Science is undoubtedly one of the most important fields of activity in the world. Some people mistakenly think that science is weak when we believe something that turns out to be wrong over time. However, this is precisely what makes science so valuable. You should never say, “This is the absolute truth.” Scientists are constantly trying to explain something as best they can, given the evidence. Despite this, science still cannot explain some things, and sometimes these things are the most mundane, which at first glance seem very clear. Let's look at 10 things that science is not completely sure about.
10. We don't really understand how anesthesia works.
If you're going to the hospital for major surgery, you'll need anesthesia. It'll be easier for doctors to mess around with your insides if you're not looking and screaming.
There are many types of anesthesia used for different purposes: some are local, some are general, some are inhaled, and some are injected. Whatever anesthesia you use, it is designed to make you feel no pain. Sometimes this means you are unconscious.
Given the effects of anesthesia, it must be used carefully. Too little, and you will feel the surgeons cutting into you. You may not even be able to react to show you are conscious, but you will feel everything. Too much anesthesia, and you could die. This is serious business.
Knowing what we know about anesthesia, it’s excruciating to realize that we don’t know how it works. The process by which it can knock you out and stop you from feeling pain is a real mystery. There are theories that it may dissolve some of the fats in your brain and otherwise affect the way your brain communicates information.
In 2020, a study found that one of the many types of anesthesia dampens high-frequency electrical signals between neurons. The experiment was conducted on mice and could explain the pain-killing effect while allowing low-frequency signals to continue, the things that control your ability to breathe and keep your heart beating.
Again, this study was conducted in 2020 on mice. For the first time since the 1840s, scientists were able to see something that they thought might explain the effects of a medical procedure we undergo.
9. Ithacumite is a flexible stone and we don't know how it works.
If someone asked you to describe the characteristics of rocks, you might say words like “hard,” “heavy,” “solid,” or “solid.” Some pretty simple, boring adjectives. But if you were tasked with describing a rock known as itacolumite, you might also add the ability to bend to the list.
Itacumite is a type of sandstone most common in the mountains of Brazil, from which it gets its name. The stone can bend in your hands, even under its own weight, in the same way you would expect a piece of rubber to bend. It’s no Stretch Armstrong, but compared to stones found elsewhere in the world, it’s impressive.
The reason why flexible sandstone works remains a mystery. The structure of the stone is made up of quartz grains that are separated more widely than in a harder stone. The spaces between these grains are also uneven, which is what seems to provide the flexibility. But how and why this happens is still unknown.
8. We understand the purpose of different tastes other than sour
Humans can distinguish five basic types of taste. We divide them into sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. Science has even managed to find the cause of each of them.
Biologically, sweet lets you know something has sugar, which means carbohydrates, which means energy. Umami is caused by meat products, which means protein. Bitter is often associated with things we don't want to eat, and dangerous plants, especially poisonous ones, are bitter, and we've learned to avoid them because of their bitterness. Salty affects electrolytes and fluid balance, as well as overall health. And then there's sourness.
Whether you love sour foods or hate them, science has failed to explain the biological purpose of our ability to taste them. It’s a simple way to tell if a food is sour, but it doesn’t do us any real good. Sour foods may be toxic, promote fluid balance, or contain carbohydrates. Or not. Acidity is irrelevant to these people or a reliable way to assess their value in meeting these needs.
It has been suggested that ancient fish could “smell” sourness through their flesh, and this could have warned them of acidic, and therefore dangerous, water. Also, since humans cannot produce vitamin C ourselves, the ability to taste sourness could help us identify it in its natural form in our food. Or it could help us identify rotten fruit, which releases acids from bacteria. But again, it’s possible.
7. Everyone has face mites, but it's not clear why
If you were to look at your face under a high-powered microscope, you would find a whole world of tiny creatures living in your pores, enjoying your oils, reproducing, and pooping on you without a care in the world. These little mites, called demodex, are arachnids that live on all mammals. They evolved alongside us. We have no idea why they are here.
Mites don’t cause you any harm, and you can’t get rid of them, either. Of the 2,000 people randomly tested, every single one had them. The little guys live in the pores of the oiliest parts of your face, nestled against your hair follicles. They feed on sebum, the oily substance your skin produces to protect itself, then crawl out late at night to breed on your face before burrowing back into your pores.
While evidence suggests that these mites have been with us since the dawn of our species, the reason is still unclear. They are generally harmless, although some people may have a reaction to them or suffer from many of them. But mostly, they eat away at dead skin and keep your face smooth.
6. Flying squirrels glow pink under ultraviolet light
Flying squirrels are just adorable, and why wouldn't they be? They're the squirrels that glide through trees like Batman. Science has also discovered that these little mammals are also incredibly fun animals, as they glow bright pink under ultraviolet light.
