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Cool things science hasn't figured out yet

NobleSavage

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Post 'em if you got 'em. My contribution: the GZK paradox.

A number of observations have been made by the AGASA experiment that appeared to show cosmic rays from distant sources with energies above this limit (called extreme-energy cosmic rays, or EECRs). The observed existence of these particles was the so-called GZK paradox or cosmic ray paradox.

These observations appear to contradict the predictions of special relativity and particle physics as they are presently understood. However, there are a number of possible explanations for these observations that may resolve this inconsistency.

The observations could be due to an instrument error or an incorrect interpretation of the experiment, especially wrong energy assignment.
The cosmic rays could have local sources well within the GZK horizon (although it is unclear what these sources could be).
Heavier nuclei could possibly circumvent the GZK limit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin_limit#Cosmic_ray_paradox
 
Gravatons, do they exist?

Unambiguous detection of individual gravitons, though not prohibited by any fundamental law, is impossible with any physically reasonable detector.[13] The reason is the extremely low cross section for the interaction of gravitons with matter. For example, a detector with the mass of Jupiter and 100% efficiency, placed in close orbit around a neutron star, would only be expected to observe one graviton every 10 years, even under the most favorable conditions. It would be impossible to discriminate these events from the background of neutrinos, since the dimensions of the required neutrino shield would ensure collapse into a black hole.[13]

However, experiments to detect gravitational waves, which may be viewed as coherent states of many gravitons, are underway (e.g., LIGO and VIRGO). Although these experiments cannot detect individual gravitons, they might provide information about certain properties of the graviton.[14] For example, if gravitational waves were observed to propagate slower than c (the speed of light in a vacuum), that would imply that the graviton has mass (however, gravitational waves must propagate slower than "c" in a region with non-zero mass density if they are to be detectable).[15] Astronomical observations of the kinematics of galaxies, especially the galaxy rotation problem and modified Newtonian dynamics, might point toward gravitons having non-zero mass.[16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton
 
Let's get away from consciousness and consider other scientific mysteries.

In biology, there's a big one: development. How to get from genes to shapes. We have had a lot of success in solving biological mysteries, with successes in understanding heredity, metabolism, material transport, signaling, organism microstructure, and biological evolution, among others. But we have had only limited success with development.

Consider Hox genes. These are involved in specifying identity along the primary body axis of nearly all animals: the anterior-posterior or nose-to-tail one. Early in development, Hox genes are expressed in bands along this axis, making bands of Hox proteins, and they help control what grows in each location. But I don't think that it's well-understood what happens either upstream or downstream of them. What controls the expression of Hox genes? That includes expressing them in bands along the A-P body axis. What genes do the Hox proteins control the expression of?
 
Coolest thing science hasn't figured out yet: The Tides. They come in, they go out.. nobody knows why.
 
Coolest thing science hasn't figured out yet: The Tides. They come in, they go out.. nobody knows why.

Something is moving the container. I'm pretty sure that the elasticity of the crust is such that gravitational variation induces it to periodically oscillate. Its way to regular for its causes to be very complex. Ever notice the difference between the motion of water on the surface of a glass in the hands of a person with an amplified muscular tremor and that of one with a normal tremor. They're both at about 5 per second.
 
The Kermi paradox.

Is it because civilizations discover that natural laws make interstellar communication and colonization impractical?

Are pulsars the evidence of primordial civilizations announcing their presence to the universe?
 
The Kermi paradox.

Is it because civilizations discover that natural laws make interstellar communication and colonization impractical?

Are pulsars the evidence of primordial civilizations announcing their presence to the universe?

Or maybe it's not that easy being green. You blend in with so many ordinary things.
 
Is there a correlation between the quality of beer and/or ale produced by a nation and the significant physicists produced per capita per century?

I bet no one has examined that question yet. Not that I have any idea why anyone would want to.
 
Math/science skills correlate with art/music skills. People from highly technical professions are more likely than average to have some kind of artistic skill, while artists and musicians tend to have better than average grasp of math/science/technology stuff. It's pretty common for scientists to have some kind of creative outlet (people forget that Asimov was a biochemist), but for some reason, when physicists have a creative outlet, it is almost always music. I'm pretty sure no one has answered why that is.
 
Math/science skills correlate with art/music skills. People from highly technical professions are more likely than average to have some kind of artistic skill, while artists and musicians tend to have better than average grasp of math/science/technology stuff. It's pretty common for scientists to have some kind of creative outlet (people forget that Asimov was a biochemist), but for some reason, when physicists have a creative outlet, it is almost always music. I'm pretty sure no one has answered why that is.

Musicians have been found to have a "big picture" view of the world, often seeing correlations which are not obvious to non-musicians. Playing music actually builds stronger connections in the brain, enlarges the corpus callosum, and acts as a chick magnet. Our brains are literally 'wired' differently. It makes sense to me that a brain which intuitively groks the nature of the connectedness of everything would gravitate towards physics.

Here's a cool article with lots of neat pictures and buttloads of terms that I don't really understand.
 
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