The “Wow!” Signal. It's no rare occurrence in science fiction: The introverted researcher working the graveyard shift at a SETI radio observatory jumps out of his seat in surprise when the red light blinks on the control panel.
"We're getting a signal! " he shouts into a phone as needles dance across paper chart recorders, and scientists rapidly converge on the scene. At some point someone yells, "Get me the President! " at the person whose job it is to get presidents. On August 15th, 1977, such a signal was received at the Big Ear radio observatory in Ohio, though the ensuing drama was considerably more subdued. Curiously, the signal was picked up by only one of the scope's two detectors. Several times over the next twenty years, longtime SETI researcher Robert Gray and his colleague Kevin B. The Big Ear maintained its periodic scan of that part of space for almost forty years, and never again came across such a compelling signal.
Perhaps. 13 Things That Don't Make Sense. Read full article Continue reading page |1|2|3|4|5|6 Read more: 13 more things that don't make sense 1 The placebo effect Don't try this at home.
Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. So what is going on? Benedetti has since shown that a saline placebo can also reduce tremors and muscle stiffness in people with Parkinson's disease. We have a lot to learn about what is happening here, Benedetti says, but one thing is clear: the mind can affect the body's biochemistry. 2 The horizon problem OUR universe appears to be unfathomably uniform. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so there is no way heat radiation could have travelled between the two horizons to even out the hot and cold spots created in the big bang and leave the thermal equilibrium we see now.
So, in effect, inflation solves one mystery only to invoke another. 3 Ultra-energetic cosmic rays. 13 More Things That Don't Make Sense. Cookies on the New Scientist website close Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively.
To continue using our website and consent to the use of cookies, click away from this box or click 'Close' Find out about our cookies and how to change them Log in Your login is case sensitive I have forgotten my password close My New Scientist Look for Science Jobs 13 more things that don't make sense (Image: Loungepark / The Image Bank / Getty) Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us. Axis of evil Radiation left from the big bang is still glowing in the sky – in a mysterious and controversial pattern Dark flow Something unseeable and far bigger than anything in the known universe is hauling a group of galaxies towards it at inexplicable speed Eocene hothouse Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C.
Fly-by anomalies Hybrid life.