These Scientific Rabbit Holes are Too Easy to Fall Into

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These Scientific Rabbit Holes are Too Easy to Fall Into

By Joe Burgett - June 28, 2020

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These Scientific Rabbit Holes are Too Easy to Fall Into — *[Image via Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock.com]*

Why Do Women Give Birth To Life, But Men Do Not Or Cannot?

This is one of the tougher questions to answer, honestly. A lot of people have theories behind it, such as the idea that only one sex was supposed to be the child-bearer. The question then is, why were women chosen? Heck, were they even chosen at all if there wasn’t a creator? If all life came to be via evolution, why did we evolve to where women are the only ones capable of birthing more humans? What’s so interesting is that this very same concept is seen across the animal kingdom too.

Females tend to be the sex that gives birth to others in their species line. However, this is NOT universal as Seahorses (and related species) are the only species where males give birth. Yet a lot of the things mothers do for young such as breastfeeding, human males can actually do. Meaning, there is still a connection to life and maintaining it in males. There’s just no answer for why women give birth over men.

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Why Do We Dream?

When you talk about science rabbit holes, this is a pretty deep subject. If you’re the average human, you’ve likely dreamed before. However, you might not dream every time you fall asleep. We know that dreaming typically only happens when a person is able to reach their “REM sleep.” This stands for “rapid eye movement,” and it is a period when your brain is actually pretty active as you’re sleeping. People assume when they sleep, their brain sort of goes into sleep mode itself.

Yet in reality, your brain never truly turns off or anything like that. However, when you reach the REM cycle, you’re likely getting great sleep. Could it be that when we reach REM, we’re not completely connected to rational thought? If our brain is also getting partial rest, it is clear that we’re not connecting to every major brain area. The issue in all of this is the “WHY?” part of the equation. We know HOW dreaming tends to happen, even when, but why does it? Science still has no definitive answer.

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How Large Can Our Population Get, Without Causing A Need To Move Off-World?

It is a debate that has become a growing concern among humans for the past 50 years or so. Yet several Kingdoms worried about their population and its size, fearing they’d lack resources to help them all. This dates back to at least 3500 BCE. As science has progressed, humans are able to live longer on average than ever before. We went from an average age of 40 max to as high as 70 to 90, depending on the country. This has caused problems.

We did not reach 1 billion people on Earth in history until the mid-1800s. Just from 1850 to 1950, our population grew to roughly 2.5 billion. By 1980, we reached 4.4 billion, yet when we reached the 2020s, it’s just shy of 8 billion. By 2050, we’re expected to be over 9 billion. We won’t have enough resources before too long. Especially if people live even longer than they do now. This is why scientists have been debating when we’ll need to start moving people off-world. No one agrees seemingly!

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Can We Download Our Brain Into A Computer?

The question here should, rather, be asked: “should you” download your brain into a computer? Without getting into a philosophical debate regarding whether or not it would truly be YOUR brain, we can see why this is an intriguing question to ask. Can we download our brains? To be honest, we sort of can. Technology is in development right now that is already capable of scanning your brain. However, nothing yet has been made that can scan a brain completely.

What we mean is, the scan can get the bulk of the brain. We can scan the look and how everything is being used. However, we cannot download YOU into a computer. Your personality, how you’ll answer questions, how you’d react to something, none of that is possible yet. Can we do it? Many scientists disagree. Some assume it is possible with the right, future tech. Others do not believe it can, because of the natural law that one cannot be genuinely copied and replicated exactly.

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Nature vs Nurture

A highly debated topic in social science is the Nature vs Nurture Debate. Everyone agrees that “Nature” is what someone is born as. If you have two black biological parents, you will be black. Yet “Nurture” is what you’re taught. If you’re a Muslim, you’re taught this. Essentially, you cannot really change what someone is born as. However, you CAN change what they are taught. If you put a child with two Christian parents rather than Muslim, they’re likely to call themselves Christian instead.

