Biggest Questions for Science

GuanYin

Inspired by a New Scientist review a few months ago, what do people think the most important questions yet to be answered suffiently by science are.

List your questions and reasons and if there is a particularly good post by Feb 1st, they may win a prize!

Mine would be:

How did life begin?

Its a basic question that would lead on to answer alot of other big questions out there...not least of all my other question....

Is there extra terrestial life?
I guess its the biggie, I'll probably never know mind you

dudara

To me, it would not be how did life begin, but instead, what is life?

What chemical, electrical proceess in the brain makes us who we are? Basically, how does the brain work? and why is it more than the sum of its parts?

simu

Explaining how consciousness works. (same as Dudara, then )

Finding out if it's possible to create consciousness in robots/other human-made things. That would be quite a feat to achieve!

John

dudara wrote:

What chemical, electrical proceess in the brain makes us who we are? Basically, how does the brain work? and why is it more than the sum of its parts?

This is what interests me most. I'm currently doing neuroscience and today I started work on dissecting a human brain. It is the single most amazing thing, having in your hands a huge lump of tissue that holds everything that person ever was.

Capt'n Midnight

The grand unified theory of everything - though I'd expect this to raise as many questions as answers.

A better understanding of the moment of creation/big bang - so far the equations only work out if you use imaginary time.

No mystery to why life evolved, its a case that if it did evolve then either it has to take over the whole planet or die off.

Consciousness, why can't we interact with our subconcious, and would this explain how/if animals feel and could it be used to classify levels of animal intelligence etc.

Flukey

Well it can be asked do we really know anything? To every answer you could ask why or how? We know how things work. We can prove that things do happen and work, but if you keep asking why or how does something happen and question the answer in the same manner, you will eventually come to a point where we don't know. At that stage, we know something does happen and the fact that it happens is our only proof, though we don't know exactly how or why. I know that is all a bit long-winded and a bit deep, but I think you see the point I am making. Do we really know the hows and whys of anything if you go right back and question it? At some point is our knowledge without any foundation and just accepted as fact, if you see what I mean?

Moriarty

The biggies have already been asked above.. explaining consciousness and existance (- of both us and the uni/multi/whateververse). There are no bigger questions that we as a species can think of at the moment because they're truely all-pervasive to our reality.

Marginally more humble questions I would suggest..

The true extent of climate change. We still know far less than we need to about the whole problem and because of this it isn't being taken as seriously as it should be.

How to defend against all forms of bacterial and viral infection of the human body. I reckon that it's only a matter of time until a universal form of defence is found, but I naturally only have a very limited idea if any about how it'll be achieved.

Son Goku

To Flukey:

Yes, one can keep asking the question why and I've seen people do it, but eventually you hit a wall where "why" doesn't apply.
Also if we knew the whys to everything there would be no more science.
Alot of people point this out, it basically boils down to the fact that we don't know the fundamentals.
Just because we don't know everything doesn't mean we know nothing is the answer I would give.

elivsvonchiaing

For me this would have to be: How do we maintain our standard of living without making most of our planet uninhabitable in 100 years? :eek:

This one needs a galaxy of meteorologists, geologists, chemists, physicists, political analysts, economosits, biologists, all fed by chaoticians and other branches of math...
... before there is any hope of an answer!

Sangre

Why don't the basic laws of physics (seemingly) apply to quantam phyiscs and what are the fundamental principles of QP?

But for me the biggest one is are we alone?

CerebralCortex

Why am I only capable of using 9.3% of my brain's maximum processing and memory abilities?

galactus

Is there life on other planets.

More interesting would be the reaction on this planet if life were found. Conclusive proof could lead to utopia or chaos.

Then again, I'm sure the creationists would find a way to move the goalposts

Earthhorse

How did the universe begin?

How big is the uinverse?

When I was growing up it was largely accepted, or it seemed to me it was, that the universe was infinite. Since then scientists have revised their positions. We may live in a bubble universe with other bubble universes around us and so forth. The truth is they don't really seem to know and I think when they answer questions about how bit our universe is and, as a result, how old it is it will eventually lead to a full explanation of how it began and answer a whole load of other questions.

Personally I believe the question, "What is life?" is best answered by philosophy, though science can, and should, inform such answers.

solas

saw this the other day and thought it was interesting and relevant..
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/14/science.mind.reut/index.html

Can there be a predisposition for fundamentalism? Do the faithful cope more easily with pain? Are they faster to recover from illness?

Such are the questions scientists and theologians will attempt to answer at a new study center which starts experiments into human consciousness in the next few months.

looks like scientists are starting to ask the questions for me..

galactus

Earthhorse wrote:

How did the universe begin?

How big is the uinverse?

When I was growing up it was largely accepted, or it seemed to me it was, that the universe was infinite. Since then scientists have revised their positions. We may live in a bubble universe with other bubble universes around us and so forth. The truth is they don't really seem to know and I think when they answer questions about how bit our universe is and, as a result, how old it is it will eventually lead to a full explanation of how it began and answer a whole load of other questions.

