10 Easy Questions We Still Don t Know The Answer To

HIMANSHU SHARMA JUNE 30, 2014We know that science doesn t have the answers to ever
ything, but seeing that it s 2014 and the future is almost here, there are some qu
estions we really expected it to have answered by now.10How Does Turbulence Work
?1- turbulence
Everyone has gone through a flight where the pilot asks you to tighten your seat
belts because of excessive turbulence, but even though it is so important to th
ings like air safety, we just have no idea how it works. It has perplexed scient
ists to such an extent that Einstein once famously said, Before I die, I hope som
eone will clarify quantum physics for me. After I die, I hope God will explain t
urbulence to me. The problem is aggravated by the fact that wherever the need to s
tudy turbulence arises like in jet propulsion chemical reactions take place alongsid
e the high pressure and extreme conditions, which makes it difficult for researc
hers to study the exact conditions needed to produce turbulence. If somehow we c
ould figure it out, it could be applied to a variety of uses since turbulence oc
curs everywhere in nature. Maybe one day we d even be able to predict hurricanes o
r other natural disasters with accuracy, thus minimizing the damage and finally
scoring one over nature.
9Why Do Cats Purr?2- cats
We ve shown before that cats don t always purr when they re happy, but the mystery goe
s way deeper than that. There is no purring organ in the throat of a cat, and ev
en though extensive research has been done on the function itself, the exact ori
gin of the function in the anatomy of cats is still unknown.It s theorized that th
ey might do it by the constriction and dilation of the larynx, but no evidence h
as ever been provided to prove or disprove that theory. It was, however, found t
hat the frequency of a cat s purr falls somewhere in the range required to acceler
ate bone regeneration and healing, so it might just be a healing superpower that
we had no idea even existed in the animal kingdom. That might also explain why
we take it to be a happy sound, as the frequency is not just beneficial for the
cat it tends to make us happier as well.8What Causes Hypnic Jerks?sb10069478bc-001
Often when we are about to fall asleep, we experience a kind of a falling sensat
ion which causes us to wake up with a start. It happens to almost everybody, and
the sensation is known as a hypnic jerk. It also sometimes happens when you til
t the chair you re sitting on too far somehow you can sense when you re about to fall,
and you wake up with a hypnic jerk. We really have no idea what causes them or
whether they serve any modern purpose, but science has come up with some interes
ting theories.One hypothesis suggests that our bodies developed this mechanism w
hen we used to sleep on branches or high ground, and it was meant to help us avo
id a fall. But there is no evidence to support it, and humans rarely slept on tr
ees or precarious cliffs as a matter of habit. Other theories suggest that it ha
ppens because of the slowing down of the body s processes when you fall asleep, bu
t again, there are no scientific studies to support that claim either.7How Exact
ly Do Magnets Work?200247269-001
Magnetism is a widely observed phenomenon in our universe, but a lot of things a
bout it remain unexplained. For example, why do particles charged with electrici
ty create a magnetic field strong enough to physically move things from far away
? And when they do, why exactly do they align themselves to two poles, north and
south?Explanations range from it s just one of those things to particle movement at
the quantum level, and MIT even has a whole laboratory dedicated to research on
nothing but magnetism. We know that it s happening, and we have a good idea of wh
at exactly is happening, too the particles align themselves in a way that adds up
their charge in one direction, but it s not very clear as to why the particles emi
t a magnetic field to start with. The fact that the Earth s magnetic field is not
well understood either further restricts our ability to understand magnetism. 6W
hy Do Giraffes Have Long Necks?5- giraffe
Many may believe that only giraffes with long necks survived evolution because t
hey had an advantage over the other, short-necked ones, but that s not really true
. Longer necks provide no particular advantage to giraffes because they care mor
e about the type of leaf than the height at which it s situated. If it s confusing t
o you, science doesn t have much of a clue either. There s just no consensus on the

