13 Things That Don't Make Sense is a non-fiction book by the British writer Michael Brooks, published in both the UK and the US during 2008.
The British subtitle is "The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time" while the American is "The Most Baffling..." (see image).
Based on an article Brooks wrote for New Scientist in March 2005, the book, aimed at the general reader rather than the science community, contains discussion and description of a number of unresolved issues in science. It is a literary effort to discuss some of the inexplicable anomalies that after centuries science still cannot completely comprehend.
Chapter 1
The Missing Universe. This chapter deals with astronomy and theoretical physics and the ultimate fate of the universe, in particular the search for understanding of dark matter and dark energy and includes discussion of:
The work of astronomers Vesto Slipher and then Edwin Hubble in demonstrating the universe is expanding; Vera Rubin's investigation of galaxy rotation curves that suggest something other than gravity is preventing galaxies from spinning apart, which led to the revival of unobserved "dark matter" theory; Experimental efforts to discover dark matter, including the search for the hypothetical neutralino and other weakly interacting massive particles); The study of supernovae at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Harvard University (under Robert Kirshner) that point to an accelerating universe powered by "dark energy" possibly vacuum energy; The assertion that the proposed modified Newtonian dynamics hypothesis and the accelerating universe disproves the dark matter theory.
Chapter 2
The Pioneer Anomaly. This discusses the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space probes, which appear to be veering off course and drifting towards the sun. At the time of writing of the book there was a growing speculation as to whether this phenomenon could be explained by a yet-undetermined fault in the rockets' systems or whether this was an unidentified effect of gravity. The lead investigator into the progress of the rockets is physicist Slava Turyshev of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California who is analysing the data of the rockets' launch and progress and "reflying" the missions as computer simulations to try to find a solution to the mystery.
However, in 2012, after the book was published, Turyshev was able to give an explanation to the Pioneer Anomaly.
Chapter 3
Varying Constants. This chapter discusses the reliability of some physical constants, quantities or values that are held to be always fixed. One of these, the Fine-structure constant, which calculates the behaviour and amount of energy transmitted in subatomic interactions from light reflection and refraction to nuclear fusion, has been called into question by physicist John Webb of the University of New South Wales who may have identified differences in the behaviour of light from quasars and light sources today. According to Webb's observations quasar light appears to refract different shades of colour from light waves emitted today. Brooks also discusses the Oklo natural nuclear fission reactor, in which the natural conditions in caves in Gabon 2 billion years ago caused the uranium there to react. It may be that the amount of energy released was different from today. Both sets of data are subject to ongoing investigation and debate but, Brooks suggests, may indicate that the behaviour of matter and energy can vary radically and essentially as the conditions of the universe changes through time.
Chapter 4
Cold Fusion. A review of efforts to create nuclear energy at room temperature using hydrogen that is embedded in a metal crystal lattice. Theoretically, this should not happen, because nuclear fusion requires a huge activation energy to get it started. The effect was first reported by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989, but attempts to reproduce it over the ensuing months were mostly unsuccessful. Cold fusion research was discredited, and articles on the subject became difficult to publish. But according to the book, a scattering of scientists around the world continue to report positive results, with multiple, independent verifications.