The Greatest Unanswered Questions of Science

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meteo

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Got the idea from another thread; post your thoughts on the greatest unanswered questions of Science. You can be general or focus on a specific field.
 
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tony873004

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Does life exist anywhere besides Earth?<br /><br />Does God, or some Higher Power exist?<br /><br />Does your conscienceness continue to exist after death?
 
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silylene old

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IMO, Tony's question#2 and #3 aren't really science, rather "metaphysics". <i>Metaphysics: The branch of philosophy asking "what exists?" What entities form this universe? Metaphysical studies can concern difficult, perhaps unanswerable, questions bordering theology. </i><br /><br />Some "Great Unanswered Questions of science" are:<br />1. Can changes be made in the cell and genome to prevent or reverse aging (i.e chromosome repair, etc)?<br />2. What is dark matter and dark energy ?<br />3. Can we build an artifical conciousness ?<br />4. Does sapient life exist elsewhere in the detectable universe?<br />5. Can we build a an artificial fully-functioning higher lifeform (e.g. a primate) from scratch, knowing the genetic code?<br />6. Fully characterize the human genome, describing the function every gene, and the chemical mechanism underlying each function.<br />7. Transmission of information faster than lightspeed.<br />8. Move a macroscopic mass faster than lightspeed.<br />9. Synthesize a economically feasable material capable of room-temperature superconductivity.<br />10. Demonstrate a practical continuous fusion process which generates more energy than it consumes and pumps the surplus energy into the electric grid.<br />11. Demonstrate a viable process of producing km-long fibers composed of continuous carbon tubes (not bundles of short, weaker fibers).<br />12. Demonstrate a commercially viable solar cell with efficiencies above 50%.<br />13. Synthesize working, useful artifical organs (hearts, kidneys, liver, eyes, etc).<br />14. Can we design and use commercially viable synthetic enzymes to cary out chemical reactions?<br />15. What is the physical limit to Moore's Law?<br />16. Demonstrate a process to deep-freeze living humans and then resucitate them to life, unharmed.<br />17. Fully describe the evolutionary history of man, including all the intermediate and dead-end branches.<br />18. When did language originate in the evolution of man?<br />19. Why does the human evolut <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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wisefool

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There are MANY great unanswered questions of science. Before we get too deep into a list, we need to separate out scientific questions from metaphysical ones. Scientific questions can be verified and also negated. Metaphysical questions have heuristic value, but cannot be negated, making them unscientific. <br /><br />In this light, asking about the nature of God is unscientific, even if critically important to us. We should not avoid the issue, but should always be aware that finitude can never comprehend infinitude.
 
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rogers_buck

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What is the true nature of times arrow and reality?
 
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tony873004

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I like #1, #17, & #21.<br /><br />I read on another forum that it has been proven by 19th century mathamatician Henri Poincaré that n-body can not be solved analytically. But I can't find any reference to support this claim. I hope it's not true.
 
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Swampcat

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How does gravity work? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>
 
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silylene old

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rogers: every item in my list requires one or more great discoveries or breakthrough inventions, before any engineering can occur. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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spaceman186000mps

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Nice thread.<br /><br />Okay then<br />Let's first try to explain what we do and or do not know about simple water. h2o <br /> Or is it ? <br /> Perhaps water is way more complex than one may first muse.<br />Reflect on this a moment.<br /><br />http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/041201_water_bonds.html<br /><br />Then say ye say.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">70 percent of novel proceeds </font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">www.trafford.com/06-1593</font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff"> are donated to </font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">www.caringbridge.org</font></strong></p> </div>
 
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spaceman186000mps

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igorsboss

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I think these are unanswerable:<br />1) What existed before the big bang?<br />2) How did life arise, initially, from non-life?<br />3) What is the true nature of the very smallest fabric of the Universe?
 
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wisefool

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Tony, perhaps you are referring to Kurt Godel's great theorem, advanced in the early 20th century. This theorem proved that all mathematical systems are tautologies, and that pure math cannot solve anything, including its own theorems. Kinda shocking, isn't it!
 
