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There is something refreshing about scientists confessing their ignorance. Day after day, in research journals and at international meetings, they strut, cluck and boast about the latest enigma they've wrestled to the ground. The entire human genome mapped! The farthest star plotted! The mating habits of dinosaurs inferred from fossilized eggs! Ordinary folks can be excused for muttering, "Is there nothing these white-coated brainiacs don't think they know?"This week the world's largest general science journal, aptly named Science, takes a different and more humble tack, presenting a list of the 125 biggest quandaries that scientists have failed to fathom.
This catalogue of bewilderment, part of the journal's 125th anniversary celebration, is the product of a months-long survey of more than 100 leading researchers in myriad disciplines, who were asked to focus on questions that have a chance of being answered in the next 25 years. Beyond offering a glimpse of the many nagging gaps remaining in the human knowledge base, it reveals the enormousness of scientists' ambitions and the great versatility of the scientific method, which has proved so valuable as a way to make sense of the unknown.
"Reading through the questions gives a wonderful sense of all the incredibly intriguing things scientists are looking at these days," said Colin Norman, Science's news editor, who ushered the initial list of submissions through 17 versions to get it down to a mere 125.