7 Chilling Mysteries Still Unsolved by Scientists

There are still several fascinating mysteries of our universe unsolved by scientists even after decades and even centuries of research! Join Olivia Gordon for a new episode of SciShow and learn about these seven weird phenomena that remain a mystery!
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at www.scishowtangents.org
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Sources:
Ball Lightning
phys.org/news/2012-10-mystery...
www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
www.livescience.com/61946-bal...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
books.google.com/books?id=TCT...
Skyquakes
www.bbc.com/future/story/20141...
www.seismosoc.org/Publications...
www.wnpr.org/post/loud-booms-c...
Fast Radio Bursts
www.skyandtelescope.com/astro...
aasnova.org/2017/09/20/a-fast...
Star Jelly
biomeecology.com/nature/2018/...
io9.gizmodo.com/the-enduring-...
skeptoid.com/episodes/4299
www.nature.com/articles/083492a0
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.10...
link.springer.com/chapter/10....
Forest Rings
www.cbc.ca/news2/background/t...
www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/1...
geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/g...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a...
www.northernontariobusiness.c...
Hessdalen Lights
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
www.nature.com/webcasts/event...
io9.gizmodo.com/what-causes-t...
Desert Varnish
minerals.gps.caltech.edu/FILES...
www.nps.gov/articles/desertva...
www.sciencemag.org/news/2006/...
www.theguardian.com/science/2...
Images:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.videoblocks.com/video/slo...
freesound.org/people/bajko/so...
vimeo.com/146295242 - public.nrao.edu/media-use/
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13058
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11530
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20267
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/377...
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12602
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/388...
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/121...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.flickr.com/photos/adonofr... - www.biology101.org
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
• 06 Les Lumières de la ...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

[@marsylas]

You know, i didn't know there was a scientific term for an orb like light floating around. I saw one years ago while unloading garbage cans at work and i thought i had just hallucinated or something, but after watching this i'm sure that's what i saw. Thank you SciShow for enlightening me on this. SCIENCE RULES!

[@colorbugoriginals4457]

When I was in my late teens, my family and I experienced ball lightning IN OUR KITCHEN. It was late 90s, during a big thunder storm. There was some water on the floor beneath it from melted ice cubes our baby sister had been playing with there but don't know if that was a coincidence. Many electronics in our house were destroyed simultaneously, including a TV and an answering machine. Our doorbell started ringing and had to be turned off manually from the control panel for it (was a fancy one that played lots of different tunes, our dad was an electrician techy). Still one of the most amazing experiences of my whole life, some 20 years later. I was so excited and startled I cried and laughed at the same time and it took a while to calm down!

[@heatherkaye8653]

QuietHands my mom and I experienced ball lightening in a Summer electric storm in the early 90s, in Damascus, Oregon. All the widows were open she was in the kitchen cooking dinner and I was in the living room - right next to the kitchen, I was talking on a cordless phone. There was a deafening crack, the cordless phone went dead and I looked at my mom and there was a bluish white glowing ball about the size of a volleyball between she and I. we had enough time to make eye contact she told me to put the phone down and get away from it and with that another deafening crack and it was gone... no sign of anything. my sister was in college for biology at OSU and she reached out to her professors asking what the heck it was. The consensus was ball lightening- they gave us a few copied articles in regards to it. the idea then was a concentrated ball of nitrogen.

[@colorbugoriginals4457]

Heather C. that sounds really similar to our experience! terrifying but amazing, right? glad no one was hurt and hope there wasn't too much electrical damage, we had to replace a few things but i think worth it for that once-in-a-lifetime scene.

[@heatherkaye8653]

QuietHands I don't remember if there was anything needing to be replaced. possibly the phone, it went totally dead. And my mom has had tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears) since, because it was so loud! yeah, an unforgettable experience for sure! certainly instilled a deeper respect for the power of mother nature.

[@colorbugoriginals4457]

Heather C. Oh no, sorry about your mom! I've had tinnitus, it's not an easy thing to deal with. What a story of how she got it though!! D:

[@JTA1961]

Yup that would do it... thanks for sharing.

[@laudydorado5245]

My father who used to work on ships abroad stated he saw those "ball lightnings" floating on the night time on their ships. It's just glowing on thin air before it disperses. He called them "santelmo" (something supernatural and similar to the Will-o'-the-wisp legend) like how we call them in our country.

[@evandean3944]

That sounds more like St. Elmo's Fire than ball lightning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire

[@gravel9270]

Filipino right?

[@SoManyRandomRamblings]

@@evandean3944 look at what they are called in his language..... Your comment is basically redundant. 😂

[@zeroflight6867]

Everybody I know who has worked on a submarine or aircraft carrier has encountered it at some point and been warned against it from the moment they came aboard.

[@timohara7717]

​@@SoManyRandomRamblings what

[@BangleWish]

Could Olivia please explain ALL of the scary things in my life so comfortingly?

[@zach11241]

*In Olivia’s voice* “The scratching under your bed at night isn’t always what it seems. Sometimes the floor boards are just creaky. Other times a windy day can move the house just enough to cause the sounds. Less often, the entity is just feeding.”

