7 Famous 'Unsolved' Mysteries (Science Solved Years Ago)
We at Cracked aren't going to be satisfied until we've sucked every last mystery from the world like the final gurgling slurps of a milkshake. Thus, here are seven mysteries that have enthralled human imagination for decades -- if not centuries -- that were actually solved long ago. Hint: The solution never involves magic.
#7. The Shroud of Turin
The Mystery:
It's the ultimate religious artifact of our times, considering we still haven't found the Holy Grail yet. According to legend, Jesus was wrapped in a burial shroud after his crucifixion, and it retained the ghostly image of his face.
The shroud, mentioned only vaguely in the Bible, resurfaced in the possession of a knight in Lirey, France, in the year 1390 and made its way across churches in Europe. It eventually ended up in a chapel in Turin, Italy, after a fire damaged it in 1532. It remains there to this day and has since become known as the Shroud of Turin.
Wikipedia
Wow, upping the contrast on a coffee stain can really work miracles.
It's considered one of the most holy relics in existence, and Pope Benedict XVI has declared it the authentic burial robe of Christ.
The Solution:
Unfortunately, it appears that the Church has been taken in by a 600-year-old hoax. In 1988, Oxford University in England, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and Tucson University in Arizona performed radiocarbon dating and found that the shroud was dated to around the 14th century -- the same time that it mysteriously appeared.
Wikipedia
Be honest. You all wish those hands weren't there so we could see what the King of Kings is packing.
But even if the shroud is a medieval hoax, how was it created? According to Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia, it was pretty simple. Using a linen sheet laid over a volunteer and an acidic pigment (tactics and materials available to a 14th century forger), then artificially aging the cloth to make it appear a couple hundred years old, he and his students created a pretty damn impressive replica of the shroud in 2009.
sindonology
If the messiah was Hulk Hogan.
That very same year, an authentic tomb from the actual time of Jesus was unearthed in Jerusalem, and archaeologists found a dead aristocrat wrapped in a shroud made from far less advanced a textile than the Shroud of Turin, which seems to use weaving techniques not found in the time of Jesus. So we'd have to believe that a really rich dude was somehow unable to afford the same super-shroud as a local carpenter who died a penniless criminal.
Oh yeah, and then there's the accusation that Church authorities in the 1300s knew the shroud was a hoax and actually had a confession from the unnamed artist who faked it.
Getty
"Also, keep spreading the word that Jesus was a white guy."
#6. Auras
Getty
The Mystery:
The one thing that connects every new-age guru from numerologists to palm readers is that they all think that auras are a thing. And why not? We have photographs of them.
aura-imaging
Trippy photographs.
Generally speaking, auras are, you know, the manifestation of universal energy that, like, surrounds us all, man. And for a fee, professional aura readers who butcher the Papyrus font can take a look at your aura and tell you exactly what your spiritual malaise is based upon their handy color chart.
aura-imaging
"I see sadness, and also that you need to replace your camera lens."
Those aura photographs can be taken with a kind of device that runs a current through your body. Not strong enough to kill you usually, just enough to bring out that spiritual energy. And for years, scientists didn't know what the hell it was. Maybe it was magic.
The Solution:
Turns out it's regular, old-fashioned sweat.
The electrical photographic method actually just brings out the outline of whatever it's observing in a beautiful neon glow. In the case of human beings, it also captures the cloud of sweat floating around the filthy, filthy hippie in question. The effect is much more dramatic if the subject is keen and nervous about, well, having an electric current shot through his body.
aura-imaging
"Huh. Looks like you're feeling very apple today."
But there are some other explanations for why auras have featured prominently in iconography even before this neat camera trick. Visions of auras can be caused by defects in your own eye, brought to you by medical conditions such as migraines, epilepsy and eye burns. This is something even aura believers admit.
It also works if you rub your eyes really hard for about four minutes.
Still, there's something to be taken home from all this -- if you're into that sort of thing, you now have a way to know exactly what color your sweat is.
