Join us, and maybe YOU can help solve a mystery… But not these. Lauren will explain.
10 Unsolved Mysteries That Have Been Solved
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/10-unsolved-mysteries-that-have-been-solved.htm
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Music Attribution:
“Unsolved Mysteries” by Xenith
https://soundcloud.com/iamxenith/unsolved-mysteries
Video Attributions:
Apocalypto – Prophecy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ7KZOscWjo
Apocalypto – Run For Your Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKVgF2hA0Q8
Apocalypto – Solar Eclipse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtttE3u1g0
How Water Freezes Up-Close
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1-DqTSjW4
Lenticular Clouds Short Timelapse
https://vimeo.com/52729126
The Mayan Adventure – Guatemalan Tour Company
https://vimeo.com/118376695
Image Attribution:
Anastasia with her mother, Tsarina Alexandra, in 1908
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AlexandraAnastasia1908.jpg
Anastasia with her brother Alexei
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AnastasiawithAlexei.jpg
Chopped Down
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryan_tir/5693000223/
Dust Devils Dance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/888064641/
Green Algae
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kewl/5312016650/
Transcript:
* We all love a good mystery – so much, sometimes, that the mystique carries on in our imaginations even after it has been solved. But get wise: Here are 3 events previously known as mysterious.
* Did Anastasia Escape the Bolsheviks? In 1918, during the onslaught of the Russian revolution, Bolsheviks assassinated Czar Nicholas II, his wife, and their 5 children. A few years later, a woman who called herself Anna Anderson surfaced claiming to be their youngest child, Anastasia. Though she was rejected by surviving Romanovs (Natasha included), rumors of Anastasia’s escape persisted with help from a strange finding in 1991: The bodies of most of the Romanovs and their servants were discovered in a mass grave in Yekaterinberg (YIH-kat-tour-een-BOURG), but _two_ children – a girl and a boy – were missing. In 2007, however, archaeologists unearthed a second grave with two more sets of bones. With modern DNA matching techniques, they were confirmed to be Romanovs. That’s thanks to a blood sample taken from a shirt that Nicholas II had worn during an assassination attempt in 1891.
* Why Did the Maya Civilization Collapse? Theories about the Mayas’ fall circa 700-800 BCE have ranged from military defeat to a massive peasant revolt to an invasion by UFOs. But in a study published in 2012, Arizona State University researchers substantiated yet another theory: changing environmental conditions. By analyzing the archaeological data, they found evidence that the Maya had burned and chopped down so much of their surrounding forests that they altered the land’s ability to absorb solar radiation, which in turn made clouds and rainfall scarce. This subsequently exacerbated a naturally occurring drought and caused soil erosion and depletion, which caused their agriculture to fail. With less food available, workers were forced to leave the lowland cities to avoid starvation, and their whole civilization imploded.
* What Causes the ‘Sailing Stones’ to Move? Every 10 years or so, something seemingly impossible happens in a Death Valley lakebed called the Racetrack Playa (which would be an amazing DJ name, by the way). Stones as big as 700 pounds seem to move around on their own, leaving long tracks behind them in the parched desert surface. I know what you’re thinking: Dust devils? Slippery films of algae WITH NEFARIOUS PURPOSES? But no. In 2011, researchers brought in 15 similarly sized rocks to monitor. Because the National Parks Service wouldn’t let them attach GPSes to the natural rocks. They concluded that ice is at work: In winter, the playa sometimes fills with a thin layer of rainwater, which freezes overnight. When it melts the next day, it cracks into free-floating panels so huge and that light winds can push them. Like ice sails. These can drive the rocks along ahead of them at just a few inches per second, too slow for visitors to catch the movement from a distance, but with enough pressure that they leave tracks.
* But hey, I’ve got a question for you: What’s your favorite still-unsolved mystery – and what do you think happened? Check and make sure it hasn’t already been debunked in our article “10 Unsolved Mysteries That Have Been Solved” on HowStuffWorks.com. And hey, if you liked this video, make it official, and subscribe so you won’t miss the next one.
