The city of London has long been cloaked in intrigue, and our top 10 new roundup shines a fresh light on the capital’s most baffling enigmas—from centuries‑old plagues to phantom sightings and unsolved murders. As modern science and technology peel back layers of history, each revelation sparks even more questions, keeping the mystery alive.

Top 10 New London Mysteries Uncovered

10 What Really Caused The Great Plague?

During the 1660s, the Great Plague of London claimed the lives of more than a quarter of the city’s residents within an eighteen‑month span. For generations, the prevailing story blamed swarms of rats for the rapid spread, yet cutting‑edge DNA work now shows that theory doesn’t hold up.

In 2016, researchers from Museum of London Archaeology teamed up with the Max Planck Institute in Germany to analyse a cache of 3,300 skeletons unearthed near Liverpool Street. Their testing uncovered DNA from the bacterium Yersinia pestis in 42 of those remains, a finding that promises to reshape our understanding of how the disease surged across the capital.

Earlier investigations have already dismissed the long‑held belief that the Great Fire of 1666 halted the plague’s advance. Since the majority of the victims were living in the suburban outskirts at the time of the blaze, the fire could not have been the decisive factor in ending the epidemic.

9 Was Walter Sickert Really Jack The Ripper?

Among London’s most infamous unsolved cases, the legend of Jack the Ripper still dominates. The macabre killer terrorised East London in the late 1800s, spawning a museum in Whitechapel and a host of guided tours that trace his grisly trail.

German‑born painter Walter Sickert has been linked to the murders by “ripperologists” since the 1970s. In recent years, author Patricia Cornwell has become a fervent advocate for Sickert’s guilt, investing more than $7 million and publishing two books that tie him to the crimes. She argues that Sickert’s correspondence was penned on the same 24‑page stationery pack that matches a notorious Ripper letter, even sharing identical watermarks.

Cornwell also claims Sickert would dress up as the Ripper while creating his artworks and once told a confidante he would not mind “killing and eating raw flesh.” Her research places Sickert in Britain during at least three of the murders—contradicting his earlier claim of being in France—and suggests the death toll could be four times higher than traditionally believed.

8 Is There Really A Monster In The River Thames?

Everyone knows Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, but could a comparable creature be lurking beneath London’s River Thames? In 2016, a tourist riding the Emirates Air Line cable car near the O₂ spotted something decidedly “fishy” in the water. He quickly filmed a dark, double‑humped shape surfacing, sharing a 30‑second clip that sent ripple‑effects across social media.

The following day, another video surfaced showing a mysterious object near the Thames Barrier. Marine biologists admit they have no concrete explanation for the sighting, though some speculate it could be a whale or a pod of porpoises. Over the years, more than 2,000 seals and 450 porpoises and dolphins have been recorded in the river, yet Ian Tokelove of the London Wildlife Trust says the organization is “not aware of anything that large and moving in the Thames,” leaving the door wide open for speculation.

7 Why Was A Walrus Buried At St Pancras?

Experts have been puzzling over the discovery of a 4‑meter‑long (13‑ft) walrus skeleton hidden beneath St Pancras Church in 2003. The nine bone fragments were found inside a coffin alongside eight human remains and three skulls, all interred sometime between 1822 and 1854.

Recent scholarship suggests the walrus may have been used for medical research by one of the 40 anatomy schools operating in 19th‑century London, a theory supported by the presence of drilled holes in both the animal and human bones, indicating dissection. An alternative hypothesis posits that the walrus was imported for its valuable ivory tusks, though no definitive record explains how it arrived in Britain.

This isn’t the sole instance of animal remains surfacing in London graves. Excavations at the Royal London Hospital unearthed a menagerie of creatures—rabbit, cat, dog, horse, tortoise, and even two monkeys—interred alongside human skeletons, underscoring the city’s eclectic burial history.

6 Was Richard III Wrongfully Accused Of Murdering The Princes In The Tower?

The drama surrounding Richard III’s alleged murder of his nephews has echoed through Shakespearean verse and even the modern fantasy of Game of Thrones. Yet contemporary scholars increasingly question whether the king truly ordered the princes’ deaths.

The disappearance of Prince Edward and Prince Richard—collectively dubbed “the Princes in the Tower”—has confounded historians for centuries. In 1674, two skeletons were uncovered in the Tower of London, and for years many believed they belonged to the princes, even placing the bones in an urn at Westminster Abbey. However, the 2012 discovery of Richard III’s remains beneath a Leicester car park, coupled with DNA analysis, revealed no genetic link between the king and the Tower skeletons.

Some propose the remains are of Anglo‑Saxon origin, but the Church of England and the monarch have declined requests from the Richard III Society to examine them further, leaving the matter unresolved. Moreover, critics argue Richard III never publicly announced the princes’ demise nor displayed their bodies, casting doubt on his culpability.

5 Has Winston Churchill’s Ghost Been Spotted In The London Underground?

Ghostly sightings of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill have circulated through London’s tube stations since the 1980s. A 2016 photograph reignited the legend, capturing a spectral figure behind a passer‑by at Queensway station.

Welsh tourist Craig Cooper snapped the image, noting the bald apparition bore a striking resemblance to Churchill. The eerie resemblance has led many to claim the photo depicts the wartime leader’s lingering spirit haunting the underground.

4 Is There Really A Vampire At Highgate Cemetery?

Since the 1970s, rumors of a “Highgate Vampire” have terrified North Londoners. Witnesses report a floating, Victorian‑clad figure wearing a top hat drifting through the cemetery’s locked gates. The first documented sighting came from David Farrant of the British Psychic and Occult Society in 1969.

Adding to the lore, a charred, headless woman’s body was found nearby a year later. In 2016, a man recounted seeing the specter silently glide through a locked gate in 1991 while on his way to work. Declan Walsh described the phantom as over 183 cm tall, draped in a long black coat and a top hat. Legend claims the vampire is a medieval nobleman who practiced black magic in Romania, whose remains were transported to England in the 18th century, only to be awakened by modern‑day Satanists visiting the cemetery.

3 What Really Happened To Lord Lucan?

The 1970s disappearance of Lord Lucan, accused of murdering his children’s nanny and assaulting his wife, captured the nation’s imagination. For decades, his fate remained a mystery—until recent speculation offered fresh clues.

Novelist Peter James posits that Lucan’s aristocratic gambling circle, known as the Clermont Set, arranged his escape via a light aircraft to Montreux, Switzerland. However, when Lucan began hinting at contacting his children to reassure them of his safety, the group allegedly panicked and eliminated him “Mafia‑style,” burying his body in Switzerland to conceal their involvement.

In recent years, some commentators have even suggested Lucan may have been innocent of the murder charge, though this theory remains hotly debated among historians and true‑crime enthusiasts.

2 What Were Anne Boleyn’s Last Words Before She Was Executed?

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I, was executed at the Tower of London in 1536 for high treason, adultery, and incest. Over the centuries, historians have debated the exact words she uttered in her final moments.

Some accounts claim she declared, “I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here to die.” Others suggest she protested the charges, stating, “Everything they have accused me of is false, and the principal reason I am to die is Jane Seymour.” Yet another tradition records her saying, “Be not sorry to see me die like this.” Contemporary witnesses even reported that her lips continued to move for several seconds after the execution.

1 Who Was Jack The Stripper?

While Jack the Ripper dominates the public’s imagination, the Hammersmith district of London endured its own chilling spree in 1964‑1965, perpetrated by the elusive “Jack the Stripper.” Though officially credited with six victims, many suspect the killer may have claimed as many as eight lives.

All victims were female sex workers, discovered naked and strangled, with their teeth knocked out—a detail suggesting the murderer kept them as macabre trophies. One victim, 30‑year‑old Hannah Tailford, was found with her underwear forced into her mouth, while others bore faint specks of paint on their bodies.

Police interrogated roughly 120,000 witnesses and identified 26 suspects, yet the killer’s identity remains a conundrum. Theories range from a former Metropolitan Police officer to Mungo Ireland, a security guard who took his own life in 1965 after leaving a note reading, “I cannot stand the strain any longer.” The true mastermind may never be revealed.

Welcome to a whirlwind tour where 10 answers strange riddles about existence are unpacked with a dash of humor and a heap of science. From the staggering numbers of life that have ever walked our planet to the baffling notion of a living universe, we’ve gathered the most mind‑bending facts that will make you look at life—and death—in a whole new light.

10 Answers Strange Overview

10 How Much Life Has Ever Existed?

At present, humanity hovers just under eight billion souls, a figure that sounds massive until you realize it’s dwarfed by the roughly 100 trillion ants marching beneath our feet. Even more mind‑blowing is the estimate that a staggering five nonillion (that’s a 5 followed by thirty zeros) bacteria are buzzing around at any given moment. Trying to tally every living thing is a task that would make even the most ambitious mathematician gasp, and that’s only the cast of characters strutting around right now. What about the countless organisms that have come and gone over Earth’s 4.5‑billion‑year saga?

Scientists reckon that complex life has been throwing its hat into the cosmic ring for at least 570 million years. Fossils, however, are just the tip of the iceberg—most ancient remains lie buried, eroded, or otherwise out of reach. By cleverly correlating the fossil record with today’s known species, researchers estimate that a jaw‑dropping 99.9 percent of every species ever to exist has already vanished into oblivion.

The planet has endured five colossal mass‑extinction events in the past 400 million years, each wiping out more than 80 percent of life in a single, brutal sweep. Many scientists now warn that we’re barreling toward a sixth, with species disappearing a hundred times faster than in calmer epochs. In the last half‑century alone, human activity has eradicated roughly 60 percent of animal life, making death far more common than survival in today’s biosphere.

9 Is Life On Earth Of Alien Origin?

The prevailing scientific consensus holds that all Earth‑bound life shares a single ancestor—a humble, single‑celled organism that sparked a cascade of evolution through random chemical reactions on the early planet. While this narrative is solid, the exact recipe that cooked up life remains elusive, and lab attempts to recreate it have so far drawn blanks. One tantalizing hypothesis that could fill the gaps is lithopanspermia, a variant of the broader panspermia theory.

Lithopanspermia suggests that microbial hitchhikers rode on fragments of rock blasted from a neighboring world after a colossal impact. Those space‑borne stones, after enduring a brutal interplanetary journey, eventually crashed onto early Earth, delivering their microscopic cargo and jump‑starting the evolutionary marathon. The idea dates back centuries in French scientific circles, and while other origin stories dominate modern discourse, this extraterrestrial twist still sparks curiosity.

Compelling evidence backs the notion: simulations at Pennsylvania State University show that a rock packed with microbes could realistically survive ejection, travel, and landing on another planet. Though space is a hostile arena—radiation, vacuum, and extreme temperatures pose lethal threats—certain extremophiles thrive in the harshest earthly conditions and could, in theory, weather the cosmic gauntlet. Moreover, recent studies reveal that the elemental makeup of life on Earth mirrors the chemistry abundant in stars, especially toward the galactic core, implying that the very matter we’re built from has interstellar origins.