[@Havron]

​@@zach11241 Night Vale vibes. 💜 Cecil's voice is also very calming, and has helped me to feel so much better about so many existentially horrifying concepts. I highly recommend the podcast to all.

[@Taikamuna]

_#1 - The krabby patty formula_

[@tjn74]

Binging with Babish did an episode on it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXbRiJx9jrlknZY

[@alexiswelsh5821]

Answer: Marketing. Probably, but that’s just a theory.

[@ThaFashionAssassin]

The world may never know

[@josephwodarczyk977]

@@alexiswelsh5821 a *game* theory.

[@clarahowson2911]

+

[@SamanthaVimes]

I've seen ball lightning outdoors on a sunny day. It came into existence with a pop at an intersection, crossed the road and disappeared. I wondered it the electrical system for the traffic lights interacted with some static charge in the air, but it was truly a strange thing and I was glad someone was with me to say, "Did you see that?"

[@JTA1961]

That way people won't say, you're full of... BALLoney ...

[@caradanellemcclintock8178]

the weird thing is from what Iv read its more common in some areas than others to where some people have never seen it and other people have seen it multiple times. Like the brown Mountain Lights that no one can figure out but it happens regularly which tells me there must be a geological aspect like certain minerals in the soil or more static in the air or even maybe tree density but there are so many variables it would be hard to figure out

[@m3rify]

there was no one with you that day Samantha, you have to let it go!

[@SamanthaVimes]

@@m3rify I was in the passenger sear of the car and if my husband wasn't driving, how was I there? Besides, there are plenty of others in this thread who say their own examples.

[@m3rify]

@@SamanthaVimes lol I'm sorry I was just joking

[@amcat8015]

"The more we know, the more we know we don't know." -Somebody probably said this but I dont know who

[@The_Tiffster]

"I know that I know nothing" ~Socrates "The more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not understand" ~Einstein "The more you know the less you understand" ~Laozi

[@rustynova1014]

Am Cat I think Cat in the Hat said that. Him or Dr. Seuss

[@rustynova1014]

Oh wait nvm I don't think he said that

[@zjpdarkblaze]

@MrDW- Valid but false

[@scruffy281]

Seriously...we don't know much.

[@somethingwolfish1872]

So the ocean farts and the sky tells everyone about it.... Neat.

[@jamesond7259]

true,true

[@karthiagency2865]

awesome bro ..i had the laugh of my life

[@captainsquare6735]

Like third grade

[@Elena-bk4fs]

the sky is a snitch for that

[@ladysilverwynde]

Me: It’s just a little fart. The fart:

[@RangerRuby]

Most of these were strand weather phenomena or unknown things from outer space and it is a nice reminder that even though we have come a long way compared to our knowledge from even only 100 years ago, it is still not everything. We will never know everything, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try getting closer.

[@doctorqueasy4505]

"We will never know anything" ehhh i think it's better to stay away from absolutes.

[@geraldpeterson1131]

@@doctorqueasy4505 we can't know everything. There's 900000 years of human history that we have very little knowlegde of.

[@CrankyPantss]

Doctor Queasy They never wrote "we will never know anything". Writing that "we will never know everything" is a pretty safe thing to say, though.

[@geraldpeterson1131]

@@CrankyPantss but op said everything...

[@gabrielabdul8372]

You are very right. Indeed you make sense. We still have so many things to understand. We shouldn't be arrogant so early. I have seen peaople saying there's no God and they arrogantly think we are done with every knowledge. I have seen some scientist say the soul in the human body is like the electricity so we can't even revive a fresh unharmed dead body back to life. This was example and there are so many other things we are yet to discover.

[@puzzleperson2007]

I LOVE science mysteries!!! I was always disappointed as a child when something potentially mysterious was explained with ease. (Disappointed because, well...everyone loves a mystery) we are all (sometimes ) looking for something exciting like out of a book or movie. And it is soooo much fun when science mysteries have that....like quantum physics. Sometimes the most mysterious things have the most amazing answers. It is enjoyable to conjecture the possibilities. My absolute number one science mystery is the double slit experiment. A friend of mine who is a physicist once repeated a quote to me that i adore...”if you say that you understand quantum physics, then it is obvious that you know nothing about quantum physics.”

[@01assassinscreed63]

Yes👍

[@bakkerem1967]

"The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know." Albert Einstein.

[@scruffy281]

Absolutely!!

[@HamboPlayzMC]

all the way back from Socrates but ok

[@samiballew4609]

No truer words have been spoken. The more i study and research the more i realize there is so much more i dont know....

[@rinsedpie]

..hence the expression Ignorance Is Bliss..

[@richiecastro8119]

0⁰0

[@nathanfisher1387]

One of my grandmothers got to see many instances of ball lightning, which were very common on the farm where she grew up. They had a "party line" phone circuit like most people in the country did at the time, and when there was a thunderstorm, her mother told everyone to keep their distance from the phone. Occasionally, after a nearby lightning strike, (presumably on the phone line on the poles nearby) a dim blue ball would come out of the phone. There was no indication of where it came out of the phone, the first you'd see it, it was just floating away from the phone. (so it may have appeared near the phone and not like IN it or attached to it or emerging from it) This spooked everyone and nobody would go near them. It would float around slowly (probably on air currents in the house?) occasionally bouncing off things like walls, and then after about ten seconds it would just suddenly disappear without a sound. (they were silent) She said they were usually around the size of a grapefruit. Nobody dared to touch them or even go near them, though no one knew of anyone with experience in them being dangerous. Though the lightning did get a piece of her in the end. She was on the phone during a storm years later when the line got hit. No ball lightning and no shock, but the sound from the earpiece was so loud that it permanently damaged her hearing in that ear.

