There are thousands of mysteries in the domain of science across various disciplines and sub-disciplines that still remain unsolved at the dawn of 2026. It probably will still remain an enigma for the next millennia until the creator intervenes for the faithful, and for the skeptics, science works up its wonders. While there are some interesting ones across general physics, general biology, general math, astronomy, economics, design, game theories, etc., we handpicked a few usual ones along with a couple novel ones not discussed outside the academia by a few.
Origin Of Life
Ah! The believers have creationism and intelligent design to offer, while academia pins its faith on Darwinism and abiogenesis. A few believe the seeds of life were sown by advanced civilizations on Earth. There are many ways to achieve that, one of which is to hurl a cosmic rock with the building blocks of life towards an ideal planet. However, there is evidence for none. Researchers look for an RNA world with an abundance of self-replicating RNA molecules as a precursor for life. Will they find one in Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, an alleged waterworld? Did they find one on Mars? They did find some sugar constituents in material obtained from asteroid Bennu. Read more about it here. Meanwhile, someone dubbed the RNA World Hypothesis as the worst theory of the early evolution of life. However, the researcher argues
such a hypothesis is probably unprovable, and that the RNA world hypothesis, although far from perfect or complete, is the best we currently have to help understand the backstory to contemporary biology
Origin of Sexual Reproduction
The next challenge for evolutionary biologists is how single-celled eukaryotes evolved to an abundance of species on earth (billions probably extinct with millions still in existence) that sustain life via sexual reproduction! Scientists seem confident that the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) was fully capable of meiotic sex. You can enlighten yourself more here and here and here as well, with diverse opinions, none proven with substantial evidence on the origin of it all. So the focus shifts on purpose. I mean…does that even merits an answer? 😭
Why are there blood types
The commonly known blood types are variations within A, B, AB, and O under the ABO system in humans, while there are several others. E.g., canines (or dogs) have 13 blood groups, among which 8 are internationally recognized. Felines have it simpler, with the majority under the AB blood group. Horses have eight blood groups, with seven internationally recognized, including A, C, D, K, P, Q, and U. Chickens have thirteen – A, B, C, D, E, H, I, J, K, L, N, P, and R.
Blood types were first discovered by Nobel laureate Karl Landsteiner in 1900, yet over a century and a quarter later, we are yet to solve the mystery of why it freaking exist in the first place.
Meanwhile, here;s a brief history of human blood groups. This BBC article reminds us of the horrors of blood transfusion before the discovery of blood types.
Renaissance doctors mused about what would happen if they put blood into the veins of their patients. Some thought that it could be a treatment for all manner of ailments, even insanity. Finally, in the 1600s, a few doctors tested out the idea, with disastrous results. A French doctor injected calf’s blood into a madman, who promptly started to sweat and vomit and produce urine the color of chimney soot. After another transfusion, the man died.
Such calamities gave transfusions a bad reputation for 150 years. Even in the 19th Century only a few doctors dared try out the procedure.
Consciousness
What even is it? Why is it attributed to the brain? What is the mechanism? Religion and some philosophical schools of thought attribute it to various entities, including G-d. What does neuroscience have to say on the conundrum of self-awareness? One of the theories that combines neuroscience and quantum theory is the Holonomic brain theory. It is quite the opposite of looking at neural activities and brain chemistry. The Holonomic brain hypothesis tries to decipher quantum effects between brain cells that plausibly form consciousness. Quantum consciousness? Does our brain function like a freaking hologram? Read a briefer here and here.
Dark Matter, Dark Energy & Dark Flow
Oh, we are getting into the super exotic and now mildly exciting territory. Since most of us aren’t all that ‘sciencey,’ we are not gonna rummage through academic work and stick to bite-sized basics.
So ‘em scientists assume the distribution of dark matter and dark energy supersedes the ordinary, which is only 4.9% of the universe as we know it. 28.8% of the universe is made up of dark matter and the remainder of 68.3% constitutes dark energy.
ESA explains it like a five-year-old.
Originally, Albert Einstein introduced the idea of an all-pervading ‘cosmic energy’ before he knew that the Universe is expanding. The expanding Universe did not need a ‘cosmological constant,’ as Einstein had called his energy.
However, in the 1990s, observations of exploding stars in the distant Universe suggested that the Universe was not just expanding but accelerating as well. The only way to explain this was to reintroduce Einstein’s cosmic energy in a slightly altered form, called ‘dark energy.’ No one knows what the dark energy might be.
NASA dubs it as
the invisible glue that holds the universe together.”
It also notes Rubin’s observation
in the 1970s when American astronomer Vera Rubin observed this “missing matter” problem in spiral galaxies. Rubin looked at the stars on the outer edges of the spirals. To explain why these stars moved as fast as they did without flying into intergalactic space, there had to be a large amount of matter holding them in place. But, not seeing any of this matter, Rubin concluded that these galaxies must be held together by dark matter.
You can read more about Dark Matter here, Dark Energy here, and Dark Flow here. You can also read about the first evidence of dark matter here and the effect of dark matter on the movements of spacecraft and comets here.
Wormhole & Time Travel
Moving on to wormholes (unlikely until we find one hehe). . .umm…we don’t even know if wormholes, aka wrinkles in space and time, exist. Theoretically a stable wormhole can make time travel possible or at least allow for traveling at the speed of light. Read more about it here and here
The Size of the Universe
How big is the universe? The size of the observable universe is 93 billion light-years, which basically is a spherical region encompassing every observable matter from the realm of Earth. But of course it exceeds our own vantage. So how expansive the universe actually is? You can read more about it here, here, and here.
The Big Void
What is the outcome of the perfectly played game of chess?
Do you think we can experiment and find out by pitting two LLMs against each other?
The Kissing Number Problem
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