Kazantseva, Asya

As a child, she was interested in science, wanted to become a doctor and was going to enter the First SPbMU named after I.P. Pavlov , for this she entered a chemical and biological school with practical training in various medical institutions ^[3] , and before the tenth grade Asya did not go to school ^[4] . However, she had to give up the idea of ​​working in medicine after visiting a morgue , where an autopsy was conducted, after which she lost consciousness ^{[comm. 1]} , and then came to the conclusion that this area of ​​activity is for more persistent people ^[3] . After school, she worked as a nurse in the neurosurgical department of the Mariinsky Hospital for a short time ^[3] .

In 2008 she graduated from the Faculty of Biology and Soil of St. Petersburg State University ^[5] , defending her bachelor's work under the scientific supervision V. Yu. Ivanova and received a bachelor of biology. One of her teachers at the university was a zoologist and embryologist A. K. Dondua ^[3] . In her own words, she was influenced by concepts in the field of psychogenetics by Oleg Tikhodeev and psychoendocrinology by Dmitry Zhukov and Ekaterina Vinogradova , whom she met while studying at the university.

In 2013, she was engaged in research under the MASA program at Ariel University in Israel . Her statements ^[6] that Pinchas Polonsky , a university lecturer, using the authority of a lecturer, is engaged in propaganda of creationism and grossly distorts the facts firmly established by science, caused wide resonance in the Israeli media (for example, Channel 9 ^[7] ). During her studies in Israel, Asya Kazantseva repeatedly shared her impressions with readers of the Metropol online magazine ^[8] .

In 2016-2018, she studied at the Master's Program in Cognitive Sciences (“Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: from Neuron to Cognition”) at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Higher School of Economics , defending under the scientific supervision M. Feurra thesis on the theme “Investigation of the processes of suppression of fear in the paradigm of multiple contexts” ( Eng. Investigation of Extinction Learning in Multi-context Paradigm ) ^[9] . She also spoke about the learning process in an interview ^{[10] [11] [12]} .

Kazantseva came to the idea of ​​becoming a popularizer of science after she realized that due to personal characteristics (“a scientist will not work out because I don’t have enough abstract thinking for this”) and because of the long duration of scientific research (“in science unfortunately, a very large distance between the action and the result ”) cannot become a full-fledged scientist ^[3] . While engaging in scientific journalism is “psychologically easier and more enjoyable than engaging in real science, although those involved in it are very cool people,” because it allows you to cover a wide range of topics at the same time and at the expense of the reader to satisfy your own curiosity and write work to be published quickly ^[3] . Starting with a blog in LiveJournal, Asya Kazantseva quickly became a sought-after author ^[13] .

Immediately after graduating from St. Petersburg State University in 2008, she began working in the field of scientific television journalism on Channel Five , where she took part in the creation of the popular science program Progress . In 2009, as a producer and scientific consultant of this program, she received the first “Science for Society” award for the best video on the topic “Sketches about scientists” for the plot “Blue Blood” ^[14] . Later she participated in the project “Science 2.0” of the Russia-2 TV channel, and also wrote articles for the newspaper “ Troitsky Variant - Science ”, the magazines “ Around the World ” and Men's Health , the online edition of slon.ru and many others. In 2014-2015, she worked as the chief editor of the journal " Health " ^[3] . He is a member of the board of the Evolution Educational Foundation ^[15] .

He regularly appears in the media on topics related to the popularization of science ^{[16] [17]} . Since 2014, he has delivered public and non-public (corporate) popular science lectures in Moscow ^[18] and other populated areas of Russia ( Norilsk ^[19] , St. Petersburg ^[20] , Surgut ^[21] ) and abroad ( Kiev ^[22] , London ^[23] , Lviv ^[24] ).

The author of the article “Dissolved Magic” in the journal “ Around the World ”, in which she cited scientific evidence about the ineffectiveness of homeopathy and homeopathic remedies. An article in 2016 was the subject of a lawsuit by the National Council for Homeopathy , demanding to admit that the opinion expressed was “untrue and defame the methods of homeopathy” and publish a seven-page refutation of the material in the journal, however, the Moscow Arbitration Court refused to satisfy the claimant requirements ^[25] .

Who would have thought!

Written by Kazantseva in 2013, the popular science book “Who would have thought! How the brain makes us do stupid things ”was appreciated by well-known Russian scientists in a positive way. Russian biologist Alexander Markov noted that in the book, a fascinating exposition is perfectly combined with scientific depth. Russian bioinformatics Mikhail Gelfand advised parents to buy two copies of the book - one for themselves, the other for their children ^[26] .