These are the undebatable facts. The debate comes in regarding the questions that become a bit sticky. If one is considered evil, were they taught to be? Adolph Hitler is considered an evil man, yet there is no mention of evil parents. Yet in some instances, evil people DID have evil parents. Making it hard to decide if Nature or Nurture is at play. This is just one of the MANY problems within the system that take us down scientific rabbit holes.

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How Intelligent Can A Person Really Be?

This is one of the most common scientific rabbit holes known today. The main reason for that is, quite frankly, very few completely agree. How smart can one possibly be? Well, this all depends on what people value as “intelligence.” Is it success in academics? If so, there are several people who have had 4.0s at Harvard and Oxford University respectably. Some even managed to exceed such a score.

Do we judge based on scientific and/or mathematic achievement? If so, again, there are numerous people who come to mind for this. Others might say that if you can beat a computer in anything, you’re intelligent. Yet what type of computer? What year could this have happened? A lot of questions come to mind for ALL possible avenues for how we judge it. How smart can someone truly be? We’re not sure anyone truly knows. Perhaps, the person who finds out is truly the smartest person ever.

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What Happens Inside a Black Hole?

For literally decades, scientists have been trying to learn more about black holes. The first was discovered in 1971 and ever since then, we’ve all wanted to know more. We know a lot about them, yet we do not know what happens inside one. It’s especially unknown exactly what would happen once you’re completely swallowed up by a black hole. We currently know that when you get absorbed by black holes, you’re being pulled in via a major gravitational force that even light cannot escape.

Once you’re getting near the middle, time slows drastically (even more than when you’re first pulled in). If you’re the one swallowed up, you may not experience the stop in time but those watching you go through could be seeing it unfold for potentially months. However, we aren’t even sure if you can’t. General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics meet to explain black holes, but we cannot currently “translate” the concepts between the two, making it impossible to nail down a true theory.

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Do We Really Have To Die?

With the advancements being made in numerous areas, especially the medical community, we’re living longer than ever. It used to be that you had to be married in your teen years and start popping out kids before your 20s. All so you could help them as they grow up, because you may not make it beyond your mid-30s. Today, life expectancy has given people more freedom and allowed us to take out time. Removing the need for arranged and early marriages.

As a result, we’re sure to only improve life expectancy. However, does this mean that one day we won’t have to die at all? That is a rabbit hole a lot of scientists try to avoid. The reason is, no one truly agrees. Some believe that we’ll find a way to preserve our bodies, especially as organs can be made to order. Yet others believe we’ll eventually upload our brain into another, younger body. It’s simply unknown, but it’s one heck of an interesting concept to discuss.

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What Are The Boundaries Of The Universe?

Several years ago, we found out that the universe was expanding at a rate that it is unlikely anyone ever assumed possible. We knew based on calculations that it was expanding. It had to, and many predicted this over a hundred years ago. However, the difference is that the expansion is impossible to keep up with. Therefore, when someone asks what are the boundaries of the universe, it’s not an easy thing to answer.

We’re not sure if there are boundaries. We know that there are things one cannot do, such as breathing in space and on most known planets. However, due to issues like dark energy and dark matter, there are things we simply have yet to understand about our universe. As a result, asking about the boundaries we have in the universe can be tricky. We could only put up a boundary when we can state something without a doubt. There is very little that fits this when it comes to the universe.

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What Is Free Will?

This is a deep topic that could take us down thousands of scientific rabbit holes without even trying too hard to do so. The real issue is that it can take us down two different roads: Hard Science and Soft Science. Hard science is stuff like chemistry, biology, etc. Meanwhile, Soft Science is stuff like sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc. When you ask about “free will,” both sides of the scientific community will have their thoughts on the matter. They will not completely agree if they even agree slightly.

When you look at it on one side, free will is simply the idea that man can choose the path he walks. He will make the decision to do what he wants. Yet others might say that he does not because his life forces him to do similar things daily, such as go to work, eat, etc. In essence, he does not have complete free will there. If he chose to do something different, he displays free will. Meanwhile, if there is such a thing as intelligent design, nothing he does is ever free. As his actions were already decided.

