OT: 13 things that do not make sense

Since this group is usually engrossed trying to deal with people
pronouncing imaginary holes in science, I thought it might be a nice
break to look at some things science *actually* can't explain. New
Scientist: Space has a list of 13 things that "don't make sense"--
experimental results that current theory can't explain, at least not
very well. This makes these things really important, since, as Isaac
Asimov said, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that
heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather,
'hmm.... that's funny....'"

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=mg18524911.600

The article's quite good and worth a look, but here's a condensed
summary:

1. The placebo effect: Everybody knows this works, but we're still not
entirely sure why.

2. The horizon problem: The cosmic background radiation is way too
uniform for normal physical theory to explain it. Inflationary theory
explains this nicely-- but inflationary theory also smacks of being a
kludge, an entirely arbitrary postulated event which occurs for no
reason except to make data fit theory.

3. Ultra-energetic cosmic rays: University of Tokyo's Akeno Giant Air
Shower Array has detected a number of cosmic rays coming from space
which are above the energy limit of what current physical theory says
is possible. (A new experiment in Argentina may help to explain this
one.)

4. Homeopathy: This shouldn't work. Clinical trials keep demonstrating
it doesn't work. But experiments into homeopathy keep picking up
anamolous results frequently enough that the subject can't quite die.
Either there is some kind of actual, tangential effect which isn't
homeopathy but which homeopathy experiments are accidentally picking up
on, or there have just been a surprisingly large number of sloppy
experiments.

5. Dark matter: What the heck *is* this stuff, anyway?

6. Viking's methane: In 1976, one of the Viking probe's sensors picked
up methane laced with signs of life in the form of carbon-14-- but the
other sensor on Viking didn't corroborate the results, and found
nothing. So was the first sensor malfunctioning, or... what?

7. Tetraneutrons: Four years ago a particle accelerator in France
detected six particles made up of four neutrons each. According to
current physical theory, that's impossible. So either current physical
theory is wrong, or the particle accelerator was confused, and just
took got six snapshots of four individual neutrons that by coincidence
happened to be really, really close together at that exact moment.
That's not at all impossible, but it's incredibly unlikely.

8. The Pioneer trajectories: The Pioneer missions completed long ago,
but NASA is still picking up data from them as they fly out into the
void. And they've noticed: The pioneer probes aren't where they're
supposed to be. As they move further out, they seem to be very, very
slowly but surely slowing down. This is so wierd that people have
proposed the reason may actually be flaws in physical theory, maybe
linked to the dark matter problem. (A proposed NASA probe may help to
explain this one.)

9. The universe's increasing expansion: The universe's expansion seems
to be speeding up, and we have no idea why. A new theory attempts to
explain this by postulating the presence of "Dark Energy", but this
suffers the same problem as dark matter and inflationary theory and
Ptolemaic epicycles: It's kludgy, and we can't explain where it's
coming from.

10. The Kuliper Cliff: Outside the solar system is the Kuliper belt, a
crowded field of random rocks. And past that is... nothing. The Kuliper
belt ends so abruptly that there doesn't seem to be any possible
explanation except a Mars-sized "planet X" that no one has been able to
find. (A future NASA probe may help to explain this one.)

11. The "wow" signal. In 1977 Ohio State university picked up a
narrow-band signal from an object 220 light years away of the *exact*
kind SETI looks for. SETI, however, is pretty sure it was just radio
interference coming from inside earth's atmosphere.

12. Changing constants: A series of experimental results indicate that
the "fine structure constant", which effects how light interacts with
matter, has changed slightly sometime in the last two to twelve billion
years. Or maybe the results are wrong.

13. Cold fusion: See: Homeopathy

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: OT: 13 things that do not make sense
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