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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

13 Things (in science) That Really Make No Sense

Hmmm . . . . OK, for now. From New Scientist. Apparently this is actually a sequel.

13 more things that don't make sense

(Image: Loungepark / The Image Bank / Getty)

(Image: Loungepark / The Image Bank / Getty)

Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us.

Here are thirteen of the most perplexing. Cracking any one of them could yield profound truths.
1.

Axis of evil

(Image: WMAP / NASA)

Radiation left from the big bang is still glowing in the sky – in a mysterious and controversial pattern

2.

Dark flow

The galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, 3.8 billion light-years away, is one of hundreds that appear to be carried along by a mysterious cosmic flow (Image: NASA / STScI / Magellan / U.Arizona / D.Clowe et al)

Something unseeable and far bigger than anything in the known universe is hauling a group of galaxies towards it at inexplicable speed

3.

Eocene hothouse

Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C (Image: judywhite / Rex Features)

Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C. Now let's talk about climate change

4.

Fly-by anomalies

Artist's rendition of the Rosetta probe's closest approach to Earth, during its second fly-by on 13 November this year (Image: ESA - C. Carreau)

Space probes using Earth's gravity to get a slingshot speed boost are moving faster than they should. Call in dark matter

5.

Hybrid life

These sea squirts were created when two evolutionary lineages fused (Image: Gary Bell / Taxi / Getty)

The fusion of two distinct evolutionary lines is not supposed to work – but the seas are teeming with chimeras that prove it can

6.

Morgellons disease

Morgellons disease is unpleasant and debilitating; that is, if it exists (Image: Peter Cade / Stone / Getty)

Fatigue? Do you feel insects under your skin? Seen any strange fibres sprouting from your body? Then you've got a disease that's not supposed to exist

7.

The Bloop

The Bloop signal may have been caused by Antarctic ice breaking up, but nobody knows for sure (Image: Darryl Leniuk / Photographer's Choice / Getty)

During 1997, US undersea monitoring equipment heard a series of sounds far louder than any whale song. They were never heard again

8.

Antimatter mystery

The 27-kilometre tunnel containing the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Image: Simon Hadley / Rex Features)

The big bang should have created matter and antimatter in equal amounts – so why didn't the universe disappear in a puff of self-annihilation?

9.

The lithium problem

The universe only contains a third as much lithium as it's supposed to (Image: ImageSource / Rex)

The universe only contains a third as much lithium as it's supposed to

10

MAGIC results

(Image: R. Wagner, Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich)

High-energy radiation from a gamma-ray burst reached Earth 4 minutes later than the lower-energy rays. That's not how Einstein said it would be

11.

The elusive monopole

(Image: flaivoloka / Stock.xchng)

Why do magnetic poles always come paired as north and south, never alone?

12.

Noise from the edge of the universe

Are dud signals from a gravitational wave detector evidence that the universe is a holographic projection? (Image: ESA)

Are dud signals from a gravitational wave detector evidence that the universe is a holographic projection?

13.

The nocebo effect

A diagnosis of terminal illness can come true, even if it's wrong (Image: Image Source / Rex)
How a diagnosis of terminal illness can come true – even if it's wrong.

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1 comment:

  1. Mike RedmerSeptember 6, 2009 at 9:11 AM

    Check out Nassim Haramein's explanation of the structure of space and many of these questions make sense. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6151699791256390335#

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