8 Is It Possible To Be Dead And Alive At The Same Time?

When we hear “dead and alive,” we might picture zombies or quantum super‑position, but the real intrigue lies in biology’s gray area. Scientists have long grappled with the exact line separating living from non‑living matter, proposing a set of seven criteria in 1997 that any organism should meet: complex chemistry, cellular structure, growth, reproduction, response to stimuli, metabolism, and adaptability.

Viruses sit squarely in the debate’s spotlight. They possess intricate genetic material and can evolve, ticking the boxes for complexity and adaptation. Yet they lack the ability to grow or generate their own energy, instead hijacking a host’s cellular machinery to replicate. They also aren’t cellular themselves, and their responsiveness to the environment is ambiguous. In short, viruses blur the living‑dead boundary, resembling machines more than traditional organisms.

Even non‑biological phenomena like fire have historically flirted with the criteria—exhibiting growth, response, and energy transformation—though they ultimately lack cellular organization. As our grasp of life’s fundamental processes deepens, we’ll continue refining the definition, pulling more oddities into the conversation.

7 How Much Does All Life Weigh?

From a cosmic viewpoint, Earth looks like a vibrant oasis swathed in green and blue. Yet when scientists attempted to weigh every carbon‑based organism, the result was astonishingly modest. In May 2018, a team of American researchers published a comprehensive biomass assessment, focusing on carbon because it underpins all known life.

Their calculations pegged the total carbon mass of living matter at roughly 550 gigatons—that’s 550 billion metric tons. When you compare that to Earth’s overall mass of about 6.57 billion gigatons, life’s weight shrinks to a mere one‑ten‑millionth of the planet’s heft. Plants dominate the tally, accounting for over 80 percent of the biomass, while humans constitute a scant 0.01 percent, despite our sprawling cities and infrastructure covering about three percent of the land surface.

This perspective underscores how life, though spectacularly diverse and influential, is physically a feather‑light coating on a massive sphere—yet its ecological and cultural impact far outweighs its minuscule mass.

6 Is The Universe Itself Alive?

Philosophers have long toyed with the notion that the cosmos might be a living entity. Hylozoism claims that all matter is alive, while panpsychism posits that even the tiniest particles possess a form of consciousness. Though these ideas fell out of favor after Darwinian evolution took center stage, recent scientific advances have revived interest in a sentient universe.

Some theorists suggest that consciousness could be woven into the fabric of reality itself. British physicist Roger Penrose argues that quantum processes within brain cells give rise to awareness, hinting that any structure harboring quantum fields—essentially everything—might support a rudimentary consciousness. Astrophysicist Bernard Haisch expands on this, proposing that the universe’s quantum fields could generate a universal mind.

Further intrigue comes from structural parallels: a 2005 study highlighted that the intricate web of matter in the universe mirrors neural networks in the brain. Additionally, the proportional distances between electrons, atoms, and planetary orbits echo each other, and certain stars appear to make unexpected orbital adjustments—a behavior that, if widespread, could hint at an underlying agency. While the evidence remains speculative, the idea of a living cosmos is more tantalizing than ever.

5 Is It The Same To Die As To Stop Living?

At first glance, death and the cessation of life seem identical, but history shows that our definition of death has evolved dramatically. In the 19th century, a person was declared dead once breathing stopped. A century later, the heartbeat became the decisive marker. Today, we recognize death as the point when irreversible cellular damage prevents the revival of vital functions.

Even after clinical death, remnants of life can persist. A 2017 international study discovered that, in certain animals, cells continue to battle for survival days after the organism’s demise. Some cell types even ramp up activity, attempting to repair DNA and synthesize new proteins. Stem cells, in particular, have been observed to linger for weeks post‑mortem, showcasing a remarkable resilience that blurs the line between life and death.

This mosaic of cellular persistence suggests that death isn’t an abrupt switch‑off but rather a gradual fading, with pockets of biological activity lingering long after the body appears lifeless. The more we learn, the fuzzier the boundary becomes.

4 Why Is Life So Diverse?

Scientists have cataloged nearly two million distinct species, ranging from a modest 5,000 mammals to an astonishing one million insects and 360,000 plant varieties. Yet estimates suggest up to two billion life‑forms may inhabit Earth, the majority long extinct. This begs the question: why such a kaleidoscope of life?

Life possesses an inherent drive to proliferate and diversify, especially after cataclysmic events. Each mass extinction wipes out a swath of organisms, but the survivors adapt, radiate, and fill new ecological niches. The Cretaceous‑Paleogene event, for instance, cleared the stage for mammals to explode in diversity. Moreover, ecosystems thrive on interdependence—plants, insects, and animals form intricate webs that bolster stability, encouraging specialization and coexistence.

In essence, whenever a crisis prunes the tree of life, the remaining branches grow back stronger and more varied. The very act of erasure fuels the engine of evolution, leading to the breathtaking biodiversity we observe today.

3 Which Organisms Have The Shortest And The Longest Life Spans?

Life‑span extremes are as diverse as the organisms themselves. Bacteria, which don’t grow in the classic sense, are measured by generation time—the interval before a cell divides. The bacterium Clostridium perfringens boasts a lightning‑fast generation of just 6.3 minutes, meaning it lives and reproduces in the blink of an eye.

Among animals, the mayfly Dolania americana epitomizes brevity. Its adult phase—when it’s fully formed—lasts a mere 30 minutes or less, during which it emerges, mates, and meets its inevitable end. On the opposite end, a giant clam discovered in Iceland in 2006 had been alive for an astounding 507 years, and could have persisted even longer if not harvested.

Plants also showcase longevity extremes. The bristlecone pine of California, over 5,060 years old, has stood sentinel since the dawn of recorded history. Conversely, fleeting “ephemeral” plants of the genus Boerhavia sprint through their entire life cycle in under four weeks, sprouting, flowering, and seeding before the season’s end.

2 What Would The Earth Be Like If Life Did Not Exist?

Although life constitutes a minuscule fraction of Earth’s total mass, its influence on planetary conditions is profound. Without photosynthetic organisms constantly pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, the current 21 percent oxygen level would collapse to trace amounts, leaving a CO₂‑dominated sky. This shift would trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, sending surface temperatures soaring.

Rising heat would melt polar ice caps, raising sea levels by tens of meters and inundating coastal regions. Landforms would erode rapidly, mountains would soften, and the planet’s overall topography would transform dramatically. In the long run, models predict surface temperatures could climb to around 290 °C (554 °F), boiling oceans and rendering Earth utterly uninhabitable.

Over millions of years, a thick veil of clouds would likely blanket the planet, amplifying the greenhouse effect and turning Earth into a Venus‑like furnace. Ironically, Venus—now a hellish world—may once have harbored liquid water and temperate conditions, reminding us how vital life is to planetary stability.

1 When Do We Start To Die?

The aging saga begins when our bodies can no longer keep pace with cellular turnover. While we produce new cells to replace the old, a tipping point arrives when cell death outstrips regeneration, and organ function starts to falter. In essence, death is the final chapter of a prolonged imbalance between cellular birth and demise.

Some poetic voices claim we begin dying the instant we’re born, but scientific evidence paints a more nuanced picture. Up until roughly age 25, our bodies manage a net gain in cell numbers, or at least maintain equilibrium. Around the mid‑twenties, the scales tip: cells start to die faster than they’re born, ushering in the gradual decline we recognize as aging.

Compounding this, studies show that around age 24, the brain’s processing speed begins to wane, further signaling the onset of biological aging. Thus, while the clock starts ticking early, the noticeable march toward mortality truly accelerates in our mid‑twenties.

Welcome to a whirlwind tour of 10 curious questions that many people never thought to ask, each paired with a clear, fascinating answer. Buckle up as we dive into the weird, the wild, and the wonderfully informative.

10 Curious Questions Unpacked

1 Smoker Coma And Cravings

If a smoker slips into a deep coma, the body begins to clear nicotine from the bloodstream. It takes roughly eight days for nicotine to vanish completely, taking the physical urge with it. Wake up after a longer coma and the chemical craving will be gone, although the habit‑forming mindset might still linger.

2 Burning Cigarette Tip Temperature

The ember at the tip of a cigarette can scorch up to a blistering 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit (about 700 degrees Celsius) when a smoker inhales. Between drags, the temperature cools noticeably, giving the smoker a brief respite before the next puff reignites the heat.

3 The Sun’s Final Countdown

When will the world meet its ultimate end? Barring any catastrophic events, scientists estimate that in about 4.4 billion years our Sun will exhaust its nuclear fuel, swelling into a red giant that will swallow the inner planets, effectively ending life as we know it.

4 Space Vacuum And The Last Breath

Imagine tumbling out of a spacecraft while holding your breath. The vacuum of space would cause severe lung damage almost instantly. You would lose consciousness in roughly 15 seconds, and without oxygen, death would follow shortly thereafter.

5 Porn Star Earnings Per Scene

Curious about the paycheck in adult entertainment? Performers typically earn anywhere from $50 to $1,500 per scene. Women generally command higher rates than men, and top‑tier stars can climb into six‑figure annual incomes.

6 Countries Where Prostitution Is Legal

Legal red‑light districts exist in several parts of the world. Notable examples include certain regions of Australia, specific counties in the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and a handful of other nations. For a comprehensive list, check the Wikipedia page on prostitution.

7 Timbuktu’s Geographic Home

Wondering where the legendary city of Timbuktu resides? It lies in the West African nation of Mali, perched on the edge of the Sahara Desert and famed for its historic trade routes.

8 Mail Order Bride Price Tag

The market for mail‑order brides carries a surprisingly specific price point. On average, the overall cost hovers around $5,000, covering introductions, travel, and associated fees.

9 Inventor Of The Modern Drink Can

The humble beverage can owes its existence to Ermal Fraze of Dayton, Ohio. He patented the pop‑top design in 1963 (U.S. Patent 3,349,949), revolutionizing how we enjoy sodas and beers.

10 Buttered Toast Cat Experiment

What happens if you tie buttered toast to a cat’s back and drop it? Cats possess a righting reflex that lets them land on their feet, while the toast myth suggests it always lands butter‑side down. In reality, the cat lands safely, and the toast’s orientation is pure superstition.

The world is a treasure chest of mysteries, and 10 questions make us stop, stare, and wonder. From 19th‑century pioneer drama to modern bio‑tech controversies, each query peels back layers of intrigue, inviting you to dive deep into history, science, and the uncanny. Buckle up for a whirlwind tour of ten thought‑provoking puzzles that will keep your brain buzzing long after you finish reading.

