Top 5 mysteries that terrify mankind

Some of nature's engineerings have terrify mankind-- they can't explain it by natural or scientific thinking. but they can explain this things metaphysically or supernaturally. As mankind's brightest figures think, solve and generalize problems some people just sit down and relax. You may observationally or experimentally or even theoretically solve some mysteries like these:

1. Crop circles- Crop circles are formations of shapes in fields of crops usually  wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed.

2. Fractals- Fractals have been terrify mathematicians for years. Fractals are rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole[wikipedia].


3. Nazca lines-  These are  zoomorphic figures of animals such as birds, and monkeys located in Nazca Desert in southern Peru.

4. Spontaneous human combustion- This is the combustion of the human body without the combustion of it's cloth's strangely.

5. Nature of gravitation- "Every mass attracts every other mass, with a force that is directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them", as Newton's law of universal gravitation said. Newton have only explained the action of gravity and not the nature of it. Einstein have proposed gravity as the curved space surround the earth and the it is also the product of the mass of the earth.
But still gravitation's nature was still a mystery.

Christmas carol social experiment

In the night of 18th of December, 2011, me, join a Christmas carol. He notice that six out of ten Filipino people do not give money if someone carols, making the Filipino people considered to be half parsimonious and half generous in a social conclusion.

I notice that some Filipino people do not give because of being busy, and just simply parsimonious. I also notice that abundantly, old people were the one who gives money to the children that carols. when old people were the one who carols, the parsimonious people became generous, how plastic, or they just respect the old people. It doesn't mean that we have just the word "po" and "opo", we are now respectful, no!, that is not enough. I thought Christmas was for everyone, but why?, where's the equality of the children and the old people.

                                                                                                                                 -Philophær Sagman

Tropism

A tropism (from Greek τροπή, trope, "a turning") is a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism, usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus. In tropisms, this response is dependent on the direction of the stimulus (as opposed to nastic movements which are non-directional responses). Viruses and other pathogens also affect what is called "host tropism" or "cell tropism" in which case tropism refers to the way in which different viruses/pathogens have evolved to preferentially target specific host species, or specific cell types within those species. Tropisms are usually named for the stimulus involved (for example, a phototropism is a reaction to light) and may be either positive (towards the stimulus) or negative (away from the stimulus).

Tropisms are typically associated with plants (although not necessarily restricted to them).^[1] Where an organism is capable of directed physical movement (motility), movement or activity in response to a specific stimulus is more likely to be regarded by behaviorists as a taxis (directional response) or a kinesis(non-directional response).

In English, the word tropism is used in sometimes derisive way to indicate an action done without cognitive thought: However, "tropism" in this sense has a proper, although non-scientific, meaning as an innate tendency, natural inclination, or propensity to act in a certain manner.

[edit]Types of tropisms

Example of Gravitropism in the remaints of a cellar of a roman villa in the Archeologic Park in Baia, Italy

• Chemotropism, movement or growth in response to chemicals
• Geotropism (or gravitropism), movement or growth in response to gravity
• Heliotropism, movement or growth in response to sunlight
• Hydrotropism, movement or growth in response to water
• Phototropism, movement or growth in response to lights or colors of light (e.g.- the sunflower)
• Thermotropism, movement or growth in response to temperature
• Electrotropism, movement or growth in response to an electric field
• Thigmotropism, movement or growth in response to touch or contact
• Host tropism or cell tropism, the host range of pathogens
  • Ecotropism, limited host range (e.g. infects only one species or cell type)
  • Amphotropism, wide host range (e.g. infects many of entry into cells used by a given strain of HIV)
  • Neurotropism, a virus that preferentially infects the host's nervous system.
  • Photoperiodism, is response to seasons

Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis is the phenomenon in which somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food (for example, glucose) by swimming towards the highest concentration of food molecules, or to flee from poisons (for example, phenol). In multicellular organisms, chemotaxis is critical to early development (e.g. movement of sperm towards the egg during fertilization) and subsequent phases of development (e.g. migration of neurons or lymphocytes) as well as in normal function. In addition, it has been recognized that mechanisms that allow chemotaxis in animals can be subverted during cancer metastasis.

Positive chemotaxis occurs if the movement is toward a higher concentration of the chemical in question. Conversely, negative chemotaxis occurs if the movement is in the opposite direction.

Weissenberg effect

The Weissenberg effect is a common phenomenon that occurs when a rotating rod was place to a Non-Newtonian fluid. It creates a hurricane-like structure that is cause by a long chain of molecules. It was named after Karl Weissenberg who discover this effect. The Weissenberg effect(http://www.sumitomoseika.co.jp)

Green flash

Green flashes and green rays are optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible, usually for no more than a second or two, above the sun, or it may resemble a green ray shooting up from the sunset point. Green flashes are a group of phenomena stemming from different causes, and some are more common than others.^[1] Green flashes may be observed from any altitude (even from an aircraft). They usually are seen at an unobstructed horizon, such as over the ocean, but are possible over cloud tops and mountain tops as well.
A green flash also may be observed in association with the Moon and bright planets at the horizon, including Venus and Jupiter.^[2][3]

A Green flash(National Geographic Society)

Explanation

The reason for green flash optical phenomena lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper rim of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth.
Green flashes are enhanced by mirage, which increase the density gradient in the atmosphere and therefore, increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered. One might expect to see a blue flash, but the blue is preferentially scattered out of the line of sight, and remaining light ends up looking green.
With slight magnification a green rim on the top of the solar disk may be seen on most clear-day sunsets, although the flash or ray effects require a stronger layering of the atmosphere and a mirage, which serves to magnify the green for a fraction of a second to a couple of seconds.

