Scientific Mysteries: Chirality, Fermi Paradox and Animal Instincts

or rotations. A priori, both compounds are equiprobable in their production, however biological proteins are made only of L-isomers, that is, compounds that interact with light by rotating it in a levorotatory direction. The living world is entirely homochiral: none of the thousands of molecules used by living organisms occurs as a random mixture of dextrorotatory and levorotatory isomers; on the contrary, every time a molecule can express chirality, life has chosen to use only one of the two possible forms. From bacteria, to animals and plants, proteins are built from the levorotatory isoforms of twenty amino acids and the profound reason for this breaking of chiral symmetry is currently unexplained.

Man's superior mental abilities. Beyond the general problem of the origin of consciousness, man's superior mental abilities are an unsolved mystery because many of these abilities, such as musical ability, spirituality, philosophical reasoning and mathematical ability, are elements that cannot be explained as products of natural selection since they do not increase an organism's survival probabilities.

The Fermi Paradox. The Universe is so large that we can say there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on a thousand Earth-like planets. Most of these stars probably have or have had a planetary system. The Fermi paradox refers to the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial life and the apparent lack of evidence for the existence of such life.

In 1961, to estimate the number of active civilizations in our Galaxy that could communicate with us, Frank Drake proposed his well-known equation: $$N = R \cdot f_p \cdot n_e \cdot f_l \cdot f_i \cdot f_c \cdot L$$ where $N$ is the number of civilizations in the Milky Way that are capable of producing signals we can detect on Earth, $R$ indicates the rate at which stars capable of supporting life form in our Galaxy, $f_p$ is the fraction of those stars that have one or more planets, $n_e$ is the average number of planets per planetary system that have an environment that can support life, $f_l$ the fraction of those planets that can support life on which life actually develops, $f_i$ the fraction of those planets with life on which intelligent life develops, $f_c$ the fraction of those intelligent civilizations that develop technology for communication and finally $L$ indicates the average lifetime of those civilizations that develop technology for communication.

According to the latest estimates, the number of these civilizations would be around $N = 15,600,000$; a decidedly high number that confirms the existence of the Fermi paradox. (...continues...)

ANIMAL INSTINCT AND GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS

Observing animal behavior, we soon notice something in their cognitive process that is radically different from ours. How do birds know to migrate south for winter? How do ducklings know how to swim? How do sea turtles find their way home to the beach where they were born? The animal world is full of innate behaviors that are inexplicable to humans.

A giraffe calf already knows how to walk an hour after birth without anyone having taught it, while a human child needs a few months to crawl and a year to walk. Bees build perfectly geometric hives, spiders weave incredibly efficient webs, birds, fish and eels raised in isolation autonomously prepare to migrate just like those raised in groups.

We could certainly respond by invoking a migratory instinct, a swimming instinct or a homing instinct. These labels may seem gratifying, but it is an illusory gratification. If we go beyond the surface of any complex and adaptive behavior, we find ourselves faced with a seemingly infinite series of difficult questions that span the time of evolution and development, the complexities of ecological and social experience and the machinations of the nervous system and consciousness. The more we immerse ourselves in these questions, the more difficult it becomes to establish a clear notion of what an instinct actually is.

This conceptual confusion about instinct is reflected in the many meanings that are habitually attributed to it, including: something present at birth; something unlearned; something...