1 What Did Louis Keseberg Do

On April 14, 1846, the ill‑fated Donner Party set out from Illinois toward California, covering roughly 2,500 miles across plains, deserts, and mountain ranges. Their route, the so‑called Hastings Cutoff, promised a shortcut but delivered a longer, harsher path. Of the 87 travelers, 37 hailed from the Reed and Donner families, while German emigrants Louis and Philippine Keseberg joined the trek.

Journals kept by the pioneers frequently mention Louis Keseberg, and not in flattering terms. He was accused repeatedly of wife and child abuse, theft, malingering, and even murder. As the party struggled, severe snowstorms trapped them near Truckee Lake and Alder Creek, forcing the survivors to build makeshift shelters. By December 13, eight feet of snow lay over them; by mid‑January, food supplies were exhausted, and the grim reality set in: the dead were being cannibalized to stay alive.

When rescue parties finally arrived in February and April 1847, only Keseberg remained alive among the original group. He was found amidst dismembered bodies, a pot of human flesh simmering over a fire, George Donner’s pistols, jewelry, and $250 in gold hidden in his cabin. Though the rescuers threatened to lynch him, he was taken to California. Keseberg later sued a man named Ned Coffeemeyer for slander, winning a token $1 in damages—an official acknowledgment that his reputation was worth, at most, a single dollar. Throughout his life, more than ten of his children died under tragic circumstances.

2 Why Should You Avoid Grapefruit Juice When Taking Certain Drugs

Grapefruit and its juice may seem innocent, but they conceal a potent interaction with many oral medications. The fruit’s organic compounds inhibit the intestinal enzyme cytochrome P450 CYP3A4, which normally helps break down drugs during first‑pass metabolism. By blocking this enzyme, grapefruit can either boost a drug’s bioavailability—risking overdose—or diminish it—rendering treatment ineffective.

Notable drugs affected include sedatives, slow‑release formulations, ingested marijuana, Codeine, Valium, Norvasc, Pravachol, Cordarone, Viagra, Zoloft, Allegra, and Lipitor. Physicians prescribe dosages assuming a predictable absorption rate based on a patient’s weight and metabolism. Grapefruit’s interference can disrupt this balance, extending a drug’s half‑life or accelerating its clearance, leading to dangerous fluctuations in blood levels for up to 24 hours after consumption.

The interaction does not affect injected medications, only those taken orally. Therefore, anyone on the listed drugs should steer clear of large grapefruit servings or juice, especially when timing consumption with medication intake.

3 When Will Humans Be Pushed Into the Uncanny Valley

The uncanny valley hypothesis, rooted in robotics and AI, suggests that as artificial beings become increasingly human‑like, our emotional response grows more positive—up to a point. Once a robot’s appearance or behavior teeters just short of true humanity, we experience revulsion, discomfort, and even aggression.

This reaction stems from a paradox: the entity feels both familiar and alien. Imagine a lifelike robot staring at you in your living room; the subtle “almost‑human” cues trigger cognitive dissonance—simultaneously attracting and repelling you. The theory predicts a dip in empathy as realism peaks, followed by renewed acceptance only when the artificial being becomes indistinguishably human.

Designers of movies, video games, and consumer robots deliberately avoid crossing that valley, tweaking facial features, skin texture, and motion to stay on the positive side of the curve. As technology advances, the challenge will be to recognize when we’ve entered that eerie zone and adjust accordingly.

4 Who Is Behind the Superdollar

The “superdollar,” a high‑quality counterfeit $100 bill, has baffled authorities worldwide. Investigations point to organized crime syndicates and possibly state actors. The United States suspects North Korea as the primary source, citing defectors’ testimonies and intelligence linking the operation to Pyongsong’s Division 39. Alternate theories implicate Iran, Chinese criminal networks, or even covert CIA involvement.

These fake bills rival genuine currency in security features: red and blue fibers, security threads, watermarks, and intricate intaglio printing. Their production demands sophisticated inks, paper, and printing presses—technology typically beyond ordinary forgers.

U.S. sanctions have targeted suspected North Korean banks, such as Banco Delta Asia, and the Treasury has repeatedly warned about the superdollar’s impact on global finance. In 2004, a new U.S. $100 design featuring a 3‑D blue security stripe was delayed after a printing flaw produced 1.1 billion flawed notes, underscoring the ongoing battle between counterfeiters and official issuers.

5 Did Miniature Humans Populate Earth 12,000 Years Ago

In 2003, archaeologists exploring Liang Bua Cave on Indonesia’s Flores island uncovered a startling find: a collection of tiny hominid skeletons. Nine partial skeletons, including a complete cranium, revealed a species with human‑like traits but a diminutive stature—later dubbed Homo floresiensis, or “the Hobbit.”

Stone tools dating from 94,000 to 13,000 years ago accompanied the remains, indicating sophisticated craftsmanship despite the small body size. Anatomical analysis showed primitive features alongside derived ones: a lack of chin, a low humeral twist, thick leg bones, and unusually flat feet, suggesting a unique gait requiring deeper knee bends.

Scientists propose that a volcanic eruption on Flores around 12,000 years ago may have wiped out the Hobbit population, alongside megafauna like the dwarf elephant Stegodon. Unfortunately, many of the original fossils were damaged during later handling, hampering further study of this enigmatic branch of human evolution.

6 Why Are Humans Creating and Releasing Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

Operation Drop Kick, a 1956 U.S. entomological‑warfare test, released millions of yellow‑fever mosquitoes over Savannah, Georgia, and Avon Park, Florida, to assess the feasibility of using insects as biological weapons. Uninfected and diseased mosquitoes were dropped on unsuspecting residents, leading to fevers, encephalitis, and several deaths—experiments conducted without informing the public.

Decades later, biotechnology firm Oxitec engineered a genetically‑modified mosquito (OX513A) that carries a lethal gene preventing its offspring from surviving without a specific antibiotic. In 2009, millions of these GM mosquitoes were released on the Cayman Islands to curb dengue fever, sparking debate over the ecological impact of releasing engineered insects into the wild.

Proponents argue the approach could dramatically reduce disease‑bearing mosquito populations, while critics warn of unforeseen consequences for ecosystems and the potential for genetic material to spread uncontrollably.

7 How Did David Berg Convince Women That Flirty Fishing Was Acceptable

In 1968, David Berg founded the Children of God, a cult that blended apocalyptic Christianity with radical sexual practices. Berg’s “Flirty Fishing” doctrine encouraged women to use sexual allure to recruit men—interpreting Matthew 4:19 (“I will make you fishers of men”) as a literal call for “religious prostitution.”

Women were instructed to record “fruits” (sexual encounters) as proof of devotion, with the practice evolving into a full‑blown escort service that financed the group. The cult’s publications praised “loving sexually” as a way to demonstrate God’s love, while simultaneously discouraging birth control, leading to numerous pregnancies among members.

By 1987, the practice was abandoned amid the AIDS crisis, but its legacy—over 223,000 “fish” reportedly recruited—remains a stark example of how charismatic leadership can manipulate sexuality for ideological and financial gain.

8 Who Died at Skeleton Lake

High in the Indian Himalayas sits Roopkund, a glacial lake perched at 5,029 meters. In 1942, trekkers discovered a macabre scene: over five hundred human skulls, bones, and artifacts scattered around the icy basin, earning it the nickname “Skeleton Lake.”

Initial theories blamed disease, landslides, or blizzards. However, a 2004 archaeological survey revealed severe head trauma, suggesting a sudden, massive hailstorm—hailstones as large as tennis balls—caught the unprotected travelers off guard.

DNA analysis dated the remains to around AD 850, predating earlier estimates by centuries. Intriguingly, the skeletal collection comprised two distinct groups: one of shorter stature, the other significantly taller. The exact identities, origins, and purpose of these travelers remain a mystery, fueling ongoing speculation.

9 How Many Humans Were Left on Earth After the Toba Supereruption

Lake Toba in Sumatra marks the site of a colossal volcanic eruption 69,000–77,000 years ago, classified as a VEI‑8 event—the largest known in the past 25 million years. Ash fell across South Asia, and the eruption likely triggered a volcanic winter lasting six to ten years.

The “Toba catastrophe theory” posits that this climatic shock slashed the global human population to as few as 10,000 individuals, or perhaps only 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a genetic bottleneck that shaped modern Homo sapiens. This bottleneck is thought to have occurred in Central Eastern Africa and India.

However, recent research challenges the severity of the bottleneck, suggesting that while the eruption was massive, its impact on human numbers may have been less drastic than once believed. Ongoing DNA studies continue to refine our understanding of this pivotal moment in our species’ history.

10 How Would Your Life Be Different If Adolf Hitler Died in 1936

Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, quickly instituting oppressive laws, forming the Hitler Youth, and enacting anti‑Jewish legislation. By 1935, Jews were stripped of citizenship, and by 1938, the regime’s expansionist policies led to the annexation of Austria and the occupation of much of Europe.

If Hitler had died in 1936, the Nazi hierarchy might have fractured, potentially averting or altering the course of World War II. The United States’ involvement, the Holocaust, and the geopolitical landscape of the 20th century could have unfolded very differently, reshaping modern society in ways we can only speculate.

Considering such a counter‑factual scenario underscores how a single individual’s actions can ripple through history, affecting millions of lives and the very fabric of global politics.

We all love the idea that science has cracked every puzzle, yet the reality is that 10 easy questions still elude even the brightest minds. Even in 2025, with rockets landing on distant moons and AI writing poetry, there are mysteries that remain stubbornly unsolved. Let’s dive into the most baffling enigmas that keep researchers up at night.

Why These 10 Easy Questions Matter

10 How Does Turbulence Work?

Everyone has endured that bone‑shaking moment when the captain’s voice crackles over the intercom, urging everyone to fasten their seatbelts because the plane is hitting severe turbulence. Despite its crucial role in aviation safety, the exact physics behind turbulent flow remain a gray area. Even Albert Einstein reportedly quipped, “Before I die, I hope someone will clarify quantum physics for me. After I die, I hope God will explain turbulence to me.”

The difficulty stems from the fact that turbulence often appears in environments where extreme pressure and rapid chemical reactions coexist—think jet engines—making it a nightmare to reproduce in a lab. If we could finally decode its mechanics, the payoff would be massive, from better weather forecasting to the ability to predict hurricanes with pinpoint accuracy, giving humanity a real edge over nature’s chaos.

9 Why Do Cats Purr?

While many assume a cat’s purr is simply a sign of contentment, the truth is far more complex. Cats lack a dedicated purring organ; instead, the sound emerges from rapid movements of the laryngeal muscles, a theory that still lacks definitive proof. Researchers have discovered that the frequency of a cat’s purr falls within a range that can stimulate bone regeneration, hinting at a possible healing function that we’re only beginning to fathom.

