Looking back at everything we humans have achieved, one might feel that we are a really advanced species in terms of our scientific knowledge and technological prowess. I mean, we now have cars that drive themselves for goodness’ sakes.
But the moment you shift your attention towards all the things that we do not know and all the things that we still can’t do, you quickly realize the truth, and that is, we are just getting started.
Even though all of that is really exciting, but it can also get really frustrating. As human beings we are a curious species and ‘not knowing’ something can make you want to pull your hair out! And that’s just for the small things. Imagine not knowing the answers to some of the biggest questions out there.
Today, I am going to talk about some of those mysteries that we are no where near solving and is puzzling even the smartest minds on the planet.
- What Is 96% Of the Universe Made Of?
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Yeah, you read that right. We have absolutely no idea about what the 96% of the universe is made up of. All the stars, planets, galaxies and anything in the universe that we can see makes up about only 4% of the entire universe.
Take a second to wrap your head around that. There is so much stuff in the universe that we can barely visualize it in our heads and that makes so little of the universe.
The rest of the 96% of the universe is thought to be made up of dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter is a type of postulated matter that we cannot observe directly but can only observe its gravitational effects on other objects in the universe.
Dark energy is a form of energy that we don’t know anything about but it is estimated that about 70% of the universe is made up of it and it is dark energy that is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.
- How Did Life Start On Earth?
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Isn’t it such a big wonder how life started from non-living organic molecules to self replicating life? We were all taught in school about evolution and how life evolved over millions of years from a single celled organism.
But think about how that single celled organism came to be and you will quickly start scratching your head in frustration. A bunch of non-living elements just banded together to form an intelligent system that was capable of movement, food intake, energy generation, and self replication.
Isn’t that such a huge mystery how such a thing could be possible? The thing is, we may never know about this one because we may only go so far back into history through fossil records.
Unless there is a breakthrough discovery, I don’t see us solving this one which will be a huge bummer because as ‘living’ beings, we wouldn’t know the origin story of ‘life’.
- Where Is Everyone Else?
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This is yet another frustrating one. Despite decades of searching for alien life in the cosmos through various means, we have yet to discover an intelligent life from another planet.
Statistically, it is said that it is impossible that we are alone in the universe given the enormous size of it. And yet, we find ourselves hauntingly alone in the vastness of the cosmos.
NASA has intensified its search for extraterrestrial life in the recent years and some experts are saying that we may finally find some form of life (intelligent or otherwise) within this century, but who really know, right?
I really hope it happens within my lifetime. That would bring such a huge wave of excitement throughout the world and we may finally pour more resources and efforts towards space exploration and to become a space faring civilization.
