Unsolved Mysteries - That Have Puzzled Scientist for Decades

Sometimes it is hard to believe that unsolved mysteries still exist in this day and age. In the last century, humankind has made extraordinary technical advancements. We have walked on the Moon, uncovered the building blocks of life itself, DNA, ventured deeper into the oceans than ever before and invented the self-strirring coffee mug! However even with our amazing progress as a species there are still mysteries out there to which the solution eludes us. Here you will find some of the most puzzling unsolved mysteries in recorded history. Mysteries such as:

The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is a manuscript written in the Middle Ages in an unknown language using an unknown alphabet system. Attempts have been made to interpret the document for over 100 years, but there hasn't been a single breakthrough yet. The Book includes illustrations of plants (with some of them being unknown to modern bottanists) and astronimocal information. It is possible that the book is the work of an alchemist who used codes to keep his discoveries a secret but, until the book is decoded, no one knows for certain.

Like its contents, the history of ownership of the Voynich manuscript is yet another unsolved mystery. The codex belonged to Emperor Rudolph II of Germany, who purchased it for 600 gold ducats and believed that it was the work of Roger Bacon. It is very likely that Emperor Rudolph acquired the manuscript from the English astrologer John Dee (1527-1608). Dee apparently owned the manuscript along with a number of other Roger Bacon manuscripts. In addition, Dee stated that he had 630 ducats in October 1586, and his son noted that Dee, while in Bohemia, owned "a booke... containing nothing butt Hieroglyphicks, which booke his father bestowed much time upon: but I could not heare that hee could make it out." Emperor Rudolph seems to have given the manuscript to Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz (d. 1622), an exchange based on the inscription visible only with ultraviolet light on folio 1r which reads: "Jacobi de Tepenecz." Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland presented the book to Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) in 1666. In 1912, Wilfred M. Voynich purchased the manuscript from the Jesuit College at Frascati near Rome. In 1969, the codex was given to the Beinecke Library by H. P. Kraus, who had purchased it from the estate of Ethel Voynich, Wilfrid Voynich's widow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is a large part of ocean in the North Atlantic that has been the source of many plain- and boat disappearances. A number of explanations have been suggested over the years ranging from; time warps, extreme weather to alien abductions. There is substantial evidence to show that many of the disappearances have been exaggerated, but even if those were excluded from the total count, the odds of vanishing into thin air are higher in the Bermuda Triangle then anywhere else.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint Germain, the Immortal Count

Is it possible for a person to live forever? That is what some people are claiming about a historical figure known as Count de Saint-Germain. His origins are still unclear. Some records date his birth to the late 1600s, although some believe that his longevity reaches back to the time of Christ. He has appeared many times throughout history - even as recently as the 1970s - always appearing to be about 45 years old. He was known by many of the most famous figures of European history, including Casanova, Madame de Pampadour, Voltaire, King Louis XV, Catherine the Great, Anton Mesmer, George Washington and others. He has also been linked to a number of occult movements and conspiracy theories.

Who was this mysterious man? Are the stories of his immortality mere legend and folklore? Or is it possible that he really did discover the secret of eternal life?

The date of birth for Saint German is unknown, although most accounts say he was born in the 1690s. A genealogy compiled by Annie Besant for her co-authored book, The Comte De St. Germain: The Secret of Kings, asserts that he was born the son of Francis Racoczi II, Prince of Transylvania in 1690. What we do know for certain is that he was an accomplished alchemist, which means he could turn heaps of metal into pure gold. If that wasn't a neat enough trick already, the count also claimed to have discovered the secret of eternal life! Between 1740 and 1780 Saint-Germain, who was quite a celebrity in those days, traveled extensively throughout Europe - and in all that time never seemed to age. Those who met him were astonished by his many abilities and peculiarities like:

• He spoke 12 languages
• He could play the violin like a virtuoso.
• He was an accomplished painter.
• Wherever he traveled, he set up an elaborate laboratory, presumably for his alchemy work.
• He seemed to be a man of great wealth, but was not known to have any bank accounts. (If it was due to his ability to transmute base metals into gold, he never performed the feat for observers.)
• He dined often with friends because he enjoyed their company, but was rarely seen to eat food in public. He subsisted, it was said, on a diet of oatmeal.
• He prescribed recipes for the removal of facial wrinkles and for dyeing hair.
• He loved jewels, and much of his clothing - including his shoes - were studded with them.
• He had perfected a technique for painting jewels.
• He claimed to be able to fuse several small diamonds into one large one. He also said he could make pearls grow to incredible sizes.
• He has been linked to several secret societies, including the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Society of Asiatic Brothers, the Knights of Light, the Illuminati and Order of the Templars.

Officially Saint Germain died in 1784, but of course dying equals having a bad day, when your called the "immortal count". He would continue to be seen throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century!