[@DEADisBEAUTIFUL]

I’ve heard of this type of thing occurring before, but never have I heard of it in quite so much detail. This was a fascinating read. Thank you so much for sharing this!

[@Apersonfromasia]

Fascinating, Thank you for sharing this.

[@DynamicUnreality]

So actually just in the last couple weeks or so there has been a second repeating Fast Radio Burst announced. Im excited to find out what they are, it is a massive amount of energy.

[@jspin3609]

I saw ball lightening when I was a boy. It looked like a sun in the sky. It was there for a few second and then it made the loudest sound I’ve ever heard. That was 20 years ago and I remember it like yesterday. Absolutely brilliant to see and a cherished memory of mine.

[@graphite2786]

Wow that is so cool! Maybe they might be responsible for some of the skyquakes too, mentioned in the video?

[@vudi2103]

@mio mia Nobodg asked you

[@jerrylucey4737]

I also saw ball lightning when I was a boy. I’m Irish, and was cycling home in a dark country lane and all of a sudden this glowing ball appeared in front of me. I was scared to death, thought it was a ufo or something. Saw or read something years later that methane gas from Borland can cause this rare phenomenon. It doesn’t explain people seeing it indoors, subs etc. but might explain my experience, cos there was a lot of fields, streams etc on route. Wish there were camera phones back then, because when I told my friends/ family, nobody believed me 😏

[@jaredf6205]

"Stimulated emission" yes, I'm familiar with that.

[@electrichanoi7244]

My favourite type of science, Test that every second day

[@ESDowns-yh5bj]

Came looking for this, was not disappointed!

[@JasonAdair]

Giggity!

[@pilisjose]

Very curious... In my country (Colombia), there is a Myth called "La bola de fuego" ("The fire ball") and you find people that saw this phenomenon. Most of them think this is some kind of spirit... Just some info, for those who like to learn about foreign folklore.

[@The_Tiffster]

Thank you :)

[@joanllamedo]

We called it Santilmo in Philippines, unrestful spirits/ghosts.

[@starboy6226]

Joan Llamedo it’s also called A soucoyant in the caribbean

[@kaikart123]

Those are called "lampor" in mine.

[@sleekoduck]

@@joanllamedo St Elmo's Fire in the United States and Europe, before the stupid 80s movie by the same name. I remember my father and my uncle talking about it in the 1980s, my uncle is an electrician and created it by accident. It is a type of ball lightning.

[@jerotoro2021]

All of the ideas for forest rings don't explain why they are in perfect circles though. My immediate thought is that these are ancient impact craters that have been completely worn away by erosion, leaving some sort of deposit around the edge of it that is making the soil in that ring less fertile. Could be a chemical compound, could be slightly radioactive material, or something else. But yeah, it's a very old crater.

[@Rainlitnight]

Actually if you look into how magnetism interacts with itself, you'll see it might actually make sense. Imagine taking the negative end of a magnet and sticking it nearby some magnetic dust. It immediately forms a circle around the magnet trying to "get away" from the polarity at all costs. If you take 2 same ends of magnets themselves and try to put them together, they repel in a circle. You can go around and around, but never touch the magnets together.

[@perforongo9078]

That was my first thought as well. Even if the crater gets filled in, they still end up leaving a geological scar- you're not going to get a completely even distribution of sediment type, and that could effect how plants grow. Earth has been hit by meteors every bit as often as the moon has, but the moon has no atmosphere, so its meteor hits are more discernible.

[@mikestevens8012]

It's a retarding agent at work continuously over say 10,000 years , the center is the oldest area of failures , it doesn't matter the bacteria virus toxin or genetic experiments being run . Perfect circle is one error.rate of change from point of infection equals a ray , or a vector of change , Delta . Bubbles , go get a bachlors degree in something sciency , an come talk.

[@robertebersold3817]

And here i thought it was fairies. :(

[@davidk7544]

Forest rings, fairy circles - very different than what she's talking about. Tree "circles are simply explained" (google that), now take a gander at this www.cnn.com/travel/article/namibia-fairy-circles-mystery-new-theory/index.html The circle she's talking about is uniquely different. It too large to be just trees dropping cones in a "circle" around itself.

[@theCodyReeder]

*yet solved. 😉

[@ryantaylor1142]

Hey Cody love you videos

[@ShortScienceVideos]

Yeah :D By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@dukeraoul2742]

A random Cody appears Cody used think it's super effective

[@anubis63000jd]

Well yeah... Gotta find someone to look into this stuff. Maybe a person with a lab or something.