This hidden benefit may explain why humans associate the sound with happiness—because it not only soothes the cat but also has a subtle, positive impact on our own bodies. The precise neurological pathways that generate the purr remain a mystery, keeping felines at the top of the list of unsolved biological phenomena.

8 What Causes Hypnic Jerks?

Ever been on the brink of sleep only to feel a sudden, involuntary jolt that snaps you awake? That startling sensation is known as a hypnic jerk, and it’s something virtually everyone experiences. Scientists have proposed a handful of theories, but none have been conclusively proven.

One popular hypothesis suggests that our ancestors, who may have slept perched on tree branches, developed this reflex to prevent a dangerous fall. Modern research, however, finds little evidence to back this claim. Another theory points to the brain’s gradual shutdown of motor control as we drift into slumber, leading to a brief misfire that feels like a tumble. Yet, the exact trigger remains elusive.

7 How Exactly Do Magnets Work?

Magnetism is a universal force we observe daily, from fridge magnets to massive planetary fields, yet its deeper origins still puzzle physicists. Charged particles generate magnetic fields, but why these fields align neatly into north and south poles is not fully understood.

Researchers range from saying “it’s just one of those things” to diving into quantum‑level particle behavior. MIT even runs a dedicated lab to study magnetism in isolation. While we know particles tend to line up, amplifying their magnetic effect, the fundamental reason they emit a magnetic field in the first place remains a subject of intense debate.

6 Why Do Giraffes Have Long Necks?

It’s tempting to think that giraffes’ towering necks gave them a clear evolutionary edge, but the science community hasn’t reached a consensus. Some argue that the extra height doesn’t necessarily grant a feeding advantage; rather, giraffes seem more interested in leaf type than leaf height.

One hypothesis proposes that the elongated neck became a sexual selection trait, a visual cue to attract mates, yet concrete evidence is scant. Another suggests that the neck grew simply to match longer legs, a theory that leans heavily on visual observation rather than rigorous data. The true driver behind this iconic adaptation remains a mystery.

5 Why Do Birds Migrate?

Birds undertake astonishingly long journeys each year, yet the precise mechanisms they use to navigate remain only partially understood. While we know they travel to lay eggs or escape harsh winters, the internal GPS they rely on is still a subject of active research.

Scientists believe birds employ a suite of compasses—stellar, solar, and geomagnetic—to guide themselves. However, a simple compass can only point direction; it can’t provide the exact coordinates of a distant breeding ground. Species like the cuckoo, which lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, seem to possess an uncanny ability to find the exact location without external assistance, baffling even seasoned ornithologists.

4 What Causes Gravity?

Newton laid the groundwork for our understanding of gravity over three centuries ago, yet the force still holds secrets. While we can measure its effects with astonishing precision, the particle that should mediate gravity—the graviton—remains undetected.

Gravity is paradoxically the weakest of the four fundamental forces, yet it dominates on cosmic scales, binding galaxies together. This disparity makes it notoriously difficult to study in a laboratory setting, and the exact nature of why mass warps spacetime to create a gravitational pull continues to elude physicists.

3 How Do We Store And Retrieve Memories?

Our brains are marvels of biology, yet the way they archive and later summon memories is still a profound mystery. Scientists know that many regions—like the hippocampus, cortex, and amygdala—play roles, but the precise circuitry that encodes a specific experience remains hazy.

When a cue triggers a recollection, a vast network of neurons fires in concert, weaving together sensory, emotional, and contextual data. Despite advances in neuroimaging, the exact pathways that allow us to retrieve a single memory from the vast mental library are still under investigation.

2 Why Do Women Go Through Menopause?

Menopause seems to defy the basic evolutionary rule that organisms should reproduce as long as possible. Women typically cease fertility around age 45‑50, and scientists have yet to pinpoint a definitive reason for this abrupt halt.

The “grandmother hypothesis” suggests that post‑reproductive women increase the survival odds of their grandchildren, but this benefit appears modest compared to the direct advantage of bearing more children. Only a few other species—such as certain whales—exhibit a similar reproductive cessation, making human menopause a rare and puzzling phenomenon.

1 What Are Dreams?

Dreaming is a universal experience, yet its purpose remains hotly debated. Some argue that dreams are random neural firings with no real function, while others propose that they serve deeper psychological roles, perhaps processing emotions or rehearsing scenarios.

One line of thought suggests that dreams act as a safety valve for thoughts we suppress during waking hours, such as taboo fantasies. Yet many modern neuroscientists lean toward the idea that dreams reflect symbolic representations of subconscious processes, though the exact meaning continues to elude consensus.

Check out Himanshu’s work over at Cracked or say hi to him on Twitter.

Better Call Saul finished its six-season run earlier this year, making its mark as one of the few TV prequel shows to be considered as good as (or better than) the parent show. Whereas Breaking Bad was a thrill ride of non-stop action, cliffhangers, and plot twists, Better Call Saul was one of the finest character dramas of its era. Not that Better Call Saul didn’t occasionally ratchet up the tension to Breaking Bad levels, but it was mostly lauded for its slow and contemplative pace that allowed for details of the Breaking Bad universe to be painted in.

Even with all the background and character development we saw over 14 years of Breaking Bad, its sequel movie El Camino, and Better Call Saul, there are still some things we’ve been left to wonder about. Here are 10 of those plot points that weren’t explained, leaving the viewer free to theorize about what happened.

A couple of notes before we get started. Bob Odenkirk’s character will be referred to as both Jimmy and Saul, depending on the persona he was using at the time. And spoiler warning—if you’re not caught up on the Breaking Bad universe, major spoilers are to follow.

Related: Top 10 Real-Life Crimes Inspired by the Hit Show Breaking Bad

10 What Happened in Gus Fring’s Past?

Introduced as the ultimate supervillain in Breaking Bad, Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) was at first a business partner to Walter White (Bryan Cranston) but later his mortal enemy. Once Gus was done with Walt, he expressed no qualms about eliminating him, leading to a cat-and-mouse game that left Walt victorious. One of Better Call Saul’s greatest accomplishments was humanizing Gus and getting the audience to root for him in his war against the Salamanca family. But even though we got to know Gus a lot better in the prequel, his past in his home country of Chile is still a major mystery.

The lack of information about Gus’s past was first established in Breaking Bad when the DEA brought him in for questioning. Agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) questions Gus why there’s no record of his existence before the mid-1980s. Gus plays that off as a side effect of Chile being war-torn and in disarray during the Pinochet regime, but Hank remains suspicious. We later find out that Gus fought in that war with Peter Schuler, the German man who is the head of the fast food division of Madrigal (and that the two use Madrigal resources to distribute meth worldwide). A scene in the Better Call Saul episode “JMM” made clear they faced death together in the war, and making it out alive together forged a lifelong bond.

Fans theorize that growing up in poverty (which Gus did confirm in a few lines of dialogue) and the war turned Gus into the calculating criminal mastermind we came to know. But as far as details, we know as much as the DEA.^[1]

9 What Happened to the Kettlemans?

Appearing in the very first episode, white-collar criminals Craig and Betsy Kettleman (Jeremy Shamos and Julie Ann Emery) were major players in the first season of Better Call Saul. Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), the lawyer later to be known as Saul Goodman, hopes to break away from the low pay of public defender work and start his own practice by convincing the Kettlemans to retain him. In the end, Betsy declines because Jimmy seems like the type of lawyer “that guilty people hire.” This line, and its effect on Jimmy’s self-esteem, set in motion the series of events that leads to Saul Goodman becoming the most notorious “criminal lawyer” in America.

Given their importance to the birth of the Saul Goodman alter ego, fans were thrilled to see the Kettlemans return early in the final season. After Craig has served his prison sentence for embezzlement, he and Betsy are now running a tax filing service (and scamming seniors out of their tax refunds). One of the most striking things about their place of business is the giant Statue of Liberty inflatable on top of the building, which would later find a home at the law office of Saul Goodman and Associates.

So, how did Saul acquire the Statue of Liberty? Were the Kettlemans busted again for their financial crimes, leaving the inflatable up for sale? Or did Saul take them on as clients to keep them from getting caught and take Lady Liberty as payment? Something happened, but we’ll have to guess just what it was.^[2]

8 How Did Saul Acquire His Cadillac?

With vanity license plates reading LWYRUP, Saul’s white Cadillac was one of the props most closely associated with him. For the majority of Better Call Saul, Jimmy drives a decidedly less-glamorous and run-down Suzuki Esteem. In the classic season 5 episode “Bagman,” Jimmy goes on a dangerous trip into the desert in the Esteem to collect $7 million of cartel money so that Lalo Salamanca can be bailed out of jail. The Esteem never makes it out of the desert. In the same episode, at the Salamance headquarters, a blood-stained white Cadillac is cleaned up.

It seems reasonable to assume this Cadillac will eventually become Saul’s, perhaps as payment for representing the cartel in court at some point. However, Better Call Saul never filled in any more details on this. The first time we see the Cadillac with the LWYRUP plates is a scene set after the events of Breaking Bad when the FBI seizes the car.^[3]

7 How Is Skyler and Marie’s Relationship These Days?

A lot of the tension in Breaking Bad came from the fact that Walt was DEA agent Hank’s brother-in-law, with Hank spending much of the series just about to discover that Walt was the meth kingpin he was looking for. They were related by way of being married to sisters: Skyler (Walt’s wife) and Marie (Hank’s wife). The relationship was always a bit fraught between the sisters, with a sibling rivalry ongoing through much of the series.

In the Breaking Bad finale, Walt gives Skyler the GPS coordinates where the bodies of Hank and his work partner, fellow agent Steve Gomez, can be found. Walt encourages Skyler to use the information to secure a deal that will absolve her of her prosecution for her part in Walt’s crimes. Near the end of Better Call Saul, Saul’s legal assistant, Francesca, mentions that Skyler did indeed get her deal.

So one is left to wonder just how well Marie took hearing the news of this deal. In the final episode of Better Call Saul, we see that Marie was not happy that federal prosecutors were willing to negotiate a deal with Saul. One can only imagine how she felt about her sister getting a deal by trading the location of her dead husband.^[4]

6 Does Kim Ever Return to Practicing Law?

The breakout performance in Better Call Saul was by Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, the smart and savvy lawyer who starts the series as Jimmy’s friend and later girlfriend, wife, and finally, ex-wife. While spending much of the early run of the show as the moral counterpoint to Jimmy’s cutting corners and skirting the boundaries of the law, Kim eventually finds herself wrapped up in the scams and misdeeds that gave birth to the Saul Goodman persona.

That is, until someone gets hurt. After Kim and Jimmy work a convoluted scheme to discredit their colleague Howard Hamlin, Howard ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time and is murdered. Unable to cope with this guilt, Kim gives up being a lawyer and breaks up with Jimmy.

