Re: OT: 13 things that do not make sense


Andrew McClure wrote:
> 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

Isn't homeopathy a restatement of placebo?

.

Relevant Pages

  • OT: 13 things that do not make sense
    ... break to look at some things science *actually* can't explain. ... uniform for normal physical theory to explain it. ... Homeopathy: This shouldn't work. ... Dark matter: What the heck *is* this stuff, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: OT: 13 things that do not make sense
    ... >break to look at some things science *actually* can't explain. ... The placebo effect: Everybody knows this works, ... >uniform for normal physical theory to explain it. ... Homeopathy: This shouldn't work. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: OT: 13 things that do not make sense
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  • Re: OT: 13 things that do not make sense
    ... > break to look at some things science *actually* can't explain. ... > uniform for normal physical theory to explain it. ... Homeopathy: This shouldn't work. ... The Kuliper Cliff: Outside the solar system is the Kuliper belt, ...
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