In the press, the book was greeted with positive reviews. According to the observer of the newspaper " Komsomolskaya Pravda " Sergei Efimov, the book helps to understand what happens to a person from the point of view of science, when he smokes, eats, is sad, has sex. He also drew attention to the laid-back style of storytelling: “At the same time, Asya Kazantseva presents the material as if she was no biologist with a diploma, but your old friend, whom you met over with a glass of the same beer” ^[27] . RBC daily columnist Mikhail Wiesel also approves of the presentation style, claiming that the author speaks with the reader the language of an educated young city woman ^[28] . A psychiatrist Pavel Beschastnov in his review in the newspaper “ Trinity Option - Science ” designated the genre of the book as “the neurobiology of everyday life” and noted that the book will help people better understand the problems that they face in everyday life ^[29] .

Someone is wrong on the Internet!

In 2016, the second book of the author went out of print, it is called “Someone is wrong on the Internet! Scientific studies of controversial issues ” ^{[30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]} . The book entered the final three in the non-fiction category according to the results of the popular vote for the best book of 2016 according to ozon.ru ^[37] , as well as in the short list of the Enlightener Prize for 2017 ^[38] .

The Brain is Material

In 2019, the third book, The Brain is Material. About the benefits of a tomograph , transcranial stimulator and cochlear cells for understanding human behavior ”, according to an interview with Kazantseva Internet publication“ Such matters ”, which tells about“ how the border between neurobiology and psychology is being destroyed ”and how to detect“ specific neural circuits ”that affect any choice of a person (his behavior, decisions and emotions), and "how it helps us comprehend our own nature." Moreover, "the key idea, in fact, is expressed in the headline: our personality has a material basis." In addition, the book contains a “pair of supporting theses”: 1) the brain is plastic (when learning “the neural circuits that ensure our behavior are constantly changing”); 2) the brain is heterogeneous (“we have the illusion that we have a certain personality integrity”, although “the brain is a system for composing conflicting signals” and, according to neuroeconomics , “different parts of the brain are constantly competing with each other, evaluating information”). Illustrations to the book were performed by Oleg Navalny ^[39] .

Neuroscientist V. A. Klyucharyov believes that “Asya Kazantseva wrote an interesting book about our brain and behavior. There are many classic and completely new facts about the functioning of the brain. Even scientists are very difficult to keep track of a series of unexpected discoveries in modern neurobiology, but because such books are extremely useful. The book clearly shows that our brain, and therefore we, are much more interesting and more complicated than we used to think ” ^[40] . E.V. Timonova , a scientific journalist and TV presenter, naturalist and popularizer of science , expressed the opinion that the book was written “in the way bestsellers write: just so that we can understand everything, thoroughly, so that we can see where the scientists got it from, enthusiastically, because the subject is wildly interesting, and in some places very funny, because such an Asya man is ” ^[40] .

Adheres to views opposed to the Russian authorities, spoke out against the recognition of the Dynasty Foundation as a foreign agent ^[41] , against legislative prohibitions on the promotion of homosexuality and for European values ^[42] , as well as against the law “On measures to influence individuals involved in violations of human rights and freedoms ” , Against the accession of Crimea to Russia , for admitting the opposition politician Aleksey Navalny to the 2018 election ^[43] , considers nationalistic views unethical ^[44] . Nevertheless, she is opposed to the use of feminatives ^[35] and claims that she has never met with gender discrimination in her life (explaining this by living in a safe environment) ^[45] .

Russian biologist and science historian Alexei Kupriyanov reproached Asya Kazantseva for popularizing naive biologizing interpretations of human nature ^[46] . Kazantseva’s comments on social issues were also criticized (for example, “people are free to choose the social stratum” ^{[47] [48]} ). Chemist-technologist Sergey Belkov reproached Asya Kazantseva for using outdated information about menstrual synchrony ^[49] .

She was married twice. In 2019, she divorced investment director Nikolai Kovshov ^[50] , having a party on this subject, but continued to live with him “in free relations ”. He believes that the concept of marriage for life was suitable for the XIX century, and is now outdated ^[51] .

According to the worldview is an atheist ^{[3] [42]} .

Popular Science

• Kazantseva Asya. Who would have thought! How the brain makes us do stupid things. - M .: Corpus , 2013 .-- 317 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-082378-9 .
• Kazantseva Asya. Someone is wrong on the Internet! Scientific studies of controversial issues. - M .: AST , 2016 .-- 376 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-092181-2 .
• Kazantseva Asya. The brain is material. About the benefits of a tomograph, transcranial stimulator and cochlear cells for understanding human behavior. - M .: Corpus , 2019 .-- 368 p. - (Elements). - ISBN 978-5-17-114664-1 .

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