If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research would it?
April 4, 2019 9:58 AM Subscribe
From squeaking sand to the etymology of the word "abracadabra" to whether time really moves in one direction, Wikenigma: An Encyclopedia of Unknowns has been established to catalog the "known unknowns" -- things we don't (yet) understand about the world around us and our places in it.
let's get cracking and solve some of these
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:37 AM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:37 AM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Someone should add "the real name of bears" to the language list because "bear" just means "that brown thing" because people were afraid they'd summon bears if they referred to them by their True Name.
posted by straight at 10:55 AM on April 4, 2019 [22 favorites]
posted by straight at 10:55 AM on April 4, 2019 [22 favorites]
Well this guy seems to believe he has the singing sand explained.
posted by blurker at 11:11 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by blurker at 11:11 AM on April 4, 2019
Nice!
I've got one: I read all the way through a standard microbiology textbook (Alberts) and realized that it didn't propose any plausible mechanisms for limb symmetry. I then read review papers on limb symmetry, the upshot of which was, "We dunno either, man."
Think about a newborn caribou. How do the soft, tiny cells that build bones construct two hard leg bones that are about a million times taller than them and within 1% of each other's length? How do they do it without any standing and gravitational feedback that says, "Uh, feels like we're crooked?" How do they get the symmetry they need to run within ten minutes or so of plopping out of their mothers?
It's not that the two legs grow at exactly the same rate, either. In the studies they've done in mice, one leg grows fastest first in the embryo, then the other leg catches up.
And it's not that there's a set endpoint that both legs are growing toward. If you restrict nutrition or add growth hormone, both legs will get almost exactly the same amount shorter or longer.
This is obviously not a hard problem for life, since bilateral animals have been doing it for hundreds of millions of years. But how?
posted by clawsoon at 11:18 AM on April 4, 2019 [21 favorites]
I've got one: I read all the way through a standard microbiology textbook (Alberts) and realized that it didn't propose any plausible mechanisms for limb symmetry. I then read review papers on limb symmetry, the upshot of which was, "We dunno either, man."
Think about a newborn caribou. How do the soft, tiny cells that build bones construct two hard leg bones that are about a million times taller than them and within 1% of each other's length? How do they do it without any standing and gravitational feedback that says, "Uh, feels like we're crooked?" How do they get the symmetry they need to run within ten minutes or so of plopping out of their mothers?
It's not that the two legs grow at exactly the same rate, either. In the studies they've done in mice, one leg grows fastest first in the embryo, then the other leg catches up.
And it's not that there's a set endpoint that both legs are growing toward. If you restrict nutrition or add growth hormone, both legs will get almost exactly the same amount shorter or longer.
This is obviously not a hard problem for life, since bilateral animals have been doing it for hundreds of millions of years. But how?
posted by clawsoon at 11:18 AM on April 4, 2019 [21 favorites]
Under the page on glass:
Note: Glasses do not normally 'flow' at ambient temperatures. The much cited fact that ancient glass windows are often thicker at the bottom is explained because glaziers fitted them that way - heavy-end downwards.
All the respect, my people. All the respect.
(By way of explanation - I am a glass scientist by training, and have developed a rant against the "glass is a liquid" myth. I have, in fact, performed this rant on stage in front of people who were ostensibly there to hear me sing.)
posted by blurker at 11:46 AM on April 4, 2019 [19 favorites]
Note: Glasses do not normally 'flow' at ambient temperatures. The much cited fact that ancient glass windows are often thicker at the bottom is explained because glaziers fitted them that way - heavy-end downwards.
All the respect, my people. All the respect.
(By way of explanation - I am a glass scientist by training, and have developed a rant against the "glass is a liquid" myth. I have, in fact, performed this rant on stage in front of people who were ostensibly there to hear me sing.)
posted by blurker at 11:46 AM on April 4, 2019 [19 favorites]
The "abracadabra" one reminded me of a paragraph from Alice Hoffman's introduction to Faerie Knitting:
posted by ragtag at 11:53 AM on April 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Fabric arts and storytelling have long been considered women's domains, and so the two seem naturally suited to be together. Both take homespun, homemade things—yarn, the threads of a story—and elevate them into something beautiful and magical. We are indeed spinning straw into gold, beginning with one element and turning it into another. In both knitting and writing, the process is to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary; to make a creation that is both beautiful and useful, a singular object, made by hand, often as a gift for those we love—work that may be done on a snowy evening, by the fireside, where we bring our ideas to life. We create what we imagine. That is the meaning of the oldest magical spell: Abracadabra.Maybe we don't know, but we still know.
posted by ragtag at 11:53 AM on April 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Needs a "random" button in the sidebar
posted by Wolfdog at 12:47 PM on April 4, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by Wolfdog at 12:47 PM on April 4, 2019 [13 favorites]
I am a glass scientist by training
Is that a scientist who drops fragments of their tail when threatened?
posted by biogeo at 1:11 PM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Is that a scientist who drops fragments of their tail when threatened?
posted by biogeo at 1:11 PM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Wonderful! I read the entry on Holes and now I've gone down a deep rabbit...er hole on the philosophy of holes.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 1:17 PM on April 4, 2019
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 1:17 PM on April 4, 2019
"A wizard did it."
I don't know why that was so hard.
posted by yhbc at 10:09 PM on April 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't know why that was so hard.
posted by yhbc at 10:09 PM on April 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oohh, this goes nicely with my most popular Ask ever.
posted by Harald74 at 12:23 AM on April 5, 2019
posted by Harald74 at 12:23 AM on April 5, 2019
This is great! It's like an entire wiki for my favorite Wikipedia page ever: List of Unsolved problems (organized into different scientific fields).
posted by Dee Grim at 3:50 AM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Dee Grim at 3:50 AM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Why are these articles so short..? Oh. Right.
posted by brundlefly at 7:18 PM on April 5, 2019
posted by brundlefly at 7:18 PM on April 5, 2019
"Needs a "random" button in the sidebar"
It does, Random itself one of the unsolved mysteries of Mathematics.
I'm really digging this site, it's nice to have all the things we don't know in one place. Plus it's always fun to examine some of these issues and come up with a solution or answer. Arrow of Time is easy for me, I just accept time isn't linear and my perception of time is just a consequence of the physics and chemistry that determine everything else about my reality.
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:48 AM on April 8, 2019
It does, Random itself one of the unsolved mysteries of Mathematics.
I'm really digging this site, it's nice to have all the things we don't know in one place. Plus it's always fun to examine some of these issues and come up with a solution or answer. Arrow of Time is easy for me, I just accept time isn't linear and my perception of time is just a consequence of the physics and chemistry that determine everything else about my reality.
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:48 AM on April 8, 2019
I just accept time isn't linear and my perception of time is just a consequence of the physics and chemistry that determine everything else about my reality.
I don't think this is a useful way of looking at the question. Everything (physical, such as time) is a consequence of physics by definition. It may be that time travels freely in both directions, but we don't experience it like that. In which case the interesting question is: why does a system made of particles that can move forwards and backwards in time give the impression of time moving forwards only?
posted by Ned G at 6:21 AM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't think this is a useful way of looking at the question. Everything (physical, such as time) is a consequence of physics by definition. It may be that time travels freely in both directions, but we don't experience it like that. In which case the interesting question is: why does a system made of particles that can move forwards and backwards in time give the impression of time moving forwards only?
posted by Ned G at 6:21 AM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Gamecat at 10:19 AM on April 4, 2019