[@afrog2666]

Hasn`t implies the yet doesn`t it? Hasn`t yet? As opposed to hasn`t in the future? Has not yet, or hasn`t work just as well don`t they? Not an english major lol, (random norwegian) but if one is more correct than the other I want to know why, because I like being a pedant on the internet ;)

[@soupsgord]

I’ve been binging on unsolved mysteries lately and I have to say these 7 were the most interesting! I hadn’t heard of some and had forgotten a few. Thanks! Great content!

[@pias2k04]

Number 2 is a very common phenomena in our country. It usually occurs before heavy raining due to excessive low pressure. We were taught as children that it is caused by the collision of two clouds. ( And It comes from the sky)

[@abdhurrohamanridoy5159]

Akhon 100taka Bair kor

[@PrestonSmithsMusic]

Ball lightning is surprisingly common where I live. On Lake Nipissing in Ontario. Ball lightning moves here. Quickly, sometimes it curves up into the sky or straight across the lake, but it's always super fast. Pretty cool stuff.

[@ShortScienceVideos]

Buy a good camera and do some shots, videos and create YB channel about that. You would make a fortune man. By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@colinp2238]

We know that the answer is 42 but we just don't understand the question. Maybe we should start asking the white mice?

[@keithdurant4570]

Or the dolphins...they were just here for the fish anyway.

[@therougestalker]

We are thinking on the basest of plains. What we need are more eyes.

[@colinp2238]

@Toyz4twats1 We all know the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

[@mattias2576]

i agree

[@insolubletoaster8133]

@@colinp2238 but...why is dust the answer?

[@susanrobinson910]

Awesome video, SciShow crew! It was chock-full of great information, and a couple things I had NEVER heard of!

[@Lily-yf2rx]

My initial idea about forest rings is the extent to which underlying fungi can provide nutrients to a population of trees, maybe their fungus roots (?) can only spread so far from a common position

[@Dreamscape195]

I know this is a whole entire year later but I think the word you’re looking for is mycelium

[@ZeekNotZeke]

Hope to see some of these questions answered in episodes in the years to come! maybe!

[@antonygonzalez9506]

We'll all be long dead by then

[@BattousaiHBr]

all clickbait channels going for "TOP 7 QUESTIONS SCIENCE CAN'T ANSWER" and using alien and ghost thumbnails. meanwhile scishow going for actual science.

[@mojo5093]

you sound like a loser

[@twicebittenthasme5545]

@@mojo5093 and you sound like a little boy who snuck on his mommy's computer! Now, step away from the big people's machine before your mommy catches you. If she does, you won't be allowed to fingerpaint later. And you know how much you like that. Remember? Now be a good little moron and go play with your jello.

[@BBigelow666]

@@mojo5093 go eat more lead paint chips now. They are tasty. BattousaiHBr is right.. you want a laugh, you watch this channel, you want real, proven science, you watch Scishow channel

[@cowboys4life87]

@@BBigelow666 aaa, this is SciShow channel ...those tasty lead chips were fed to a few people out there in net land i see ..we best look out for those guys , right @L Bigelow ?? the crazy fools wear off on ya huh ? .. smh ...

[@parisgreen4600]

We experienced a lot of 'sonic booms' (#2 - skyquakes) when I was a small child around 1970. This was in the Berkshire mountains of western MA, during the Vietnam War, and a lot of low-flying fighter jets would break the sound barrier right over our house during training flights because apparently our terrain was very similar to what they'd experience over there. Our dog was terrified.

[@bellablue5285]

This is wild to think of, there's so little air traffic here now, outside of the occasional cargo plane or the puddlejumpers flying (presumably) to the small local airports

[@styffydawg]

All knowledge came from the question, “What is that goo?” Time and money should be a nonissue.

[@seatbelttruck]

When you said "microbes far underground" I heard it as "microbes fart underground," and since you were talking about methane, I didn't think anything of it for a second.

[@ShortScienceVideos]

Maybe you solved one mystery. :D By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@davidk7544]

But seriously, microbes DO fart underground!

[@cowboys4life87]

@@davidk7544 lmao

[@sangwaraumo]

I heard it too. I guess it was because we were primed by the methane talk.

[@personaslates]

She's not saying it's aliens... But it's aliens.

[@fajaradi1223]

The terms Aliens is considered offensive. Please refer to them as extra terrestrial being.

[@fatboySRK]

Definitely, Aliens... Just look into it...

[@Volodimar]

@@fajaradi1223 *Terrestrially challenged

[@thebread9874]

@@Volodimar its 2019 now, its extraterrestrially gifted

[@vbgvbg1133]

Nice throwback to the old meme.

[@ColeyDuncan]

I love science! We are learning so much so fast now that we are having new discoveries almost daily. Even with FRBs between this video and now. We still have a lot to learn about them, but we have found one repeating every 16.5 days that is being studied.

[@warpdriveby]

I used to live in Southern California, directly under the Shuttles re-entry glide path. "Sky-Quake" describes that sound perfectly. I've also heard a number of sonic booms and they don't have the bass thump along with the crack and then rumble like thunder. Meteors(ites)/bolides seem plausible although we had been scientifically unaware of the high altitude forms of lightning like sprites and jets until two decades ago. It's not impossible that a related phenomenon could be occurring, but invisible in the daylight when heat causes columns of cumulus to erupt on a hot afternoon. I'll be interested to see what we find, debunk, confirm, and are totally surprised by.

