still unknown: a map of what we don’t know yet
Every star is a question nobody has answered yet.
Questions on the map
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Does the language we speak shape how we think?
Languages divide up colour, space and time differently. Do their speakers perceive the world differently too?
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How did language begin?
Every human society has language, and no other species has anything quite like it. How did it arise?
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How did life begin?
Somewhere between chemistry and biology, molecules began to copy themselves. We don’t know how.
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How do proteins fold so fast?
AI can now predict the shape a protein folds into. How the chain finds that shape in milliseconds is a separate question.
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How does general anesthesia switch off consciousness?
Doctors have used it safely for 180 years, yet nobody knows exactly how it turns the mind off.
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How does the brain bind the world into one experience?
Colour, shape and motion are processed in different places. Why do we see one red ball rolling?
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How does the placebo effect work?
A sugar pill can ease pain, especially if you expect it to. How much of the effect is real, and how does expectation reach the body?
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Is P equal to NP?
If every solution that is easy to check were also easy to find, much of mathematics and cryptography would change overnight.
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Is the Riemann hypothesis true?
A single statement about where a function equals zero would tell us how the prime numbers are scattered.
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What causes fast radio bursts?
Millisecond flashes of radio waves reach us from distant galaxies. Some come from magnetars — but do all of them?
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What is consciousness?
Why is there something it is like to be you?
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What is dark matter made of?
Most of the matter in the universe gives off no light and has never been caught by a detector. What is it?
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Why do we dream?
Every night the brain builds whole worlds that nobody asked for. Do dreams have a purpose?
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Why do we sleep?
Nearly every animal studied sleeps, even though it leaves them defenceless. What is sleep for?
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Why is there more matter than antimatter?
The Big Bang should have made equal amounts of both, and they should have annihilated. Yet here we are.