There are lots of stuff science can't explain. Supernatural phenomena, the Bermuda Triangle, and aliens have ever since been among the favorite subjects of tinfoil conspiracy theorists everywhere. But what about the things that really turn scientists heads?

We're pretty sure you've heard of the placebo effect unless you've lived under a rock for the last couple of decades. It works like this: for example a person experiencing pain is given a blue painkiller for a few days then on the last day, you fill a blue pill with sugar and the pain still goes away. Does the mind override the body's biochemistry?

Next up is the cosmologists' double jeopardy question. Why is temperature uniform in the entire universe? You see the universe' edges are 28 billion light years apart, and it's approximated to be 14 billion years old. With that said, it's baffling to think that the temperature would equalize on both edges (and the stuff in between) when light - or heat radiation - from both edges haven't even met.

Comic book fans would know cosmic rays since they caused the Fantastic 4's superpowers. Cosmic rays do exist, but that isn't the question. Cosmic rays are superpowered protons (sometimes heavy atomic nuclei) that travel through space at almost the speed of light. According to Einstein, cosmic rays that reach the Earth should have slowed down and lost most of their energy so their maximum possible energy is just at 5 × 1019 electronvolts (Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit). Scientists have detected cosmic rays over that limit but couldn't find any sources within our galaxy.

Homeopathy is basically treating an illness with an ultra diluted solution of something that would produce the same symptoms as the illness itself. Practitioners of this sort of alternative medicine use natural stuff like charcoal, spider venom and the like to produce healing results. Scientists argue that the solutions have been diluted with water so much that there probably aren't any molecules of the original cure left. During a Belfast study, they had positive results but still couldn't explain how.

These are just four of the things that science couldn't (at least for now) explain. For the rest of the unexplainables like dark matter and tetraneutrons, click the Read link below.

Physicists in Switzerland are inching closer and closer to bringing the most feared space monster to Earth, but don't worry, they'll be making harmless, microscopic versions of the fiend just so we can understand the universe better.

Using the Light Hadron Collider (LHC), scientists Henriette Elvang of MIT and Pau Figueras of the University of Barcelona are pulling out all the stops to test theories regarding space and time. The version of the black hole that they will be making will look a lot different from the ones in space, though. Elwang explains that the Earth-made hole will look more like a tiny black Saturn, meaning it will have one central black orb and a black ring, both of which will spin at high speeds to maintain the existence of the body if only for a few milliseconds.

"If you just had a ring, it would collapse. It's essential that it rotates to keep balanced," says Elwang.

Both the ring and the core are defined by their event horizons- virtual boundaries where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. What can be seen would be very similar to a flattened microscopic chocolate doughnut.

So why don't they make bigger ones so everyone can see?

That's because they can't. These tiny black holes can only exist in a plane with four dimensions- length, width, height and time. We humans exist in three dimesions, so in a manner of saying, we don't live in the same reality where these things exist. However, scientists have discovered that in very small spaces, the third and fourth dimensions can actually be reconciled. If they smash protons in very small quantities with about a thousand times the gravity of the same subatomic particle, a tiny black hole will be born.

Of course, all of this is theoretical, but if all goes well, detectors in the LHC will light up to herald the vindication of theories by Stephen Hawking and those who followed him.

There's still a lot of doubt as to whether or not the black hole can stabilize before it dissipates, but the scientists in Geneva say that in a few years, it is very likely that they'll create a much smaller black hole to actually bridge the gap between the third and fourth dimensions.

After an earlier analysis of gamma ray emission from the black hole located in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, scientists have come to conclude that the emissions may be the product of dark matter decaying. But other scientists believe the constantly moving magnetic fields around the black hole can become a giant particle accelerator. And when particles collide in extreme speeds, it produces gamma rays.

Gamma-ray observatories have detected energetic gamma rays in the tens of Tera-electron volts (TeV) streaming from the center of the Milky Way outward. David Ballantyne from the University of Arizona led the study investigating on the possible particle acceleration scenario.

Results helped scientists conclude that protons could reach energies of 1000 TeV as they travel outward from the black hole, constantly gaining more and more velocity. This number is 100 times higher than the energies protons will be able to reach in the Large Hadron Collider (to be the world's largest particle accelerator) under construction in Geneva, Switzerland.

Now how about that? Our galaxy's biggest vacuum doubles as a super weapon. Sure beats the ring world Master Chief blew up, eh?

Before Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott braved the harsh environment of the South Pole, it pretty much equated to one of those areas on old maps where the only description is, "Here Be Dragons."

A recent article from NASA reveals that the situation on the sun is much the same today. According to solar physicist Arik Posner of NASA headquarters, "The sun's south pole is uncharted territory." It can barely be seen from Earth, and most of NASA's sun-studying aircraft have a poor view of it. Except for Ulysses, that is, and today the spacecraft is making a rare South Pole flyby.

"On February 7th, the spacecraft reaches a maximum heliographic latitude of 80oS—almost directly above the South Pole," says Posner who is the Ulysses Program Scientist for NASA. The spacecraft, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, has flown briefly over the sun's poles only twice before--in 1994-95 and 2000-01.

