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Wikenigma - an Encyclopedia of Unknowns Wikenigma - an Encyclopedia of the Unknown

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  • Agnoiologyplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigAgnoiology

    Agnoiology is the study of ignorance. More specifically :

    "The doctrine of things of which we are necessarily ignorant" ref.[ paywalled ]"

    In other words. the opposite of epistemology which is the study of knowledge.

    Given that human intelligence has limits, and that we have not explored the entire universe, it's a given that the extent of human ignorance is currently unknown.
  • Chewing gum and cognitionplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigChewing gum and cognition

    Chewing gum of various kinds has been used for thousands of years.(further historical info,) In the last 100 years or so, various academic research projects have suggested that chewing gum can enhance various aspects of human cognitive behaviour. In particular, increasing attention and concentration.
  • Panspermia theoryplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigPanspermia theory

    The Panspermia theory - the roots of which go back at least as far as the 5th century BCE - was popularized in the 1980s by Fred ('Big Bang') Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasingh.

    The idea is that the building-blocks of life (e.g. DNA/RNA fragments, or Amino Acid protein-components) may exist and travel through deep space. Thus, such compounds may have arrived on Earth as 'space dust', or by comet impact, and could have provided triggers for the
  • Cleomenes IIplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigCleomenes II

    Cleomenes II (in Greek: Κλεομένης ) was the king of Sparta (current-day Southern Greece) possibly from around 370 to around 309 BC. Almost nothing is known about his reign, or activities in general. Since many other high-ranking people from the same area and time-period have been extensively documented, some historians have labelled him a 'prodigious non-entity'.

Recently edited articles :

  • Agnoiologyplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigAgnoiology

    Agnoiology is the study of ignorance. More specifically :

    "The doctrine of things of which we are necessarily ignorant" ref.[ paywalled ]"

    In other words. the opposite of epistemology which is the study of knowledge.

    Given that human intelligence has limits, and that we have not explored the entire universe, it's a given that the extent of human ignorance is currently unknown.
  • Chewing gum and cognitionplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigChewing gum and cognition

    Chewing gum of various kinds has been used for thousands of years.(further historical info,) In the last 100 years or so, various academic research projects have suggested that chewing gum can enhance various aspects of human cognitive behaviour. In particular, increasing attention and concentration.
  • Panspermia theoryplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigPanspermia theory

    The Panspermia theory - the roots of which go back at least as far as the 5th century BCE - was popularized in the 1980s by Fred ('Big Bang') Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasingh.

    The idea is that the building-blocks of life (e.g. DNA/RNA fragments, or Amino Acid protein-components) may exist and travel through deep space. Thus, such compounds may have arrived on Earth as 'space dust', or by comet impact, and could have provided triggers for the
  • Primordial Soupplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigPrimordial Soup

    "In 1953 an iconic set of experiments showed that some of the chemical building blocks of life, such as amino acids, could form spontaneously in the atmospheric conditions thought to prevail on the primordial Earth. This gave rise to the idea that the early oceans were a "primordial soup" from which life somehow emerged.
  • Big Bang theoryplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigBig Bang theory

    There is now a large body of evidence (from different sources) to support the Big Bang Theory for the origin of the universe, but the problem remains as to the origin of the material or energy which initialised it.

    As the UK’s Astronomer Royal Martin Rees has put it :
  • Influenza seasonalityplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigInfluenza seasonality

    The incidence of Influenza ('flu) is tightly linked to the seasons. In temperate climates the disease exists at low levels during the warmer Summer months, and then dramatically peaks during the Winter.

    The reasons for this 'seasonality' have been examined and discussed at length for more than a century.
  • Common Cold seasonalityplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigCommon Cold seasonality

    "The common cold is much more frequent in winter months, a trend that is seen in all countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Rhinovirus, the most common cause, shows peaks of activity in late autumn and early spring. [...] So far there has no generally accepted explanation for the observed seasonality of the common cold.
  • Aeroplanktonplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigAeroplankton

    In the 1830s, when Charles Darwin was in the middle of the Atlantic ocean aboard HMS Beagle, he decided to collect samples of falling dust, which he sent to his colleague Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg to test for the presence of living organisms. The team were surprised to find the airborne dust was carrying over sixty types of single-celled organisms they called “infusoria” (protists)
  • Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS)plugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigNon-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS)

    Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is currently defined as : "a clinical entity induced by the ingestion of gluten leading to intestinal and/or extraintestinal symptoms that improve once the gluten-containing foodstuff is removed from the diet, and celiac disease and wheat allergy have been excluded".
  • Cleomenes IIplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigCleomenes II

    Cleomenes II (in Greek: Κλεομένης ) was the king of Sparta (current-day Southern Greece) possibly from around 370 to around 309 BC. Almost nothing is known about his reign, or activities in general. Since many other high-ranking people from the same area and time-period have been extensively documented, some historians have labelled him a 'prodigious non-entity'.
  • Electrostatic pollinationplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigElectrostatic pollination

    The idea that flying insects might be electrically charged during flight by static electricity was suggested almost 100 years ago. (Heuschmann, O. (1929). Über die elektrischen Eigenschaften der Insekten Haare, Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology,
  • Chemical bondingplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigChemical bonding

    Chemistry textbooks normally describe three types of chemical bonds - the strong attraction between atoms, ions or molecules that enables the formation of all chemical compounds.

    * The Ionic bond * The Covalent bond (see notes below)
  • Tip of the tongueplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigTip of the tongue

    "Tip of the tongue (or TOT) is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue." The tip of the tongue phenomenon reveals that lexical access occurs in stages.
  • Ship tracks (climate impact)plugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigShip tracks (climate impact)

    Ship tracks are pollution-seeded clouds caused by the exhaust gases from commercial shipping vessels. They were first discovered in NASA satellite images in the 1960s. They usually follow broad linear tracks similar to the 'contrails' from aircraft. They can be hundreds of kilometers long and sometimes persist for several days. (
  • Lottery ticket swapsplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigLottery ticket swaps

    Because the results of (well constructed) lotteries are essentially random, no one ticket is any more likely to win than any other. However, several studies have shown that those who are in possession of a lottery ticket are usually very reluctant to swap it
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