Personally I believe the question, "What is life?" is best answered by philosophy, though science can, and should, inform such answers.

Big bang has been the accepted theory for a number of years now rather than "Steady State" as proposed by Fred Hoyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle).

Earthhorse

I just read the Big Bang entry over on wikipedia. The last paragraph states:

"In current physical models, the universe 13.7 billion years ago would have had the form of a gravitational singularity, at which all time and distance measurements become meaningless and temperatures and pressures become infinite. As there are no models for the regimes on this scale, in particular, the lack of a theory of quantum gravity, this period of the universe's history remains an unsolved problem in physics."

This is what I'm getting at. I'm not saying Big Bang is wrong but that the data we have pertaining to it is incomplete.

Peace

How can we make cold fushion viable would be high on my list...

galactus

Earthhorse wrote:

I just read the Big Bang entry over on wikipedia. The last paragraph states:

"In current physical models, the universe 13.7 billion years ago would have had the form of a gravitational singularity, at which all time and distance measurements become meaningless and temperatures and pressures become infinite. As there are no models for the regimes on this scale, in particular, the lack of a theory of quantum gravity, this period of the universe's history remains an unsolved problem in physics."

This is what I'm getting at. I'm not saying Big Bang is wrong but that the data we have pertaining to it is incomplete.

That's why its the "accepted theory" Seriously, you're right. There's still dispute as to whether this universe is an offshoot of a previous one.

You might be intrersted in an upcoming lecture:
http://ireland.iop.org/program.html

CerebralCortex

Peace wrote:

How can we make cold fushion viable would be high on my list...

Yes that would probably change the face of the earth scientificly, socially, economilcally i can't think of anything that would have a bigger effect.

Gone West

Is the mind or soul seperate from the body's chemical/neurological processes?

If this was answered then many other non-scientific questions would be answered.

elivsvonchiaing

galactus wrote:

Is there life on other planets.

More interesting would be the reaction on this planet if life were found. Conclusive proof could lead to utopia or chaos.

Then again, I'm sure the creationists would find a way to move the goalposts

How about "It's just radio signals sent by God to test our faith!"

John

CerebralCortex wrote:

Why am I only capable of using 9.3% of my brain's maximum processing and memory abilities?

This is a myth that you only use a small portion of your brain. Here's a thing aimed at schoolkids but it has some more links at the bottom. You use pretty much all of your brain. The work is subdivided into different areas generally but there is a lot of overlap of function.

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Is the mind or soul seperate from the body's chemical/neurological processes?

If this was answered then many other non-scientific questions would be answered.

Depends what your definition of soul is. It's medical fact that brain damage can completely change a person's behaviour and their personality. The most famous case of this is Phineas Gage who was a railroad worker who lost a huge chunk of his frontal lobe. Before the accident he was described as being a kind, upstanding citizen but after the accident he became a nasty, lying cheat. His entire personality was altered and the person he was was no more. A real Jackyll and Hyde case. Personally I think the 'soul' can be explained in terms of science and while some people think that is a crime against their humanity, I think it's far more awe-inspiring that tiny little charged particles make the differences between me, you and everyone else.

John

elivsvonchiaing wrote:

How about "It's just radio signals sent by God to test our faith!"

Just like those damn dinosaur bones

CerebralCortex

What does "IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI" mean?

bcKay

I'd like to know what the potential of humans is. Also the UTOE is high on my list...
what really happend about 2000 years ago...

oh...and why can I never find my keys?

John

CerebralCortex wrote:

What does "IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI" mean?

It roughly translates as: "at night we circle and are consumed by fire"

It's from a song called "Salamandrina" by Einstuerzende Neubauten. There's a sample here. It's only 30sec long so it doesn't have that line in the sample.

CerebralCortex

bcKay wrote:

I'd like to know what the potential of humans is. Also the UTOE is high on my list...
what really happend about 2000 years ago...

oh...and why can I never find my keys?

Would you please explain to me what UTOE is thanks?

bcKay

sorry...Unified Theory of Everything...finding the connection between all the forces. ie. electric force and magnetic force have been unified in electromagnetic theory. So it would explain the connection between the strong, weak, gravitational, electric and magnetic forces (I think I got them all)

Moriarty

There are only four.. 1) strong nuclear 2) weak nuclear 3) electromagnetic 4) gravity.

galactus

Moriarty wrote:

There are only four.. 1) strong nuclear 2) weak nuclear 3) electromagnetic 4) gravity.

No there are three. Or is it five:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_force

toiletduck

galactus wrote:

Is there life on other planets.

More interesting would be the reaction on this planet if life were found. Conclusive proof could lead to utopia or chaos.

id love to know are we alone aswell but honestly i dont think it would alter our world as much as you think.