exact conditions that would have caused long necks to be selected positively amo
ng giraffes. One theory is that the giraffes developed long necks as a mating tr
ait in other words, it helped with the ladies but there s not much evidence to support
that hypothesis. On the contrary, big, heavy necks, no matter how good they loo
k, would be a definite disadvantage in the wild and are sure to die out at some
point in the future. Another theory says that they had to develop long necks bec
ause of long legs, but again, that theory is based less on factual evidence and
more on a scientist looking at a giraffe and guessing.5Why Do Birds Migrate?6- b
irds
We know that birds migrate over really long distances every year to lay eggs or
to escape harsh winters. What we don t know is how they do it at all. The migratio
n of birds remains one of the most mysterious animal behaviors known to science,
and even though they ve been trying hard to solve it for a long time, answers hav
en t been easy to come by.Consider this: Cuckoos migrate and lay their eggs in oth
er birds nests, then just fly away to their own business. When the young ones gro
w up, they make their way to their ancestral lands without any help whatsoever.
Scientists do believe that they are able to use a variety of compasses based on
the stars and the Earth s magnetic field, but a compass can only guide you it can t te
ll you the coordinates of a location you should have no idea about. Clearly, cuc
koos are one species you don t want to mess with.4What Causes Gravity?7- gravity
Newton pioneered the study of gravity over 350 years ago, and you d think that we d
have it all figured out by now. But the more we ve progressed in our knowledge of
the world, the more baffling gravity has become for researchers. For starters, w
e know the causing particle for each of the four fundamental forces of the unive
rse except gravity. A graviton is believed to be that particle, but we re pretty far
from actually finding it.Another thing about gravity is that it is the weakest
of all the other fundamental forces, yet if we look around the world, that doesn t
seem to be the case at all. Gravity keeps galaxies together, and it is about 10
40 times weaker than the electromagnetic force. The fact that it s so weak makes i
t all the more difficult to study it in the lab. 3How Do We Store And Retrieve M
emories?8- memories
Science has come a long way toward understanding how our bodies work, but memori
es are still one of the most perplexing problems of the human anatomy. We just h
ave no idea exactly what parts of the brain are involved in the storage of our m
emories, though we do know that a lot of areas of the brain are involved in the
process. Even more confusing than memory storage is memory retrieval. Scientists
have been looking into how our brains trace a particular memory from our memory
bank since at least the 20s, but it s still not clear how we do it. What we do kno
w for sure is that it has something to do with neurons and the connections betwe
en them. When we see something that triggers a memory to be traced, many parts o
f the brain interact with each other simultaneously to make us remember it. Beyo
nd that, though, the whole thing is a mystery. 2Why Do Women Go Through Menopaus
e?9- menopause
Menopause defies all the rules of evolution. The ability to reproduce in the ani
mal kingdom ensures that the species are able to pass on their superior genes, b
ut in humans, something weird happens. Women decisively lose their ability to pa
ss on their lineage at the age of about 45 50, and science just doesn t have any ide
a why. From an evolutionary perspective, it is always harmful for a species to c
ompletely give up their ability to reproduce, as survival by natural selection c
eases to take place once that happens. One explanation is the grandmother hypoth
esis, which says that after a point, women should spend more time caring for the
ir grandchildren than their children, but the benefits of that are far inferior
to the benefits of giving birth to your own children. It s also not abundantly fou
nd in the animal kingdom. Apart from humans, only two species of whale completel
y stop breeding at a certain age and go on to live for a significant amount of t
ime. Other animals that experience deteriorating sexual abilities, however, ofte
n die out soon after. 1What Are Dreams?10- dream
Dreaming is one thing that s common to us all. It might differ in the way it happe
ns for some of us, but it s definitely a resident feature of all of our brains. Yo
u d think that science would be able to figure out why our brains decide to go in

LSD mode every night, but sadly, there are no definite answers as to what exactl
y dreams are. Some people believe that they re just random images which serve no p
urpose, while others believe that they carry a deeper meaning, though we re all pr
etty much guessing here.Some theories suggest that dreams are a manifestation of
things we d rather not think about during the day, like sexual fantasies, though
many modern scientists don t agree with that. What they do agree with, however, is
that dreams are most likely symbolic of something deep in our psyche, though no
one can decisively say what. The jury is divided on whether they serve any purp
ose at all, and it looks like it s going to take a long time for us to come to a u
niversally accepted answer.