Given Kim’s passion for the law and how good she was at being a lawyer, fans naturally rooted for her to return to practice. But by the end of the show, the closest she came was volunteering at a legal aid center. Still, it’s hard to believe that she wouldn’t try to join the bar again at some point.^[5]

5 Will Howard’s Wife Pursue Legal Action?

As part of Kim’s atonement for Howard’s death—which saw her giving up her law license—she also confessed to Howard’s wife, Cheryl. This included the schemes she and Jimmy perpetrated to sully Howard’s reputation and how Lalo shot and killed Howard. While confession is indeed good for the soul, Cheryl accurately pointed out that her confession opened the door for Kim to be held legally liable for her misdeeds.

But will she actually pursue legal action? The last we hear is in the final episode, when Saul’s standby counsel, Bill Oakley, informs him that word on the street in Albuquerque is that Cheryl is looking for a good lawyer. So maybe we’re meant to think Kim will be taken to court. But whether this does happen, or if there will be any consequences for Kim, is left to our imagination.^[6]

4 Does Jesse Stay on Track in Alaska?

While the entirety of the Breaking Bad universe could be described as a neo-Western set in modern times, that description especially applies to the sequel movie El Camino. The film follows Walt’s old meth-cooking partner, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), as he tries to avoid his enemies and law enforcement while raising enough money to pay identity broker Ed (Robert Forster) to set him up with a new life in Alaska. It’s a real “loner hero on the run in the American West” story like many classic Westerns.

In the end, Jesse is successful, and Ed gets him to Alaska. But we have to wonder, what’s next? It’s entirely conceivable that Jesse will do his best to avoid breaking the law and make the most of his new life. But at the same time, the Better Call Saul scenes set post-Breaking Bad show us that living under a new identity in a new place without falling into old habits can be hard. Given Jesse’s history of drug abuse, we hope he can stay on track, but we do wonder.^[7]

3 What Happens to the Albuquerque Criminal Underworld?

Across two TV series and a sequel movie, we really became acquainted with the criminal underworld in Albuquerque. When we were introduced to Saul Goodman and his PI, Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks), in Breaking Bad, it was clear that they had all the connections. Better Call Saul gave us an interesting backstory here, showing that Mike first made a lot of those connections via the veterinarian Dr. Caldera. In the final season, Dr. Caldera lets Jimmy know he will retire from his post as an underworld organizer, and his “little black book” full of criminal contacts is up for sale.

This is the same little black book that we see Saul use in Breaking Bad, so we know he did acquire it from Dr. Caldera at some point. And in Better Call Saul, we find out that the FBI tossed the book into a box when they raided Saul’s house and seized his property. With Dr. Caledera, Saul, Mike, and most of the other criminal elements we got to know all gone by the end of the Breaking Bad timeline, this leaves an opening for a new criminal ringleader. But as to who that could be, any guess is as good as another.^[8]

2 What Became of Lyle?

Gus Fring’s front for his meth empire was his chain of chicken restaurants, Los Pollos Hermanos. And he had no more loyal employee than Lyle. When Gus was called out of work to handle more unsavory business, he was always sure to turn over running the store to Lyle. And unfortunately for Lyle, this also meant that Gus would occasionally take out his frustrations on his most loyal employee.

Lyle never seemed to mind, his dedication to Los Pollos Hermanos and Gus never wavering. So one has to wonder… after Gus died and the chicken franchise was no more, how did Lyle recover? Did he go work fast food somewhere else? Was he even able to recover from the loss of Gus? We’ll truly never know.^[9]

1 How Did Jimmy Get Chuck’s Time Machine Book?

The final episode of Better Call Saul heavily featured a time machine motif. Jimmy/Saul is seen having conversations in flashbacks with three of the most important associates in his life, all discussing regrets and what they would do if they could go back in time. His conversations with Mike and Walt directly pose the time machine question; his talk with his brother Chuck (Michael McKean) dances around the topic until we see Chuck is reading a copy of H.G. Wells’s novel The Time Machine.

Earlier in season 6, we see that Jimmy had this exact same copy at the apartment he shared with Kim. This leads us to wonder how he acquired it since Chuck died in a fire that destroyed the entirety of his house. So just how was Jimmy able to retrieve The Time Machine book? He clearly hung onto it to remember Chuck, but how did the book survive the fire? Did Jimmy actually have a time machine all along and go back to get the book? It’s just another of those details that we’ll never have an answer for.^[10]

The Harry Potter universe captured the imaginations of children and adults around the world, and continues to do so with spin-off material. The idea of a world where magical people not only exist under our feet, but use their own way of doing things and eschew most modern technology is certainly a novel idea. However, it also raises a lot of interesting questions about the world itself due to the way they interact with magic and technology, and there are some fascinating unanswered questions around many of the characters as well. 

10. Would A Gun Be Something Lord Voldemort And Other Wizards Are Prepared For? 

This is something that has bugged many fans for some time, and is a question that may never be entirely put to rest. We all know that Voldemort hates technology of all kinds, despises Muggles, and thinks them stupid and incapable. However, the question is: how much he has researched how to protect himself, even though he thinks them that idiotic? In Prisoner of Azkaban, a man named Sirius Black escapes, and an ad sent out to the Muggles calls a wand a “gun.” Later on in the book, someone from a wizarding family refers to a gun as “a kind of metal wand Muggles use to kill each other.” In other words, he has absolutely zero clue how it works. 

Now, this leads people to wonder if Voldemort, or for that matter any wizard of consequence, is prepared for this kind of threat. A bullet fires very quickly, so many people would argue even a prodigious wizard would hardly even be able to get off a nonverbal spell with a quick hand gesture in time. However, if Voldemort knew about the threat properly, he may have some kind of spell that keeps him constantly shielded from such Muggle threats. It’s also possible he simply underestimates Muggles and does not imagine ever being in a situation where he could be threatened by them, or their technology. 

9. Did Dumbledore Hide His Homsexuality Because It Was A Stigma, Or For Other Reasons? 

In an interview after the seventh book had already been published, J.K. Rowling shocked much of the world by telling the audience that the wizard who wore high-heeled boots and flamboyant purple robes was gay. Many parents were upset because it challenged their personal views, and others were simply upset because they felt she was changing a character after the fact. Now, the truth is that Rowling always planned for him to be gay — we know now that he was in love with the dark wizard Grindelwald. 

However, you don’t need that as evidence to know this was not a retcon. All of the hints were already there long ago, and many of the more well-read fans were not at all surprised. The question many fans had was why Dumbledore seemed to keep it a secret in the books. Now, some might suggest it simply wasn’t brought up, but Dumbledore seems to take flirtatious comments from women occasionally in the books, and he tries to politely deflect without being too flirty back. This would suggest these women were not aware. Now, the question is whether wizards have an issue with homosexuality, or perhaps Dumbledore just hid it because he didn’t want anyone to ever realize his romantic connection to Grindelwald.

8. Did Professor Umbridge, Being Evil In Every Other Way, Also Torture Her Cats? 

Professor Umbridge is one of the most evil characters introduced in the stories. She starts out abusing schoolchildren and making one of them repeatedly scar his hand by writing in his own blood, and eventually graduates to a point in the series where she is in charge of an inquisition to root out people who are not pureblood wizards, and have their souls sucked out by dementors. She takes absolute joy in this job, and has a dark and vicious glee in her voice as she repeatedly mocks people and claims they “are not really wizards” and never have been, because they are not pureblood. At the end of the series, she was apparently tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity, but some people may wonder more about the fate of her cats. 

In the Harry Potter stories, we learn that Umbridge has a lot of cat pictures, and likes to display them regularly. This is a woman who likes to keep her surroundings absolutely pristine, and has a nasty personality that can be both passive aggressive — and just plain aggressive — depending on her mood and the situation. It’s hard to imagine such a woman being kind to animals, or putting up with any mess they might make. And according to secondary sources Umbridge hated the cleanup and mess. However, if she learned to hate the mess, did she at one time try to care for live cats? And what kind of horrible person would she have been to a live animal? 

7. Were The Dursleys Evil Because Of The Piece Of Voldemort Inside Harry? 

Some people have pointed out that, in the final book, Ron got upset and awful because he was wearing a horcrux, and that even Hermione and Harry got more irritable while it was on them for an extended period of time. We also know that Harry himself was a horcrux. This has brought some people to speculate that the Dursleys were so evil, and so mean, because Harry — being a horcrux — brought out the worst in them. 

To its detriment, the house was supposed to be well defended magically to protect Harry, so it is hard to imagine how much even seeping influence his presence could have over time. It also begs the question of how the horcrux didn’t turn Harry’s dorm-mates evil or nasty, over time, simply by being around him. In support, though, it is possible it just amplifies existing traits. If Harry’s roommates were normal people it would have no undue influence on them; however, Ron — in a state of heavy resentment while wearing one regularly — could not take the pressure. And the Dursleys were already said to be pretty nasty people, but it does seem plausible that Voldemort’s presence within Harry could have helped amplify their already evil traits. 

6. Should Hermione Have Really Gone With Ron, Harry, Or Someone Else Entirely? 

Not long ago, J.K. Rowling both shocked the world and made a lot of people facepalm by suggesting that Hermione should not have wound up with Ron because she would simply never be happy longterm with him, and should have gone with Harry instead. Now, Rowling is being a little silly here because, well… she already wrote it one way. And also, if Harry goes with Hermione this kind of leaves Ginny out in the cold. Even sillier, it was Rowling herself who used to adamantly be against all of the ‘shippers who kept claiming it should really be Harry and Hermione up until the end. 

Now, she claims she wants to change the outcome of her own story, but just like Rowling herself not being happy with the ending, perhaps the real answer here is that Hermione would not have been truly happy with either of them, or perhaps anyone in the books. Hermione likes being around people to an extent, and she likes having friends and she can talk up a storm, but overall she is a loner and a bookish type. She likes to study, learn and succeed on her own and she is incredibly invigorated by working alone. Such an introverted person, who would also run circles around most people in the room in terms of intelligence, would likely find it difficult to really get along with anyone long term as a partner. Perhaps somewhere deep down, Rowling knows this, because there are a lot of similarities between her and Hermione. 

5. Can Anything Ever Really Redeem Severus Snape For Being So Unapologetically Evil? 

Some people like to romanticize Severus Snape, partly because he was played by a man who was truly kind and charming in real life. Also, people tend to see Snape’s final memories in the story and come away with a touching picture, while many of us just see the sad, wasted life of a messed up person. The memories show Snape knew Lily from a young age, always loved her, and fought Voldemort all along (in secret) in order to keep his love of Lily alive, and even sacrificed a few times to protect Harry himself. 

