- WHY DO WE DREAM? Early civilizations believed that dreams were a gateway between Earth and the Gods. This was later scientifically rejected, along with Freud’s theory that dreams express our subconscious desires. It is widely agreed that dreams are crucial to help process emotions…and sleep research has revealed the existence of rapid eye movement dreams and the point at which we are most likely to remember a dream.
However, a scientific explanation as to why we envisage strange images when we sleep remains in question.
- WHY DO WE YAWN? On average, a person will yawn around 250,000 times in their lifetime. Despite this, Scientists still can’t solve the reason behind this common reflex. A recent study suggested that yawning chills the brain to allow a boost in intellectual performance. However, yawning researchers argue that there isn’t sufficient evidence to support this theory. The fact that yawning is contagious is even more of a conundrum. There are some evolutionary theories that claim that yawning stems from our evolution from our ancestors (apes), when the action was used as a communication signal. Notwithstanding, there is no evidence to support this theory either.
- WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE MADE OF? Atoms which form everything we see around us account for 5percent of the universe, but astronomers can’t explain what the other 95percent of the Universe is made of. In the past 80 years, astronomers have determined that the majority of the universe is made up of two entities; dark matter and dark energy.
Dark matter is believed to bind galaxies together, while dark energy is believed to be pushing the universe’s expansion. But since both dark matter and dark energy are invisible to light and electromagnetic radiation, it is impossible to detect or understand what they actually are.
- WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE? Scientists have proven two stages of death; Clinical death: – when the heart stops beating, and Biological death: – when all other organs shut down. However, what happens after death remains elusive to researchers. Some people who have had near death experiences claim to have felt “out of body” sensations and seen deceased loved ones.
Despite extensive research into the subject, no concrete neurological or biological explanations behind these phenomena have ever been found.
