9 secrets of the world that science has finally revealed

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Because of what 90% of the living creatures on Earth died out, how stones walk in Death Valley and why zebras need stripes.

1. Why do you need the Antikythera mechanism

On April 4, 1900, Captain Dimitrios Kontos and his team of sponge hunters set out, as usual, to fish off the coast of their native Greece. These guys earned money by catching SpongeBob's relatives in order to use them for their intended purpose - for washing dishes and bathing. Yes, until synthetic sponges were invented, living beings were used for these purposes.

One of the divers accidentally discovered the sunken Roman cargo ship of the ancient era. Obviously, he was taking the trophy Greek treasures to Rome for the traditional triumphal parade, but did not reach the goal. On board were magnificent bronze and marble statues, a bronze lyre, gold jewelry, ceramics, silver coins and other goodies.

Probably, the Romans, to whom all this did not reach, were upset.

But the most interesting find was the famous Antikythera mechanism. It was a wooden case with three dozen bronze gears and dials on the front. One of the panels read something - possibly a user manual.

This device caused a considerable shock in the scientific world, since it was believed that humanity did not invent anything comparable in complexity until the 13th century - it was then that mechanical watches were created. No one suspected that the Greeks were capable of such a thing.

For a long time, science could not give an unambiguous answer for what, in fact, the device was intended. It has been suggested that this is a clock, an analog adding machine, an astrolabe, or even the first computer in history.

However, the staff of University College London still deciphered A Model of the Cosmos in the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism, High tech from Ancient Greece, the principle of the mechanism, illuminating it with X-rays, and even created a working model.

They found that this apparatus was adapted to determine the position of the sun, the phases of the moon, and the time of solar and lunar eclipses. It was intended to set the dates of the Olympics, as well as the Naai, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian games. In general, such a mechanical calendar for athletes, so that they know exactly on what day the gods blessed them to run.

2. What caused the extinction of 90% of the species on the planet

252 million years ago, almost 90% of the species of living creatures on Earth took and became extinct. For comparison, the Mesozoic extinction (when the dinosaurs disappeared) affected only 20%.

Among the victims are the last trilobites (marine relatives of modern woodlice, nasty creatures), paleodictyopters (a flying hybrid of a dragonfly and a two-tailed, some managed to grow a meter long), a bunch of pre-reptiles, lizardmen and other animals curious from the point of view of zoology. This event was named "The Great Permian Extinction".

The scientific community has expressed many guesses as to why, in fact, the planet was left without meter-long dragonflies. The culprits were called a giant meteorite like the one that finished off the dinosaurs, climate change and other global events. However, in the end it turned out that the reason for such catastrophic consequences is much smaller, visible only under a microscope.

The culprit is Methanosarcina. This is a genus of unicellular microorganisms that produce methane in the process of life.

It is thanks to them that this substance is present in oil wells, sewage, cow stomachs, your own digestive tract, and other unpleasant places.

About 240 million years ago, Methanosarcina learned to digest acetate. Some microbe accidentally devoured a bacterium that could decompose cellulose, accidentally assimilated its DNA and told friends - this is called horizontal gene transfer. Plus, volcanoes burst into Siberia, spewing out large quantities of nickel, which was necessary for the well-being of Methanosarcina.

Impressed by the dramatically improved living conditions, Methanosarcina began to multiply like crazy and filled the entire atmosphere with methane. The acidity of the ocean and air jumped, the accumulation of carbon dioxide and methane led to the greenhouse effect and an increase in the level of hydrogen sulfide in the air. As you can imagine, the smell was not very pleasant.

Then, of course, volcanoes stopped erupting, microbes began to lack nickel, their number decreased, and the methane was weathered. But 96% of aquatic and 70% of terrestrial animal species that did not survive this disaster could not be returned.

By the way, even earlier, about 2.45 billion years ago, the so-called oxygen catastrophe Margulis, Lynn occurred; Sagan, Dorion. Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution / California: University of California Press, when cyanobacteria learned to photosynthesize and produce oxygen. It became a deadly poison for most microscopic organisms of that time.

We are the descendants of those surviving microorganisms who managed not to poison themselves with oxygen, but to assimilate it. And so we got used to it that now it has become necessary for us.

3. How the idols were moved from Easter Island

You are probably familiar with the stone figures in the photo. These are moai - the famous idols from the island of Rapa Nui, or Easter. According to the beliefs of local residents, they contain the power of their ancestors. Statues make spirits more friendly, preserve the fertility of the earth and generally bring many benefits - you just do not notice.

For a long time it was a mystery for science how, in fact, the Rapanui people managed to make these statues. Hollowing out a face from a piece of basalt is not a special skill, but how were they brought from the quarries to the place where the installation was supposed to be?

