I’ve always been interested in this. Coming to visit someone and seeing two or more thorny guards guarding a proudly standing monitor, he usually said, “Do you believe in this?” scientists around the world all as one exclaim “So it was true! Well done, he who has a cactus, and who does not, will soon die. ”

Myths and beliefs

Like any religious movement, “cactus lovers” must believe in something. And it is desirable that this be difficult to prove. Let’s start with ionization . As the wiki tells us

Ionization is the endothermic process of the formation of ions from neutral atoms or molecules.

I remind this just in case. Gas ions are called Aeroions .
Air ions, besides the fact that they are positive and negative, are divided into light, medium and heavy ions. In free form (at atmospheric pressure), an electron exists for no more than 10-8 seconds.

These heaviest aerions are those that, due to their charge, “stick” to small particles, dust, dirt, etc. And these very dust and dirt themselves become charged and stick everywhere, and especially to us. Of course, I simplified and reduced everything, but I hope I conveyed the meaning. On the Internet, sellers of all kinds of ionizers are closely related to this topic, so opinions differ in the algorithms for influencing the body. By the way, the Wikipedia article on depression mentions the study “Goel N, Terman M, Terman JS, Macchi MM, Stewart JW. A randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of bright light and negatively charged air ions in chronic depression. “There it is in the original (shortened of course). As a result of research, as far as I can understand my English, the condition of patients from phototherapy improved by 53.7% and from ionotherapy by 51.1%. Therefore, ventilate the premises and do not close the curtains – and you will not have any depressions. But I was distracted by something. Yes, and this is not our topic, we are talking about cacti. So, supporters of the theory of zago cacti tell us that the thorns of a cactus are located like in a Chizhevsky chandelier , thereby passively ionizing the air and adding life to us. Let’s see. Here is her simple drawing:

And what seems to be like a cactus. It was not so! There is a wonderful article (by the way, I borrowed a picture from there) on how to make this very chandelier with your own hands. And it clearly says:
To the “chandelier” connect “-” of a power source with a voltage of at least 25 kV. Only with such a voltage is sufficient “vitality” of air ions ensured, their ability to penetrate into the lungs of a person is preserved.

And the high voltage converter circuit . Now, if we solder such a circuit and connect a power source of at least 25 kV to the cactus, then we can safely put such a high-tech cactus near the monitor. This was perhaps the most believable myth, which under the pressure of evidence (hopefully) destroyed. The rest of the myths tell us that plants collect negative energy, they remember when a cat wrote in them and who exactly from a big family broke off a petal from a newly opened flower. Although it may not myths, who knows … That here by the way there is an active discussion of the usefulness of cacti. Particularly touching is an article copied from somewhere that cacti, in order for them to work, need to be put in a “pentagram”. Although, again, who knows, maybe in a few years scientists … 🙂

Somehow it’s all unconvincing

Then let’s google a little more. And we find an article by Artem Platonov about “a cactus in front of the monitor.” It turns out that not only I am concerned about this issue, but you probably already thought that I was the only one so paranoid. Let me quote something (we are talking about CRT monitors):

The radiation value of any monitor at any point of the body or screen does not exceed 10 μR / h (microroentgen per hour). The value of the natural radioactive background of the Earth is 10-15 μR / h, depending on the region. So, as you can see, the amount of radiation from the screen is no more than natural radioactivity. So, from this point of view, monitors are clean, like mountain air.
That is why staging a cactus in front of a monitor to protect it from X-rays is similar to staging a portrait of Karl Marx or 45-gauge ski orthopedic boots. This brings absolutely no benefit, except for aesthetic pleasure (if at all someone is able to admire ski boots).

The size of the boots, as I understand it, also does not affect the effect of them. Although, given the fact that the electron gun is increasingly seen in museums, nursing homes and offices with very greedy bosses, we have nothing to fear at all.

Where did this nonsense about cactus come from then?

In the same article, the author tells us this secret:
In the 1990s, Fido already had a conference devoted to the discussion of monitors. Once a heated discussion ensued there on the discussion of screen filters – which one is better. Of course, the disputants did not come to a common opinion and quarreled. And one of the participants, at that time the editor-in-chief of “Computerra”, in order to defuse the situation, sent a message: “Well, you still put a cactus in front of the monitor to reduce radiation :)”.
This message was accidentally read by some dimwitted correspondent of a provincial newspaper, and soon published a long article on the benefits of cacti for protecting health from harmful radiation from computers. In turn, several central tabloid newspapers reprinted this “revolutionary” material one after another. And away we go …

I hope it was like that, because I didn’t see the glorious times of fido 🙁

Why then smear the keyboard with greasy fingers?

Here’s why. I remembered my not very distant childhood, and specifically the lessons of computer science. Our computer scientist (if you are reading Habr, I hope you remember me with a kindly quiet word) often liked to bow out of the topic and tell us all sorts of interesting things. And then he told us once that laser printers and copiers emit ozone when printing , because after printing there is such a fresh smell as after a thunderstorm. Ozone is essentially a triatomic oxygen molecule, very aggressive and not very beneficial to health. Almost like caries. There are even special ozone filters for office equipment. And in the course of my googling research, I came across the news that a group of scientists had conducted research, as a result of which it turned out that plants (and cacti as well) have the property of converting this very ozone back into oxygen. Yes, I, too, do not excite the phrase “British scientists have found out,” because (as above) will give pruflink: that’s the most journal HortTechnology short content of the study. To read the full one, you need to buy a magazine, respectively. There are also the names of the people who researched it, and the places where they came from. So, if you have a laser at home, then you should just put some ficus or cactus next to it. And ventilate more often.