We talk about scientific mysteries so much around here that you’d think that scientists are quite bad at their jobs. Of course, that’s not true. Other than the really big questions – like ‘what are the true origins of life on Earth’ or ‘what is the size of the universe’ – science is actually quite good at solving the more manageable, every day scientific mysteries you may come across on your social media feed…
10. What Was Happening To The Bees?
A few years ago, the Internet was, if we may, swarmed by reports of a grim development involving bees. According to reports from beekeepers and biologists, worker bees had suddenly started to disappear across North America and Europe, as well as a few parts of Asia, Africa, and South America, and no one could tell why. They weren’t exactly dying, either, only leaving their hives and queens behind and never coming back – a phenomenon scientists call Colony Collapse Disorder.
As it turns out, the whole thing was never very mysterious in the first place. Worker bee populations were suddenly leaving their hives and going off due to multiple bug infections caused by neonicotinoids – a class of pesticides used in almost every major crop across North America. Multiple studies from as far back as 2013 have proven that these chemicals make the bees more vulnerable to fungal and viral infections, along with severely affecting their nerve and motor function.
It’s not just the bees, either – neonicotinoids are responsible for adverse effects on multiple insect populations around the world, which is why they were officially banned in Europe in 2013. Sustained efforts by pharmaceutical giants – like political lobbying and funding research efforts that present the problem as complicated and multi-dimensional – have kept them legalized in the United States and Canada.
9. Monarch Butterfly Migration
Every fall, monarch butterflies across North America set off on one of the longest migration routes found in nature. Starting from southern Canada and parts of the United States, they travel over 3,000 miles to the mountains of central Mexico to spend the winter, before returning back home in March. No single monarch butterfly completes the journey, and the round trip can involve up to four generations!
While other butterfly species – including monarch butterflies on other continents – do migrate, their routes are usually much more localized. Monarch butterflies are the only butterfly species that undertake such an arduous, generation-spanning journey just to spend the winter, and its evolutionary origins are still somewhat of a mystery.
What we do now understand though, is how they do it, thanks to a study from 2016 led by a mathematician at the University of Washington. Together with other experts – like neurobiologists – he mapped the brain function of the butterflies and recreated the internal compass they use to navigate. He found that the butterflies use the position of the sun combined with their own circadian clock to make this journey, which is how they’re able to travel southward/northward throughout the day without the need for external cues.
8. The Sailing Stones Of Death Valley, California
The mysterious sailing stones of Death Valley, California have captured the attention of serious scientists and conspiracy theorists alike ever since they were first discovered in the early 1900s. The stones, much like the name suggests, seem to be moving, usually with long, clear tracks behind. For a long time, no one had a clue what made them do it, as the winds in the valley were hardly strong enough to move large boulders. Some people suggested aliens, though why aliens would show up unnoticed to move rocks in a remote valley in California called ‘Death’ valley was anyone’s guess.
That was until 2011, when two researchers – Richard D. Norris and his cousin James M. Norris – placed their own rocks with GPS devices, and recorded them for over two years. By late 2013, they had found the cause: a thin layer of ice that formed during the night in the winter months, and broke off during the day, causing the stones to slide off and leave tracks. On their best days, the rocks could move at speeds of over 15 feet per minute.
7. Inaccessible Island Rail
Inaccessible Island is an aptly-named island in the south Atlantic ocean – somewhere between the huge land masses of Africa and South America. It’s home to Atlantisia rogersi, a sub-species of rails endemic to the island, even if the bird really has no reason to be there.
While rails are known to be a diverse, widely spread out bird species found on every known continent (except Antarctica), how this one ended up on an island as remote as Inaccessible Island has puzzled biologists ever since it was first discovered in the late 1800s. According to one popular theory, it may have arrived through Atlantis before it was supposedly submerged, which is how it was named.
That was until November 2018, when a study conducted by researchers from Lund University in Sweden put the matter to rest. They used modern sequencing techniques to analyze the birds’ DNA, and were able to trace its origins back to a species found in South America around 1.5 million years ago.
6. The Tunguska Event
The Tunguska event refers to a major explosion that occurred in east Siberia, Russia back in 1908. According to local eye witnesses, it had all the signs of being an asteroid. The explosion was preceded by a giant ball of fire streaking across the sky before it exploded in the forest – killing a bunch of reindeer and flattening an estimated 80 million trees almost instantly – though no signs of a meteor were found by the first scientists to reach the site.