• In 1785 he was seen in Germany with Anton Mesmer, the pioneer hypnotist. (Some claim that it was Saint-Germain who gave Mesmer the basic ideas for hypnotism and personal magnetism.)
• Official records of Freemasonry show that they chose Saint-Germain as their representative for a convention in 1785.
• After the taking of the Bastille in the French Revolution in 1789, the Comtesse d'Adhémar said she had a lengthy conversation with Count de Saint-Germain. He allegedly told her of France's immediate future, as if he knew what was to come. In 1821, she wrote: "I have seen Saint-Germain again, each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d'Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry." The last time she saw him was in 1820 - and each time he looked to be a man no older than his mid-40s.

Voltaire, the 18th century philosopher, perhaps best summed up the Count of St. Germain: this is "a man who never dies, and who knows everything." Whether that's true or not, only history knows.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack The Ripper

Jack the Ripper has to be the most famous serial killer of all time. He was the most active in 1888 when he committed his hideous crimes mostly in the poor Whitechapel area of London. His victims were mostly prostitutes and in some cases the bodies were found only minutes after Jack the Ripper left the scene. This was especially creepy considering the Ripper took his time to mutilate and surgically remove organs from its victims.

Probably the biggest reason for the enduring appeal of this bizarre series of prostitute murders is the name Jack the Ripper. The name is easy to explain. It was written at the end of a letter which was forwarded it to the Metropolitan Police on 29 September 1988. The letter began "Dear Boss... " It went on to speak of "I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled... "; and went on in similar fashion. The "trade name" of Jack the Ripper was then made public and ignited both the imagination and a nation wide panic among the public. None of the 11 brutal murders were ever solved and to this day, we still don't know anything about the identity of this mysterious serial killer and how many victims he made.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Taos Hum

The Taos hum is a low-pitched sound that can be heard in various parts of the world. It is described as sounding like the humming of a refrigerator. Strangely a lot of people hear the sound and it is known to drive some people mad, while others don't hear a thing. The mysterious sound is also undetectable by microphones or any other electronic equipment, making it extremely hard to pinpoint the source. It is most famous for its occurrence in Taos, New Mexico, the town where this mysterious phenomena got its name from. In 1997, the United States Congress asked scientists and observers to find the source of the sound, but they were unable to do so. There are a lot of theories surrounding the Taos Hum. Some say it has to do with the thin earth crust in Taos, while others are convinced it has to do with an alien UFO that crashed eons ago and is now buried deep underground. Whatever the case may be, it sure must suck to get a good night sleep in Taos!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Shroud Of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is allegedly the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, which bears the image of a crucified man. Despite many scientific investigations, no explenation excists on how the image could have been imprented on the cloth. No attempts to replicate the image have been successful. Tests date the fabric back to the Middle Ages, but it's existence has been known since at least the 4th century, and pollen and weave testing put in the time of Jesus.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich

20-year old pilot, Frederick Valentich, was attempting to rack up flying time for his commercial license, flying his single engine Cessna 182 to King Island some 130 miles south of Melbourne Australia. He failed to touch down at the King Field airstrip on schedule. At 1906 his last radio transmission was received by Melbourne Flight Service Control on Saturday, October 21, which makes this disappearance unique in the annals of aviation history.

Just before his voice was abruptly cut off after making contact with Melbourne flight controllers, Valentich reported he could see four bright green lights- 1,000 feet above his position: "It is approaching from due east toward me, it seems to be playing some sort of game, flying at a speed I find impossible to estimate" And then: "It is not aircraft, it is... " Finally a long silence, broken when communication was initiated by ground control asking for an identification of the object in question. The young pilot's answer: "It's not an aircraft... " and the contact was lost... permanently.

An intensive land, sea and air search was begun by the Australian Navy and Air Force, centered on Bass Strait, 130 miles south of Melbourne and 25miles north of King Island, the point of Valentich's last radio contact. But the search failed to turn out any trace of the pilot or his aircraft. It was determined that weather conditions at the time of disappearance were ideal, with almost unlimited visibility and a mild breeze. The pilot's father Guido Valentich strongly believed his son was still alive---that he was being held by someone from another world. More importantly, the elder Valentich said his son had been interested in UFOs for many years and even reported sighting one about 10 months before. There were numerous other witnesses who called police that same night claiming to have seen a UFO on Saturday night. According to a Royal Australian Air Force spokesman, about 10 reports of UFO sightings were logged during the same weekend of the disappearance.

This whole mystery got an even more bizarre twist years later. According to the testimony of a number of witnesses, a young man who identified himself as Frederick Valentich, the Australian pilot who mysteriously disappeared in 1978 was alive and well in 1990 at Plaza del Charco, a resort on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Displaying an Australian passport to prove his claim, Valentich told those with whom he spoke on several occasions that he now belonged to a group of humans who had been "recruited" by extraterrestrials. It is also worth noting that the supposed Valentich showed no signs of aging, and resembled the photos circulated around the time of his disappearance at the age of 20. Pretty bizarre huh? I am also very curious what Valantich was doing there at this resort. Did the aliens give him a few days off?