I dragged this list over from Dale Drinnon's blog. There are a
couple of worthy items in the list. Most important is that a virgin
birth occurred with three caged female sharks and this has been
confirmed with DNA testing. What this does is inform us that it is
possible. It is obviously rare or at least unrecognized but it is
possible. This suggests that we need to look.
The other worthy item is the Assyrian disc which identifies a crash
site for a low flying asteroid. It may be true but it is also
testable with some serious expense.
A lot of problems that actually look solvable are provided someone
cares enough.
For illustrations go to the link.
Ten Recent
Scientific Mysteries Solved
THURSDAY, JULY 26,
2012
TEN RECENT SCIENTIFIC
MYSTERIES SOLVED
[A friend directed my
attention to this and I shall need to comment on a couple of the
statements made in the longer article-DD]
by Blogball
Since the beginning of
modern science we have been solving the great mysteries around us.
Because of recent advances in science and technology we now have the
ability to unravel some unknowns like never before. This list
consists of 10 such mysteries which, fortunately, do not render any
of our previous “unsolved mysteries” lists defunct!
10 Epidaurus
Theater Acoustics
###
The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus near Athens Greece was constructed in the late 4th century BC and is one of the best preserved ancient theaters. Even in ancient times, the theater was considered to have great acoustics. The actors can be perfectly heard by all 15,000 spectators without amplification. To demonstrate the theaters great acoustics tour guides have their groups scattered in the stands and then show them how faint sounds can be heard at center-stage. How this sound quality was achieved has been the source of academic and amateur speculation for many years. One of the theories suggested that prevailing winds were carrying the sounds. It turns out that that answer is in the seats. In 2007 researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that the limestone material of the seats provide a filtering effect suppressing low frequencies of voices, thus minimizing background crowd noise so the seats act as natural acoustic traps. It is still unknown whether the acoustic properties are the result of an accident or the product of advanced design.
Interesting Fact: The orchestra (or dancing floor) has the shape of a perfect circle, with a diameter just above 19,50 meters. A circular base still preserved at its exact center most probably held an Altar to Dionysos (The Greek god of wine). You can watch and hear a demonstration of the theaters great acoustics here.
9 Crystal Skulls
###
Most people are familiar with crystal skulls from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. However there are actually many serious crystal skull collectors that claim they are pre-Columbian and were made during the Aztec or Maya civilizations and exhibit paranormal phenomena. In 2008 a team of British and American researchers using electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography examined skulls from the British Museum and Smithsonian. A detailed analysis of the skull’s surface revealed minute rotary scratch marks around the eye sockets, teeth and cranium. This was clear evidence that the skull was cut and polished with a wheeled instrument – and the Aztecs never used the wheel. The researchers concluded that the skulls were cut from a piece of Brazilian rock crystal in Europe. They were then probably sold to collectors as a relic from the ancient Aztec civilization. Many museums now have removed the skulls from display because of their questionable origins.
Interesting Fact: For the hardcore crystal skull fans out there I should mention the Mitchell-Hedges Skull which is probably the most famous skull of all. It was allegedly discovered in 1924 by the adopted daughter of British adventurer author F.A. Mitchell-Hedges. Hedges claimed that the crystal skull dates back at least 3,600 years. Detailed examination like the experiments mentioned above have never been done on this skull because the present owner of the skull will not allow testing.
[Key item here. The tests done which showed the crystal skulls were of modern manufacture with machine tools are based on tests on other crystal skulls owned by the British Museum and the Smithsonian. These were listed as probably recently manufactured at both museums at the onset. Craftsmanship is not the same on the mitchel-Hedges Crystal skull and these other skulls: the sculpting on these other skulls is much cruder and the features are done more amateurishly. Since the onset of the recent interest in the crystal skulls, these other skulls have been thought to be inferior copies of the "Real" crystal skull, and this statement has appeared in the literature since the 1970s.. It would also not be too unusual if Brazilian rock crystal was traded to Mexico (Even if not by Atlanteans as the story goes) because different types of jade are traded all along the coastline between the two, and this has been noted on this blog before -DD]
8 New England’s
Dark Day
####
On May 19, 1780 an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. Since communication of the day was very primitive, some people in New England applied religious interpretations to the event. Even today New England’s Dark Day is still regarded by many as a supernatural event. Different explanations were discussed from volcanic eruptions to celestial cataclysms. In 2008 Nearly 230 years later, University of Missouri researchers combined written accounts and tree ring records from fire-damaged trees to determine that the dark day was caused by massive wildfires burning in Canada. During a fire the heat goes through the bark, killing the living tissue then a couple of years later the bark falls off revealing the wood and an injury to the tree. The researchers studied tree rings from the Algonquin Highlands of southern Ontario and many other locations. They found evidence that a major fire had burned in that time period that would have affected atmospheric conditions hundred of miles away. Large smoke columns were created and carried into the upper atmosphere accounting for New England’s dark day.