Ulysses's south pole flyby will attempt to bring solar physicists closer to solving the following mysteries:

• The sun's north magnetic north pole sticks out the south end of the sun. Magnetically, the sun is upside down. The Earth actually has the same situation. On the sun, the flipping happens every 11 years on the sun in synch with the sunspot cycle. On Earth, it happens every 300,000 years or so, but scientists have no idea yet what the flipping is in synch with. They that studying the sun's polar magnetic field will lead to a better understanding of the Earth's own magnetic field.
  

• There are holes over the sun's poles--"coronal holes." These are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. "Flying over the sun's poles, you get slapped in the face by a hot, million mph stream of protons and electrons," says Posner. Ulysses is experiencing and studying this polar wind right now.
  

• There is evidence from earlier flybys that the north pole and the south pole of the sun have different temperatures. "We're not sure why this should be," says Posner, "and we're anxious to learn if it is still the case." Ulysses will also be flying over the sun's north pole in early 2008 for a direct comparison of the sun's two poles.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate dedicates its efforts during the Ulysses' South Pole flyby to Ronald Amundsen, Robert F. Scott and Richard E. Byrd - brave explorers who dared to defy nature and the elements and learn more about the South Pole. Much like Scott, whose entire team - including him - never made it home again after reaching the South Pole, Ulysses will never come home either. It will remain in space when its internal power sources fail.

Well, either we've found the Higgs boson, or Fred's just put the kettle on

The Barrel Toroid, the world's largest superconducting electromagnet, has been set to full power last November 9. The magnet is built from eight 5 meter by 25 meter rectangular coils cooled to -269 degrees Celsius, and carries a current of 20,000 amps. The energy in its coils is equivalent to around 10,000 cars traveling at 70 kilometers per hour.

As part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the magnet will be used to bend the paths of particles formed from the collision of protons or lead ions accelerated to near light speeds.

The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and will be used to investigate why particles have mass. It will also be used to look into the nature of the as-yet undetected dark mass that's thought to make up all but four percent of the universe.

Researchers also hope to detect the Higgs Boson, a predicted subatomic particle that's supposed to have answers to life, the universe, and everything within three years. Ready your pan-galactic gargleblasters folks, we've got a whole lot of controlled sub-atomic collisions scheduled.

It's that part of Nature where the formerly solid line between Science and Spirituality starts to blur.

If proof of the Existence of the God/Goddess (or whatever you perceive He/She to Be) is ever to be found, it will be at the subatomic level - arguing in favor of what philosophers from Buddha and Aristotle to the present have been saying all along, that the Divine is present in all things.

The topic, of course is quantum physics, the science of the tiniest particles known. These particles, known as "quarks," exhibit what we mortals would consider very odd behavior. 

Six different types of quarks are held together by "gluons" to from protons.  The oddest of these is the recently identified "strange" quark. It literally "boils up" inside a proton and then "simmers back out of existence".

"Technically the strange quark contribution to the proton's charge distribution has proven elusive," said Dr. Derek Leinweber of the the University of Adelaide in Australia.  Working with researchers in Scotland and the U.S., the Australian team has come up with way of more precisely calculate  the properties of these subatomic particles. They used a method called "Lattice Simulations" on high-powered "supercomputers" and combined this with a separate field of physics known as Effective Field Theory. Combining these in a new an novel way has revealed many new clues to the behavior of the elusive "strange" quark.

"There is a huge industry in particle physics with groups of researchers around the world making new measurements that could reveal physics beyond the standard model of the universe," adds Leinweber. "Our result presents a huge challenge to experimental physicists in planning the next generation of experiments."

Actor/Environmentalist Ed Bagley, Jr.'s worst nightmare, the Hummer, is turning over a new leaf and yes, its a green leaf. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, is planning to drive a hydrogen fuel cell-powered Hummer H1 from the McMurdo Station in Ross Island, Antarctica all the way to the South Pole.

Hydrogen fuel cells works like a battery but does not run down or need recharging. It produces electricity and heat as long as fuel (hydrogen) is supplied. Hydrogen is supplied to the anode, while the cathode is fed with oxygen. When activated by a catalyst, hydrogen atoms separate into protons and electrons. The electrons go through an external circuit, creating a flow of electricity. The protons go through the electrolyte to the cathode, where they combine with oxygen and the electrons to produce water and heat. So unlike its gas-guzzling cousins, Wozniak's Hydro Hummer is as friendly to the environment as Bagley's solar-powered wheels.

The journey will also run on star-power. Wozniak's co-pilot happens to be former astronaut and second human to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. The trip will be for a research project which is sked to roll out in December 2007. The expedition will be filmed in 3D for Titanic director James Cameron.

A Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy using microorganisms as the driving force behind the reaction. Fuel is oxidized by microorganisms which generate electrons and protons. The electrons and protons are consumed in the cathode compartment reducing oxygen to water.

Now you know this is not quack-tech like the Teleportation machine we featured a while back. And that it doesn't involve collecting ooze from dead animals (you know, for the germs). Maybe, just maybe you would like to build one. If you said "Yes! I want to build my very own two chamber Microbial Fuel Cell!," my friends, you came to the right place.


Know how to build your own microbial fuel cell after the jump.