While the mystery has endured ever since, a study published in the journal Planetary and Space Science provides conclusive evidence that the explosion was, in fact, a meteorite. The researchers studied multiple samples from that time with modern techniques, and found traces of materials that could be only formed by a meteorite explosion. It seems to have disintegrated in the atmosphere as it was traveling at an angle, and may have been as big as a 25-story building!
5. How Do Owls Turn Their Head?
Almost all owl species can turn their heads back by as much as 270 degrees without consequence. If we tried that, we’d likely pass out and end up in the hospital due to severed arteries, and that’s if we’re lucky. It’s a distinct adaptation found in only a handful of other species – like tarsiers, a species of island-dwelling primates found across southeast Asia.
Evolutionarily speaking, it makes perfect sense, too. Owls are unable to move their eyes – as they’re fixed in one position – and rely on their head-turning abilities to look around. What we’ve never quite understood, though, are the anatomical mechanisms that allow that kind of movement.
The breakthrough study came in 2013, when researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore used the latest imaging techniques and other methods to map out the structure of three owl species found across the Americas. Their heads, it seems, are specifically designed to be turned to extremely high angles. The cavity in their neck that houses the primary artery is about ten times larger, allowing for immense maneuverability at times of extreme head-turning. They also have special reservoirs for blood just under their jawline for uninterrupted blood flow, preventing a stroke-like situation every time they’ve to turn their head and see what’s going on behind them.
4. The Windsor Hum
The Windsor hum was first reported in 2011, when the residents of the city of Windsor in Ontario, Canada suddenly started hearing a continuous, barely audible hum. In the years since, conspiracy theorists as well as serious scientists have floated multiple theories to explain it, though to little success.
The mystery lasted until April, 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced multiple factories across the US to stop production. That included a US Steel plant operating on Zug Island in Detroit, which was just across the river from Windsor. The hum, as it turns out, was coming from its overworked blast furnaces, which in turn shook the plant’s metallic foundation and produced a constant, low-frequency hum that can’t be easily detected. The sound went away as soon as the furnaces were shut down.
3. The Wow! Signal
In August 1977, astronomers stationed at the Big Ear observatory at Ohio State University recorded a radio signal that’s still cited as the only known evidence for the existence of alien life. Lasting exactly 72 seconds in duration, the signal was so strong that one of the astronomers present – Jerry Ehman – wrote ‘Wow!’ right next to the readings. Its frequency was the same as hydrogen, though they had no idea where it came from.
The mystery wasn’t solved until the end of 2016, when a team of astronomers looked at comets as a possible explanation, as comets tend to be surrounded by hydrogen clouds. Sure enough, they found two of them – P/2008 Y2(Gibbs) and 266/P Christensen – that were in the region at the time the signal was recorded, though both were still undiscovered. One of them – 266/P – even produced the same type of signals as the Wow! signal when they observed it from late 2016 to early 2017.
2. How Do Marine Mammals Breathe?
Aquatic mammals are able to hold their breath underwater for much longer periods of time than us, a fact that has perplexed scientists for a long time. Their lungs are, after all, the same as us, much like many other parts of their body. Yet, some whale species have been known to remain underwater for as long as over two hours, while the best most of us can do – unless you’re a world class swimmer or diver, or a Navy SEAL – is a few minutes.
It remained a mystery until 2013, when a group of researchers from the University of Liverpool decided that it was time to solve it. They studied the lungs of a variety of aquatic mammals – like whales, beavers, muskrats etc. – and found that they contain an unusually high amount of myoglobin – an oxygen-binding protein found in the lungs of all mammals. While large amounts of protein tend to stick together, the myoglobin molecules found in aquatic mammals carry a higher electrical charge than their land-based counterparts, allowing them to store a higher amount of oxygen and for longer periods of time.
1. Yeti
The mystery of the Yeti – a large humanoid, ape-like creature supposedly found in the upper reaches of the Himalayas – has gone through many twists and turns over the centuries. While stories of such a creature have existed in local folklore and anecdotal accounts for much longer – the Lepcha people even worship it as a god of the forest beasts – it became a globally-discussed phenomenon only in 1951, when a picture of its supposed footprint made headlines around the world.
Since then, mountaineers from all corners of the world have come forward with their own experiences with the Yeti, complete with what they claim are samples of Yeti hair, teeth, skin or other memorabilia.
The mystery has endured despite the fact that no such creature has ever been discovered in the region. In fact, when a team of researchers ran some of those samples through a DNA test, they found evidence of something far more dangerous and elusive as a possible explanation for all the Yeti sightings: bears. All of them were samples taken from Himalayan black or brown bear species, except one that came from a domestic dog.