Interesting Fact: Accounts of ‘New England’s Dark Day’ include mentions of midday meals by candlelight, night birds coming out to sing, flowers folding their petals and strange behavior from animals.
{There still is an association with a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world. Interesting that the eruption was associated with widespread forest fires, but that seems to be a regular feature of catastrophic volcanic events as measured by geologists. Dating of the Thera volcano in the Aegean sea, for example, is correlated by geologists to strata showing evidence of great forest fires in other locations-DD]
7 Face on Mars
###
The Cydonian region on Mars attracted a great deal of attention because one of the hills in that region looked remarkably man made. The region was first imaged in detail by the Viking 1 orbiter that was launched in 1975. Several images were taken by the Viking including one taken in 1976 showing one of Cydonian mesas had the appearance of face. Scientist dismissed the face as a trick of light and shadow but then a second image also showed the face at a different sun-angle. This caught the attention of organizations interested in extraterrestrial intelligence and some talk show hosts who believed the Face was a long-lost Martian civilization. Most scientists still held the belief that the face was just a consequence of viewing conditions. In 2003 when the European space agency launched Mars Express it was able to combine data from a high resolution stereo camera and create a 3D representation of the “Face on Mars”. The most recent image (bottom) I think would silence even the most faithful believers. The image shows a remnant massif thought to have formed from landslides and an early form of debris apron formation but no face in sight.
Interesting Fact: The Cydonia area is of great interest to planetary scientists because of their location. The mesas are in a transition zone between cratered highlands to the south and smoother lowland plains to the north. Some think the northern plains are all that’s left of an ancient Martian ocean.
[The solution to the "Face on Mars" mystery is also worth repeating here-DD]
6 The Barreleye
Fish
###
The fascinating aspect of the barreleye fish is the tubular eyes which are excellent at collecting light at depths up to 2500m. The puzzling part is that the eyes appear to be fixed in place directly above its head. This had baffled physiologists for decades because it would be almost impossible for the fish to look for food. Recently scientists using a remotely operated vehicle studied the fish at depths ranging from 600-800 meters. They discovered a previously unknown fact, the tubular eyes exist behind a transparent fluid filled dome and the eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish’s head. This allows the fish to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating. The Barreleye Fish was first discovered in 1939 but the transparent nature of the fish wasn’t known because when the fish was caught in nets at a different depth of water the see through part is destroyed.
Interesting Fact: Keep in mind when you look at the above picture that the two small holes in front of the fish are not eyes. The eyes are the two green domes inside the top of the head. You can see a clip of the barreleye fish swimming around here.
5 Solving Checkers
####
Checkers (Draughts)
has been around for more than 400 years and has been enjoyed by
millions of players. Since 1989 computers have worked around the
clock to try and decipher the game’s 500 billion billion possible
moves. In 1992, a computer was narrowly defeated by world champion
Marion Tinsley who is widely regarded as the best human checkers
player ever. Finally in 2007 a computer program called Chinook
developed by researchers at the University of Alberta can now play a
perfect game of checkers. In 2007 using between 200 desktop computers
at the peak of the project Chinook can recognize every possible move
made in a checkers game and determine the correct counter move. If
neither player makes a mistake the game will end in a draw.
Interesting
Fact: Checkers is the largest game that has been solved to date,
with a search space of 5×10^20. The number of calculations involved
was 10^14 and it was done over a period of 18 years.
4 The Unknown
Titanic Baby
###
Days after the Titanic
sank the body of a baby boy was found and recovered from the North
Atlantic. After the child could not be identified he was buried in
Nova Scotia with a tombstone reading simply ‘The Unknown Child’.
In 2001 researchers at Lakeland University in Ontario were granted
permission to exhume the body. By consulting the passenger lists they
had narrowed down the possible identity to one of four children:
Gosta Paulson, Eino Panula, Eugene Rice and nic Child
Sidney Goodwin.
Initial tests concluded that the body was Eino Panula. However in
2007 this was shown to be not true. More advanced DNA testing was
carried out on a tooth from the body and when compared to the DNA of
a surviving Goodwin relative it proved an indisputable match. It
confirmed that ‘the unknown child’ was Sidney Goodwin. Sidney was
the youngest of six children born to Fred and Augusta Goodwin from
Fulham, England and were immigrating to Niagara Falls New York. (All
were onboard) Neither Sidney’s parents nor his siblings’ bodies
were ever recovered. You can see a photo of the rest of the
family here.
Interesting Fact: The
sailors aboard the recovery ship were very upset by the discovery of
the unknown boy’s body and paid for his monument. He was buried on
4 May 1912 with a copper pendant placed in his coffin by recovery
sailors that read “Our Babe”. You can see the grave monument
here.
