Mysteries of Science... Thinking about the Unknowns

When we look at the world around us we should be amazed at how little we know about the forces or phenomena at play that hold the whole mess together and give it the forms and complexity that it displays. It seems like the more we discover about our world, the more we realize how little we truly understand it. For example, consider the following enigmas or mysteries where our science falls quite short of a complete understanding... my little list of imponderables.

1. Dark energy and dark matter.
The theorized existence of dark energy arises from the observation by astronomers that the rate at which celestial bodies appear to be accelerating away from the earth increases with their distance from earth. This can only be explained by positing the existence of unknown sources of energy that are somehow acting to repel these bodies away from each other.
The presumed existence of dark matter arises from the observation that outer galactical stars orbit galactic centers in ways that can only be explained by assuming that there is a much greater mass in the galaxies than can be accounted for by the observable star mass aggregation. Neither of these theorized phenomena, dark energy or dark matter, have been detected by any known device, and together they are estimated to represent about 95% of the total mass of the universe. Accordingly, this means that all we can see or sense in the world around us represents less than five percent of the total mass of the universe. Are the anomalies in the data that led to this supposition due to error? If not, then there seem to be very large forces that necessarily must be related to huge amounts of matter and energy in the universe that we have not been able to detect or otherwise experience directly.

2. Gravitational fields.
The cartoon character Dick Tracy supposedly once said that he who controls gravity controls the world. Who knows… but we still do not have a clue regarding the force or forces that keep our feet on the ground. Einstein posited that gravity is a result of space being warped or distorted by matter and that gravity travels in waves that expand and contract space and all that is in it. Scientific experiments are currently under way to try to detect gravitational waves using detectors spaced thousands of miles from each other in the US that hopefully will show distance distortion caused by gravitational waves emanating from a catastrophic celestial event... when and if it happens.

3. Magnetic fields.
We commonly use magnetic fields to generate electrical energy and operate our motors and numerous electronic contraptions. But we still do not understand what exactly constitutes these fields. We have no visual model for the nature of the particles, or their interactions that convey and make manifest the forces of repulsion and attraction in magnetic fields. We believe the forces emanate from alignments of electrons or their spins in certain materials that have electrons free to realign. And we have equations and models that define the effects and characteristics of magnetism. But we lack a complete understanding of the nature of the forces and how they are created and transmitted by their sources.

4. Hurricanes and the energy to sustain them.
Hurricanes may travel thousands of miles over periods of weeks and accumulate enormous amounts of energy. It is frequently posited that the energy sustaining hurricanes is transferred to the storm from warm ocean currents. But energy balances around a hurricane seem to fail to explain how the amount of energy necessary to sustain this gigantic engine and overcome huge frictional losses to the earth's surface and surrounding atmosphere could be supplied by energy transferred only from the ocean surface. Are there atmospheric sources of energy in the forms of Coriolis related or vortex spinoffs from thermal or pressure imbalances or other energy sources we have yet to understand or enter into our models?

5. Organizing forces giving rise to life.
We know life appears locally aesentropic, or that its existence seems to locally conflict with the second law of thermodynamics. This can be reasonably explained if we context these seeming anomalies in presumed universal local non-equilibriums and view the impacts of life on earth in a more holistic regional perspective. But we still do not understand how a chemical soup gave rise to complex molecules and cells equipped with the organizing forces that enable living organisms to do what life forms do… like reproduce and intelligently interact with the environment. We believe we understand how organisms change or evolve over time as a result of natural selection and the resulting evolution of form and function… but we still lack a complete understanding of how these complex organisms could have spontaneously arisen out of a chaotic organic soup.

6. The exceptional abilities of the savant.
We occasionally see people who are born with part of their brain incapacitated or who have experienced such a loss due to an accident and have, as a result, severe cognitive limitations. Any yet in some cases they are capable of displaying exceptional and astounding mental abilities usually in a narrowly defined skill set. These incidences have been numerously reported and run the gamut from memorizing huge sets of data or numbers to exceptional artistic expression. The unique abilities are far out of the range of "normalcy" and their presence is to a large extent a mystery. One question that arises is whether these exceptional abilities are generally present and lie dormant or hidden in the normal brain… and, if so, is it possible to access them or make them more commonly manifest in normal persons?

7. Thought transmission among life forms.
This mystery phenomenon has long intrigued me and largely comes from personal experiences. I have witnessed a number of instances when it seemed that the behavior of animals or people I had observed could only be explained by thought transmissions from me. I have no proof of this and in some cases the instances seemed to be enhanced or enabled by the use of psychedelics. The experiences were so varied and vivid that it is difficult to reasonably account for them other than the supposition of thought transmission. And it seems reasonable in the context of our understanding of physics and biology that such phenomena could exist. For example, we know many animals emit radiation in the visual frequency range (bioluminescence)... thus it would seem that since radiation in the infrared and microwave range is transmitted at even lower frequencies that requires even less energy, that it would not only be possible but relatively feasible for information to be subtlely and subliminally transferred among organisms below the visible range of frequencies. To my knowledge no one has yet detected any non visible radiation, let alone patterns of radiation that could convey information, from any organism. So this may remain as just another mystery for awhile or forever.

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