13 things that do not make sense
by John at 3/18/2005 09:43:00 AM
(Via Slashdot) New Scientist magazine has published an article on 13 things that do not make sense given our current scientific understanding of the way things are:
1 The placebo effect
2 The horizon problem
3 Ultra-energetic cosmic rays
4 Belfast homeopathy results
5 Dark matter
6 Viking's methane
7 Tetraneutrons
8 The Pioneer anomaly
9 Dark energy
10 The Kuiper cliff
11 The Wow signal
12 Not-so-constant constants
13 Cold fusion
Of course, I'm not an expert in any of the problematic fields, so I can't pass judgement on whether these problems actually make sense or not. But I think I can confidently say, nonetheless, that science has failed us.
Just kidding. Anti-science types like to point out that there are so many things science cannot explain. It's true, there are a lot of unexplained things - and 13 of them are listed above. But that's OK. Not so long ago (a few hundred years, give or take), before science was invented, humans were unable to explain almost everything they observed. And most of them weren't even asking questions. Given that starting point, I think we've made pretty good progress.
And what's the alternative? The mechanisms of science have gotten us closer to actually understanding the universe around us (and, soon, inside us!) than all the mystics and ancient books that ever existed.
1 The placebo effect
2 The horizon problem
3 Ultra-energetic cosmic rays
4 Belfast homeopathy results
5 Dark matter
6 Viking's methane
7 Tetraneutrons
8 The Pioneer anomaly
9 Dark energy
10 The Kuiper cliff
11 The Wow signal
12 Not-so-constant constants
13 Cold fusion
Of course, I'm not an expert in any of the problematic fields, so I can't pass judgement on whether these problems actually make sense or not. But I think I can confidently say, nonetheless, that science has failed us.
Just kidding. Anti-science types like to point out that there are so many things science cannot explain. It's true, there are a lot of unexplained things - and 13 of them are listed above. But that's OK. Not so long ago (a few hundred years, give or take), before science was invented, humans were unable to explain almost everything they observed. And most of them weren't even asking questions. Given that starting point, I think we've made pretty good progress.
And what's the alternative? The mechanisms of science have gotten us closer to actually understanding the universe around us (and, soon, inside us!) than all the mystics and ancient books that ever existed.
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