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Leovinus

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How can you mend a broken heart?<br />How can you stop the rain from falling down?<br />How can you stop the sun from shining?<br />What makes the world go round?<br />How can you mend a this broken man?<br />How can a loser ever win? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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Leovinus

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<i>Gordon Moore made his famous observation in 1965, just four years after the first planar integrated circuit was discovered. The press called it "Moore's Law" and the name has stuck. In his original paper, Moore observed an exponential growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit and predicted that this trend would continue. Through Intel's relentless technology advances, Moore's Law, the doubling of transistors every couple of years, has been maintained, and still holds true today. Intel expects that it will continue at least through the end of this decade. The mission of Intel's technology development team is to continue to break down barriers to Moore's Law.</i><br /><br />link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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5stone10

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I like that graphic.<br /><br />I remember having a conversation in 1995 with someone regarding Moore's law and whether the limits were currently being reached.<br /><br />Since then chip processing has multiplied 5 times.
 
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silylene old

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stevehw33: yes about the fast moving research on aging and some level of demonstration in single cells or C.elegans.<br /><br />I should have been more explicit, I was talking about man, not a simple worm. Reverse aging and/or significantly increase longetivity in man (double the lifespan). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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silylene old

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<font color="yellow">8. Move a macroscopic mass faster than light speed. <br /><br />Not unless we repeal physics. However, using quantum tunnelling, it's theoreticaly possible to go aroudn the distance. Thus creating the appearance of supraluminal speeds, by the equation, V=Distance/time. This has been achieve inthe lab, but is hard to do macroscopically as the process is a huge energy user. <br /><br />Theoretically quantum tunnells could produce quantum gates able to travel light years in a simple step thru it. This has not yet been shown to be possible, altho it may be consistent with some interpretatations of QM. </font><br />That's why a macroscopic mass will be very challenging!<br /><br /><font color="yellow">9. Synthesize an economic form of room temp superconductor (RTSC). <br /><br />Done, and reported but not replicable. The compounds are very unstable and lacking a good theory of how these higher temperature SC work, until that time, we can't make one. IN Hazen's book on SC "Breakthrough", he mentions one which was found working at 68 F. This has yet to be replicated, but is probably possible. </font><br />The synthesis is non-reproducible, and these have not been isolated in a pure form, but rather a minor intriguing unstable impurity in a complex mixture. Thus, "non-economic". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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silylene old

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<font color="yellow">Silylene, where did you find those great questions? Not a single one of them hit but dead on really fundamental, serious questions in the sciences and technologies. </font><br />I made the questions up in response to the question, was a fun question to ponder. I tried to think of it field-by-field and then come up with a few questions for each. I felt I short-shrifted mathematics (sorry). I also short-shrifted semiconductor materials, psychology, certain engineering fields (hydrology, aeronautics), astronomy, geology and particle physics. I am sure I could come up with a dozen more questions. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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silylene old

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thanks Stevehw33.<br /><br />I do agree some of my questions should be "Challenges", not questions. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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silylene old

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<font color="yellow">Well, what about everything else that we do not know, we do not even know what other things we do not know. </font><br /><br />I always considered the four variations of "knowing".<br /><br />1. You know what you know.<font color="orange"> This is learned knowledge</font><br /><br />2. You know what you don't know.<font color="orange"> This could be knowledge you have not learned, but you understand it is known by someone and could conceivably be learned. Or, this could be known questions still without answers. Much of applied research lies within category#2 </font><br /><br />3. You don't know what you think you know.<font color="orange"> This is misunderstood information and mistaken beliefs. Belief in creationism falls within this category, for example. To the extent your mindset is rooted within category #3, the inaccurate constructs become a barrier to succeeding within category #2, and more importantly, from ever visiting category #4. </font><br /><br />4. You don't know what you don't know.<font color="orange"> This is the category in which real breakthrough creativity resides. In most cases, the breakthrough is realizing what is the question to ask (which then moves you into category #2.) Einstein, Newton, Galileo, Maxwell famously visited within this category. </font>/safety_wrapper> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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