Mother Nature Network

Alien-looking skeleton poses medical mystery

The 6-inch-long skeleton has several anomalies, including its alien-like skull, teensy body and the fact that it has just 10 ribs rather than 12.

The mystery of Devil’s Kettle Falls

Side-by-side waterfalls send half of a river on its merry way to Lake Superior. But the other half? No one’s been able to figure it out.

Desert ‘fairy circles’ mystery solved

Termites appear to be feeding on the grass roots to create the characteristic rings, but scientists aren’t sure why termites are eating in circles.

Unexplained ocean sounds and more spooky science
The unexplained and mysterious sounds have been captured by hydrophones, or underwater microphones.

Kryptos is a mysterious encrypted sculpture designed by artist Jim Sanborn which sits right outside the headquarters of the CIA in Langley, Va. It’s so mysterious, in fact, that not even the CIA has completely cracked the code. The sculpture contains four inscriptions, and although three of them have been cracked, the fourth remains elusive (Read what the first three inscriptions say here). In 2006 Sanborn let slip that there are clues in the first inscriptions to the last one, and in 2010 he released another clue: the Letters 64-69 NYPVTT in part 4 encode the text BERLIN.
10 of the world’s unsolved mysteries

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ stump scientists
The cause of these bare spots remain unknown, but new research shows that they occur with regularity and that the number of circles remains consistent.

The mystery of the Phaistos Disc is a story that sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Discovered by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, the disc is made of fired clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphics. It is believed that it was designed sometime in the second millennium BC. Some scholars believe that the hieroglyphs resemble symbols of Linear A and Linear B, scripts once used in ancient Crete. The only problem? Linear A also eludes decipherment. Today the disc remains one of the most famous puzzles of archaeology.
10 of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries

The Georgia Guidestones, sometimes referred to as the “American Stonehenge,” is a granite monument erected in Elbert County, Ga., in 1979. The stones are engraved in eight languages, each relaying 10 “new” commandments for “an Age of Reason.”
 
Though the monument contains no encrypted messages, its purpose and origin remain shrouded in mystery. They were commissioned by a man who has yet to be properly identified, who went by the pseudonym of R.C. Christian.
 
Of the 10 commandments, the first one is perhaps the most controversial: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” Many have taken it to be a license to cull the human population down to the specified number, and critics of the stones have called for them to be destroyed.
10 of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries

Amazing video: Medical mystery robs voice-over artist of voice, but he finds magic pill in Ambien
Until 2 years ago, Tom Rohe was one of the top commercial voice-over guys in the business. But a wisdom tooth extraction in 2009, was the beginning of the end for his career and the start of a bizarre medical mystery when he lost his ability to speak.

But one day, something strange happened. Rohe had been taking Ambien for sleeplessness and he noticed an unexpected side effect: He could talk. (Watch the second video — it will blow your mind.) But while he can speak after taking Ambien, it isn’t enough for him to return to work.

Although the medical establishment has not yet been able to help him, and some doctors do not believe him, Rohe hopes that a doctor who understands his condition might come across his videos. With that in mind, MNN showed the video to several medical experts. Here’s what we learned.