Unanswered: 10 phenomena that scientists still cannot explain

© Bence Bakonyi

Despite the fact that many of the facts and theories around which are still the subject of debate in the people, it is no doubt among scientists (for example, the theory of evolution or the use of vaccines), this does not mean that scientific conceptions of the Universe can be called exhaustive. On IFL Science published an article about yet unsolvable mysteries of science, obliques its translation. Why more matter than antimatter?

In the modern understanding of practical physics matter and antimatter are identical, but opposite. When they meet, they should annihilate each other and leave nothing behind. And most of these vzaimootnoshenii already happened in the nascent Universe. Nevertheless, there remained enough of matter to create the billions and billions of galaxies, stars, planets, and more. This is due to the mesons, composite (non-elementary) particles with a short half-life, composed of quarks and recorded the creation. B-mesons decay more slowly than anti-B-mesons, thanks to the survival of a sufficient number of B-meson to create the existing Universe of matter. In addition, B-, D - and K-metonymous to fluctuate and become antiparticles and back composite particles. Studies have shown that mesons are more likely to take the normal condition, although it could just be because of normal particles greater in number than antiparticles.

Where is all the lithium?

Before, when the temperature in the Universe was deliciously high, isotopes of hydrogen, helium and lithium were formed in abundance. Hydrogen and helium are still extremely many and they make up most of the mass of the Universe, but the number of isotopes lithium-7, which we can now observe, are only a third of past number. There are many different explanations why it happened — including hypotheses involving hypothetical bosons known as axions. Others believe that lithium was absorbed in the cores of stars that our telescopes and instruments can not detect. In any case, now there is no adequate explanation of where the Universe go all lithium.

Why do we sleep?

Even though we know that the processes occurring in the human body are regulated by biological clocks that keep us awake and sleep, we do not know why this is happening. Sleep is the time when our body repairs tissues and produces other regeneration processes. And we spend about a third of our life sleeping. Some other organisms do not require sleep, so why is it so essential to us? There are several different versions of why this happens, but none of them is a complete answer to the question. According to one theory, the animals that are sleeping, managed to develop the ability to hide from predators, while others need to be constantly on the alert, and so they regenerate and rest without sleeping. Now most of the somnological research focuses on why sleep is important and how it influences mental skills.

What is gravity?

Many of you know that lunar gravity causes tides, earth's gravity holds us on the surface of our planet, the sun's gravity causes the Earth to stay in orbit. But how to explain this phenomenon? This powerful force created by matter, and more massive objects pull smaller objects. While scientists understand how the force of gravity, they are not even sure whether it exists at all. Is gravity a consequence of the existence of particles gravity? Why are the atoms so much empty space — that is why the nucleus and the electrons are at a considerable distance from each other? Why force that holds atoms together different from gravity? To these questions we can not answer modern level of development of science.

"Well, where are they then?"

The size of the observable Universe in diameter reach 92 billion light years. It is filled with billions of galaxies with stars and planets, and apparently the only habitable planet right now is Earth. Statistically the chance that our planet is the only in the Universe where there is life, is extremely small. Then what the hell are with us still no one has contacted?

It's called the Fermi paradox (named after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, Creator of the worlds first nuclear reactor. — Approx. T&P). Was offered dozens of explanations as to why we still are not familiar with extraterrestrial life, some of them even resembling the truth. So, we can argue for days about various missed signals, that aliens were already among us, and we do not know, or that they are unable to contact us. Well, or there are more sad variant — the Earth is the only inhabited planet.

What is it made of dark matter?

About 80% of the mass of the Universe is dark matter. This is such a specific thing that does not transmit light at all. Although the first theories of dark matter came about 60 years ago, still there is no direct evidence of its existence. Some scientists believe that dark matter consists of hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles — vinow, (WIMP, Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), which, in fact, can be heavier than protons 100 times, but do not interact with baryonic matter, under which sharpened our detectors. Others believe that the dark matter consists of particles such as the axion, neutralino and photino.

How was life?

Where on Earth life? How did this happen? Supporters of the theory of "primordial soup" I believe that the fertile Earth itself was formed more complex molecules, which were first life. These processes occurred at the bottom of the ocean, in volcanic craters, as well as in the soil and under the ice. Other theories attach great importance to light and volcanic activity. In addition, DNA is now considered the dominant basis of life on Earth, but it is also suggested that RNA could be one of the first basic forms of life. Another unresolved scientific question — are there any more of the nucleic acid in addition to RNA and DNA? Did life only once, or she was born, then was destroyed and then re-emerged? Some believe in panspermia — according to this theory, microorganisms (germ life) was brought to Earth by meteorites and comets. Even if this is true, then where did the life on the source of panspermia — is unknown.

How tectonic plates work?

This may be a surprise to you, but the theory of tectonics of lithospheric plates that move continents and cause earthquakes, volcanoes and even forming mountains, is widely known not so long ago (in the second half of the twentieth century. — Approx. T&P). Although it was hypothesized that fifteen hundred years ago instead of the six continents was the only one this theory had little support in the 1960s. Then dominated the theory of seafloor spreading. According to this theory, huge ridges separating the earth's crust under every ocean that mark the boundaries between tectonic plates, gradually moving in opposite directions. When plate tectonics molten mass from the mantle rises, filling a fissure in the earth's crust, and then the sea bottom is slowly moving in the direction of the continent. But soon this theory was rejected.

In any case, scientists are still not sure what causes these shifts, or how tectonic plates were created. There are many theories, but none of them reflects all the aspects of this movement fully.

How animals migrate?

Many animals and insects migrate throughout the year, trying to avoid the seasonal change of temperature and the disappearance of vital resources of food or in search of neighbors. Some migrate thousands of kilometers, so how do they find their way back after a year? Different animals use different ways of navigation. For example, some are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field and have a sort of internal compass. Anyway, scientists still don't understand how to develop these abilities and why animals know exactly where to go year after year.

What is dark energy?

Of all the scientific mysteries of dark energy is perhaps the most mysterious. While dark matter is about 80% of the mass of the Universe, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy which, as scientists believe, is 70% of the total content of the Universe. Dark energy is one of the reasons for the expansion of the Universe, although it involves a large number of mysteries that have not managed to solve. The first and most important — of what is dark energy? Whether it is permanent or it there are any fluctuations? Why the density of dark energy is comparable to the density of normal matter? Is it possible to reconcile the data on dark energy the theory of gravitation of Einstein or the theory needs to be revised?

 

Source: theoryandpractice.ru