A number of years ago I took a college level astronomy course. I enjoyed it immensely but to this day, I am still amazed at how much in cosmology is unknown, and that which is known falls into the category of this is the model which best fits most of the data. Its that modifier which fascinated me.
Perhaps it naive but through grammar school, and high school I was left with the impression that astronomers were rapidly closing in on a fairly comprehensive accounting for all the wiggly bits and mysteries which make up the universe. Except they weren’t. Neither were the biologists, or physicists or any other branch of science.
Michael Brooks 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
The 13 items are:
1. The Expanding Universe/Missing Universe – Why does the rate of expansion seem to be increasing despite our best mathematical models which predict otherwise.
2. The Pioneer anomaly – Just why is the pioneer spacecraft veering off course?
3. Varying Constants – Why the constants of physics may not be constant.
4. Cold Fusion – Yes there is something to it, no we don’t know what it is, but it appears to be nuclear.
5. Life – Why can’t scientists create life in a lab? Will the most recent attempts be successful?
6. Methane on Mars – Did we discover microbial life on Mars? A flawed experiment on Viking first said yes, then was discounted, incorrectly it would seem.
7. The Wow Signal – in 1977 we heard a signal from deep space which matched exactly what we predicted an alien signal would be.
8. A Giant Virus – Mimi the virus is the largest virus ever found. This has great implications on the creation of cellular life.
9. Death - Immortality and aging – what causes aging, why do we die?
10. Sex – Why did evolution steer the tree of life towards sexual reproduction vs asexual. The thoughts that it breeds for stronger offspring have not proven out in lab tests
11. Free will – the illusion thereof
12. The Placebo Effect – Why faith healing and placebo drugs work.
13. Homeopathy – Despite James Randi’s experiment disproving it, there is a fair amount of evidence supporting it.
The book is well written, entirely approachable to the layman, and fascinating to the extreme. It opens with a group of Nobel Physicists repeatedly pushing the button on a broken elevator, and keeps this tone throughout. You get a sense of the conservative hide bound nature of science, and how fiercely new views are attacked. You certainly will loose any notion that scientists are coldly logical open minded seekers of truth. Not to make a sweeping generalization, but many cling to existing theories with near religious fervor.
The audio book version is narrated by James Adams, his delivery is spot on, and adds dimension and wit to the book.
I give this book my wholehearted recommendation.
