Science's 8 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries

[MontyCircus]

A Popular Mechanics article from 2010, a revisiting of a 2000 article.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/sciences-greatest-unsolved-mysteries-creating-life#slide-1

(It's rather long so I won't copy and paste it here)

The 8 great mysteries are:

Will we find a cure for cancer?
Can we achieve immortality?
Can we create life?
Will we find the soul?
Are we alone?
Is light the ultimate speed limit?
Can we travel through time?
Will we find other universes?

Which one would you most like to see resolved?
Which one do you think will be cracked first?
Which one will never happen?

In a recent "Which superpower would you want to have?" thread, it seemed like everyone picked immortality, so that would be the one I'd selfishly like to see.

I wouldn't be too surprised if I woke up tomorrow and cancer was cured. So I think that will be the one to be found first.

I don't think we'll "find the soul". I think we're just a biological process, synapses firing in the ol' brain. Reading all about AI and robots makes me think we're not much different really.

 

[Harpo]

We create life all the time, so that's done.

I think time travel will be a reality in the future, and thence back & forth after a certain point as much as we like (like a railway line being laid down, maybe)

And I love the multiverse, so that'd be nice to find

 

[Bowler1]

Will we find a cure for cancer? - Almost there I think.
Can we achieve immortality? - See above, but would you really want to live forever?
Can we create life? - Don't we already more or less do this?
Will we find the soul? - Ah, who knows!
Are we alone? - No, but do we want to really know?
Is light the ultimate speed limit? - I hope not.
Can we travel through time? - I think that might be a constant, so no, this might not be possible.
Will we find other universes? - Yes, but they may be windows we can't go through.

I think the sould was a red herring, but otherwise a good list.

 

[Vertigo]

Will we find a cure for cancer? - pretty soon with genetics I think
Can we achieve immortality? - yes I think we will and relatively soon - but I don't think we are anywhere near ready mentally, socially and environmentally. Very, very dangerous this one.
Can we create life? - Already done. Scientists have created regenerating cells independently of any existing life.
Will we find the soul? - No comment!
Are we alone? - Depends on what you mean. Are there other itelligences out there? - Probably. Will we ever find/meet/communicate with them? Probably not.
Is light the ultimate speed limit? - Probably.
Can we travel through time? - Probably not. Though possibly we will find a way to look back in time.
Will we find other universes? - Even if they are out there I'm not sure we will be able to interact with them. Chances are their fundamental laws of physics will be different making any form of physical interaction or even communication a literal impossibility.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I find these "mysteries" to be rather vague and misleading in many ways., but I'll throw in my thoughts.

Will we find a cure for cancer?

Too broad a question to answer in a meaningful way. The problem is that "cancer" is not a single disease. The question is kind of like asking "Will we find a cure for infections?" The only way to answer this is to say that we already cure many cancers, every day. There are some cancers that resist all known treatments. No doubt such treatments will improve in the future. I doubt whether there will ever be a time when humanity is completely free from diseases which could be called "cancer" in some sense. (People die from infections all the time, although we certainly have powerful treatments for them.) If there comes a time when there is truly no form of cancer in the human species, we will have become something quite different from what we are now.


Can we achieve immortality?

Short answer: No. Because "immortality" means forever, and not even the universe will last forever. No doubt there could be some form of life extension. (Although the maximum current human life span -- around 120 years in extreme cases -- isn't that much longer than a few people lived millenia ago.) There will be more and more centenarians in developed societies, certainly. Major forms of life extension remain highly speculative at the point. If you mean "immortality" through things like transfering consciousness into cloned bodies or computer programs or whatever, that seems even more speculative. We don't even really know what it would mean to preserve consciousness in a form other than the brain in which it resides.

Can we create life?

Depends what you mean. Start with some chemicals off the shelf and build an artificial organism? That would seem plausible. I don't see why current technology could not start with basic chemicals and go on to create artificial self-reproducing structures similar to RNA and DNA, and create structures for them to inhabit.

Will we find the soul?

Not a scientific question. Persons of faith will state that they have already "found" the soul. Skeptics will deny that such a thing exists. In any case, there can be no scientific proof of such a thing.

Are we alone?

I assume they mean "is there sentient life elsewhere in the universe?" My answer would be that it seems extremely likely that there is, but that it will be extremely difficult to find it, given the constraints of distance and time.

Is light the ultimate speed limit?

Yes. I see no reason to doubt that this is true on any level above that of quantum physics, which has little to do with the "real world.