[@AleksRokitski]

Wasn't a second repeating FRB detected a few weeks ago? I definitely remember reading about it!

[@AleksRokitski]

www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-46811618 - Yup!

[@seiyuokamihimura5082]

Ahhh, nothing more refreshing than a nice hot cup of science!

[@tsugaru_solos]

"Unlike crop circles, forest rings aren't created by people." I'm so glad the whole crop circle thing has been solved.

[@okrajoe]

Fascinating, first I had heard of Hessdalen lights.

[@ciaphascyne8866]

the only channel that can actually deliver on this kind of title. you're guaranteed its 100% photoshopped mega-sharks free!

[@hellcat1988]

I had one of those ball lightning events form in my room during a particularly electrically active storm when I left my window open and was working on my computer. At least I think that's what it was, as I didn't actually see it; but I did notice a slight glow behind me accompanied by what I can only compare to the sound of a welder increasing in amperage ending with a pop like an acetylene torch being shut off. (really loud pop) Thankfully nothing was damaged, but the sound of something like a massive Jacobs ladder pulse next to my head was a little jarring. I closed the window after that.

[@zach11241]

You were potentially (not a pun!) very lucky. I’ve read accounts of ball lightning bumping into people and throwing them across rooms. There was a particularly infamous case, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, where ball lightning entered a church and wound up killing four people.

[@zippersocks]

Great topic. Love your hosting skills, Olivia!

[@nerd9347.]

KZbin + @SciShow : “7 Chilling Mysteries Still Unsolved by Scientists” Me: “For now!”

[@christophbader3713]

I actually heart the sound of a meteor exploding in the upper atmosphere twice in my lifetime already. It resembles very well the sound of thunder and appears many minutes after the meteor was visible. During day, it would be most likely invisible.

[@truedepthaquaponics7118]

Thank you SciShow for explaining how Stimulated Emission causes Ball Lightning

[@rrt5000]

When I was a little kid I was hanging with my dad in his garage. At one point he picked me up and put me inside the car through the open window. Im not sure if i remember it or if its a false memory from being told the story multiple times. Apparently, ball lighting came into the garage and was buzzing around for about 30 seconds. My dad got scared w me playing on the ground. He watched it in awe after I was inside the car.

[@brettbarager9101]

Years ago I was scuba diving in the Great Lakes (Georgian Bay, to be more specific). At about 30 feet of water I noticed a jelly like spherical structure attached to some seaweed. It was clear but had snowflake shapes on the surface. I took it to the nearby Natural Resources (forestry) building. None of the Consevation Officers had any idea what it was. Even the biologists had no idea. I checked with the Elders is the Indigenous community, but no one had seen this before. So, we never found out what it was. I'm gonna go with it being an alien larva and the Government is keeping it under wraps!

[@sassafrasofficial3695]

4:56 it's just shaggy using 10% of his power to fight them aliens

[@ShortScienceVideos]

:D haha By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@UpcycleElectronics]

*#3 FRB's* What! You guys haven't heard there has already been another repeating FRB detection from CHIME?

[@dominicferreira9900]

Yup. They should update their video since that's a significant and misleading oversight.

[@IAmAlgolei]

Maybe they don't read _Science News._ This one was from January 9th: www.sciencenews.org/article/second-repeating-fast-radio-burst-tracked-distant-galaxy

[@renendarkfire]

Perhaps they shot this video before January 9th and haven't been keeping track of every bit of science news ever. I wish they would update their video, as it IS significant information, but we know that won't happen. Stuff is constantly changing, they can't keep going back and redoing them. Perhaps they'll do a scishow news about it though.

[@terrybakowski7592]

Hey, thanks for the update. Umm..what's CHIME?

[@cdnerin]

Great video, as usual! Thank you!

[@Oler-yx7xj]

Skyquakes is what happens when a tree falls when nobody is there to hear it fall, the sound lags and renders only when somebody comes closer

[@octodionis]

No. 1 Why flat earthers and antivaxxers still exist.

[@GiantPetRat]

Well now, that's just psychology 101.

[@theoffchannel2054]

There's this book! This book gives instructions on how to live your life, and that book mentions the Earth is flat. Also, it doesn't mention vaccines, so vaccines are wrong. However, it does talk about how America is the best country somewhere around the passage concerning cell phones and cars.

[@fajaradi1223]

You dont mention global warming denier too?

[@gabriel300010]

because natural selection doesn't work for best it works for good enough.

[@joshuamirabal3617]

You’d think the antivaxxers would’ve all died from measles by now.

[@sanjuansteve]

Forest rings are likely Mycelium related

[@danielsteel5251]

Please explain.

[@sanjuansteve]

@@danielsteel5251 Mycelium often grows in round colonies. A few years ago I found 2 almost perfectly round lines of mushrooms 4-5 m in dia which I thought was crazy until I researched it a bit.

[@danielsteel5251]

@@sanjuansteve Very cool! Now please explain why (i.e., how it is that) mycelium grows in circles. Because it seems like the same question, essentially. Something to do with elevation?

[@colsoncustoms8994]

www.britannica.com/science/fairy-ring

[@evanjames575]

sanjuansteve exactly, they’ve already done a video on fairy rings.