To be clear, no other squirrel glows under a black light, only flying squirrels. Researchers have looked at the squirrels' fur with a mass spectrometer to see what compounds might make it glow, and they haven't found anything, making the path to understanding a little more difficult.
The phenomenon wasn't captured on camera until 2021, leaving experts to speculate. The squirrels could be glowing to be seen by other squirrels, as part of a mating ritual, as a method of communication, or even to ward off predators. It's hard to say right now, since it's unique to these animals.
5. It is not known why bats hate sunlight.
Bats are some of the most useful animals in nature, clearing the skies of horrible pests like mosquitoes every night and inspiring some of our best superheroes. They also prefer to live in dark places like caves, attics, under bridges, and so on. One thing they seem to hate? Sunlight.
Bats avoiding solar power plants may not seem like a big deal, but it is possible. If bats don’t want to be around them, it can change the entire ecosystem. The insects they prey on can thrive in these areas. Solar farms are actually great breeding grounds for insects. As solar farms spread, so can insects and potential diseases carried by them.
To this day, no one knows why bats hate the light. Now it becomes a balancing act as to whether something can or should be done. Fossil fuels probably kill more bats than sunlight, so maybe there's nothing you can do about the bats that don't want to be there, especially since we don't even know why.
4. Dogs' brains are getting bigger for some reason
There are two types of pet owners; those who think their pets are geniuses, and those who think their pets are idiots. If you're in the genius camp and you own a dog, you might be on to something. Dogs' brains are actually getting bigger, but the reason remains a mystery.
Compared to their ancient ancestors, many modern dog breeds have larger brains than in the past. In general, a dog's brain is smaller than a wolf's brain, but the further a dog breed is from a wolf in the modern world, the larger its brain appears to be.
Domestication reduced the size of dogs’ brains, but when we bred new dogs and gave them jobs like hunting and herding, their brains began to grow again. Domestic dogs may have evolved such larger brains not only because they have jobs to do (wolves had to do as much or more), but also because they live in a more complex and social world. The expectations and burdens of living with humans force their brains to expand to cope.
3. Tornadoes are getting bigger and faster
If you feel like bad weather is getting worse, you're not alone. In fact, tornadoes are bigger, faster, and more frequent today than in the past. And while that's concerning, perhaps even more concerning is that we can't explain why.
Over the past 50 years, the part of the United States known as Tornado Alley has widened. Deadly storms are becoming more frequent and more powerful. Climate change is something people can point to, but talking about it and explaining it are two different things. If climate change is to blame, how is it to blame? That’s something we don’t yet know for sure. Warmer winters certainly make the problem worse, allowing tornadoes to form earlier and further north, but that doesn’t do much to explain or predict their occurrence.
Tornado prediction and warning is where the new models suffer. In 2011, the average time for a tornado to form was 13 minutes. That’s how much warning people in the path of a storm will have to prepare. By 2020, it had dropped to 8.4 minutes. That’s an improvement over 1990, when it was just 5 minutes, but the fact that it’s moving down instead of up is not a good sign.
2. Crows behave unexpectedly with dead people
Crows are among the most intelligent animals in the world. They are capable of conscious thought and self-awareness, something people long believed was reserved for primates. In fact, crows and gorillas may be on the same intellectual level. This is both astounding and impressive, and should make us look at these birds in a whole new light.
Knowing how smart crows are, it is even more puzzling to observe some of their behavioral patterns. Some crows have been observed committing illegal acts with the corpses of other crows. The least offensive way to describe this is necrophilia.
Crows typically avoid their own carcasses or use them as an opportunity to warn others of danger. Around 24% cases involved crows approaching the corpse to poke it in some way. But 4% cases involved birds attempting to mate, and the reason for this is far from clear. One suggestion was that the behavior occurred during mating season, and hormone levels in living birds could impair their cognitive function, but there is no concrete evidence.
1. Science has not yet proven that water is wet.
Is water wet? It sounds like one of the stupidest questions you could ever ask, but scientifically it's not stupid at all. And there's no clear answer here either. Part of the problem here is what the word "wet" means. It sounds semantic, but there's more to it.
Science defines humidity as the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a substance, thereby making it "wet" as we understand water. And by this definition, water In fact not wet, just something that makes something else wet. However, if you think of "wet" as meaning something liquid, then water is wet.
Another way to think about it is that wet is the feeling something has when there is liquid on it. So if you dip your hand in water, your hand will feel wet because there is water on it. But since wet is just a feeling, the water itself is not technically wet because it is not on anything and has not yet gotten wet. The water is never wet, it is just that your hand feels wet because of the water. If that sounds confusing, that is exactly the point, and it is why science still doesn't 100% know if water is wet.
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