The man has always been known for his curiosity and it is this trait that has led him to discover and progress so much. Despite of several years of science exploration, there are still many unsolved mysteries which we haven’t found the answers to. The search for answers is on and considering how big the universe is, it will continue for quite a while.
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10. The Brazil Nut Effect
Have you ever wondered why some of the nuts, the Brazil nuts, always stay on the top in a bowl of mixed fruit? The “Brazil nut effect” is actually one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of science. If you observe, you’ll find out that larger objects like nuts, sedimentary deposits, etc, tend to stay on the top whereas the smaller ones sink to the bottom despite their smaller gravitas. This along with some other theories contributes as ‘possible’ explanations behind the Brazil nut effect but so far, no proof has been found.
9. Slipping on Ice
We have all learnt about the forms of water in school, but there is still no concrete explanation why we slip on ice. Scientists agree that a thin layer of liquid water on top of solid ice causes its slipperiness and that a fluid’s mobility makes it difficult to walk on, even if the layer is thin. But there’s no consensus as to why ice, unlike most other solids, has such a layer. Also, it has still not been determined how without any heat (like that in the case of slipping from your body) the top layer of ice becomes fluidy and slippery.
8. Formation of Glass
It has been many years since science developed in its full swing but till now, no one has rightly theorized or known how glass is actually formed. Yes, glass. American physicist James Langer wrote: “We don’t know what kind of transformation occurs when a liquid becomes a glass or even whether that familiar change of state is actually a thermodynamic phase transition like condensation or solidification, or something completely different.”
7. Existence of Magnets
Magnets have a north pole and a south pole and when you make a charged particle move, it creates magnetic field and two poles around it. But what makes a magnet? Scientists all over the world are trying to find out why particles radiate magnetic fields, what are magnetic fields, and why do they always align between two directions, giving magnets their north and south poles?
6. Occurrence of Skyquakes
Even before the advent of supersonic flight, immense booms have been heard emerging from clear skies. No explanation has been found for these so-called sky quakes. There is no sign of lightning (which can travel long distances – even in clear skies) and no other human explanation for why the sky suddenly booms at the earth.
5. Solid Light
UFOs have always been a part of controversies and so have the things associated with them. Solid light stories often occur around the time of UFO appearances. Solid light appears to have the properties of a solid object and its witnesses have reported seeing a beam of light unrolling from the flying saucer and disturbing the ground beneath it physically. Much like in movies, they also say that solid lights can enter buildings and turns corners. Spooky, right?
4. The Hum
Since the 1950s, reports have been coming in from around the world of people hearing what is known as “the Hum.” The hum is described as a persistent, droning sound that is often heard at nights. Reports suggest that only about 2 percent of the population lives in a hum-prone area and it’s typically heard in rural and suburban areas.
3. Fermi Paradox
The Fermi Paradox deals with the question of why we haven’t discovered living beings anywhere other than the Earth. Statistically, the odds of us actually being the only living beings in the Universe are impossibly low as the observable Universe is 92 billion light-years in diameter, filled with billions of galaxies with stars and planets. There have been dozens of possible explanations behind this but non proven so far.
2. Matter and Antimatter
Basic understanding of particle physics teaches us that matter and antimatter are equal but opposite. When they meet, they should destroy one another and leave nothing left over, and most of those annihilations should have occurred early in the Universe. However, there was enough matter left over to make the billions and billions of galaxies, stars, planets, and everything else. So why was/is there no balance between the matter and the antimatter?
1. Ball Lightning
One of the most baffling unsolved scientific mysteries is that of the phenomenon of Ball Lighting. The ball lightning is prone to floating for a bit and fading away or exploding with a loud pop. It has been known to follow patterns on furniture and walls. In one of its recorded cases of 1984, a lightning ball entered a Russian plane while in flight. It soared “above the heads of the stunned passengers. In the tail section of the airliner, it divided into two glowing crescents which then joined together again and left the plane almost noiselessly.” The ball lightning left one hole in the plane coming and another hole going but it’s also been known to “pass” through window glass and walls without making a hole and sometimes without a scratch.