[@Shadobanned4life]

#11 Where do all those missing socks go when they disappear from my clothes-dryer ? 🤡

[@emily_eclaire2507]

Well done, fun to watch. Thanks

[@rushthezeppelin]

Actually as of a few weeks ago there are now 2 repeating FRBs.

[@jim1550]

Seen star jelly as a kid. It looks more like sodium polyacrylate. I always thought it was a mold of some sort.

[@rakshith7002]

How did you know what it looks like? You searched that or are you a chemist

[@jim1550]

@@rakshith7002 Its just water crystals. Used to keep soil moist for plants.

[@slappy8941]

You mean you saw it, not seen it. Don't be a dumbass.

[@davidk7544]

That's exactly what I was thinking! But then she showed a photo of what was obviously a frog's egg mass. Could it be there is more than one kind, and we're just a bit freaked out to be seeing a hydration compound like a "lake" sitting on the ground? They do seem to happen on wet grass right?

[@davidk7544]

@@rakshith7002 He may be guilty of being a Chemist, but it's ok.

[@dont-touch-mepg1392]

"Fresh photo's with the ball lightning" i love that song

[@BillMarion]

really enjoyed this one!

[@anadea]

I once came across star jelly and it was light blue and puzzlingly solid. And yes, found it right next to a bog.

[@ShortScienceVideos]

:D okay then :D By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@davidk7544]

Look up "Frog eggs"

[@sydnievanarsdale2048]

wouldn't it be kind of funny if the forest tree rings were auctually thousands of scientists from around the world building secret partical accelerators.

[@slappy8941]

You're not very good at jokes, are you?

[@kevinquist]

ms. Gordon, you do a fantastic job and I love watching your show. keep up the good work.

[@savageman7047]

Good video.. .Beautiful Narrator.. Beautiful voice

[@dewdroppedrose]

Everyone's got their opinions... mine is that I love all of your videos!

[@MasterJedi86]

I'll bet you love all her videos.😉

[@davidk7544]

@@MasterJedi86I DO!!!!!

[@seandees3028]

My father talked about ball lightning inside the wings of large prop planes he worked on while on Guam in the '60s while flying through storms. I don't think steel and aluminium would do the dust thing. This doesn't invalidate the lab work with silica dust, just that there may be other reasons for it to form or other elements and conditions which can produce it.

[@evandean3944]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire

[@Articulate99]

Always interesting, thanks.

[@zrebbesh]

I have seen multiple balls of ball lightning "rolling" around the base of tornadoes on two different occasions (I moved someplace with less violent weather eventually). As far as my interpretation of my experience goes, I've been supporting the "dust being strongly agitated builds up electrical charge" theory.

[@ShortScienceVideos]

Whoa you did see them by your naked eye? You are so lucky! By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@fandomguy8025]

Should have recorded it man, did you not have your phone on you?

[@zrebbesh]

This was almost four decades ago, in the pre-cellphone era. I lived in western Kansas at the time. We got really violent weather on a routine basis. Cleaning up tornado damage was steady work all summer if you were willing to drive 40 miles or so. Truckers routinely drove an extra hundred fifty miles to avoid the area because the wind often blows trailer trucks off the road on the stretch between Medicine Lodge and Coldwater. And my dad actually got hit by lightning once before I was born. I did the sensible thing and moved away, but now the weather everywhere is starting to get violent.

[@fandomguy8025]

@@zrebbesh Ah. Yes indeed.

[@davidk7544]

That's more than a theory. I hope you communicate this to someone who is also researching ball lighting. Write a letter to the editor at popular science or other. (for real).

[@alisonleo1]

I love the question of if other life functioned differently or was chemically different, would we recognize it? Tempted to pose that question to one of my professors

[@ShortScienceVideos]

If you were at these memories, yes you would, of course. Otherwise nope. By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@davidk7544]

If you're paying for your classes, you'd freaking better! It's as valid a question as valid gets!

[@jaysonkristopher]

Try explaining this to flat earthers.. that will make your day..

[@Griffix96]

I have heard a skyqake. They are not all booms. The one I heard was like a series of long slow horn blasts. The sound from above filled the the whole vally. I have lived in the same house for 25 years and I have never heard that sound before or since that time. It's unmistakable for anything else. If you ever hear one you know you heard one.

[@hofniel63]

Fantastic episode! Thanks for sharing!

[@ShortScienceVideos]

Agree! (: By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@ingridfong-daley5899]

Not "ET trying to 'get in touch'." It's "ET trying to phone home." how did you miss that?! :)

[@nathanielross295]

A few years ago, I was reading The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castañeda during a rainstorm. I was reading the part where he talks about a being made of light when I looked out my window and I saw a ball of electricity hanging in midair which dissipated after a few seconds. The next day, I looked to see if there were any wires near the area where I saw the electricity, there was nothing there.

[@miguelnglopes]

Excellent video!

[@maddiezapss]

10:55 I was JUST there, and took a picture of the same petroglyph! Its in the Valley of Fire in Nevada.