However, the truth is that Snape was not just a tortured lover — who “lost” a girl he never even had — and used that love to bring him back to the “good side.” He was nasty, and Dumbledore used him to get as much good out of him as he could, but he was never a “good” man. Rowling herself has been pretty clear on this, but some people do not seem to get it. He claimed he loved Lily, but it was a selfish, evil, possessive (and extremely one-sided) love, because he did not truly care about her wishes or her memory. No one could say a mother would want her son abused in such a way, simply because his father was a different man than the man who once courted her. This doesn’t mean he was pure evil, though, and Rowling has said as much. But can any sacrifice make up for so much awful behavior? 

4. What Exactly Happens To The Soul That A Dementor Eats, And What Is Your Afterlife Fate? 

In Harry Potter, we learn in the third installment about horrible beings called dementors. They suck the happiness out of the air around them, and it slowly makes you weaker and weaker. They feed on your despair and sadness, and if they manage to get close enough to you and truly grab a hold of you with their rotting hands, they can give you something called the “dementor’s kiss” where they literally suck out your soul. Now, perhaps to not scare children, Rowling doesn’t really go into details here, so we are left to speculate. 

We know that the afterlife exists in Harry Potter — Sirius Black accidentally enters it through a one way curtain in the fifth book, but that still leaves a lot of details unclear, especially when it comes to dementors. Is the soul “killed” and sent on to the afterlife? Or is it somehow consumed and actually destroyed? Is the person in question killed, their body now just being a husk, or is there some kind of life to it now, being only an animal existence? While it is a kids’ series, and we cannot expect Rowling to address these things in too much detail, it would be interesting to know how it is all really supposed to work. 

3. Did Snape Hate Neville For Being Weak, And A Gryffindor, Or For More Insidious Reasons?

In the early Harry Potter books, we quickly notice that apart from picking on Harry for being himself, and picking on Hermione for being a know-it-all, Snape really seems to enjoy tearing Neville Longbottom into tiny little bits and dissolving him into tears on a regular basis. Now, most people always assume that this was just because Neville was clumsy and stood out as an annoying and awkward Gryffindor, and many of us went through the entire series believing this. But some have read more closely and noticed something interesting that makes Snape even more despicable as a human being. 

In the fifth book, we learn about a prophecy that caused Voldemort to think Harry would have the power to destroy him, so he attempted to murder Harry and his entire family. We also learn this prophecy could have also applied to Neville, but it ended up applying to Harry instead because Voldemort essentially chose Harry as his nemesis. Snape was always well aware of this, and it may have driven his insane hatred of Neville. If Neville’s parents had been attacked, Lily would never have been killed, and if Harry hadn’t been born, Lily wouldn’t have been killed either. According to this theory, as far as Snape was concerned, Neville and Harry were both to blame, with the bonus of Harry being half the kid he wanted to have with Lily, but looking so much like the man who got to be with her instead. What this meant to Snape, of course, was that both boys needed to be systematically punished for as long as they were in his power. 

2. Does The Ministry Know, Or Care, How Ridiculous Their Underage Magic System Is?

In the second Harry Potter installment, we find Harry dealing with a visit from some people Uncle Vernon is trying to get a big drill contract with, and Harry himself being hustled out of sight. A house elf who wants him to stay away from Hogwarts gets him into big trouble with both his aunt and uncle, and the Ministry of Magic as well, by making it look like he used magic in the house. The Ministry warns him that if he uses underage magic again without permission, they will boot him from school. This makes things even worse for him, as he then gets punished severely with his aunt and uncle knowing he cannot retaliate against them with magic. 

Now, Harry is aggrieved because he did not actually use magic, and wonders if the system is not actually very well designed. He later finds out that he is entirely correct. It turns out that the Ministry’s system cannot actually tell who used the magic, just that it was used in the household. That means — presumably — if it was a wizarding household, you could get away with underage magic all the time and no one would ever know. The only people who would get caught are orphans, and they are the ones most likely to panic and use magic because they are vulnerable and have no one to protect them. Instead of sending a Ministry representative to ask why an underage child in a non-wizarding household was using magic, they just send a letter and threaten expulsion after just one little levitation charm. 

1. Is There Any Way To Force Someone To Make An Unbreakable Vow?

In the Harry Potter novels, we learn early on about something called the unbreakable vow. Two people clasp hands while holding their wands and go through an oath about their actions. The vow is literally unbreakable, in that if you cannot find a way out of the wording and you break the oath, you simply die. Ron mentions once that when he was a little kid, his older brother Fred almost got him to do one, and then his mom noticed and came and gave his older brother a spanking he would never forget. We are never told what he wanted him to agree to in this oath. Snape also takes an oath in book six, agreeing to kill Dumbledore if needed instead of Draco — something Snape had already agreed to with Dumbledore in the first place. 

However, apart from these instances, we don’t really know much else about it. It seems unlikely that using the imperius curse would work to force someone into an unbreakable vow, but other methods seem plausible. A big question would be how much the vow “understands” intent, as it talks about Ron being almost tricked into it as a very young child. Also, we don’t know how smart magic is, and whether the spell would recognize conditions of duress or not. Obviously the imperius curse would not work or a dark wizard would have tried that one, but what about simply waving a gun in someone’s face, or threatening their family? Would the unbreakable vow allow such threats to work, and give you life and death control over another human being?

The universe is big. So big, in fact, that even if we learn how to travel at the speed of light and solve all other problems with space travel, we’d still only be able to explore a tiny fraction of what we can currently observe. Of course, even that seems like a thing of the distant, unforeseeable future right now, as our best, most-advanced tools of space exploration today barely allow us to scratch the surface of our own Solar System, let alone the entire universe. 

What our tools can finally do, though, is consistently discover entirely new things that we don’t yet understand. Mounting research is proving that the universe is far from the cold, empty void that we once thought it to be. From weird, scary planets beyond our reach to baffling things going on inside our own galaxy, it’s full of a mind-boggling variety of mysteries and phenomena we just can’t explain…

10. Time

Albert Einstein made quite a few groundbreaking discoveries throughout his career, though his most important contribution to science was his theory of relativity. Contrary to the absolute positions of space and time in Newtonian physics, in Einstein’s view, neither exists without the other, and both are relative to each other as well as the observer. 

While it revolutionized the field of science, it also elevated time from a seemingly uniform dimension of reality to something far more complex. If time is relative and has no meaning outside the fabric of spacetime, then, what exactly is time? 

For now, we can’t say for sure. In fact, we don’t even know if time exists as an absolute function of the universe or not, as every one of our mathematical equations and theories work the same without it. Moreover, we don’t know why it only seems to go forward and always works to increase the amount of disorder in the universe, also known as entropy. That’s why you never see broken pieces of glass coming together to form a complete window, or living cells repairing and fixing themselves over time to get younger. 

9. The Universal Applicability Of Mathematics

One of the most fascinating things about mathematics is its applicability across different, wildly unrelated fields. Fluid dynamics, for one example, doesn’t just help explain fluids and their complex movement. It’s also applicable in economics, military strategy, industrial logistics, banking, and a variety of other areas that don’t seem to be connected in any way.

Within the purview of natural sciences – like physics, chemistry, biology and other fields that deal with observations from nature – this universal applicability of mathematical principles isn’t just odd, it’s downright baffling. It’s easy to find multiple examples of mathematical concepts – like Pi – that work with seemingly distinct areas of study, from spatial geometry to space exploration to banking. It doesn’t make sense – almost like opening a series of locks with a bunch of keys and getting it right in the first or second go every time.

8. Fermi Bubbles

Fermi Bubbles – named after the gamma-ray telescope that first captured them in 2010 – are two humongous, interconnected bubbles of gas, dust and cosmic radiation seemingly emanating out of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Only visible in gamma-ray light, they’re about 50,000 light years in total length. For perspective, the entire Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, making these bubbles perhaps the single largest structure in the galaxy.

For now, that’s pretty much all we know about them, except that they’re also accompanied by unexplained bursts of energy only visible in radio frequencies, along with mysterious hourglass-shaped X-ray structures surrounding the center. One study from May 2020 suggests that they might be related to bursts of gas and dust from the black hole in some way.

7. How Big Is It?

There’s no widely accepted measure of how big the universe really is, or even if it’s measurable with our tools and parameters. From our point of view, we know that it expands to about 46 billion years in every direction, which forms the boundary of what we know as the ‘observable universe’, though that’s hardly its real boundary. In fact, quite a few scientists think that the universe might not have a clearly defined edge at all.

That number merely means that the first ray of light produced after the Big Bang is now 46 billion light years away from us, as the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. There’s no reason to believe that the edge of the observable universe is the edge of the actual universe, though if it’s not, what lies beyond the realm of spacetime? As of now, we have no way to even guess that. 

Its size isn’t the only problem – we don’t know its shape, either. Is the universe spherical? That’s what most of us assume, though again, we don’t have any evidence to prove or suggest that. For all we know, it might not be a uniform, three-dimensional sphere at all, but rather something like a donut.

6. The Center Of The Milky Way

If we’re ever able to journey to the center of our galaxy, we’d likely find quite a few mysterious objects and phenomena we’ve never seen before. One of them is the supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A, which only shows up in the photos as a faint, barely visible radio source. That’s only a wild guess, too, as there’s a growing school of astronomers that believes that it might be some other type of matter altogether.

What we do know for sure, though, is that it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. Some astronomers suspect that it’s a Galactic Center Radio Transient – another emerging class of objects observed in other regions of the universe that we don’t really get. 

The center of the Milky Way is also home to huge strands of light – some more than 150 light years across, arranged in symmetrical, artistic patterns that we can’t quite explain. First discovered in the early 1980s, some astronomers think that they’re related to the suspected super black hole at the center, or even the above-mentioned Fermi Bubbles, in some way. 

5. Supervoid

The ‘supervoid’ refers to a humongous region of nothingness about three billion light years from Earth. It’s not exactly empty, but contains 20% less matter than any other part of the universe we can see, spanning across a total distance of over 1.8 billion light years. It’s a part of what the cool scientists are calling exotic physics – a new type of physics that deals with baffling phenomena beyond the frontiers of our knowledge. 

Unlike the more or less uniform distribution of matter in the rest of the universe, the supervoid is unusually under-dense, and we don’t really know why. It’s unusually cold, too, and coincides with another discovery made in 2004 called the ‘Cold Spot’, except the lack of density only accounts for about 10% of the coldness. Moreover, there’s something bizarre at its center that causes any light passing through the void to lose its energy. It’s not a black hole, as black holes emit very clear X-rays and radio waves, though something even emptier and hollower than the rest of the void. 

4. Strange Matter

On first look, strange matter might sound like a general grouping of multiple phenomena we don’t understand – like dark matter or dark energy. Strangely enough, if we may, that’s not the case, as it refers to a specific type of matter that seemingly shifts between the states of matter and antimatter like it’s nothing. First theorized by two MIT scientists back in 1978, strange matter has since been one of the most bizarre phenomena we’ve observed out in the wild.

