scientific questions
what is the biggest question science still can’t answer
Science advances by questions. Every discovery leads to deeper questions — and some of the deepest are still wide open.
This room is arranged in two halves — questions science hasn’t answered yet, and questions it has — each split across three subjects: the universe, the Earth, and life itself.
unanswered: universe questions
The biggest open questions in physics, astronomy and cosmology — about what the universe is made of and how it began.
How did the Big Bang happen
What happened in the very first moments after the Big Bang
How did the fundamental forces of nature arise… and were they originally integrated together as one force
What is dark matter
What is dark energy, and why is the universe’s expansion speeding up
What lies beyond the observable universe
Can we reconcile gravity with quantum physics
Why is there more matter than antimatter
Is there life elsewhere in the universe
Are we alone
It appears that around 95% of the mass and energy of the universe — dark matter and dark energy — still has no confirmed explanation. We can detect the effects but not the things themselves.
unanswered: earth science questions
Questions about our own planet that are still surprisingly hard to answer — from its depths to its weather.
How can we predict exactly when and where an earthquake will strike
How accurately can we ever forecast the weather
What is happening at the very centre of the Earth
How will the climate change over the next century, and how fast
What causes the Earth’s magnetic field to flip
How much water is hidden deep inside the Earth
Why did the Earth end up so perfectly suited to life
Some of these we can describe in broad terms but still cannot pin down precisely — which is exactly what keeps the questions open. Find out more about Earth Science questions and answers here.
‘Why do we yawn’ and ‘why do we dream’ appear in the Rare room too — first asked by Aristotle, and still genuinely unsolved more than two thousand years later. Find out more about life sciences questions and answers here.
unanswered: biology questions
Questions that are still open about life, the body and the mind — some of the deepest in all of science.
How did life begin
What is consciousness
Why do we dream
Why do we sleep
Why do we age, and can we slow it down or stop it
How does a single cell know how to grow into a whole creature
How does memory really work
Why do we yawn
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answered: universe questions
Questions about the cosmos that once seemed impossible — and now have confident answers.
Does the Earth go around the Sun, or the Sun around the Earth
Why do apples fall to the ground
What is the moon made of
What are stars made of
How old is the universe
Why does the Moon change shape through the month
What causes the Northern Lights
Copernicus and Galileo answered the first; Newton the second. Each began as a question that overturned a whole worldview.
answered: earth science questions
Questions about our planet that science has now (more or less!) settled.
How old is the Earth
Why does the sea have tides
Why is the sky blue
What causes thunder and lightning
Why is the sea salty
What are mountains made of, and how do they form
What causes rainbows
‘Why is the sky blue’ and ‘why is the sea salty’ began in the Children’s and Rare rooms — a nice illustration that today’s child’s question can be yesterday’s breakthrough.
answered: biology questions
Questions about living things that science has answered — sometimes after centuries of asking.
What are living things made of
What causes disease
Where do babies come from
Why do we have blood
How do plants make their food
Why do we look like our parents
Germ theory answered ‘what causes disease’; the discovery of DNA answered ‘why do we look like our parents’. Each is a question children still ask today.