and bought her.

The less fortunate slaves faced a short and unbearable life. Jamaican planters believed it was wiser to make the most of living property while the property was still young. They forced the slaves to work until they died or ceased to be of use, and then bought a new batch on the market. They did not suffer from philosophical contradiction, raising children conceived with a slave, and at the same time treating slaves as property. William Fislewood, a planter who recorded all his sexual exploits on paper, lived all his life with a slave named Fibba, whom, according to numerous reviews, he adored and who bore him a son. But with the "field" slaves, he treated incredibly cruel. He especially liked to punish runaway slaves with the so-called Derby medicine. The fugitive was beaten, and then salt, lime juice and pepper were rubbed into his wounds. Or one slave was forced to defecate in the mouth of another, who was then gagged for four to five hours.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Jamaicans with brown skin color literally idolized their light shade. He gave them a huge advantage. They scrutinized each other's skin tones and plunged into color competition with the ferocity of whites. “If a family had several children with different skin tones, which was far from uncommon,” wrote the Jamaican sociologist Fernando Enric, “then most attention the lightest of them were honored. From youth to marriage, the dark members of the family did not have the right to participate in the games and entertainment of their light relatives. It was believed that a bright child improves the color of the family, therefore, nothing should interfere with his success, that is, his marriage, which will further enhance the status of the family. The light ones tried to break off all relations with darker relatives ... and the dark members of the Negro family encouraged the efforts of their lighter relative to "pass" for a white one. The traditions of intra-family relations laid the foundation for social manifestation of prejudice associated with skin color. "

This disease has not spared my family either. Daisy was extremely glad that her husband was a little lighter than she. But the same prejudice turned against her.

"Daisy, of course, nice," her mother-in-law used to say, "but too dark."

One of my maternal relatives — I'll call her Aunt Joan — was also obsessed with skin color. She belonged to the "white and fair," but her late husband was what the Jamaicans call "injun," a man with dark skin and straight, fine black hair. And her daughters were exactly like their father. Going somehow to visit one of the daughters, Aunt Joan met on the train with an interesting fair-skinned man. After getting off the train, my aunt did something that she, burning with shame, confessed only to my mother. She walked past her daughter, pretending that they did not know each other, renounced her flesh and blood, and all because she did not want the fair-skinned attractive man to know that she had a dark-skinned daughter.

In the 1960s. my mother wrote a book of memoirs and titled it Brown Face, Big Master. "Brown face" she called herself, and "big master" in Jamaican dialect means "god". One of the chapters describes an incident that happened when my parents - already married - lived in London with my older brother, then still quite tiny. They were looking for a place to live, and after a long search, my father managed to find an apartment in the suburbs. But the very next day after the move, the owner kicked them out. “You didn't say your wife was from Jamaica,” she told her father in anger.

In the book, the mother describes her desperate attempts to justify such humiliations, to reconcile her experience with faith. In the end, she was forced to admit that anger was not the best way out and that, as a colored native of Jamaica, she could not blame others for wanting to divide people by skin color:

“I sent wordy prayers to the Lord: 'Here I am, the oppressed representative of the Negro race, in the struggle for freedom and equality with the ruling whites!'

The Lord was surprised, my prayer seemed insincere to him. I tried again. And then the Lord said, “Didn't you do the same? Do you remember such and such, those whom you despised, whom you avoided and who treated less respectfully than others, because you differed from them outwardly and was ashamed of your belonging to them? Weren't you glad that they are darker than you? Wasn't I grateful for not being black? ”My anger and anger directed at the owner of the apartment melted away. I was no better than her and no worse, for that matter ... We both sinned with selfishness, pride and snobbery, fencing ourselves off from others. "

My mother's cultural heritage dates back to the days of slavery and has helped her a lot in her life. But she could not help but notice the difficulties associated with him. The history of Fords is not a tale of the best and brightest who have risen to the very top solely through their own efforts. The story of this family, like many stories of those who have achieved success, is much more complex.

Objectively assessing our past, we are forced to admit that the successes we have achieved are the result not only of our own efforts, but also of certain advantages that formed long before our birth, as well as opportunities that we did not deserve. Is Joe Flom the Greatest Lawyer? Probably yes. But the question itself is formulated incorrectly, since Flåm's achievements are inextricably linked with his nationality, generation, the characteristics of the garment industry and the prejudices inherent in large law firms. Bill Gates can be deservedly considered a genius. But even he is one of richest people in the world - does not attribute his success solely to his own merits. “I'm very lucky” is the first thing he says. And he was really lucky. Indeed, in 1968, the Lakeside Mothers' Club acquired a computer. Neither hockey players, nor Bill Joy, nor Robert Oppenheimer, nor any other successful person have no right to look down on others and say: "I achieved everything on my own." Because a true understanding of success requires, among other things, humility.

5

Formally special can be defined as people whose life goes beyond the generally accepted framework - they are the exception to all the rules. At first glance, it seems that this is how geniuses, millionaires and star athletes appear. But their true essence lies in the fact that they are not special at all. Even the most outstanding of us are deeply connected with our own history and society - and this cannot fail to excite the imagination. The secrets of success can be uncovered and replicated. Looking more closely at Asians, you will see not a nation of geniuses who have reached unimaginable heights in mathematics, but a community of people who are fortunate enough to inherit the ability to work hard. We can all work hard. Ask Marita. The false stories we use to describe success — people who made themselves, went from poverty to wealth — are meant to inspire. But they don't. They transform the greatest achievements into exceptional and unrepeatable ones. True success stories - for all their complexity, originality and nuance - are much more inspiring.

My great-great-great-grandmother was bought in Alligator Pond. As a result, her son, John Ford, was freed from slavery by the color of his skin. The culture of opportunity that Daisy Ford has so brilliantly exploited to benefit her daughters has its origins in idiosyncrasies social structure adopted in the West Indies. And my mother owes her education to the strikers of 1937 and to the hard work of Mr. Chance. These are gifts of history given to my family, but if the grocer's money, strike results, cultural opportunities, and color-related privileges fell to others, who would now be living in a wonderful house on the hill?

Notes:

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: "Do teeth relate to a chicken like a nest to ...?" If you want to know the answer, unfortunately, I can’t help you with anything - I don’t know it!

the capital of Jamaica

the country's main newspaper