3 Ancient Tablet
Deciphered
###
This could be a case
of one scientifically solved mystery solving another so I will try
and explain the second one under “Interesting Facts” The circular
clay tablet shown above was discovered 150 years ago at Nineveh the
capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq. The tablet shows
drawings of constellations and pictogram-based text known as
cuneiform which was used by the Sumerians, the earliest known
civilization in the world. For decades scientists have failed to
decipher the tablet. In 2008 two scientists, Alan Bond and Mark
Hempsell from Bristol University finally cracked the cuneiform code.
By using a computer program that can reconstruct the night sky
thousands of years ago. The two scientists were able to establish the
tablet was a night notebook of Sumerian astronomers and refers to the
events in the sky before dawn on the 29th of June 3123 BC (Julian
calendar).
Interesting Fact: What
makes this discovery even more amazing is the tablet also shows a
large object travelling along the constellation of Pisces. The
symbols show the trajectory of the object to an error of one degree
to hit Köfels Austria. Köfels is recognized as the area of the
largest rockslide in the crystalline Alps and has given rise to
numerous theories about the cause of the rockslide. There is no
crater so to modern eyes it doesn’t look as a meteor impact site
should look. However from the information gathered from the tablet,
the trajectory explains why there is no crater. The in-coming angle
was very low (six degrees) so the scientists theorize that the
asteroid clipped a near by mountain called Gamskogel and this caused
the asteroid to explode before it reached its final impact point. To
explain how they were able to get this much information from this
little tablet is above my pay grade. You can see a picture of
the rockslide area here.
[Very significant
evidence of a meteorite strike in about the time used by other
experts to date the Biblical deluge. The object travelling through
Pisces could have been seen as a connection to the deluge by ancient
authors also-DD]
2 Sharks Virgin
Birth
###
In 2001 a Hammerhead
shark was born at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska with three
potential mothers in the same tank. All had been in captivity for at
least three years. The birth of the shark baffled scientists for
years. Some scientists thought one of them might have mated before
being captured and stored the sperm for fertilization. Some scientist
believed that sharks might be able to reproduce asexually through a
rare method known as parthenogenesis (a direct development without
the need of a sperm). Many were skeptical but in late 2007 scientists
confirmed this through DNA testing. After they determined which of
the three females was the mother they subtracted the mother’s
contribution from the offspring and in this particular case after the
DNA was subtracted there was nothing left. The researchers were
forced to conclude that the pup had no father, making this he first
documented case of asexual reproduction of a shark.
Interesting Fact: In
2008 Scientists confirmed a second virgin birth of a shark at the
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. A 5-foot, 94-pound
Atlantic blacktip shark died of stress-related complications related
to her unknown pregnancy. During the necropsy a 10-inch shark pup was
found surprising aquarium officials. DNA testing on the embryonic pup
proved that the pup carried no genetic material from a male.
1 Flight of the
Bumblebee
###
This is at the number
one spot because it inspired the list. As I was growing up I used to
hear when you take in consideration a bees wingspan along with the
bees weight ratio it is aerodynamically impossible for them to fly. I
also used to hear the only reason a bee can fly is because it thinks
it can. I always thought that was a really cool explanation even
though I knew it was probably not true. Scientists had many theories
but were not able to explain exactly how the un-aerodynamic bee was
able to fly. Finally in 2005 with the assistance of high-speed
cinematography and mechanical models of the bee’s wings, scientists
were able to put this perplexing mystery to rest. As it turns out the
bee flap its wings an amazing 230 times per second, much faster than
smaller insects. Their analysis revealed sufficient lift was
generated by unconventional combination of short, choppy wing
strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses
direction, along with a very fast wing-beat frequency.
Interesting Fact: In
order to understand more how bees fly their heavy little bodies
around, the researchers forced them to fly in a small chamber filled
with a mixture of oxygen and helium which is less dense than regular
air. (As if the aerodynamically challenged bees didn’t have enough
on their plate) This required the bees to work harder to fly and gave
the scientists a chance to observe the bee’s wings and body under
stressful conditions. You can watch a bee’s flight in super
slow motion here.
Bonus
Bellybutton Lint
###
The reason for
bellybutton lint has been the subject of mystery and speculation for
many years. Now after three years of research and chemical analysis
of 503 pieces of lint from his own bellybutton, chemist Georg
Steinhauser from Vienna University has revealed the secret. The
pieces of fluff were not made up of only cotton from clothing but
there were also flecks of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust. His
observations also showed that abdominal hair often seems to grow in
concentric circles around the navel and act like a kind of barbed
hooks. Dr Steinhauser established that shaving one’s belly will
result in a lint-free navel.
Interesting Fact: I
should also give credit to another research scientist and radio/TV
personality Karl Kruszelnicki (Dr Karl) from Australia. Several years
earlier he studied bellybutton lint samples sent to him by almost
5,000 people and found some similar findings and that the typical
lint producer was “a slightly overweight, middle-aged male with a
hairy abdomen”. The photo above is a 25 year collection of
bellybutton lint from another Australian Graham Baker. This gave him
a place in the Guinness Book of Records
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