10 unresolved secrets in science
Every spring, Quirks & Quarks We are ever popular Listener question showWhere we find experts to answer your questions.
But there are some big questions that we cannot answer yet.
There are 10 secrets here which have not yet opened science.
1. What is made from the universe?
The stars, planets and galaxies we see in telescopes make only about five percent of the known universe. Balance Made of dark matter and dark energy. And when scientists use the word “dark”, which actually means: “We don’t know.”
Dark matter is considered an invisible substance that does not close the light, but it is a mass that is enough to draw gravity that keeps the entire galaxies together. Without it, the stars in our Milky Way will fly in all directions such as water drops from a lawn sprinkler.
Dark energy acts to intensify the expansion of the universe, works extensively to combat gravity. But beyond looking at its effects, we have little understanding of what it can be.
2. Are we alone in the universe?
Our galaxy is included Hundreds of billions of starsAnd there are hundreds of billions of galaxies. Astronomers feel that most stars feel that there are many planets around them that make at least for trillions of other world. Still despite these huge numbers, we have To find yet A single sign of foreign life. It can hide underground on Mars, under the snow of moon -oriented moon -oriented moon, or revolving around other stars on the world like Earth, but so far there is no difficult evidence to show that any life exists other than Earth.
This does not mean that we have the only planet with life in the universe; We have not just found it yet. But this does not prevent us from thinking whether it will take the same form like us, and, if we contact, how will we stop biological cross-pollution and how we will communicate.
3. How did life begin on earth?
We think, somehow, billions of years ago, chemicals came together to become self-determination, developed into simple cells, then arranged in groups of cells, differentiated into tissues in complex organisms, and then a small side branch of rich tapestry, resulting in a brain to consider all this.
Infection from chemistry to biology was attempted as a laboratory experiment in 1953 Stanley Miller and Herold UreWhere Ges methane, hydrogen and ammonia – with water – were placed in a seal flask and were exposed to electric shock for a week. The result was the formation of a dark substance inside the flask consisting of amino acids, the creation blocks of life.
But even though there is a miller-yu experiment Now is done regularlySo far, no life form has come out of the flask. May be the lab experiment needs to run for one billion years or to find out how the Earth did.
4. What is consciousness?
As you read it, millions of neurons are firing in your brain, following these dark signs on your screen and making them in words, sentences and thoughts. In fact, how the electro-chemical reactions occurring inside your skull give you a sense of identity, re-make memories of your previous life, trigger curiosity, laughter, love, anger and fire are your imagination a complete secret. there are Many principles And many ongoing debates are just trying to define consciousness at the first time, let’s let alone how it works and how it shapes human existence.
Nor do we know how far this feeling of self is spread in the tree of life. What do other brain animals think?
5. What is inside the black hole?
We know that black holes are present and we also have images of material falling in galaxies centers. But after all what happens to that material, it is unknown because no one is to detect through black hole. Even if they had, we do not know about it because the information flows only in a black hole, not outside.
In the heart of black hole – also known as eccentricity – the rules of physics are broken. The gravity bridge from the hole is so strong, an object that reaches the speed of light and eventually falls at a point. It is impossible to make those conditions again on earth.
Some people suggest that a black hole is the entrance to a parallel universe, or that our entire universe can be inside a black hole itself.
6. What exploded, and there was anything before?
The universe is expanding, every second is moving outward in all directions. If you run the time backwards, everything will have been squeezed in infinitely dense and hot. With a black hole, it was a uniqueness – a situation could not say anything about physics.
What was this, and why was it suddenly expanded 13.8 billion years ago? Did it come from the earlier era when the material came together in a large crunch, then the rebound was done? Or nothing came from nothing? In quantum physics, this can happen.
Large headron colliderThe world’s most powerful particle accelerator, for some billions of a second, is trying to re -create situations in moments after Big Bang, to find out what it is about the explosion.
7. Is everything the principle of everything?
Einstein’s theory of gravity and general relativity to work The largest scale of the universe. They sufficiently describe what you place on their chair and keep rotating the galaxies.
Quantum theory works on the scale of very small, accounting for the behavior of electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, neutrons and other sub -quantity particles. But there is no integrated principle that brings these two places together.
Efforts have been made to create such principles – String theory And Loop quantum gravity There are two examples. But these efforts have not been successful yet. When a complete principle of everything develops, it will add all the forces of the universe, and, possibly, will help us understand some other questions in this list, such as the origin of Big Bang and the internal functioning of the black hole.
8. Is time travel possible?
Yes. You are doing it now. But only in one direction, and at the same rate of everyone else on the Earth on a large scale. It is possible to travel in future. According to the principle of relativity, the faster you travel, the slow time passes for you still compared to someone standing. If you have returned from a spaceflight that took you closer to the speed of light, you will find yourself on the future, possibly gone with all your friends. In other words, the time is flexible. Of course our current spaceships cannot come anywhere near the speed of light.
Time travel in the other direction is a different case. We have no physics that allow us to understand what is possible. And moreover, if this was possible, we may have problems in detecting the past. Time journey will also have to include space travel as you will need to go back where the Earth was at that time. Keeping the Earth in mind, it revolves around the sun at a distance of about 30 kilometers every second, and around our galaxy every second, 237 kilometers, it is a long journey.
Perhaps this is the place where all the future tourists are located. They get lost in space in search of Earth.
9. How do we provide for growing human population?
Now believed More than eight billion people On earth. It is one billion in 1800 and above six billion in 2000. Whereas in most parts of the world, population growth rate has declined in recent years, due to less families having less children, our number is still expected to reach 10 billion by 2060.
The challenge is to find ways to grow enough food, provide clean water and energy to supply such a large population without eliminating the resources of the Earth and reduce the ecosystem that maintains us. The solution is some combination of permanent technologies and behavioral changes.
This is more than a problem to solve science. It is also a political, social and cultural issue.
10. How will the universe end?
It will take many, many billions of years, and we definitely do not know, but these are options that scientists discuss:
If the universe continues to expand forever, everything will finally go away, the distant galaxies will fade beyond our horizon. Eventually all the stars of our galaxy will go out and the universe will gradually cool into a big freeze.
It is that if dark energy does not become more powerful, and everything, including too much fabric of space time, is torn, called Big Rip.
On the other hand, if the universal expansion stops, the gravity can pull the whole thing back into a large crunch, the universe may collapse into a uniqueness that may be again bang again.
Time will tell – although it is hopeful that it is what we never know.
