http://www.cracked.com/article_16871_6-insane-discoveries-that-science-cant-explain.html
So, any thoughts on any of these?
So, any thoughts on any of these?
6 insane discoveries that science can't explain...
- Thread starter Data Holmes
- Start date
Can I just say again how much I love Cracked's lists?
Who would have guessed that that site would have been responsible for so much legitimate education?
Who would have guessed that that site would have been responsible for so much legitimate education?
The Antikythera mechanism was a calendar. Similar mechanisms were described in classical literature - this is the only one that survived.
The Baigong pipes seem to be diagenetic precipitation of hematite from groundwater, similar to how concretions or Liesegang banding form. A geologist wouldn't consider them particularly "insane." Although considering that the pipes are often featured along with the "Coso object" (just an old sparkplug) on poorly-designed websites of "out of place objects" it doesn't seem like some people have actually done any critical thought about them.
The giant stone balls were clearly for some ceremonial purpose (granted, we don't know the ritual), but are easily created with stone tools and some time hitting the rock so I'm not sure what is so insane about them.
The Baghdad battery has a couple plausible functions (electroplating, quack medicine man antics) as outlined in the article and we may never be able to determine which it was actually used for until actual written descriptions are discovered.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Voynich manuscript is an elaborate hoax, as many think. The Bloop is pretty weird though.
The Baigong pipes seem to be diagenetic precipitation of hematite from groundwater, similar to how concretions or Liesegang banding form. A geologist wouldn't consider them particularly "insane." Although considering that the pipes are often featured along with the "Coso object" (just an old sparkplug) on poorly-designed websites of "out of place objects" it doesn't seem like some people have actually done any critical thought about them.
The giant stone balls were clearly for some ceremonial purpose (granted, we don't know the ritual), but are easily created with stone tools and some time hitting the rock so I'm not sure what is so insane about them.
The Baghdad battery has a couple plausible functions (electroplating, quack medicine man antics) as outlined in the article and we may never be able to determine which it was actually used for until actual written descriptions are discovered.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Voynich manuscript is an elaborate hoax, as many think. The Bloop is pretty weird though.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
The bloop seems like an overhyped anomaly. It happened once. If it happened every so often, then...hey, maybe there's something out there.
NOW THE HAND OF GOD IN SPACE, that's a real mystery.
NOW THE HAND OF GOD IN SPACE, that's a real mystery.
In addition, despite the fact that their cosmologies were wildly wrong, ancient astronomers actually developed some pretty sophisticated mathematical models for predicting the motions of the planets (among which they counted the sun and the moon).
In fact, their achievements in this area were all the more impressive in light of their flawed, geocentric cosmologies.
For example: when ancient astronomers saw Mars slowing down, stopping, going backwards, slowing down, stopping, and going forwards again, they concluded that Mars must actually be looping its way around the heavens. This is why Apollonius of Perga invented the deferent-and-epicycle model which Ptolemy subsequently perfected. And Apollonius flourished about a hundred years before the Antikythera mechanism was built.
Some of the achievements of ancient science are truly awe-inspiring: that was a very sophisticated civilization, in many ways. I wonder why they never invented the telescope? They knew something about lenses and lense-making: Apollonius of Perga himself wrote a treatise (now lost) entitled On the Burning-Glass.
Been watching Who Mourns For Adonais recently, eh?NOW THE HAND OF GOD IN SPACE, that's a real mystery.
The "bloop" sounds a bit like the combination of eating too many beans and taking a bath -- perhaps it was the large-scale release of methane from clathrate hydrates on the ocean bed as a result of geologic activity? Was there any correlation with seismic activity?
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Been watching Who Mourns For Adonais recently, eh?NOW THE HAND OF GOD IN SPACE, that's a real mystery.
I was referring to this recent photo:
Space Hand
I didn't make TOS episode connection until you wrote that.
I think there is a key to the Voynich manuscript that is still hidden or lost. I just dont see some medieval dude wasting years writing crap and drawing pictures for no reason. The words actually look like a combination of writings like English and Arabic.
When I was cataloguing 100 years of geologists' notebooks among the books were those that were written by William Harper Twelvetrees one of Tasmania's most important geologists.
Unfortunately many of the notebooks are written in a shorthand that cannot be deciphered, no-one can recognise the type of shorthand and it is probably one that Twelvestrees created for his own use.
Maybe someone created a language for their own personal use and that is what the Voynich manuscript is.
Unfortunately many of the notebooks are written in a shorthand that cannot be deciphered, no-one can recognise the type of shorthand and it is probably one that Twelvestrees created for his own use.
Maybe someone created a language for their own personal use and that is what the Voynich manuscript is.
TheLonelySquire
Vice Admiral
While we may eventually fogure this stuff out, science will never be able to explain everything.
And it is wonderful that science will never be able to. I would hate to live in a society where science had managed to explain everything - what a boring and uninspiring world that would be. We all need a certain amount of mystery in our live.
Been watching Who Mourns For Adonais recently, eh?NOW THE HAND OF GOD IN SPACE, that's a real mystery.
I was referring to this recent photo:
Space Hand
I didn't make TOS episode connection until you wrote that.
I can just imagine God's mum saying, "Now Harold, don't touch the glowing red nebula, it's hot. Now, you burnt yourself! Let that be a lesson to you."
TheLonelySquire
Vice Admiral
I agree. Also, some things simply reside outside the realm of science.
Religion on the other hand can explain anything. It just isn't all that good at getting those explanations right.
Voynich manuscript = gibberish (exactly what happens when poets and artists take too much LSD and then you put a pen in their hands)
Antikythera mechanism = ancient Europeans were highly developed, much more than we given them credit, it was religion that sent them Euros back to the DarkAges
Chinese pipes = ???
I'll go with the explanation PlixTixiplik offers
Costa Ball = Its a ball, ok a very very big ball but only a slight improvement on the invention of the wheel which was thousands and thousands of years before hand. What's the big deal about this again?
Baghdad Batteries = NOT BATTERIES, a very clever device used for gold plated electrolysis, that is electroplating gold onto silver objects....not that these Mesopotamia dudes understood electricty much, otherwise they would have invented things like sockets
Last one = The Heavens are shitting on us
Here's a real discovery that science can't fully explain
GRAVITY
but maybe if Congress gives NASA enough money for this
http://lisa.nasa.gov/
Antikythera mechanism = ancient Europeans were highly developed, much more than we given them credit, it was religion that sent them Euros back to the DarkAges
Chinese pipes = ???
I'll go with the explanation PlixTixiplik offers
Costa Ball = Its a ball, ok a very very big ball but only a slight improvement on the invention of the wheel which was thousands and thousands of years before hand. What's the big deal about this again?
Baghdad Batteries = NOT BATTERIES, a very clever device used for gold plated electrolysis, that is electroplating gold onto silver objects....not that these Mesopotamia dudes understood electricty much, otherwise they would have invented things like sockets
Last one = The Heavens are shitting on us
Here's a real discovery that science can't fully explain
GRAVITY
but maybe if Congress gives NASA enough money for this
http://lisa.nasa.gov/
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