Buzz
At times, it feels like scientists are nearing the resolution of every great enigma. We have concepts surrounding wormholes, dark matter, the birth of the universe, and even a comprehensive understanding of how life evolved from single-celled organisms to human beings. Some mysteries we've cracked are so complex they baffle the mind. It's as if there's a solution to almost every question one could dream of.
However, it turns out we haven't quite solved everything. There exist surprisingly simple questions that continue to elude answers—some so seemingly obvious that asking them feels almost absurd.
10. What’s the Reason Behind the Alphabet’s Sequence?
Despite all the time spent teaching young children the order of the alphabet, we don't actually know why it’s arranged this way. We’ve created a catchy tune to remember it by, and we use it for organizing things—but no one can truly explain why the letters are in this particular order to begin with.
One thing we know for certain is that the alphabet has existed in its current sequence for an incredibly long time. It’s believed that alphabetical order was established sometime between the 19th and 15th centuries BC. That means it predates the English language by a significant amount of time.
The order likely originated with the Canaanites living in Egypt, then spread and evolved over time. Their language influenced the Phoenician alphabet, which evolved into the Greek alphabet, then the Latin alphabet, and so on until English emerged. With each new language, the alphabet's order remained mostly consistent, though some letters were added or removed along the way.
So, around 4,000 years ago, someone established this order, and though we’ve been teaching it to children ever since, no one remembers the reason it was created in the first place.
9. What Causes Lightning to Strike?
Just because your eighth-grade science teacher acted like he had all the answers doesn’t mean he actually did. Despite all the experiments with flying kites and keys, lightning strikes remain an unsolved mystery. From what we understand, they really shouldn't be happening at all.
We understand many of the processes at play. We know that warm air rises, cools, and forms clouds. We also know that as those clouds grow, they can turn into thunderclouds. And, we know that these clouds can accumulate up to 100 million volts of electricity, which then strike the ground with heat four times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
However, you might have noticed a significant gap in that explanation: How exactly does a small cloud develop a powerful lightning strike capable of sending down hellfire from the sky?
From what we know about electricity, it shouldn’t be possible. The electrical field in a thunderstorm is about ten times smaller than what would be needed to create a lightning bolt—so we still don't fully understand where these death bolts come from.
There are, of course, theories. Some suggest that ice particles collide and generate an electric charge. Others propose that solar rays are at play. And some have even speculated that lightning bolts might be hurled by Zeus during his battles with Hera. For the sake of sound science, we shouldn’t dismiss any theory until we can confirm the truth.
8. What Makes Cats Purr?
Whether it's a large wildcat or a tiny house cat, all felines seem to purr. This behavior happens in various situations, such as when they're petted by humans, nursing their kittens, or feeling stressed. This means that cats purr both when they’re content and when they’re uneasy, which makes understanding its true origins more challenging. One theory is that purring encourages bone growth. The sound frequencies in purring range from 25 to 150 Hertz, and sounds in this frequency range have been shown to enhance bone density and promote healing. Since cats save energy by sleeping for long stretches, purring might be a low-energy way to maintain muscle and bone health without overexerting them.
A part of the mystery surrounding purring is that we usually notice it only when we pet cats in their favorite spots—their bellies, ears, or necks. Yet, they also purr when we're not around, and the intensity of their purring differs from one cat to another. Not all cats purr, and some may purr incessantly.
Kittens begin purring just a few days after birth, helping their mothers find them when it’s time to nurse. Some adult cats continue this behavior while eating or purring beforehand to signal that it’s time for dinner. Cats might also purr loudly while cautiously exploring new surroundings or after a scare, such as being chased by a dog.
To truly understand the meaning of a purr, it might help to observe a cat’s body language—like the periscope tail of a cat in a friendly mood or the wide eyes and flattened whiskers of a cat in attack mode. And purring may not only benefit the cats themselves. Petting a cat has long been recognized as a way to relieve stress—owning a cat could reduce the risk of stroke or heart disease by as much as a third. Those same frequencies cats purr at might even be doing us some good too.
7. How Many Muscles Are in the Human Body?
A healthy adult human body is made up of 206 bones, 78 organs, and countless muscles that one might assume have already been counted. However, despite this, no one can say with certainty exactly how many muscles we have. It's generally accepted that we have around 700 skeletal muscles, but the exact number could range from 640 to 850, depending on the person.
The challenge lies in the fact that some muscles in our bodies are so intricate that they may actually be two distinct muscles. Different experts can’t agree on how to count these complicated muscles, so there are various estimates depending on who’s doing the counting.
Even if all experts were to agree on a count, there’s still the issue of people who don’t conform to the usual pattern. Some individuals have extra muscles, while others have unusual muscle variations that nobody expected.
So for now, the answer is: we have a lot of muscles. Or, as one writer cleverly stated, 'about 700 [ . . ] including roughly 400 that no one cares about.'
6. Why Do Placebos Have an Effect?
As long as individuals believe they’re receiving medicine, it seems to work. This is a fascinating aspect of how the human mind functions. The placebo effect is so powerful that new drugs must be tested against sugar pills to demonstrate their effectiveness. What’s even more perplexing is that we still don’t understand why those sugar pills have any effect in the first place.