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Multiverse Theory

We referenced this slightly when we brought up String Theory as well as the Dimensions. Yet there are several who debate the mere idea that there are multiple universes at all. Yet in order for some things to be a reality, there would need to be more than one universe. On top of that, scientists already found what they believe is a universe that moves backward compared to our own. The struggle for many is clear though.

If we did have multiple universes, do each mirror our own? As in, if there is a Cynthia Brown in our universe, are they the same as a Cynthia Brown in another? Moreover, are human beings in other universes, or are we the only ones that will ever exist? Are there multiple universes for every different decision and avenue we take? If so, does that not mean that we have an infinite amount of universes? Does this multiverse concept also work with other living beings, like animals? Clearly, it’s a lot!

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Are We Alone In The Universe?

It seems many scientists agree today that it is certainly possible that life exists besides our own somewhere in the universe. It would be odd to think otherwise for sure. In just our Milky Way Galaxy, there are between 100 to 400 billion stars, many having planets relatively close. There are also roughly 125 billion known galaxies, all with several million to several billion stars. Many also with planets near them.

Not only would be unwise to say no other life exists but for those found on Earth, it would be insane based on a statistical measure. The problem is, we have yet to prove that life currently exists somewhere out there. It takes us down a scientific rabbit-hole quite often. We have no answers for why we have not been able to find life elsewhere yet other than the fact that we have not looked in the right place. It comes down to assuming life is possibly existing, we just don’t know where.

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What Is Consciousness?

One main issue we brought up regarding uploading our brain into a computer was that YOU would not be uploaded into the computer too. Your personality, the way in which you ask or answer questions, how you react to things, etc. Your brain might upload but not you. Consciousness is defined as merely being awake and aware of your surroundings. As well as the awareness and perception of something, on top of the awareness by the mind of itself and the world around you.

This means that if you cannot determine what you are, you will not be conscious. Let’s say you can determine what you are though. Are you capable of being self-aware, such as knowing who you are if you saw yourself in a mirror? If you can, this proves two things. You know who you are and can recognize it. However, one can do this in a dream even when they aren’t awake. This is why the topic is so controversial in the scientific community. We cannot fully agree on a universal principle.

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Is Time Travel Possible?

If you were asking us, we at Science Sensei belief that time travel is certainly possible. In fact, we’ve written on the topic a little too. While we might believe it is, we’re not the only people involved in the scientific community. It is a massive community, with several experts in many fields. If you ask some about time travel, they might say it’s not possible because if it were, we’d already see them come back to top a major horror that happened in history before it happened.

Yet this breaks with major time travel theories. Which states that if you, perhaps, went back in time and killed Baby Hitler, you’d go to a new present, as the time traveler. This would not be the present you’re previously from. Therefore, you’ve now created a branched universe. One where your action took place and the other, where it did not. Plus, what if your Baby Hitler move didn’t stop a bad event from ever happening? Thus, if time travel is indeed possible, it would be very hard to prove.

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What Makes Us Human?

As we get closer to the age of AI coming into play, as well as the introduction of made for order organs, robotic body parts, and much more, how do we know what is human? How can we claim to be human if we’re filled with non-human organs, and use robotic limbs? Removing this, what makes us human anyway? Do we base it on our intelligence or language skills? We certainly cannot base it on looks, as Hominids we came from in our evolutionary history looked a lot like Great Apes today.

If we cannot base humanity on looks, intelligence, or language skills, then what can we base it on? Perhaps, our ability to form long-term plans? Yet both bears and squirrels alone have long-term planning skills. Maybe our self-awareness and cognitive skills? Yet Koko the Gorilla had the ability to watch a movie, remember the actor, and spot them on the cover of the movie. Then recognize them in person. All of this at once. Where do humans differ enough to be human? Enter the rabbit hole!

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