Science answers both critical and everyday phenomena around us, and it rarely disappoints. Yet profound mysteries endure that science hasn’t found answers to, leaving even the greatest minds without an explanation.
However strange it may sound, there are several unresolved issues that still stand as blank spots in our knowledge of the world. It’s time to be amazed by the complexities of life once again. Who knows? Maybe one day humanity will unravel these mysteries.
1. Why did nature give women large breasts?
Women’s breasts, as with those of female apes, only fill up with milk when they need to feed their newborn offspring. But, unlike animals, women’s breasts remain comparatively large even when they aren’t breastfeeding. Experts are constantly debating why this is the case.
The majority of evolutionary biologists believe that breasts are meant to attract members of another sex. They seem to signify to potential mates that their children will be well looked after by the individual woman.
Anthropologists doubt this idea. Many cultures do not view the female bust as sexually arousing. Men in these societies respond differently to female physical features. Regional customs shape sexual attraction across different human populations. Cultural norms dictate what people find attractive in a partner. Natural human instincts vary greatly depending on cultural background.
2. Why do whales throw themselves onto the shores?
People have been pondering why entire groups of whales and dolphins end up beached on shorelines since the days of Aristotle. Having gotten stuck in shallow waters, they die quickly. Dozens of hypotheses are meant to explain why this happens:
- A shift in the wind drives plankton toward the shore, which in turn entices the animals to dry land.
- Sunstorms have an effect on these mammals in an unexplained way.
- Attacks by predators are to blame.
- Noise pollution in the oceans damages the whales’ auditory organs and their ability to orientate themselves.
People in various places around the world have found a strange jelly-like substance of unknown origin lying on the grass. Researchers analyzed the sample and found traces of bacteria alongside worm DNA. Soil contamination likely caused these trace readings during sample collection. Earth covered the original material before testing began.
According to various explanations, the substance is produced by blue-green algae or amphibians. The belief also exists that it’s a new form of fungus.
Scientists lack a definite answer for this mysterious substance. Observers named it “space jelly” after claims emerged about its extraterrestrial origins. Many believe meteors carried the strange gel down to Earth.
4. How did the giant hexagon form on Saturn?
One stunning atmospheric phenomenon on the planet Saturn is a hexagonal cloud formation 25,000 km in diameter. As far as can be understood, this is a rather unusual hurricane system.
Scientists modeled this system under laboratory conditions. They still fail to understand its beautiful appearance. They cannot explain why this feature has lasted so long.
5. Will we ever be able to have conversations with robots?
Artificial intelligence is constantly developing, but whether it will ever reach a level of independence that will allow us to talk to robots as equals remains unknown.
Currently, all attempts to “teach” a computer to debate with a human being have failed.
Today the predominant theory for explaining the origins of life is one that argues that it emerged from non-organic compounds produced by physical and chemical processes.
But we still can’t determine where the boundary lies that sets non-living matter apart from living creatures. We also don’t know how molecules ended up with the ability to pass on genetic information.
7. Is it true that animals can sense earthquakes?
Historians first recorded pets behaving strangely before natural disasters in ancient Greece. Animals still display anxious reactions hours before earthquakes strike today. Cats and dogs likely detect subtle seismic vibrations long before human senses catch them. Precise environmental cues trigger these sudden behavioral shifts in domestic animals. Pet owners frequently report erratic movements right before major geological events.
Explaining this fact is still beyond our abilities, in part because it’s extremely difficult to investigate it in the form of an experiment, as no one can force a cataclysmic natural event to occur.
The opinion exists that charged particles expelled into the air before an earthquake are the cause of animals’ reactions, though this remains to be corroborated.
8. What are those dark spots on Mars?
Scientists studying Mars have announced that the periodic flow of water may cause the dark strips that sometimes appear on the planet’s surface.
Scientists established that these markings appear on Martian slopes during spring. They disappear every year as winter approaches. The same exact pattern repeats in the same areas each season.
Why all of this happens is still not fully understood. However, some experts have ruled out the possibility that this is caused by water.
9. Where did the Sumerians come from, and what language did they speak?
It was this civilization that Babylon and Assyria derived their own cultures from. The Sumerians were trailblazers in a whole number of areas, from astronomy to physics.
Even today, the origins of their society remain one of the most difficult questions for experts to unravel. Linguists have failed in all attempts to connect the Sumerian language to other known tongues. Scholars only decoded Sumerian cuneiform writing by using the Akkadian language. Akkadian differs completely from Sumerian. It also remains completely different from any other known language system.
10. What happened before the Big Bang?
According to some scientists, before the Big Bang, there was no space or time, so the question is meaningless. Was the universe created out of nothing? Out of chaos? Then where did the chaos come from? Some questions seem to be impossible to think about because of the restrictions of human perception.
12. Is it possible to record one’s thoughts (just like recording a TV program)?
In other words, will we be able to re-experience the situations we experienced in the past? For example, to fall in love with someone once more? Will it become possible to record our dreams and watch them when we are awake? Sounds shocking and improbable. And it is one of the questions science has no answer to right now.
13. What is deja vu?
Déjà vu means “already seen” and describes the eerie feeling we have when we think we re-experience a situation or an event. Various studies of recent years provide some common-sense explanations at times, but the real cause and nature of this phenomenon remain a mystery. It is certainly one of those questions science has no answer to and probably will struggle to find.
14. Do ghosts exist?
Science has never given a clear explanation of what exactly ghosts are or whether they exist or not. Serious researchers avoid studying this phenomenon due to potential professional risks. Mainstream institutions dismiss most proposed theories on the subject as pseudoscientific. Academics rarely publish research papers on these controversial topics. Standard scientific journals reject submissions related to this unverified event. Funding agencies refuse grants for experiments exploring such fringe theories.
15. What to do about the growing world population?
We constantly hear discussions about renewable energy, recycling, sustainable crops… But the growing population on the planet is an issue that confuses most of us. How can the planet sustain such a population? Especially if, according to recent research, life expectancy might increase to 120 years in the future.
