Looking for ways to get excited about school starting next week? Here are three mind-boggling mysteries in science. The first of them will be solved in a decade or so, while the remaining two will take a long time to figure out.
What will happen to the computers, iPods, iPads and other fancy gadgets after 2020?
Back in 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that computing power of transistors will double in every eighteen months to two years. Known as the Moore’s law, the statement has held true so far. However, the law may break down sometime in this decade as the transistors reach the size of an atom. What will happen then? According to a Princeton professor Bernard Chazelle, then we will enter an era of “algorithm.” By this, he means, we will be focusing more on how to solve problems than on raw computing power.
Intel co-founder Gordon Moore
What is this universe made up of?
Everything we see around us is made up of atoms and molecules. There are a little more than 100 kinds of atoms or elements. We know them all and we know their physical and chemical properties. There is, however, a catch. We can’t see everything. In fact, 96 per cent of our universe is unobservable with current technology. And we don’t know what it’s made up of. To hide our ignorance we use words like “dark matter” and “dark energy.” But the truth of the matter is, there is practically nothing we know about them.
The Dark Side of the Universe
Are we alone?
This is as much a philosophical question as its scientific. This has troubled and fascinated our species as long as it has existed. In the 20th century, the humans landed on the moon, launched several spacecrafts on to the surface of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and several moons in our solar system. Space based telescopes and those on the ground have been constantly looking for one thing or another in the universe, and even after so many decades we don’t know if there is life (of any kind) anywhere else in the cosmos.
Man Trying to Find Out Life Outside the Earth