#5. The Ghost Ship Flying Dutchman
Getty
The Mystery:
The legend of the Flying Dutchman dates back to the 17th century. It's about a ghost ship that sails the deep ocean, full of lost souls who can never make port. According to the story, the Flying Dutchman sank in a terrible storm, and since that day it has drifted aimlessly (because apparently when ships are killed they also become ghosts). If you see the Flying Dutchman, it's a sign that a terrible storm is coming to make ghosts of you and your ship, too.
As implied by the name, it actually flies. That's how you know it's a ghost ship and not just some regular ship you've mistaken for one -- it's the one that's hovering above the water. No non-ghost boat can do that.
Wikipedia
"Phew! It's just a regular rotting ship haunted by the anguished souls of the dead."
The Solution:
Sailors who report seeing the Flying Dutchman have kept this legend alive for centuries because, come on, it's a flying boat that predicts storms. How many of them can possibly be out there?
Turns out this all makes perfect sense. No, seriously. They're just falling victim to an optical illusion called fata morgana. It's a form of mirage that plays with light and moisture in a way that can and often will cause faraway ships to appear as all sorts of terrifying apparitions that float well above sea level. The Flying Dutchman is heavily associated with the areas that have conditions ideal for fata morgana mirages, such as the North Sea (the phenomenon is most likely to occur in colder water temperatures).
Wikipedia
Apparently, 17th century sailors aren't the best way to objectively assess nautical phenomena.
But what about the storms? How many optical illusions do you know that can control the weather? Actually, it's the other way around. Guess what kind of atmospheric conditions are perfect for creating the fata morgana mirage? If you guessed "the ones right before a storm hits," you win 12 Cracked points.
Wikipedia
Cracked points are redeemable only for shotgun shells and expired peanut butter.
#4. Human Magnetism
The Mystery:
Yes, we said "human magnetism." As in, there are people out there whose job description is "sticking metal objects to themselves." These are regular people like Aurel Raileanu and Brenda Allison, who display the uncanny ability to draw metal objects like a particular X-Men villain you may have heard of.
The Sun
Yup, Ironman.
Seriously. They have entire tournaments in which these real-world Magnetos compete to find out who is truly the master stick-shit-to-himselfer. The current champion managed to lift, get this, a 92-pound slab of stone with his skin. This is particularly impressive when you consider that stone isn't noted for its magnetic properties.
odditycentral
Waaaaait, we can't see what his penis is doing here.
The Solution:
Skeptics such as James Randi have found that human magnetism is simply caused by a skin condition called not fucking bathing.
yoyoshare
One of these years, Burning Man is going to suck a goddamn jet out of the air.
The stickiness of a suitably greasy skin and a certain amount of practice enables these people to use their skin for suction in a manner not unlike that of octopus tentacles, which also explains why they are able to attach technically non-magnetic objects to themselves.
Randi actually proved this theory on the field by rubbing talcum powder on human magnets, who instantly, magically lost their powers like it was Kryptonite.
ss133
It cost literally dollars to replace that TV.
Usually, pieces of cloth don't tend to last two thousand years, especially with ancient manufacturing techniques. Maybe if, the instant it was created, it was irradiated to kill all the bacteria and then sealed in a vacuum- chamber it would last 2000 years, but otherwise...
ReplyCracked. Always killing my dreams of the world still holding mystery.
ReplyI don't believe that the Shroud of Turin is actually Jesus' shroud, but what I have heard relates to something that was stated. There was a fire in the church that housed the shroud, I heard that that fire, particularly the smoke from it, could have seriously altered the findings from carbon dating. I know that wasn't the only evidence given, but it was a key piece. I don't how valid the claims are that the fire could have altered the readings, but I would have like to see such claims addressed.
ReplyAlso, the Belmez faces thing...it would be nice if they would have just summed up the article that it linked to, considering it was their explanation. I come to Crack to get a brief summary, I don't want to read a whole article on it, especially since it seems like what they were sending us there for really only needed at most a sentence, not an entire article.
I have no interest (or belief) whatsoever in auras or finding out what color they are. But now I desperately want to know what color my sweat is!
ReplySomehow all those photos from number 4 are rendered far less impressive when you realize they're seriously just grubby people sticking s**t to themselves.
