Is There Any Mystery Left to be Discovered?




Are you kidding?
Here’s only a tiny handful for 2009:

Over 4 million years old, the most ancient relative of humans was found, named “Ardi.” (I probably would have called him “Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Uncle Ardi”)

The Hadron Collider, a 17-mile long particle accelerator, turned on in September (and we were not sucked into a black hole--yet).

In rainforests of Papua, New Guinea a team of scientists found a new fish, rat, bat, and several frogs (and probably 80 new species of bugs that ate them alive).

40 light years away, a planet much like earth is discovered and it contains lots of water (see my posts in the year 3013 to see what happens when we finally land there).

Upon crashing a bomb into the moon, we discovered it had a significant amount of ice (so when did the moon start developing weapons of mass destruction and become a threat?)

A new ring around Saturn was discovered. (Perhaps we should consult with Elin, Tiger’s wife, she seems to be missing hers…)

Skin cells are turned into stem cells, negating the need for embryo stem cells and ethical issues (and opening up a black market for scratch-and-run thieves).

Yeah, science is still out there. You won’t hear the news casters chatting about it like they do Tiger’s sex life, but it’s always been the unsung hero. How else would anything from health to communications to recreation to transportation be possible without it?

It continues to grow at leaps and bounds and in our lifetime we can expect fantastic accomplishments like a cure for cancer and stem-cell advances to make it possible to regrow missing limbs, repair spinal cords, and cure debilitating diseases such as MS and Parkinsons. And, that’s just in the field of medicine. Don’t even get me started on what we’re learning of the universe, the ocean, the rainforests, and green technology...

Some great sources for what’s up in science:
Wired
New Scientist
Science Daily

Comments

  1. Interesting and funny, as usual! Science is huge at our house and we are often launching investigations into why and how something is. My 3 year old's favorite show is MythBusters! People often ignore the scientific community, however without these great minds and ideas, our world wouldn't be what it is today! Perhaps the scientists should be getting the huge salaries instead of celebrities and athletes.

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  2. Gypsy, I totally get you. I've always said scientist's contracts and publicity should be like sports stars, but honestly would we want them to turn out like Tiger and Mike Tyson? We'd never get any research done. For now, I don't mind thinking of them as my heroes (and paying them more) so long as they don't get big heads.

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  3. i'm not big on science, except medicine, but i'm really glad so many people are!

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  4. Hey Libby;
    I never thought of it one way or the other except getting excited as a kid as we got closer to the "missing link." I think it was the research for ghost hunting that got me wanting to know what's up. I agree about the field of medicine. Since I work in the medical field, I appreciate every time they do stem-cell transplants on people with cancer. I get so excited for the advancements in the quality of our lives. I think once we can all live quality lives and people who have been disabled by quadriplegia and diseases can work in the workforce, it'll be truly amazing. We lose a lot of great contributors to our world because of these conditions and with everyone at optimal health--the only issue next is population control with all the healthy elderly folks still on the earth...

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  5. I agree with Gypsy Moon-I really enjoyed your humor in this -and the part about the world with water 40 lys away is why I so hope we can make it through the present times -and eventually get smart enough to have leaders that represent not just us but also our hopes and dreams -even if they may be for descendents generations away.
    Those sources you listed are excellent sources to catch up on the science news with. I am astonished at the rate discoveries are coming in!!
    I was at Secret Sun blog just a bit ago and saw my first glimpse of the Norway "light"-my word that looked like a mystery to me!!
    It sure didn't look like any rocket failure or anything I have ever seen before!!
    I don't think we will ever run out of mysteries to ponder -and this makes me very happy -except of course some of the "conspiracy" mysteries which aren't too much fun to think about-but in my opinion much too important to ignore.
    all the best to you as always my friend-and again I really enjoyed your humor in these -here is to a prayer, thoughts and hopes of peace and endless mysteries in the coming years.
    I think humans are almost getting wise enough to realize how much the "divide,conquer, rule" has been used against normal people who want to live normal lives in the pursuit of happiness-and I think the whole planet will be rich when that day comes-not a moment too soon either!!

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  6. Have you seen Avatar yet? This post TOTALLY reminds me of that movie. There is so much left to discover and explore. Some of what you wrote here they sort of tackle in the movie on one level. Sort of. But that was the first thing to come to mind when I read this. It blew me away and made me realize there are MANY undiscovered horizons out there yet still. (Not that the movie was in any way real. It's just that it was so neat.)

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