[edit] Types

The "green flash" description relates to a group of optical phenomena, some of which are listed below:^[1]

Type	Characteristics	Conditions	Best seen from...
Inferior-mirage flash	Joule's "last glimpse"; oval, flattened below; lasts 1 or 2 seconds	Surface warmer than the overlying air	Close to sea level
Mock-mirage flash	Indentations seem to "pinch off" a thin, pointy strip from the upper rim of the Sun; lasts 1 or 2 seconds	Atmospheric inversion layer below eye level; surface colder than air	The higher the eye, the more likely; flash is most obvious when the eye is just above the inversion.
Sub-duct flash	Large upper part of an hourglass-shaped Sun turns green for up to 15 seconds;	Observer below a strong atmospheric inversion	In a narrow height interval just below a duct (can occur at any height)
Green ray	Green beam of light either shooting up or seen immediately after sundown; usually few degrees long, lasting several seconds	Hazy air and a bright green flash acting as a light source	Sea level

The majority of flashes observed are inferior-mirage or mock-mirage effects, with the others constituting only 1% of reports. Some types not listed in the table above, such as the cloud-top flash (seen as the sun sinks into a coastal fog, or at distant cumulus clouds), are not understood.^[1]

[edit] Blue flashes

Very occasionally, the amount of blue light is sufficient to be visible as a "blue flash".^[4] The term should not be confused with the similar usage of blue flash referring to the blue light seen in nuclear criticality accidents.

[edit] Green rim

As an astronomical object sets or rises in relation to the horizon, the light it emits travels through Earth's atmosphere, which works as a prism separating the light into different colors. The color of the upper rim of an astronomical object could go from green to blue to violet depending on the decrease in concentration of pollutants, as they spread throughout an increasing volume of atmosphere.^[5] The lower rim of an astronomical object is always red.
A green rim is very thin, and is difficult or impossible to see with the naked eye. In usual conditions, a green rim of an astronomical object gets fainter, when an astronomical object is very low above the horizon because of atmospheric reddening,^[6] but sometimes the conditions are right to see a green rim just above the horizon. The following quote describes what was probably the longest observation of a green rim, which at times could have been a green flash. It was seen on and off for 35 minutes by members of the Richard Evelyn Byrd party from the Little America exploration base in 1934:

There was a rush for the surface and as eyes turned southward, they saw a tiny but brilliant green spot where the last ray of the upper rim of the sun hung on the skyline. It lasted an appreciable length of time, several seconds at least, and no sooner disappeared than it flashed forth again. Altogether it remained on the horizon with short interruptions for thirty-five minutes.
When it disappeared momentarily it seemed to have been shut off by a tiny spurt, an inequality in the skyline caused by the barrier surface.
Even by moving the head up a few inches it would disappear and reappear again and after it had finally disappeared from view it could be recaptured by climbing up the first few steps of the antanea [sic] post.^[7]

For the explorers to have seen a green rim on and off for 35 minutes, there must have been some mirage effect present.
A green rim is present at every sunset, but it is too thin to be seen with the naked eye. Often a green rim changes to a green flash and back again during the same sunset. The best time to observe a green rim is about 10 minutes before sunset.^[6] That is too early to use any magnification like binoculars or a telescope to look directly at the Sun without potential harm to the eyes. (Of course, a magnified image might be projected onto a sheet of paper for safe viewing.) When the sun gets closer to the horizon, the green rim is becoming fainter because of atmospheric reddening.^[6] According to the above, it is probably correct to conclude that although a green rim is present during every sunset, a green flash is rarer because of the required mirage.
Green rim flashes

 

Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina.

The myth of persistence of vision is the mistaken belief that human perception of motion (brain centered) is the result of persistence of vision (eye centred). The myth was debunked in 1912 by Wertheimer^[1] but persists in many citations in many classic and modern film-theory texts.^[2][3][4] A more plausible theory to explain motion perception (at least on a descriptive level) are two distinct perceptual illusions: phi phenomenon and beta movement.

A visual form of memory known as iconic memory has been described as the cause of this phenomenon.^[5] Although psychologists and physiologists have rejected the relevance of this theory to film viewership, film academics and theorists generally have not. Some scientists nowadays consider the entire theory a myth.^[6]

In contrasting persistence of vision theory with phi phenomena, a critical part of understanding that emerges with these visual perception phenomena is that the eye is not a camera. In other words vision is not as simple as light registering on a medium, since the brain has to make sense of the visual data the eye provides and construct a coherent picture of reality. Joseph Anderson and Barbara Fisher argue that the phi phenomena privileges a more constructionist approach to the cinema (David Bordwell, Noël Carroll, Kirsten Thompson), whereas the persistence of vision privileges a realist approach (Andre Bazin, Christian Metz, Jean-Louis Baudry).^[6]

The discovery of persistence of vision is attributed to the Roman poet Lucretius, although he only mentions it in connection with images seen in a dream.^[7] In the modern era, some stroboscopic experiments performed by Peter Mark Roget in 1824 were also cited as the basis for the theory.^[8]

 This animated cartoon of a galloping horse is displayed at 12 drawings per second, and the fast motion is on the edge of being objectionably jerky.