ReplyConcerning #1, I'd bet that aliens have also developed diamond-tipped rotary cutting tools as well...Doctor Jones was right all along.
ReplyOh dear God I'm so sorry for bringing up that movie.
You are NOT forgiven.
There is a mistake in #1: it's "Musée du quai Branly". Nice article!
ReplyKind of disappounted that the whole "human magnetism" thing is just people not bathing.
ReplyI had to actually stop reading at The Shroud of Turin section because of one major flaw (to me, anyway). As a Tucsonan, it is NOT Tucson University in Arizona. It's the University of Arizona (which happens to be located in Tucson). Get your facts straight.
ReplyWell aren't you quite the little snob? Calm down, - the parts of the article that actually matter are correct and fact-checked. Trust me, nobody cares about the University of Arizona, just the people that live there.
@IsabelL, how about YOU do some fact checking of your own instead of making assumptions. Cracked is a humor sight, it has many interesting articles which I very much enjoy and trusted, for the most part, up until I read this section on the Shroud. They use outdated "facts" in a deceitful manner, perhaps unintentionally.
Ask yourself this, do you trust an article written by two Cracked writers or the extensive research by the scientific community, secular as well as religious, which hasn't come to any definitive conclusion?
I'm not going to bother proving anything to you. If you want the truth, look for it.
Tthe thing that intrigues me about the Flying Dutchman isn't the fata morgana (that's a perfectly acceptable explanation for it being seen in the sky), but the timeline. I've got next to me a record of sightings in 1939 and '42, which is approximately 200 years since any ship resembling the Dutchman actually put to sea.
ReplyActually if sightings are common in the North Sea it could be the Belgian marine training ship the Mercator which looks exactly like the sailing ships of old times.
And BTW, the Bible clearly says that when Jesus was buried, they used one cloth for his head and one for the rest of his body. Two cloths. I find it unlikely that after he rose, Jesus thought to himself "Let's see, I came back from the dead, I'm going to ascend into heaven...I guess if I really want to freak everyone out, I'll make these two burial cloths into one. That'll do it."
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesActually, there is a face cloth that matches the Shroud somewhere in Europe(I forgot where). Look it up if you don't believe me.
I believe you, I'm just saying the Shroud of Turin can't be real.
I thought that they had two separate ones and then one on the outside that wrapped everything up. It had something to do with his wounds or Jewish customs. I could also be completely wrong about this, it was just something I heard.
Actually, the Church WOVE cloth over the Shroud fearing its disintegration. No piece of cloth would survive such high temperatures so long, and they knew it. A newer more detailed research shoes its at least 2,000 years old, fitting its original storyline.
ReplyAnd the image on it.....took 34 trillion watts to make.
I doubt either of those statements are factually true.
The Catholic Church did not weave cloth OVER the Shroud. The reason the dating was wrong was because the area they took a sample from was added to cloth to mend it. Also the area they took the sample from (I believe it was the corner?) had been handled repeatedly over the centuries, there are paintings that depict it being held by the corner the sample was taken from.
Cracked obviously didn't do any fact checking when writing the portion on the shroud, their "facts" are from 1988!
Um... Actually, the carbon dating that "proved" the Shroud was a hoax was wrong. They took one tiny sampling from a corner of the Shroud, instead of taking several, and later realized that the bit they sampled was actually a repair from the 14th century - a patch that had been sewn on to fix a hole. The rest of the Shroud is actually from around the time of Jesus' death. Back to Google!
Replyyeah, because the Catholic church is known for letting anyone with a sewing machine make repairs to holy objects, right?
Asher? If a random pope in the 14th century said 'fix that s**t up, I have dudes for tea and it looks scruffy', someone would fix that s**t up, because he was the pope, and he had a bloody army.
"no magic" going to stop reading right there.
ReplyAlso the image on the shroud is shown to have crucifixion wounds in the wrist. This means your medieval forger ignored hundreds of years of Christian tradition where Christ is shown with his palms nailed to the cross. It's also significant because experiments have shown that if you were to crucify someone you would have to do it through the wrists because the palms would be unable to support their weight.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesI don't even want to know how experiments have shown that.