Can we travel through time?

Same answer as above.

Will we find other universes?

From what I understand of the concept of multiverses, by definition they cannot communicate in any way with each other. So, I have to say that we will not "find" them.

 

[MontyCircus]

Can we create life? - Already done. Scientists have created regenerating cells independently of any existing life.

As of this July 2011 Gizmodo article, apparently we haven't:

http://gizmodo.com/5825539/scientists-striving-to-create-life-out-of-nothing

A May 2010 Wired article announces Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Synthetic Life:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/scientists-create-first-self-replicating-synthetic-life/

 

[Vertigo]

To be fair I think that comes down to the semantics of what we mean by life. I would say creating synthetic, functioning DNA comes close enough to tick the box, even though there's still a long way to go.

 

[jasminevincent]

Immortality...no... I agree with the answer of Victoria in this context.

 

[Vertigo]

To be fair, again it is down to semantics. I would class immortality for humans (as opposed to Gods!) as being death only by outside interference: accident, murder, war, etc. Which I believe we will achieve and quite soon at that. I just don't believe we are ready for the consequences!

 

[Huttman]

Sure, why not! Here we go...

Cure for cancer? There already is one, it just has not been implemented yet.

Immortality and endless life are often thought of as the same thing. They are not. Immortality means perpetual life, one cannot die nor needs anything to sustain their lives. Life everlasting means one needs basic elements to exist, but if those requirements are met the individual will live forever. Yes, it is possible, the endless life one. There are so many in this world that are convinced of the other....but I for one enjoy the eating process. I guess if living forever is a possibility for humans, then it is a possibility for the universe. After all, it was a fact the Earth was flat once.

Perhaps, someday. What we now call artificial intelligence in sci-fi might one day become a reality. If we created it yesterday, though, it would have surely turned on us. The human race certainly needs a better state of mind before that happens. Oh, I don't consider making babies as creating life.

Now where did I put that soul of mine...oh, there it is. It was in the mirror the whole time. We ARE souls, living souls. The soul is not the energy or the electricity that jumps between synapsis' or keeps our hearts beating at regular intervals. It is not our thoughts or physical bodies alone, it is all these things together. If you remove one the life ceases in a person. We are living souls.

We are not alone! It just might not be the intelligent life most people think of.

Didn't they already do a test about reversing polarity between molecules and the effect between them was instantaneous despite the distance between them? Sounds like that theory of FTL was just proven there.

There is absolutly no good reason to travel through time exept in hollywood. In that case there are lots of good reasons as it makes for good entertainment. But in reality it cannot happen because there is truly no reason to.

Not that there isn't enough 'room' for a new cosmos to instantaneously pop up because I chose a red popsicle instead of a green, but I think this scenario just as unlikely as time travel. Other dimensions...well there might be some merit to that.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Will we find a cure for cancer? - for some of the more common ones, maybe. For others, I had a bad experience that encouraged me to believe some of them are just too darn quick to do anything about.

Can we achieve immortality? Depends on the understanding of the term. Cryogenics etc are out there as viable technologies. I think this one might, conceivably, be possible.

Can we create life? Don't we already?

Will we find the soul? Depends on defining the soul.

Are we alone? No. I don't believe so.

Is light the ultimate speed limit? Gosh no, I have a patented star drive in my highly rigourous space opera world.

Can we travel through time? No. I think that's an impossibility.

Will we find other universes? With my star drive, of course we will. (Hits the control panel, gets the lights on, climbs in.) See ya!

 

[monsterchic]

Will we find a cure for cancer?- More than likely, with all the research and stuff going on.
Can we achieve immortality?- No, but we might be able to live MUCH longer than we do now, like 200-300. Possibly...maybe
Can we create life?- Like Harpo said, we already do.
Will we find the soul?- It's not really a material thing, so we wouldn't really be able to see it.
Are we alone?- No, I don't think so.
Is light the ultimate speed limit?- I don't know enough on the topic to say...
Can we travel through time?- Read an interesting article the other day speculating that da Vinci traveled through time and that's why he was able to predict what's going on right now 500 years ago. As to the question, probably not
Will we find other universes?- Again, I don't really know.

Selfishly, I'd like to see the time travel and/or immortality mystery solved first, but if I'm thinking of others, the cure for cancer's the way to go.

 

[Vertigo]

Selfishly, I'd like to see the time travel and/or immortality mystery solved first, but if I'm thinking of others, the cure for cancer's the way to go.

