With the appearance of an interested consciousness man began to explore the world around them, constantly expanding horizons. But it turns out that many of these horizons nor expand, them found even more distant horizons, which have a long reach. So what? We get genuine pleasure in learning something new. We are ready to gnaw the granite to get to the bottom of things. But some mysteries science can’t solve. Perhaps you could help?
The universe began with the Big Bang?
The Big Bang theory for many years considered the most reliable to explain the beginning of the Universe. But whether she is one hundred percent correct and only answer?
The “big Bang” theory was named one of the most violent of its opponents, Fred Hoyle. He thought the universe was static and eternal — but his hypothesis quickly died. In 1929 Edwin Hubble proved that the universe is expanding. Then came new evidence of the Big Bang theory: in 1965 they became the existence of the microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang.
But there is one thing. Measurement of Hubble made in 1929, was denied in 1990. in fact the universe was expanding more slowly than predicted by Big Bang theory. In response, Alan Guth has made some adjustments to the Big Bang theory. He stated that the universe initially expanded rapidly, then slowly.
But critics say the Big Bang theory, it is impossible to prove. Maybe we need a new method for determining the beginning of the Universe?
How to predict an earthquake?
Our understanding of the movements of the Earth began relatively recently. Only in 1912, Alfred Wegener came to the conclusion that the continents are in constant motion. In the 1960-ies of the Navy of the USA has noticed that the sea was not smooth as it was assumed up to this point — it consisted of mountain ranges.
Scientists came to the conclusion that the seabed had also been exposed to volcanoes and earthquakes. This discovery led to the theory of plate tectonics, which explains the large-scale motion of Earth’s lithosphere. Now we know that earthquakes are born when two plates overlap each other.
We were able to localize the places more exposed to tectonic activity. But we still don’t know exactly when an earthquake happens. For example, scientists can predict that in Los Angeles there will soon be an earthquake. It can mean any time from tomorrow to the next 30 years.
What causes ice ages?
We still do not know what causes ice ages. Milutin Milankovitch proposed a solution in 1920-m to year. He stated that the Earth receives different amount of solar energy at different times, as our planet is moving. This leads to the appearance of glacial periods at regular intervals. At first, the idea of Milankovitch seemed right, because the ice ages really occurred every 100 000 years.
But the Milankovitch theory can not explain some serious violations in this scheme — for example, a period of 200 million years without a single ice age. The new theory focused on the greenhouse effect, but it raises more questions than it answers. Which led to fluctuations of carbon dioxide, when no people. Scientists are scratching their heads, but the truth is, no one knows.
Is there a missing link?
The missing link is a hypothetical evolutionary link between primates and humans. In 1912, Charles Dawson found a skull with a set of human and APE jaw at Piltdown common near Lewes in England. For 41 years the scientific community thought that we had found the missing link.
However, this is an unusual find was a fake created by the zoologist of the British Museum by the name Hinton. Why? This was his revenge.
Hinton began working at the Museum as a volunteer. When he asked about the salary, curator of paleontology Arthur Smith Woodward refused him. So Hinton forged skull to undermine the authority of Woodward as a scientist. However, the plan didn’t work.
In 1956 William Strauss have suggested that the Neanderthal was our direct ancestor. However, new Dating methods of fossils have shown that humans and Neanderthals lived at the same time and kept in touch. The vacancy is still open.
Why an abstract system of communication came so late?
The earliest examples of art date back to as created 35,000 years ago. However, a written language developed only 7000 years ago, and the math it took another 2000 years.
Why was such a large gap between the first abstract paintings and the first communication system? Most likely, the first should change our brain. But how? The brain is such a complex structure that may take a few centuries, before we can understand how it works.
What are black holes?
The concept of black holes was first met with distrust. When physicist sir Arthur Eddington first heard about them, he exclaimed: “I think there should be a law of nature, not admitting that the star was acting so strangely!”.
First greeted black holes Oppenheimer in 1938. But sir Arthur Eddington can be understood because the behavior of black holes is counterintuitive. No one knows what happens inside a black hole. In the 1990’s, scientists discovered the existence of supermassive black holes the size of a billion suns. They are usually located in the center of elliptical galaxies. Participated in the creation of these galaxies? We don’t know really. Even the black holes for us — a real mystery, because neither see nor touch it we can’t, as well as to visit.
How old is the universe?
No one knows for sure. Answers vary from 8 to 20 billion years, but it is quite a large scatter. The strangest thing about this problem is that the universe may be younger than its oldest stars. The study, conducted in 1994, showed that the Universe is 8 billion years, so the oldest star in the milky Way older than the Universe itself. Fortunately, measurements carried out in 1999, denied any previous study.
But their triumph was short-lived. Another study, conducted with the help of modern technology, showed that the universe was 15% less, and therefore 15% younger. According to the study, there are stars older than the Universe itself. What are we doing wrong? We may not understand the fundamental laws of physics?
Are there multiple universes?
First the concept of multiple universes proposed by science fiction writer Jack Williamson in 1952. What inspired physicist Hugh Everett. In 1957 he wrote a doctoral thesis on the topic of multiple universes. According to his model, each event creates a number of universes where every possible outcome of this event.
John Wheeler, head Everett, offered a different version. In his view, the universe is periodically expanded and then shrunk to the size of the atom. But some scientists said that the Universe is, apparently, not enough of the substance to collapse.
Stephen Hawking has developed a theory which States that there are an infinite number of universes with every possible future.
The only problem is that we cannot test these theories in practice.
What will be the end of the Universe?
Some theories suggest that the universe begins at some point to shrink until it reaches the size of an atom. Then there will be another big Bang, and the universe will be reborn.
But there is another possibility. The universe may expand infinitely, pushing galaxies further and further apart. In the end, the stars will burn all of its fuel, and there will be nothing.
10 scientific mysteries we still can’t decide
Ilya Hel