Many speculations have been made. For example, the islanders could carry the statues on wooden sleds, like the Egyptians used to carry blocks for the pyramids. Or roll, placing the logs in the direction of travel. Or move them gradually, pulling them up on a large wooden "slingshot". And we do not even remember about the possible help of aliens.

True, there were few trees on the island before, and with the further development of the tribes, almost all of them were cut down, provoking an ecological catastrophe.

So you can't collect especially outstanding construction vehicles in those conditions, even if you are Leonardo da Vinci. In addition, in the legends of the Paschal, the statues themselves came to the right place, and in an upright position.

And scientists did understand how. In this video, researchers Terry Hunt and Karl Lipo, along with a small team, move a 10-ton statue in what is called a “walk”. It is useless to describe, it must be seen.

By the way, there is another way to drag statues - just by dragging. Back in 1956, the leader of the indigenous tribe of the "long-eared" told about him to the traveler Thur Heyerdahl. On his order, people on a dare hewed out a 12-ton statue and dragged it to its place in a recumbent position. To questions like "What have you not told before how to move it?" the leader replied: "Well, before, nobody just asked."

4. What are skyfish aliens and plasmoid orbs

Jose Escamilla, a resident of the American state of New Mexico, was passionately in love with UFOs and wanted to find it at all costs. He almost did it.

In 1994, Jose filmed elongated glowing rods with a shimmering fringe-like border. Escamilla stated that the objects of his observation demonstrate complex behavior and the rudiments of the mind.

Thanks to his discovery, he became famous. Thousands of cryptozoologists and ufologists around the world began to discover similar things in their images. They were christened “rods” (from the English rods) or “sky fish” (from the English sky fish, “air fish”).

Some supporters of alternative science assumed that this was an unknown form of life, others explained everything by the activity of good old aliens.

The reality turned out to be a little more prosaic. Writer Robert Todd Carroll and entomologist Doug Yanega quickly found a clue to the phenomenon: these are moths caught in the lens, photographed with a long exposure. Because of this, a rapidly flying insect is stretched in a line in the picture. So much for the whole phenomenon.

The so-called "orbs" or "plasmoids", which regularly appear in the images, have a similar explanation. They saw either unknown living beings, or ghosts, or angels, or even some other astral entities. Although in reality these are just particles of dust or moisture, refracting light, floating in the air, filmed out of focus.

5. What drives the stones in Death Valley

Death Valley is an area of the Mojave Desert, which is neither less than the hottest place on Earth (record temperature 57 ° C, do not forget Panama). There is a lake in this valley called Racetrack Playa, but due to the peculiarities of the local climate, it is filled mainly not with water, but with sand.

And in this lake there are stones that can walk. More precisely, crawl.

The first evidence that walking stones live in some godforsaken dry lake appeared in the 1900s. Presumably, the prospectors who noticed them were at least surprised. But when rumors reached the Geological Society of America, pundits said it was all just wind and forgot about the phenomenon. Apparently, it was a good breeze, since it was moving cobblestones up to 70 kilograms in weight.

Almost 60 years later, in the 1970s, they remembered about Racetrack Playa and began to explore the lake, but how the stones in it can crawl, no one could guess. Mainly because finding a moment when they want to take a walk is not easy. Moreover, it is not always possible to understand that the stones are moving - they are doing it too slowly. After all, the cobblestone race is not the most exciting sight, it takes patience.

It was only in 2014 that geologists finally figured out to hang GPS sensors on the rocks and realized that they were moving because they were sliding on the ice. Yes, in the hottest place in the world it can be so cold at night that ice forms there.

Rocks become slippery, and deformation of the ice cover, combined with a slight breeze, can move them. Average speed - up to 5 meters per minute. As a result, some stones are displaced by more than 200 meters per year.

6. Why the Mayan civilization fell

Historians have long puzzled what happened to the Maya and why a fairly developed empire, which built a bunch of pyramids, temples and other interesting structures, suddenly disappeared. They lived for themselves, lived, and then abandoned dozens of cities on the Yucatan Peninsula and disappeared somewhere.

Some historians believed that the Maya were attacked by warlike neighbors, destroyed their cities and enslaved the survivors. Others argue that there was a real Mayan revolution, during which the proletariat overthrew the ruling class, but failed to divide "land and factories" between "peasants and workers," and society degraded.

And some pseudo-historians have even stated that these are all aliens (as always).

But in 2012, researchers at Arizona State University and Columbia University finally found evidence supporting a theory pioneered by historian Jared Diamond in 2005. They found that the Maya were overly addicted to deforestation - so much so that deforestation provoked extreme drought.