Are you sure about that MC? Want to do the same job for the next 200 years? You'll certainly not get to retire at 60 if you're living to 300. What about babies? Can't even let families have two children; with no one dying that would double the worlds population almost instantly. Our brains struggle to remember our childhood in old age now, how much more would be forgotten in 300 years? Looking for promotion in your work? Not likely if everyone above you never retires. I could go on

As I say socially I really don't think we are ready for immortality or even significantly extended life.

 

[monsterchic]

Are you sure about that MC? Want to do the same job for the next 200 years? You'll certainly not get to retire at 60 if you're living to 300. What about babies? Can't even let families have two children; with no one dying that would double the worlds population almost instantly. Our brains struggle to remember our childhood in old age now, how much more would be forgotten in 300 years? Looking for promotion in your work? Not likely if everyone above you never retires. I could go on

As I say socially I really don't think we are ready for immortality or even significantly extended life.

This is true...didn't even think of it that way!

 

[Vertigo]

Something I've often thought about. So many SF books have it and have people spawning children all over the place but never stop to think about what that really means. There are one or two authors who have addressed the problems, but not that many.

Bit of a shame really. I actually think we will see probably 2-300 year lifespans being possible within the next 50-100 years, even if it's just by replacing body parts with newly grown ones. I'm just not sure how we will cope or even if we can!

 

[monsterchic]

Bit of a shame really. I actually think we will see probably 2-300 year lifespans being possible within the next 50-100 years, even if it's just by replacing body parts with newly grown ones. I'm just not sure how we will cope or even if we can!

Scientists will find a way to make another supervirus like the Bubonic Plague to wipe us all out...

Scary thoughts

 

[Vertigo]

Hehe now there's a cheery perspective!

 

[Gordian Knot]

Victoria has already done a superior job in response and mine would be mostly the same. But that is no reason not to subject you all to them anyway!

Will we find a cure for cancer?
We will continue to refine improved treatments for various cancers and we will continue to successfully cure more and more kinds of cancer.

Can we achieve immortality?
If the question is can we achieve unending health, so that the only deaths would be from accidents, violence, etc. Maybe. We will certainly achieve the lengthening of life and even more importantly, lengthening of the quality of that extended life.

The bigger question to me is not if we can do it, but to whom it will be made available. We simply do not have the resources on the planet to support the number of people that are alive right now (as peoples of other nations want to aspire to the level of resource use that is available to those of us in the industrialized nations).

The planet could not sustain tens of thousands of long living individuals on top of what we cannot achieve for who is alive already.

Can we create life?
Can't answer the question without a determination of how we are defining "life".
Here is but one definition:
the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

We have created inorganic life for all intents and purposes. Think nanotechnology. Organic life is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. And complex organic life is a pipe dream for now.

Will we find the soul?
No. The soul is a metaphysical/religious creation. We will never be any more able to prove there is a soul than we will ever be able to prove that there are Gods.

Are we alone?
Almost certainly not. It is doubtful though that we will ever know about it for sure. As per Victoria, the issues of distance and time are so vast as to make meeting intelligent life off world almost impossible.

Is light the ultimate speed limit?
Oddly enough, my being a skeptic at heart, I do not think that the light barrier is necessarily immutable. Whether this is possible or not is kinda irrelevant though because I cannot see us pulling this off for several centuries at a minimum.

Can we travel through time?
See above. Though I believe it is much more likely we will break the light barrier than we ever will the time barrier.

Will we find other universes?
Oddly enough my answer to this one is the same answer I gave for the soul question. The Multiverse is a mathematical construct; a scientific creation as it were. We have no way to perceive other universes, so we will never be able to prove they exist any more than we can prove Gods exist.

 

[Huttman]

I agree it would not be in humanities best interest to have a lifespan longer than we do now as more children would be the inevitable outcome proceeded by even greater over-population problems. For people who feel life is too short for all they want to do it might not seem fair considering time indefinite has been put in our hearts....now where have I heard that before? Oh well, as for humans creating life when they have a baby, I would not agree with that. To create life from non-life is the challenge and what I thought the question was about. After all, what does the average person know about it besides putting the lime in the coconut and shaking all about then 9 months later: Awwww, thank goodness the baby got her mother's looks!

 

[mosaix]

Regarding immortality, believe it or not life insurance companies have thought about this. They think that most people wouldn't life beyond 700-800 years due to accidents and crime (as GK has mentioned), regardless of advances in health / medical sciences.