A brief summary of what people have called it and what has received the most feedback from the audience in the topic on reddit.
Mysteries in biology and paleontology
Users mention that it was only in 2022 that they found out where eels come from: they live in rivers and reproduce in the Atlantic Ocean. They also discuss how scientists have explained the physical capabilities of sauropod dinosaurs, which, like birds, have hollow bones with air sacs instead of being empty. It has also been established that birds are a type of dinosaur.
Scientific discoveries and theories
Among the key discoveries are:
- the theory of tectonic plates, which explained many geological phenomena;
- the determination of the Earth’s age (4.6 billion years) thanks to the work of Claire Patterson;
- the theory of relativity;
- the proof of the germ theory of diseases;
- the discovery of the causes of ulcers – bacteria, not stress (for this discovery, Australian scientists received the Nobel Prize);
- understanding the nature of prions, proteins that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (such as mad cow disease).
Historical and archaeological discoveries
The participants recall:
- the Rosetta Stone, a tablet with a decree in three languages, including hieroglyphs, which allowed for the deciphering of ancient Egyptian writing;
- the discovery of the Franklin expedition’s ships (the Erebus and the Terror) using Inuit knowledge;
- the discovery of Richard III’s remains under a parking lot 500 years after his death;
- the search for the Titanic, which sank after colliding with an iceberg.
Space and physical mysteries
Discoveries such as Van Allen belts—the radiation belts around the Earth, understanding of which is important for space travel; the slowing of time (time dilation), without understanding of which GPS would give an error of 7 miles per day; the measurement of distances to stars, thanks to the work of Henrietta Leavitt, who studied pulsating stars; Edwin Hubble’s discoveries, which showed that the universe is made up of many galaxies moving away from each other.
Cryptography, forensics, and other mysteries
Among the mysteries solved are: the deciphering of the Zodiac cipher in 2020 by three amateurs; the capture of the “Killer from the Golden State” — a criminal who had been hiding for 40 years, thanks to DNA analysis from the genealogy database; the solution to the mystery of the “Bloop” — an ultra-low-frequency sound in the Pacific Ocean, which turned out to be the sound of an “ice earthquake” (iceberg split); finding out the cause of scurvy — vitamin C deficiency, which was partially uncovered back in 1497, but fully understood only in 1928; revealing the identity of the “Somerton Man” and identifying many unidentified bodies (“Jane Doe”, “John Doe”).
Commenting
I was most surprised by the discovery that birds are dinosaurs. I don’t know why, but for some reason, this seemed the most interesting and incomprehensible to me. I can only imagine the amount of time and effort that went into this discovery.