Cleared areas absorb less sunlight, so less water evaporates from them. Clouds form more slowly and precipitation is less frequent.

Why did the Maya need so much wood? To make lime plaster and plaster for their settlements. Researchers estimate that 20 trees would have to be cut down to build one square meter of a Mayan city.

Barbarian logging contributed not only to drought, but also to soil erosion and depletion, and the Maya suffered famine and agricultural crises.

Unfortunately, the rain-making rituals did not help. So the Maya left their cities and migrated, scattering across the continent, leaving behind only ruins.

Was it worth it to suffer so much because of the plaster, which still crumbled?

7. Why do people burn out for no reason?

There is such a phenomenon - spontaneous combustion of a person. The phenomenon has been known since the 1600s: a person lived in peace, and then bang - and burned out. Naturally, then all this was explained by the machinations of the devil.

Later, starting from the 16th century, mankind began to try to find a more rational explanation: supposedly, only drunkards broke out spontaneously, who, in addition, smoked. The tissues of the body are saturated with alcohol, here is the mechanism of ignition.

There are other possible explanations: a collision with ball lightning, static electricity (now think three times before putting on that sparkling sweater), the highly secret subatomic particle Pyroton (like the Higgs boson, but even more invisible), or even intestinal bacteria that have produced too much gas. Freudians generally suspected that the victims were burned with anguish.

Even Charles Dickens wrote about the phenomenon in his novel Bleak House.

Terrible, isn't it? But in general, burning a person is still a task. People, you know, are 60% liquid, and making such wet creatures burn is a rather difficult task. What we are shown in movies and games - he poked a torch at a person, and he immediately flared up - is very unlikely. Unless, of course, the victim is doused with kerosene in advance.

Researcher and fighter against delusions Joe Nickell studied several dozen documented cases of spontaneous combustion and came to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing paranormal about them.

Indeed, most of the victims were either asleep, or abused alcohol, or were elderly people with limited mobility. At the time of death, they were near fire - candles and fireplaces - or smoked. So "spontaneous combustion" did not occur - the victim's clothes simply caught fire, and he could not extinguish them.

8. Why zebras have stripes

Perhaps you also wondered what color zebras are - white with black stripes or black with white. Correct answer: black and with black skin, but white stripes where there is no pigmentation. However, the scientific community was more interested in the question of why, in fact, animals need these very stripes.

It has been suggested that this is such a camouflage, or a thermoregulation system, or a tool for social interaction.

But in the end, zoologists came to the conclusion that the stripes protect from flies. This is an important factor for survival in the African savannah.

The local tsetse flies, as well as horseflies, carry horse plague and influenza, infectious anemia and trypanosomiasis. And they will not hesitate to make both zebras and people happy with these gifts, even to the point of death.

Researchers at the University of Bristol, the University of California at Davis and the Laboratory of Environmental Optics in Hungary have established,

Obviously, the fly understands that biting brown animals and people with dark skin is quite logical, but trying to chew on striped blankets and checkerboards is stupid.

By the way, the African natives saw through the trick, took an example from the zebras and began to apply a striped print on the skin.

So if you have a horse, draw stripes on it. Of course, other horses will laugh at him, but gadflies will bite him less. The Japanese, for example, camouflage cattle in this way. Checked, works.

9. Why does a bloody river flow from the glacier

Take a look at this photo. It is a waterfall flowing from the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in East Antarctica. Looks a little scary, right? It's like a stream of blood flowing from an icy crevice.

However, all sorts of things like bloody rivers, sudden eclipses and weeping statues frighten only ordinary people, but not real scientists. Those hundred years ago optimistically declared that the water is red because special algae live in it. Which sometimes the snow is forced to turn blood red, or at worst pink. Of course, they did not test the hypothesis.

It was only after the discovery of the waterfall in 1911 that the scientific community finally discovered the truth. It is not algae that gives this color to the water in the Taylor Glacier, but iron. The waterfall flows from a sub-ice salt lake, which is inhabited by bacteria that are used to doing without sunlight. They live by dissolving salts in the water, iron ions are released in the process.

A side effect of this eating pattern is rusty water. Like the one that flows from your tap after repair work.

Given that these bacteria are able to enjoy life in the complete absence of light and edible organics, not using oxygen, absorbing sulfates and eating ferric iron, they will not care where they splash - in rusty water on Earth or in the subglacial ocean of Europa orbiting Jupiter.

So if we find extraterrestrial life, it will most likely not be little green men, but an unkillable little thing that cannot be seen without a microscope. However, such organisms are unlikely to be able to assimilate people, so the script of the film "Something" does not threaten us.