By using cadavers.
so what is your point. the shroud figure has stigmata's in the wrist, churches do teach that crucifixion nails were placed in the wrists. no church teaches palm stigmata's. anyone who knew anything about crucifixion would have known that. the whole palm stigmata thing came about in the 13th century.
Actually, when the did the first set of experiments, they originally thought that you had to be nailed through the wrists during crucifixion, because your palms couldn't hold the weight of your body alone, but when they took into account that Jesus (and all of the other crucifixion victims) was also nailed through the feet, which would serve to take a lot of weight and stress off of the palm-nails, they found that it could be done either way.
they originally thought that, but then they took into account that crucifixion victims were also nailed through the feet, and that took a lot of stress and weight off of the nails in their palms. So actually, it could have been done either way.
On the Shroud of Turin, one thing you forgot to mention was that the image is a photo negative. That means your medieval forger would have had knowledge of photography.....500 years before photography was invented.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesPeople have known of negatives ever since they first started working with stuff like pottery and molding. A mold is a negative of what you want to produce. And if you take a mold of a person's face, it'll be a negative of their face. They've know that ever since a caveman tried to paint his face and put it on one of his skins.
Crap! I meant to downarrow 'batman666", sorry Vlad.
or he could have made a mold, or maybe pressed some bricks. or even looked in a mirror.
the "photo-negative" is not really a complex theory
Okay, you say there's too much of a coincidence.
I'll say as much as this:
"If you're going to "explain" everything that you don't know by yelling "God" then there isn't a lot of reason to call the scientists eh?"
When I hear about men in black I always think of Jose Chung, Alex Trebek, and Jesse Venture. Roswell...ROSWELL!! lol
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesYou may think you saw an object in the Sky but what you saw was the plant venus!
I always think of Johnny Cash...
That episode of "Millenium" is my favorite episode of any TV show ever.
"Unfortunately, it appears that the Church has been taken in by a 600-year-old hoax."
Reply...Among other things. Unfortunately. (Google: BIBLE)
Wow what a badass YOU are, sport! How about you shut the f**k up?
#1 is very annoying...as the actual staatement..made on a tv special was that the skull couldn't have been made by anything less accurate than a special type of diamond polishing device that was invented in the 1990's, and even then it would have been difficult to make. The statement about the 1930's was that was the earliest they could trace it's existence to. At least one of the one's in the collection of various museums was brought back by someone during the Spanish invasions of South America and it was examined as well giving the same results.
ReplyNot one single crystal skull has been proven to be from anytime before the 19th century.
Whatever the TV special you're talking about, it's incorrect - jeweler's rotary tools have existed well before the 1990's, since the 19th century. Academic estimates of crystal skull place most of them in that period, mainly because fake pre-Columbian artifacts and mysticism associated with the idea of advanced lost civilizations were both really popular in Europe at the time. Crystal skulls were just some of many, many different supposedly Aztec or Maya artifacts with magic power that were being traded around.
There is absolutely no record of any crystal skull being discovered by any explorer or conquistador and we can assume that such an artifact would probably have gotten some press. Especially when people started using it to will death upon their enemies.
A National Geographic show on the skulls showed that an artist with the tools they had around the time when the skull was bought could actually replicate it perfectly. It even fooled the owner. They also did a number of tests on the supposed supernatural and alien tech theories and found nothing that the claim say should be there. There's also a company in either japan or china whose whole business is making replica crystal skulls for people.
Isn't the Flying Dutchman known for sailing around Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, though? This article talked about the North Sea.
Replyyes but it stated that is ONE of the places that it appears, due to the atmospheric conditions being correct, so i expect the Cape of Good hope can also expirence the conditions needed to produce the Dutchman
That's also to do with the fact that Africa was where a lot of exotic spices and things used in Europe came from at the time the Dutchman legend started, so there were a lot more reported in that area. I've read modern versions of the story and some of them mention that the ghost ship appears to like staying in fashion and almost always looks like a ship appropriate to the time of the sighting.