13 Things That Don't Make Sense - book review

In his book "13 Things That Don't Make Sense" Michael Brooks has certainly given us something to think about.  And something to say the next time someone asks you to name something that scientists are still working on.  By it's nature, every time science makes a discovery, the boundary of knowledge increases and simultaneously the interface area between known and unknown must increase.  So we shouldn't be surprised that there are still significant mysteries of the universe.  I can't describe all of them that Brooks covers of this review would be the size of his book.  The list is as follows:

1. The missing universe - dark matter & dark energy
2. The pioneer anomaly
3. Varying constraints - natural constants
4. Cold fusion - more than PR
5. Life - what is it
6. Viking - life on Mars
7. Signal from space
8. A giant virus
9. Death & evolution
10. Sex & evolution
11. Free will
12. The placebo effect
13. Homeopathy

To start with Brooks picks a high profile puzzle - where is 94% of the universe?  We all learned in high school or college that the universe is made of electrons, protons, and neutrons.  If we took higher physics or chemistry classes we learned about several more particles.  But it turns out that all those particles don't account for the mass of the universe that has recently been calculated.  It turns out we have to mess with the force of gravity or define some "dark=unseen yet" mass.  Same problem with energy.  And scientists are having a field day trying to define and reconcile the various theories and calculations.

In other sections Brooks is on shakier ground.  The last chapter, for example, discusses homeopathy, the idea that water could retain an imprint of molecules that once were there but have been diluted out of the mix.  He makes the intriguing statement that we know little about water in the liquid state such as what molecular structures and substructures might exist and for how long.  It seems impossible that liquid water has a memory or does it?

And in-between Brooks covers topics such as life on Mars and whether we found it before we lost it or at least the funding to resolve the issue.  He hints big that not all of these 13 items need remain mysteries for long if we but have the will and the budget.  Others, such as universal constants may require a visit to an alternative universe to resolve - something that won't be in our budget soon.

I found the book interesting and readable.  If a piece got too deep or complex you just skip to the end of that section without losing much.  I'd like to see a follow-up book in 20 to 25 years and maybe even a "pre-quel" of what "didn't make sense" 50 or 100 years ago.  To see science changing is to see science living.