Top 10 Things We Wish Science Would Figure Out

Otherwise known as suspended animation, the idea of ‘hypersleep’ has been made most famous by “Alien,” “Futurama” and other such sci-fi productions. Forty winks times a million, hypersleep is the drastic reduction of one’s metabolic rate, usually brought about through the denial of oxygen, enabling a human to effectively press the pause button on their own aging. Science fiction shows us the subsequent possibilities of intergalactic travel, but there are more immediately practical applications as well - namely eradicating dangerous delays in health and hospital care!

While delaying death would be great, bringing people back from the dead would probably be even better! We’ve all read miracle stories where someone clinically ‘dies,’ but is brought back to life minutes afterwards… But what if that period between life and death was extended further still, and reanimation was a very real possibility at the end of it…? Doctors could work wonders with the ‘second chance’ slice of time! And, quite apart from anything else, zombies could actually exist! Hopefully they’d be friendlier than in the movies…

Logic says that the modern world’s more technologically advanced than the ancient world, right…? But then, why all the weird similarities scattered across the latter, when there apparently existed limited means of international communication?? One of the most high profile cases of this type was unearthed in 1992, as a team of German scientists ran tests on ancient Egyptian mummies, finding tobacco, hashish and cocaine in their bones, skin and hair… which are products normally found in the Americas, in a pre-Columbus era… so how did they get so far from home??

#7: Dinosaur Extinction

Also in:

Top 5 Disgusting Dinosaur Facts

In general, the majority of scientists explain the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction with one of two theories: Either it was the effect of an asteroid impact on Earth, or of mass volcanic activity and eruption. Both hypotheses stem from the presence of the metal iridium within a layer of rock dating back to the extinction event - with iridium also prominent in both meteorites and the Earth’s core… On the other hand, some argue that steady climate change killed the dinosaurs… We know they were here; we’re just not entirely sure why they went!

Frequently branded a ‘pathological science,’ the idea of cold fusion is simply wishful thinking for many. However, hypothetically, the ability to stage nuclear reactions at close to room temperatures would be world changing. An affordable, more practical, possibly cleaner method of generating renewable energy, it’d change the face of the fuel industry. When Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons first reported successful tests in 1989, the hype was unprecedented… Since then, however, funding has been cut and faith in the concept lost!

Otherwise known as warp speed, and the fundamental requirement for interstellar travel, for the stargazers and space hoppers among us, this is the discovery we really want made! The only problem is the apparent impossibility that it ever will be… With light travelling at around 670,616,629 mph and the fastest speed at which a human has ever gone being the Apollo 10 mission at 24,790 mph… We’ve so far bitten only an approximate 0.0037% out of the desired speed… Einstein himself said it could never be done!

A term coined to define ‘missing mass,’ dark matter is essentially the proof that an empty space isn’t the same thing as ‘nothing’. An empty space is in fact ‘something’. Science refers to that ‘something’ as dark matter, but we cannot see, feel or in any way really appreciate that it’s there. Which is frustrating, given that dark matter and dark energy hypothetically constitute around 95% of the universe, while so-called normal matter accounts for less than 5%… And if that doesn’t change the way you look at the world, nothing will!

#3: Black Holes - And What’s Beyond Them

Also in:

Top 10 Worst Things Ever to Happen on Black Friday

A constant threat in many a space-based movie, black holes are the archetypal ‘fear of the unknown’. Areas in space with a gravitational pull so strong that even light itself can’t escape them, a black hole eats up every bit of matter that falls within its event horizon, atom by atom - and yet its actual mass is confined to an infinitely small ‘singularity’ at its center! A concept to boggle even the brightest minds, the inside of a black hole seems literally impossible to figure out!

#2: What Triggered the Big Bang

Also in:

Top 10 Things Schools Should Teach

In the age-old science versus religion debate, it can prove difficult not to explain away the beginnings of our universe with the safety of scientific reasoning. In a nutshell, energy created more energy, which created stuff, which created life, which created us. But, where did that first bit of energy come from?? We can account for all but the very first milliseconds of our universe… But it’s those first moments that really make a difference! How do you create something out of literally nothing? Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. - The Placebo Effect - Dreams - Yawning - Impossible Cosmic Rays - The Blank Spot in the Universe

#1: Time Travel

Also in:

Top 10 Toy Lines of All Time

The ultimate dream for scientists and humankind in general, there surely isn’t any technological advancement that could ever be made to rival the invention of time travel?! A theoretically feasible but practically impossible concept (probably!), time travel would likely require some kind of super-combination of the other entries on today’s countdown. Light-speeds might bring about backward or forward travel, while the gravitational power of a black hole could also inspire it… Realistically, however, time travel’s the stuff of sci-fi… But we’ll cross our fingers and hope for a time tourist anyway! Do you agree with our list? Which scientific mystery did we miss? For more perplexing top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.