[@xeacroafisnotagamer9742]

You forget about youtube recommendations

[@operativexeight]

this was a lot spookier than i expected

[@Deuronius]

The Double slit Quantum experiment^^. Awesome vid

[@fandomguy8025]

Actually that's not really a mystery, it simply tells us that what we think of as objects are actually waves, that particles are formed from wave packets emergent from waves that otherwise cancel out into empty space(most of the time.)

[@Abishek_Muthian]

The research done for this episode to filter out excessive amounts of conspiracy theories is commendable.

[@enigma-sama2509]

Howabout... how wasnt that a headshot?

[@nathanbest5579]

Just blame the lag, bro.

[@enigma-sama2509]

@@nathanbest5579 yeah... them fckn unreliable radio waves...

[@grainfrizz]

Desync

[@craigmooring2091]

Does anyone else feel a hint of nostalgia for Olivia? Where did she go? What is she doing now?

[@dougfowler1368]

I've never seen the ball lightning but did hear a sky quake on a clear day once. I passed it off as a sonic boom, though we're not that close to an airport. The meteor thing makes a lot of sense and is something I had not thought of. I didn't realize they had been heard for so long.

[@apyorick]

I love when scientists are like everything has a rational explanation, then proceed on a ten minute rant about pluming, billowing, self containing pockets of invisible floating conscious star sperms

[@cheyjackson909]

Haha I feel ya

[@apyorick]

Lol I mean even if I complete believe what they are saying, its like, there is nothing rational about what you just said. It just makes it more and more obviously that we live in a crazy sci-fi fantasy universe.

[@thecatxx]

Ball lightning being caused by microwaves would explain why it sounds like when you light something on fire with the microwave

[@ShortScienceVideos]

You experienced it? By the way, I created a heart beating animation using mathematical formula in graph. If you have some time and would like to see it, i would be truly grateful. I have more like this on the way so if you do enjoy it, subscribe for more. Thank you very much in advance and have a great day. (: (:

[@fredjaneson1670]

Very good. logical and intelligent. Thanks!

[@heartdragon2386]

That last one reminds me of a comic strip I saw. A couple ants are talking in a kitchen. One says something like "Any signs of intelligent life?". The other responds, "No, we keep laying out sent trails, but no response.." They may be out there, weay just be missing each other.

[@mattdet7075]

Weather balloons and swamp gas.

[@Doortodoorgeek]

another great episode Olivia, thank you for all your work

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

The thing I find most humorous about science is the amount of overthinking some problems get. I do think many of these phenomena do in fact have a much simpler cause.

[@brochdk4712]

Great video, amazing inprovement.

[@Shaden0040]

Bangs from the sky without lightning might be supersonic meteors becoming bolides but far out of visual sight of the observer that hears the sonic booms. This can easily explain these sounds before aviation. Tunguska was heard thousands of miles away in Southern China and in Eastern Europe.

[@davidk7544]

I think she touched on that, but that was also my first guess. Sure happens often enough. I saw 4 meteors last night, and 12 satellites. This is normal right? Everyone does this?

[@kittybeans8192]

"Something SO common, you might've seen it yourself: Ball Lightning. About 5% of people have seen it" 5% of people is not what I imagine when I think of common. But then again, I'm not a scientist...

[@evanjames575]

Was thinking the same thing. I’ve never even heard of it untill now.

[@richie1326]

Ball lightning?!!! You've got to be kidding.... there are many scientists who do not believe that this actually exists, that it's not even possible, so looking for an explanation is completely futile. 5% of people have seen it? What?!!! I have never met anyone in my life who even claims to have seen it. If 5% of people have seen it, then why is there not some really good evidence for it, like photographic or video? Perhaps 0.01% of the population have seen something they *thought* was ball lightning. I wasn't aware of a single, properly verified sighting of this often speculated phenomenon.

[@richie1326]