What we do know is that the placebo effect is tied to the mind. For instance, red placebos tend to be more effective than white ones, and placebos given by doctors in white coats tend to have a stronger effect than those handed out by assistants. The placebo effect can even be strikingly strong—there have been instances where it provided pain relief comparable to that of morphine.
It gets even stranger. One experiment showed that placebos still worked on people who were aware they were taking them. Even when doctors explicitly told participants that they were given ineffective sugar pills, the pills still made a huge difference in their recovery.
Yet the mystery remains: why do placebos work? For reasons we don’t fully understand, we can trick our brains into dulling pain, and we still have no explanation for how or why this happens.
5. Why Can’t We Walk in a Straight Line With Our Eyes Closed?
Give this a shot: Head to a park, blindfold yourself, and attempt to walk in a straight line. When you remove the blindfold, you’ll notice something odd, besides the fact that your wallet is now missing. No matter how cautious you were, most people will end up spinning in circles without a clear target to focus on, and no one knows why that happens.
Researchers have conducted numerous studies on this phenomenon, observing how people walk visually and even using GPS to track their movements. They’ve discovered some things: We know that the darker the environment is, the more likely people are to spin in circles, but the reason behind it remains unclear.
There are various theories. Some scientists suggest that it’s linked to brain dominance, while others believe it could be due to differences in leg lengths. However, the only thing that experiments have definitively proven is that every theory we’ve proposed so far is wrong.
4. Why Does Anesthesia Work?
Your anesthesiologist might appear confident when they put you under, but deep down, they don’t have a clue why the substances they’re administering actually work. We know that anesthesia can render people unconscious, and we use it regularly—but its exact function remains a mystery.
The real issue is that we can't fully grasp how anesthesia renders people unconscious until we first figure out what consciousness actually is. It’s a strange concept to wrap your mind around, but the challenge lies in trying to understand how consciousness gets switched off when we don’t even know what it is to begin with.
There are a few theories. Some believe it disrupts the synchrony between various parts of the cortex, while others think it triggers quantum vibrations in microtubules. A larger group, though, is fairly convinced that if they nod seriously enough, others will think they understand what all these terms actually mean.
3. Why Do We Yawn?
Yawning is a universal behavior. It’s not just humans who do it—most animals yawn as well. But despite how widespread yawning is, we still have no idea why we do it.
People have been trying to understand why we yawn since the fourth century BC. Hippocrates suggested it was a way to rid ourselves of “bad air” and inhale “good air.” Today, most people believe it helps reduce carbon dioxide levels and increases oxygen in the blood, which essentially means the same thing but makes you sound more intelligent.
The issue with this explanation is that it doesn’t fully address why we yawn when we’re tired. The most reasonable assumption is that it’s related to the brain, but yawning doesn’t seem to significantly affect the oxygen levels in our brain.
So, why are we yawning? Why don’t we yawn when we actually need extra oxygen? And why don’t we yawn during exercise?
It doesn’t make much sense, and we still don’t have a clear answer. In fact, that’s true for many things. We have various theories, but the reality is that there are countless elements of the universe we simply don’t understand.
2. How Do Bicycles Work?
Bicycles are strange when you think about it. With just two wheels, they topple when stationary, yet somehow stay upright when in motion. It’s one of those peculiar scientific mysteries we accept without question, trusting that experts know what they’re doing and that we’re not riding around on potential death traps that could collapse at any moment.
But the truth is, they don’t know. Scientists are still baffled by how bicycles work, even though the invention has been around since 1818.
One team attempted to understand how bicycles work by applying the same methods used to explain how airplanes fly. This is a strange approach, as it means we’re relying on our knowledge of how to make huge metal birds soar thousands of feet in the air to figure out how small kids manage to ride bikes.
Some of the methods they’ve used to solve the mystery only add to the confusion. One scientist tried designing an unrideable bicycle, but every prototype still worked, which means that not only can we not explain why bicycles function, but we can’t even figure out how to make them not work.
1. Why Are People Left- or Right-Handed?
About ten percent of people are left-handed. You can try to make them use their right hand, but unless you’re willing to resort to some medieval tactics, they’ll stick to their left hands for nearly everything—something everyone knows, but no one truly understands.
It’s not just left-handed people who are curious—it’s strange that we’re even born with a preference for one hand over the other. Scientists don’t really know why humans aren’t all ambidextrous. After all, most animals can use both hands equally well, so what makes us different?
The earliest theory suggested that hand preference might be linked to language skills. Since both language and motor abilities demand significant brain energy, neuroscientists found that these functions seem to occupy the same areas. Most people use the left hemisphere for language, so the theory was that motor skills followed the same pattern when humans started speaking.
The flaw in that theory is that it doesn’t explain left-handed people. Most left-handed people process language in the left hemisphere just like right-handed individuals. So if this theory were correct, why would they be left-handed?
Recent studies suggest that gorillas and chimpanzees might also favor their right hand. What we know for certain is that at some point in our evolution, we began to treat one of our hands as somewhat useless—and for some reason, we stuck with it.
