Ask HN: What interesting scientific phenomena is still little understood?

2 pointsby max_há 3 anos7 comments

In the for a long time, very little was known about the phenomenon of Electricity/Magnetism et al. It was seen as something interesting but no one knew what to do with it.

What scientific phenomena exist that you find interesting, but may not currently have any practical applications?

7 comments

amtshá 3 anos

Electricity/Magnetism isn't understood well enough by modern human monkeys yet. The default representation of electrons as particles gets so ridiculous in AC context. Like, suppose you'd like to transfer N buckets of energy in the form of apples to a monkey zoo. You'd just straight move them from their departure point to their destination point in the zoo. Now if electrons are supposedly just tiny particles of the same type and you'd like to transfer some energy from point A to point B via an AC transmission line, why would you need to toss them to and fro between these points at 50/60Hz frequency in order to deliver to point B instead of just straight passing from A to B? This is ridiculous.

And here's another one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplituhedron

jqpabc123há 3 anos

What are the actions and forces that really keep a bicycle balanced and upright?

And no, it's not the gyro effect because the wheels are too light and spin too slow; particularly at low speed. At best, the gyro effect may help delay the start of a fall in some cases.

https://theconversation.com/the-mysterious-biomechanics-of-r...

austin-cheneyhá 3 anos

I am currently interested in decentralization, both historically and functionally. It offers numerous immediate practical applications, but is not well understood and is complicated to implement.

max_há 3 anos

You may like to have a look at Scala Politica [0]

[0]: https://www.academia.edu/38433249/Principia_Politica

chrism238há 3 anos

Antidepressants work for 60% of people who take them, but no one knows why.

ggeorgovassilishá 3 anos

Consciousness

beardywhá 3 anos

I was going to say "how the brain works". Not the same, but a big overlap.