BIOLOGICAL OBSCURITIES
Added on: 22nd May 2016
PETO’S PARADOX
Humans are prone to cancer…this is not a secret, However
larger mammals, like whales, are no were near as prone to
cancer as humans are. If cancer is essentially a negative
outcome lottery at cell levels, and larger organisms have
more cells, and thus more potentially cancerous cell divisions,
one would expect larger organisms to be more predisposed
to cancer. But this is not the case.
BLUE WHALE’S SEXUAL LIFE
Speaking of larger mammals, little is known about how Blue whales
mate. You would think that it would be easy to witness the “act”
of such a large animal, but the fact remains that Blue whales
mating has never been recorded. Fun bonus fact: Humpback
whales (which are closely related to Blue whales) are known to
engage in what scientists refer to as “simultaneous
intromission” AKA, threesome.
THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION
What was the cause of the apparent rapid diversification of
multicellular life around the beginning of the Cambrian period,
resulting in the emergence of almost all modern animal phyla?
It’s a highly debated topic but no solid concrete answer
exists as of yet.
KORARCHAEOTA METABOLIC PROCESSES
Korarchaeota constitute a recent kingdom of Archaea containing
single cell micro-organisms only found in high temperature
hydrothermal environments. Little is known about these species
including how their metabolic processes take place.
BASKING SHARK’S REPRODUCTION MECHANISM
Basking shark females appear to only have one functioning
ovary-the right one to be exact. This is unique among
sharks and the reason is unknown.
ARTHROPOD HEAD PROBLEM
The arthropod head problem is popularly known as the “endless dispute”
referring to its seemingly intractable nature. While the dispute has
historically centred on the exact make-up of the insect head, it has
been widened to include other living arthropods such as the
crustaceans and chelicerates. Although some progress has been
made during the past few years, the precise nature of especially
the labrum and the pre-oral region of arthropods remain
highly controversial.
BIOLOGICAL AGING
There are a number of hypotheses as to why we age and eventually
die but as we mentioned, it’s all hypothesis with no real
solid explanations in sight.
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
And of course number one is the biggest mystery of them all,
the origin of life! Despite all the gigantic scientific and
technological advances of the past couple of centuries we still
don’t know exactly how and when life on Earth originated.
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