Of course, we haven’t actually observed it in space, as strange matter is only suspected to be found at the center of neutron stars – super-dense celestial objects formed after the death of stars. At those pressures, even the most fundamental building block of the universe – quarks – cease to exist in their natural form. The only thing that can stay stable at those pressures is the strange quark, or s quark, which can group together and form strange matter.

It’s all hypothetical – as we have no neutron stars lying around in a lab to check for ourselves – though some suspected properties of strange matter have been observed in the lab. Some scientists believe it to be contagious and dangerous, as strange matter could turn other normal types of matter strange, slowly creeping across the universe and engulfing everything in its path until everything is strange. Thankfully for us all, the center of a neutron star is nearly  impossible to escape. For now. 

3. The Darwinian Theory Of Evolution

One of the biggest mysteries of the universe is its seeming emptiness. Why, even after actively looking for so many decades, have we never been able to discover any signs of life other than our own? One could argue that the universe is too big and we’ve only just started exploring it. That might be true, but we’ve still managed to observe quite a large part of it for telltale signs of life. So far, we’ve found none.

According to one fascinating theory, it might just be due to the Darwinian theory of evolution, only applied to universes instead of forms of life. First proposed by the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, it suggests that universes follow the same principles of evolution and natural selection as life on Earth. As stars turn into black holes, according to the theory at least, they give birth to black holes and multiple other smaller universes with slightly different parameters. 

While most of them die without the development of any form of life, ours might have been a more successful specimen, even if it wasn’t too successful. Life does exist here, though only in one random corner of an insignificant galaxy rather than as a general rule of the universe. Who knows, there might even be universes teeming with life in every corner somewhere out there, as well as universes that are even emptier and colder than ours.

2. What Is It Made Of, Really?

Obviously, it’s impossible to know everything the universe is made of. We can’t even observe most things beyond a small circle within our solar system, let alone calculate the chemical composition of colossal objects in the most distant corners of our universe. Still, you’d think that we have some clue.

As it turns out, we really don’t. Visible matter that follows the rules of physics we know constitutes barely 4-5% of the entire universe. Of the rest, 27 percent is taken up by dark matter – a mysterious type of matter we only know about due to its glue-like effect on distant galaxies and other objects. The remaining 68% is dark energy, easily one of the most mysterious forces we know of in the universe. It seemingly permeates everything we can see in outer space, except we don’t know anything about it, other than the fact that it’s the force responsible for the rapid expansion of the universe – sort of like the opposite of gravity. Speaking of gravity…

1. Gravity

Gravity is by far the weakest of all the four main types of force in the universe – the other three being electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Yet, it’s the most dominant. You’d find superstructures larger than anything our minds can comprehend in the most distant parts of the universe still following its basic rules. In fact, gravity and electromagnetism are the only two forces with infinite reach, though EM doesn’t even come close to the influence gravity has on reality. It works as an accumulative force, rather than the positive-negative canceling out of the other forces.

What we don’t quite understand, however, is how it works at the quantum level, and that’s putting it simply. We have no clue what gives matter its gravitational properties, or exactly how it interacts with spacetime, even if we definitely know that it does. Time dilation caused by gravity, for one example, is actively accounted for in geo-mapping equipment.

Like time, Einstein was instrumental in shaping up our modern understanding of gravity, and many of his predictions – including gravitational waves – have been proven real in the past few years. We now know that gravity sits at the fundamental core of the nature of our reality, though we’re still no closer to explaining it than he was.

In the past, we have examined some of the mysterious questions that keep historians up at night. And today, we are ready to take a look at 10 more…

10. Who Fired the Shot Heard ‘Round the World?

April 19, 1775, is a date that forever changed the world. It was the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements between the British and the Americans that triggered the Revolutionary War. That opening salvo of bullets that marked the beginning of the battle has become known as the “shot heard round the world,” thanks to a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, but the question is…who fired it?

Unfortunately, the initial skirmish was a mass of chaos and confusion, and nobody is even really sure which side fired the shot, let alone which person. An army of 800 British regulars led by General Thomas Gage entered Lexington at around 5 am that morning, with orders to seize all the weapons and gunpowder stored at Concord. They encountered a militia company of 70 men or so who scattered as the British forces entered the town square. Then, someone somewhere fired that fateful shot. Thinking they were being attacked, the regulars opened fire on the colonists and killed eight militiamen before moving on towards Concord. And thus… the war began.

9. What Happened to the Bermagui Five?

On the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, there is a small town with nice, lovely beaches, with the intriguing name of Mystery Bay. So what mystery does it refer to, exactly? Well, it’s the 1880 disappearance of the Bermagui Five, a group of men who vanished without a trace in that area while conducting a geological survey.

The group was led by a geologist with the New South Wales Mines Department named Lamont Young, who was working out of the nearby town of Bermagui. This was at the time of the Australian Gold Rush. There was lots of money to be made, so geologists like Young surveyed every bit of Australia in the hopes of finding a new goldfield. On October 10, 1880, Young took his assistant and a boat crew of three and traveled northward to explore a new area of the coast. 

Later that evening, a laborer riding along the coast saw the empty boat, which had drifted into a rocky part of the bay. The sail was tied down. Some of their clothes, books, and equipment were still aboard, and there was a lot of vomit on the floor of the ship. The five men, however, were nowhere to be found, and their fate remains a mystery to this day.

8. Was Nauscopie Real or a Scam?

Around 250 years ago, there was a French engineer named Etienne Bottineau who claimed to have invented a new science, which he called nauscopie, that could be used to “discover ships and land at a great distance.” Nowadays, both the man and his strange claim have almost completely faded from memory, found mostly as minor references in other people’s works. But even in his own time, nauscopie was never seriously studied, both because Bottineau never bothered to write down or explain in detail how it worked, and because he lived on the remote island of Mauritius, back then called Isle de France. 

It seems that, for the most part, Bottineau used nauscopie as his secret weapon to winning bar bets, being able to predict the arrival of ships into port up to four days in advance. But in 1782, he alerted the governor that a fleet of 11 ships was approaching the island. Bottineau then advised him that the fleet had changed course. Fearing that the British might be attacking, the governor dispatched a warship to find out what was going on. When it returned, it confirmed everything Bottineau said – a fleet of vessels was heading towards Mauritius, but then it changed course and headed towards India. So the question remains: was Bottineau simply lucky, a conman, or did nauscopie actually work?

7. Where Is Attila the Hun?

Fewer people have had a more sudden, shocking, and violent impact on the world than Attila, leader of the Huns. The origins of these nomadic people are still uncertain, but they appeared in Europe sometime during the late 4th century AD. In just a few decades, they had established a vast empire and became the biggest threat to the hegemony of the Roman Empire. They could have become the leading force in Europe, if not for the unexpected death of Attila, which surprisingly happened during peacetime, while the Hunnic leader was celebrating his latest marriage.

Many cultures have different customs when it comes to dealing with the dead. Some like to build lavish tombs, mausoleums, even pyramids for their leaders. The Huns were exactly the opposite – they believed Attila’s tomb should be a secret. The Hunnic chieftain was placed in three nesting coffins – one made of iron, one made of silver, and the last one made of solid gold. These were filled with jewels and other priceless treasures that signified Attila’s strength and subjugation of other nations. But they didn’t mark the burial site with any kind of monument and they also killed the gravediggers so that the knowledge of the location would die with them. And that location remains a mystery to this day. 

6. What Caused the Puebloan Migration?

The Ancestral Puebloans are one of the oldest Native American cultures, having appeared sometime during the 8th century AD. For hundreds of years, they lived and thrived in the Four Corners region of the United States, comprised of parts of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. But then, during the late 13th – early 14th century, they seemingly disappeared under circumstances that still remain a mystery.

For a while, we thought that the Ancestral Puebloans were wiped off the face of the Earth – maybe by a natural disaster, maybe by enemy tribes. Nowadays, however, scholars are pretty convinced that these ancient people didn’t die out suddenly, they migrated. But there is still the question of what event could determine an entire civilization to pack up and abandon the place they called home for centuries?

It’s still possible that enemy attacks could have been the reason, or a loss of fertile land due to deforestation and soil erosion. Some scientists believe that the culprit was a “megadrought” that made it impossible to grow food in the region. While all explanations are plausible, none have been proven definitively.

5. What Happened to the Joyita?

When it comes to creepy stories about ghost ships, the Joyita has to be right up there. On October 3, 1955, this American merchant vessel left Samoa with 25 people aboard, heading towards the Tokelau Islands. It was supposed to arrive there two days later, but even on October 6, there was still no word from the Joyita. A search and rescue team was dispatched but they were unable to find it.

It was over a month later that another merchant ship stumbled upon the Joyita adrift hundreds of miles off-course. It was partially submerged and listing badly on one side, although it wasn’t in danger of sinking. The people were gone, the cargo was gone, and the interior had sustained a lot of damage. Had the vessel been attacked by pirates, or Japanese fishing boats, or a Soviet submarine? Was there a mutiny or was it all some kind of insurance fraud? No signs of the 25 people aboard the Joyita have ever been found, leaving this puzzle unsolved for the time being.

4. What Happened to Thomas Paine’s Remains?

There once was a time when Thomas Paine was regarded as one of the biggest heroes of the American Revolution. His influential pamphlets inspired many people into action, and when he was finished in America, he traveled to Paris and became involved with the French Revolution, as well. And yet, when he died in 1809, he was broke, childless, and so hated by his peers that only six people attended his funeral. And according to legend, some of his bones were recycled into buttons while the rest were tossed in the garbage. Paine’s ideas and his character have been mostly rehabilitated in modern times, but one question still lingers – what happened to his remains?

Thomas Paine became a pariah in his time mainly due to two reasons. One, his work titled The Age of Reason was seen as an attack on Christianity, and two, following his arrest and detention in France, Paine criticized many of his former revolutionary allies, feeling that they had abandoned him.

When he died, Paine was buried in a modest grave on his farm, but a decade later, a fan of his named William Cobbett arranged for him to be exhumed and shipped to his native England. He hoped to arrange for a grand resting place for Paine but found no takers. Ultimately, Cobbett ended up keeping Paine’s bones in his attic until he died, at which point their fate becomes uncertain. Cobbett’s son sold all his effects at auction, so it is possible that some bones were sold off piece by piece, while others were thrown in the trash. Several people have claimed to possess parts of Thomas Paine, but none have been proven.

3. Where Did the Tamil Bell Come From?

There is a certain category of historical puzzles called out-of-place artifacts and, as its name suggests, it refers to items that have been found in places where they don’t belong. This puts pressure on scholars and scientists to try and explain how they got there, and one of the most prominent examples is the Tamil Bell.

