Because of science’s incredible advancements, more knowledge and innovations are being developed over the years. However, many mysteries about our seen around our planet and the universe remain unexplained.
1. Antikythera Mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient clockwork computer with more than 30 hand-made gears that calculates the movements of the moon and planets. It was discovered back in 1901 in a shipwreck off of Greece. It was believed to be constructed by the ancient Greeks at around 205 and 100 BC – a time when no one yet discovered how astronomical bodies moved. The mechanism is corroded with some missing pieces, so its exact functions were difficult to discover.
For decades, scientists have proposed different models of the device, but recent studies indicate that its front dials had pointers from the sun and moon and its markings coincide with the solar and zodiac calendars. It was not as accurate as the modern devices used nowadays, but its clever design and the correct mechanism was very remarkable, given its time of construction.
Researchers may still discover more about its inner workings, but two questions still remain. Who built the Antikythera Mechanism and why?
2. Taos Hum
In Taos, New Mexico, some people have been puzzled and bothered by a faint, low-frequency hum that was first reported in the 1990s. Strangely, only about 2% of the residents say that they hear the noise. Researchers tried to identify the source of the sound, so they set up equipment in several of the hearers’ homes, but nothing bizarre was detected. People have started to blame it on the ocean, mind control experiments, delusions, and underground UFO bases, among others.
Survey also revealed that the residents heard many different sounds. Some described it as a hum, a buzz, or whir. Many different theories were formed to explain the mysterious auditory phenomenon, but the concrete answer to where the sound exactly comes from or why only a few people hear it remains a mystery. It is also possible that it only exists in the minds of those who reported it.
3. The Placebo Effect
In the medical field, the placebo effect is a baffling phenomenon wherein a whole lot of nothing can induce something. A placebo is not supposed to work – it’s composed of sugar, saline solution, or distilled water – but somehow, it improves a patient’s condition simply because they believe that the treatment will work. According to studies, the more the patients expect they are going to benefit from the “drug,” the more likely they will experience a relief.
One experiment wherein placebo drugs have been used in patients with Parkinson’s disease, tremors, and muscle stiffness were reduced. They discovered that individual neurons targeted by treatments began to fire less often when the placebo was given. The neuron activity decreased while the symptoms improve. It seems the key to healing is all in the brain, but this has not yet entirely proven.
4. Naga Fireballs
Glowing balls of bright red light emerge silently into the air from Thailand’s Mekong River every year. It has been called Naga Fireballs, which as the locals believe, was coming from the breath of a mythical serpent that lives on the riverbed and awakens every year during late October or early November to honor the conclusion of the Buddhist Lent.
However, some scientists believe the fireballs are simply swamped gas, or pockets of methane formed out of decomposing matter underground that finds its way to the surface of the water then into the air. Some believe that the Naga lights are phosphine gas produced by the marshy environment by the river. Another study claims it’s a type of plasma orb – but still, all these claims are unlikely to happen or be present in natural conditions.
5. Giant Stone Spheres
Large, massive and perfectly shaped spheres made up of mostly iron have been present from Costa Rica to Bosnia & Herzegovina. They were first discovered in a jungle in South America in the 1930s and were believed to have been first created around the year 600.
There is much debate if the giant balls were man-made or natural. A scientist discussed in his discovery that the sphere could is an evidence of lost, but advanced civilizations from the distant past. Some experts believe they are concretions, or naturally occurring rocks wherein exact circumstances on how they are formed are still relatively unknown.
6. Vile Vortex
The Earth has 12 particular geographic areas, known as the Vile Vortex, wherein unexplained disappearances, and other mysterious things happen. It includes the Algerian Megaliths to the south of Timbuktu, the “Devil’s Sea” near Japan, and the most famous vortex, the Bermuda Triangle. It is located in a triangular area southwest of Bermuda and extending to Puerto Rico and southern Florida.
Now, Bermuda Triangle has been a huge mystery because numerous ships and aircraft were believed to have mysteriously disappeared in that area. There were supernatural explanations for those mishaps such as the UFOs or the lost continent of Atlantis, as well as the natural causes such as compass variations, human errors, violent weather, fast flow of water in the Gulf Stream and presence of methane hydrates – but the truth remains unknown.
7. Voynich Manuscript
Named after the Polish book dealer Wilfrid Voynich who found it in 1912, the Voynich manuscript is a book written in an unreadable language. Carbon dating has revealed that it was written sometime in the 1400s and cryptographers have tried to decode it for a century. It has 250 pages filled with writings in an unknown but organized alphabet, with elaborate illustrations depicting strange plants, odd diagrams, and weird female nudes.
No one came close to deciphering the manuscript. Some believed it was about medieval medicine. Some say it was of alien origin. And some just dismissed its meaning and said it’s a Renaissance-era hoax.
However, just a few years ago, English linguistics professor Stephen Bax claimed to have decoded the 14 characters of the script, and he believes the book is probably a treatise on nature. But the answer to what exactly is it about, who wrote it and why was it written are things we may probably never know.
8. Dark Flow
The universe we are in is already full of strange phenomenon, but greater mysteries lie within the possibility of having a force outside the visible universe. The Dark Flow is used to describe the unexplained movement of the clusters of galaxies towards a single point, which scientists believe is a very huge gravitational force coming from beyond the universe. This motion, they say, is separate from the expansion of the universe.
Researchers will try to figure out if all galaxy clusters are moved by the dark flow, and it is perplexing to know that perhaps, something we can’t see is exerting its force on everything we can see.
9. Bigfoot
Bigfoot is America’s biggest cryptozoological mystery. For decades, eyewitnesses across the country had reportedly seen large, hairy, ape-like creatures that live in forests and other remote areas. In the other parts of the world, it’s called the Yeti, or Yowie or Alma. Alleged footprints, video and photo evidence and even hair samples abound, but no single body has been found. Not one has been killed, struck dead or even died of natural causes.
Some believe Bigfoot is an alien to torment humans, some say it’s a demon, some claim it’s a rare type of ape man. Still, the absence of hard evidence such as bones or teeth has made its existence questionable.
10. Stonehenge
The famous Windows XP background features one of the greatest mysteries of all time. How the 5,000-year-old Stonehenge was built is intriguing, considering the size and weight of the stones and the kind of civilization the Neolithic people had at the time. The lintels were found to be perfectly horizontal, and the tools used for it is still unknown.
Theories on why it was built abound, saying it might be a unity monument, an astronomical calendar, a cemetery, a temple for the gods, a cemetery for the elite, a healing site and many more. As to how it is carefully aligned on sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset, again we can only surmise.
A recent discovery that revealed thousands of monuments like shrines, burial mounds, deep pits, and other unexplainable features only added to its wonder.