@@rnindless you're confusing rational scepticism with religious beliefs. Let's look at this one thing at a time. "There is plenty of raw footage of ball lightning" this is the problem, there isn't. There is plenty of dodgy footage of what people *claim* to be ball lightning, or perhaps what they genuinely thought was ball lightning, but that doesn't tell us anything about what they *actually* saw. We have absolutely no idea what they were *actually* filming. And, in addition to this, as others have pointed out in the main posts, there are many completely fraudulent videos of this and other phenomena. Separating the two is very difficult, especially when the fraudulent ones are by far the majority. The fact that scientists have never been able to replicate anything resembling full scale ball lightning in a lab, where so many variables can be controlled and optimised, should tell you something. As far as I am aware, there is absolutely *no* properly verifiable evidence of ball lightning 'in the wild'. This is exactly why it's such a shaky idea. If you can show me some, I would look at it, of course. This is something that I'm quite interested in, for reasons that I won't go into atm, so I've always been very receptive to any news on this. "I forget to tell my friends plenty of interesting things." Are you seriously telling me, that if you yourself actually witnessed something as incredible as ball lightning, that you would 'forget' to tell anyone else about it? That's ridiculous. And where do they get this figure of 5%??? In the UK alone, that would mean that over 3 million people had seen this. In the US, it would be over 15 million. And yet, as I said before, no one I have ever met in my entire life has ever even claimed to have seen it. It's the kind of thing people like to talk about. I am, by the way, plenty older than 40 years. "Just because something is unexplained or unfamiliar doesn't mean it doesn’t exist". I never made that statement. Do you believe in ghosts? Probably not. Even though many, many people have claimed to have seen them. The reason why neither of us believe in ghosts is because we apply rational scepticism to the likelihood of ghosts existing. Given that there is absolutely no evidence of the existence of ghosts, and absolutely no scientific theory which could explain them, we can be fairly certain that they don't exist. Or at least, I am. This is the position that 'ball lightning' finds itself in. It is a mythical phenomenon, an incredible, wondrous part of folklore, something that many people would like to believe exists, to elevate life from the mundane to the sublime and mysterious, and yet, in the end, it falls flat, as a scientific theory. No proper evidence, no scientific theory. Are we really to believe that beautiful, brightly glowing orbs of highly charged plasma can just 'float' through solid walls without interacting with them, and then just quietly melt away as if never having existed? As beautiful as this idea is, it's absurd. Last point. It is no coincidence that I responded to this video, in particular on this subject. I once had the opportunity to discuss this very subject with a research scientist who had spent most of his professional career leading a research group that studied lightning, it's effects (more properly known as 'induced voltages'), and how to protect people, and sensitive electronic equipment from it, particularly in aircraft and buildings. When I asked him about 'ball lightning', his response was unequivocal. He had never seen it, did not know of anyone who had, and did not believe that there was any evidence for it. When I described some of the anecdotes surrounding this phenomenon to him, he simply responded "that's impossible". After thinking for a moment, he added "well, it's very unlikely". When a scientist, who has been working in a specialised field such as this for 30 years of his career, says something is "very unlikely", then I think you can be certain that it is exactly that.

[@travisscavoni369]

@@richie1326 you've never met me, but I will say that I have seen ball lightning. This was back when I was a kid. It came into our house through the kitchen window above the sink

[@heatherkaye8653]

richie1326 my mom and I experienced ball lightening in a Summer electric storm in the early 90s, in Damascus, Oregon. All the widows were open she was in the kitchen cooking dinner and I was in the living room - right next to the kitchen, I was talking on a cordless phone. There was a deafening crack, the cordless phone went dead and I looked at my mom and there was a bluish white glowing ball about the size of a volleyball between she and I. we had enough time to make eye contact she told me to put the phone down and get away from it, and with that another deafening crack rang out, and it was gone... no sign of anything. my sister was in college for biology at OSU and she reached out to her professors asking what the heck it was. The consensus was ball lightening- they gave us a few copied articles in regards to it. the idea then was a concentrated ball of nitrogen.

[@rebeccakoch9203]

Me, not a 12 year old: stimulated emission...🤭💀

[@pixelpusher3589]

Wish I could like your vids more than once......keep the knowledge coming please.

[@lunaazule1899]

I'm give you a thumbs up for the cute handle.

[@KnightSlasher]

Why are we still here just to suffer?

[@josephisrael8959]

Edgy

[@justindavis2305]

Why are you complaining about a privilege?

[@DJNHmusic]

god works in mysterious ways

[@LordSlag]

Gawd hates you.

[@rickymarumade]

Metal gear

[@lancestoll2704]

Coulomb crystals are definitely going in my next sci-fi book

[@kobotherobohobo]

Based on the fact that no one has tested the chemical composition of star jelly, you can't say that it's not from space. For all we know it has properties that can protect it from high heat levels.

[@iloveplasticbottles]

So basically its possible that skyquakes are ocean farts.

[@crackedemerald4930]

If this was the 1800's, desert varnish would be associated to goblins or elves Nowadays, it would be associated to a Florida man

[@ABlueOrb]

What's the difference?

[@digemsmacks5690]

I'm a Florida man

[@HTPCYMC]

Top 7 questions science still can’t answer.

[@EliteGeeks]

Grammer is not their best calling.

[@gumunduringigumundsson9344]

What is wrong with it please. This is one of my all time fave channels.. what is wrong in the grammar there?

[@craigcorson3036]

Top 7 questions science still hasn’t answered. Fixed it for you.

[@gumunduringigumundsson9344]

@@craigcorson3036 I am sure the title is sound.

[@colinp2238]

@@EliteGeeks And spelling isn't yours is it?

[@zedwms]

My mother grew up in the Texas panhandle, during the dust bowl. One night she and her sister were in the back of their buckboard, with Dad driving the horse, and a ball lightening came rolling down the road from behind them. It overtook them, rolled around the rear wheel, then around the front, and then continued up the road. Everyone's hair was standing on end for multiple reasons.

[@justinamarina3774]

Very informative.

[@collinsmilgo8869]

Also a big one is the question, why is there more matter than anti-matter in the universe?

[@VG____]

Only five protons per cubic meter, including dark matter and dark energy, is not so much of a difference when you think about it...

[@penart8079]

@@VG____ nah it's big difference and also quite a pivotal difference in science when you think about it....basically life would not be possible if they were equal amount of matter and anti-matter, but scientist up today don't know why theres more matter than anti matter

[@VG____]

Yes, I was just mentioning the current average density of matter in our whole universe. Just adding some perspective :-) But your main point is correct, no discussion about it.

[@medievalterrence9691]

I've never understood why we think that. There's other galaxies out there we don't even know about. They might all be anti-matter.