Around 1836, British missionary William Colenso stumbled upon the Tamil Bell in the Northland Region of New Zealand, being used by M?ori women to boil potatoes. After questioning the locals, he found out that they had possessed the bell for many generations, after finding it buried under a tree. Later examinations of the unusual artifact revealed that it was a ship’s bell made of bronze and that it had Tamil writing on it. And it wasn’t modern Tamil, either, but rather an old-fashioned script that had not been used for centuries.

It’s pretty obvious that the bell came from a Tamil ship, but this raises more questions than it answers? Europeans first made contact with New Zealanders in the mid-17th-century, but this was at least a hundred years older than that. Did this mean that the Tamil people and other South Asian cultures knew about New Zealand much earlier than this? Did they have contact with each other or did the bell simply wash ashore following the sinking of a Tamil ship?

2. What Happened to America’s First Black Doctor?

James Durham, sometimes spelled Derham, made history when he became the first Black man in the United States to become a doctor. Unfortunately, most of his life is clouded by mystery and uncertainty, and so is his death, as Durham disappeared one day, never to be seen again.

The future physician was born into slavery circa 1762 in Philadelphia, and for the first two decades of his life, he was owned by several doctors. One of them, John Kearsley, taught James to read and write not just in English, but also in French and Spanish. Durham’s last master was a Scottish physician who lived in New Orleans named Robert Dow. He encouraged Durham to study medicine and also allowed him to practice it on some of his patients.

In 1783, James Durham became a free man. We’re not entirely sure if he paid for his liberation or if Dow granted it, but he was able to open his own practice in the city. It flourished for years, thanks mainly to Durham’s fluency in multiple languages and his willingness to treat patients from all racial backgrounds.

Things were going well for Durham. He even became a correspondent with Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding Fathers and, arguably, the most famous doctor in the country at the time. In 1801, Durham returned to his native Philadelphia. Just a year later, he disappeared and was never heard from again. Some think he moved to practice medicine elsewhere, but others fear that he may have been killed by people who resented his success. 

1. Who Were the Sea Peoples?

Ancient history is filled with mysterious civilizations about whom we know almost nothing, but few of them have had a bigger impact on history than the Sea Peoples. A confederacy of seafaring nations, the Sea Peoples appeared suddenly in the Mediterranean during the 12th century BC and waged war on anyone who got in their way – the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, they all suffered at the hands of this wrathful civilization. 

The Egyptians were the ones who have provided us with the most detailed accounts of the Sea Peoples, as the two sides fought often during the reigns of Ramses II and Ramses III. They also named some of the groups that made up this warring confederation, such as the Tjeker and the Sherden, but this has not helped us pinpoint their origins.

Today, the incursions of the Sea Peoples are considered one of the main factors behind the Late Bronze Age collapse, but their identities, their purpose, and their final fate remain unknown.

Research can get a little… boring. But every now and again, a challenge comes along that cannot be solved with run-of-the-mill experiments. That’s when scientists get creative and, daresay, a little weird. From teaching fish to drive (on land) to peeing on crops, here are some of the strangest quests researchers have embarked on!

10 How to Spot a Creep

What makes someone creepy? In 2016, a team of psychologists pondered this important question. Their goal was to draft a list of traits that could identify someone as an unsettling weirdo. To understand what people find creepy, the study interviewed 1,342 volunteers and asked them what made their skin crawl when meeting a stranger. Some of their answers were unexpected.

Sure, the participants found others creepy when there was an element of physical danger or when the people worked as clowns or looked unkempt. But other traits were more random. People who collect dolls, insects, or reptiles also made the list. Bird-watchers too. Laughing unexpectedly, smiling strangely, or licking your lips frequently can also make others want to keep their distance.^[1]

9 Enduring Brazil Nut Mystery Solved

When thinking about physics mysteries, a person might expect quantum stuff, invisible influences, and perhaps a particle or two. But some physicists wonder about nutty snacks. More specifically, why do large nuts, like Brazil nuts, always find their way to the top of the packet? Shouldn’t the heaviest nuts work their way down instead?

In 2021, scientists gave a bag of nuts a couple of good shakes. After each shake, the packet was scanned to get a 3D view of the contents. Incredibly, this revealed that size or weight had nothing to do with Brazil nuts rising to the top.

It’s their orientation. When a packet moves, say, while it’s being transported to a shop, the horizontal Brazil nuts eventually point upward (it took the scientists 50 shakes to achieve this). This provides more space for smaller nuts to consistently move downward and force the larger nuts up.^[2]

8 How to Echolocate

Researchers have known for a while that a small group of people can echolocate. In other words, they use tongue clicks or finger snaps—and not sight—to find their way around. But could this skill be taught to others, and how long would it take? The answer was surprising.

This study, which was published in 2021, discovered that both legally blind individuals and sighted people could be taught within 10 weeks to navigate with echolocation. Not only could they move around in a maze, but by interpreting the echoes that came back from their clicks, the volunteers could also recognize the orientation and size of objects inside the maze.^[3]

7 The Lost Letter Experiment

In 2012, anthropologists sprinkled 300 letters on the pavement of 20 neighborhoods in London. The idea was to test the altruism of people. If someone found a letter, would they go through all the effort that was required to deliver the mail to a total stranger’s house? These addresses were, in reality, the homes of the researchers who sat back and collected the letters as they rolled in.

Interestingly, about 87% of letters scattered in wealthier neighborhoods found their way back. In contrast, only 37% in poorer areas returned. The study found that ethnicity and population density had nothing to do with altruism. Instead, it was socioeconomic factors that needed more investigation to fully understand.

But for now, the scientists believe that fewer letters returned from disadvantaged areas—not because people care less—but because the hardships of life make them wearier and, therefore, less likely to pick up random letters on the pavement.^[4]

6 Pigs in Suitcases

Killers dump a lot of bodies in suitcases. Just like other crime scenes, the police need to know when the victim passed away. This triggered the world’s biggest experiment to learn more about the forensics of this harrowing habit. In particular, the researchers were interested in carrion insects.

When a corpse is left in the open, these insects colonize the body and provide a host of information. These flies and beetles can give forensic entomologists the time of death, reveal the presence of drugs, and whether the victim died elsewhere and in what type of location. A suitcase disrupts this process by hampering normal insect colonization.

To better understand this interference, a 2022 study placed stillborn piglets in nearly 70 bins and suitcases and left them outside. Remarkably, the carrion insects still provided critical information, just differently. By assessing how bugs and eggs clustered on the outside of the containers, which larvae made it inside, and the dead insects within, researchers could glean the basics of toxicology, body relocation, the circumstances and time of death, and how the weather influenced the pigs’ decomposition.^[5]

5 Peeing on Crops

Few people might eat a loaf of bread when they know the farmer peed on the wheat. But that’s a rather modern revulsion. For thousands of years, people used human urine as a fantastic fertilizer for crops. The practice vanished and now only exists in a few areas in Asia.

In recent years, scientists wondered if this ancient solution might help rural farmers. Especially those who live on nutrient-poor land where commercial fertilizer isn’t an option. Pee is free and packed with phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen—everything a hungry plant needs. They launched a large-scale experiment in the Republic of Niger where they trained female farmers on how to use urine safely as a fertilizer.

After three years and 681 trials, these ladies produced millet crops that were 30% more bountiful than normal. The results were so well-received that years after the experiment ended, over a thousand women farmers in Niger continued to fertilize their crops with sanitized urine.^[6]

4 This Test Will Last 500 Years

A couple of years ago, a researcher found a petri dish he’d forgotten about for 10 years. Once he realized the dried bacteria it contained could be revived with a little hydration, it sparked an ambitious study. In 2014, it brought together scientists from Scotland, Germany, and the U.S. to figure out how long bacteria can survive. Thus, the 500-year experiment was born. (link 7)

It works like this. Two bacteria species were chosen and hermetically sealed in 800 glass vials. About 400 were encased in lead to reduce DNA damage from natural radiation. For the first 24 years, scientists will open a couple of vials every other year and examine the bacteria’s DNA health and viability. For the rest of the time, the remaining 475 years, vials will be opened and tested every quarter-century.

The chances that the bacteria samples will stay alive for 500 years are good. But the experiment might not survive. It requires the continuous collaboration of the UK, the U.S., and Germany. Who knows if future scientists will even stay loyal to the study? The box containing the vials might also get lost before the experiment is over.^[7]

3 Brains with Eyes (Sort Of)

Stem cells can be manipulated to turn into any type of cell. This trait allows scientists to create smaller versions of human organs, or organoids, to test and learn more about diseases. In 2021, researchers wanted to find a way to treat early retinal disorders. For this, they needed a tiny brain with eyes.

Past experiments have separately created brain organoids and eye organoids (not eyeballs but an earlier developmental stage called optic cups). But nobody has ever created a combination of the two.

In the new study, experiments eventually produced several brains with eyes. This organoid resembled a yellow blob with a pair of black dots. The latter were the optic cups that the researchers needed. Incredibly, the cups were light-sensitive and developed at the same rate as eyes in a human embryo. They even had corneal tissue and lenses. In the future, this somewhat creepy-looking organoid can help scientists to study eye disorders, treatments, and brain-eye interactions during embryonic development.^[8]

2 Turning Water into Metal

In theory, most materials can become metallic—if you squeeze them hard enough. When mightily mushed, their atoms or molecules crush together so tightly that they swap electrons. This, in turn, can give a substance metallic properties like conducting electricity. But turning water into metal faces special challenges.

First, it needs a big squeeze. About 15 million atmospheres’ worth. This kind of pressure is not something that most scientists have lying around the laboratory. Secondly, such an experiment requires alkali metals like sodium and potassium because they share electrons quickly—and they remove the need for ridiculous atmospheric pressure. The problem? Alkali metals tend to explode when they touch water.

In 2021, an experiment managed to do the impossible. They turned water into metal by slowing the explosive reaction to give the metals the time to share their electrons with the water. This was achieved by working inside a vacuum chamber and exposing the two alkali metals to water vapor. The resulting metal droplet only lasted a few seconds, but it resembled gold and conducted electricity.^[9]

1 The Fishmobile

Can fish avoid obstacles on land? Okay, fish and land don’t gel. But this didn’t stop researchers in Israel from building a car for goldfish. Kind of like an aquarium on wheels. The goal was to understand how fish learn to navigate and if their brains could handle a trip on land.

Six goldfish were trained to pilot the fish-operated vehicle or FOV. At first, the fish swam erratically but then seemed to grasp the situation and their movements became more deliberate and relaxed. Indeed, the goldfish quickly learned how to make the FOV drive forward, but it was harder to teach them to think outside the tank, so to speak.

But with simple obstacle training and a lot of treats, the fish stopped driving aimlessly around the room and headed straight for targets. Once they reached a target, they were rewarded with a snack. When obstacles were placed in their path, the fish learned to drive around them to get to the target—and something yummy. This proved that fish can be remarkably resourceful in challenging environments in order to find food.^[10]