Top 5 Unsolved Mysteries Of Science || సైన్స్ కే తెలియని 5 మిస్టరీలు ఏమిటో మీకు తెలుసా? || With Subtitles/CC
In the last two centuries, Science has answered many questions about nature and the laws that govern it. We’ve been able to research galaxies and the atoms that make up matter. We’ve built machines that can compute and solve problems that no human can work out. We’ve solved age old problems in Mathematics and created theories that gave maths new problems. This article, however, is not about these achievements. It’s about those problems in science that have left scientists scratching their heads, wondering if they’ll ever yell, “Eureka!”
The Origin of Life
We’ve always been obsessed with studying about the possibility of life on other planets, but another question that has baffled scientists even more is how exactly did life as we know it originate on Earth? Though answering this question will have little practical application, the path to the answer could lead to several interesting discoveries in fields varying from microbiology to astrophysics.
Scientists believe that the key to understanding the origin of life could be in finding out how two of life’s characteristic features – reproduction and genetic transfer − could have begun as processes involving molecules that have the ability to replicate. This led to the formation of the popular ‘primordial soup’ theory, according to which the early Earth somehow had a mixture, a sort of broth of molecules, that were energized by solar energy and electrical storms. Over a long period of time, these molecules would have reacted to form the more complex organic structures that make up life. This theory was buoyed by the famous Miller-Urey experiment, wherein the duo succeeded in creating amino acid by passing electrical discharges through a blend of simpler elements such as methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen. The discovery of DNA and RNA, however, doused the initial excitement as it seemed impossible that the complex and elegant structure of DNA could have risen from a primitive soup of chemicals.
The Science Behind Dreaming
For centuries people have pondered the meaning of dreams. Early civilizations thought of dreams as a medium between our earthly world and that of the gods. In fact, the Greeks and Romans were convinced that dreams had certain prophetic powers. While there has always been a great interest in the interpretation of human dreams, it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely-known modern theories of dreaming. Freud’s theory centered around the notion of repressed longing — the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishes. Carl Jung (who studied under Freud) also believed that dreams had psychological importance, but proposed different theories about their meaning.
Since then, technological advancements have allowed for the development of other theories. One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the “activation-synthesis hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually mean anything: they are merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories. Humans, the theory goes, construct dream stories after they wake up, in a natural attempt to make sense of it all. Yet, given the vast documentation of realistic aspects to human dreaming as well as indirect experimental evidence that other mammals such as cats also dream, evolutionary psychologists have theorized that dreaming really does serve a purpose. In particular, the “threat simulation theory” suggests that dreaming should be seen as an ancient biological defense mechanism that provided an evolutionary advantage because of its capacity to repeatedly simulate potential threatening events – enhancing the neuro-cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and avoidance.
So, over the years, numerous theories have been put forth in an attempt to illuminate the mystery behind human dreams, but, until recently, strong tangible evidence has remained largely elusive.
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