Talk:List of unsolved problems in biology

This page is too subjective and needs to be cleaned up
Maths and Physics have famous unsolved problems, these are quite useful to list in en encyclopedia.

Biology is not (jet) the sort of science that can be constructed from laws. Its applied messy and complex. This result in an almost infinite number of unsolved "problems". Any question on a generally well known subject will lead to an unsolved problem in biology if you zoom in enough. But most of unsolved problems aren't at all the sort of problems that are noteworthy to mention in an encyclopedia.

It might be best to only mention the BIG questions in biology that would lead to major new insights once solved. What these questions should be isn't clear even in the scientific community see : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610715000115 However we should steer away from users claiming something to be an important question based on their own opinion or research for this will result in the somewhat random list of questions that we have now.

My suggestion is to only include questions that are presented important unsolved problems in biology by renowned scientific authorities and exclude the rest. 82.173.12.90 (talk) 12:33, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Suggestions
Suggestions for inclusion:
 * A general theory for the population-genetic mechanisms by which complex adaptations are acquired See http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/08/30/1010836107.abstract Which seems to me to be a significant enough unsolved problem? -- GideonKlok (talk) 21:05, 15 September 2010 (UTC)


 * "A cure for C", where C is one of the things on the list of "list of causes of death by rate" that does not yet have a cure. Solving the problem of finding a cure for any one of those things is arguably more important than most of the other problems already on this page. --DavidCary (talk) 17:05, 16 October 2012 (UTC)


 * The origin of magnetoreception, most recently highlighted in Science (doi) V8rik (talk) 17:52, 24 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Alkaloid functions are not entirely a mystery. There is a substantial amount of evidence in the differing functionalities of alkaloids. I think the mystery might arise in some part form the non-specific definition of alkaloids. I'm tempted to remove that section from the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ye1rah (talk • contribs) 17:52, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Oh, come on
The biological basis for homosexuality (presuming there is one) isn't nearly as theoretically significant to biology as the other stuff on this page. This is a list of 'unsolved problems significant to biology', not 'arguably unsolved problems tangentially related to biology significant to ongoing political debates in countries with lots of English Wikipedia editors'. I have therefore deleted it from the page. 128.194.250.61 (talk) 12:29, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I have re-added homosexuality but kept your addition. In my opinion, homosexuality is definitely a significant mystery to biology. Homosexual organisms defy nature in that we evolved to be heterosexual to reproduce. Homosexual organisms cannot reproduce (well, they don't want to, in the normal way that is) so what makes them be homosexual. It is not, as some believe, a "life-choice", it is a natural biological thing that cannot be chosen. And just to clarify, I am not homosexual so this is not a personal thing, just my opinion.  McLerristarr &#124;  Mclay1  07:54, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Your question makes as much sense as asking why certain bees in a hive are infertile and others aren't. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.187.76.26 (talk) 18:36, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
 * The standard explanation for bee worker infertility is eusociality, which itself is not quite resolved. For bees, it might be due to haplodiploidy, but naked mole rats are also eusocial, despite being purely diploidal.
 * Clearly, explaining eusociality does not help much with explaining homosexuality, considering that homosexuality occurs in asocial and social animals (possibly in eusocial animals? idk). pony in a strange land (talk) 17:52, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Who on earth thinks this qualifies as an unsolved problem in biology? It's bizarre. By this logic, any condition that prevents reproduction in individuals is an unsolved problem in the field. Anyone who understands the basics of evolution would know homosexuality is largely irrelevant as long as it occurs in a minority of the population. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.41.11.90 (talk) 10:36, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Exclusive homosexuality would be a trait with adaptiveness 0 (adaptiveness is defined as the average number of offsprings), which would subject it to very strong selective pressure. Exclusive homosexuality is a form of infertility. Any genetic factor whose *only effect* (no pleiotropy) is an increase chance of exclusive homosexuality would be easily driven to extinction, even if it is a very small increase (the precise mathematics require population genetics).
 * There are analogous problems of traits that seem to decrease adaptiveness, and yet persist at statistically significant frequencies, all of which are puzzling as well, though some have generally accepted solutions:
 * Why do human females have menopause, which reduces reproductive span and thus apparently decreases adaptiveness? There are several explanations, such as that a grandmother is more efficient at helping her offsprings than making her own offsprings, or that the physiology of the ovary constrains the reproductive lifespan to about 30 years, or that it's a side effect much like many diseases of the old (they are not selected against because in the past, humans didn't live that long).
 * Why do about 60% of human conceptions fail in the first month? One common explanation is that it acts as a screener for defective fetuses, but then, how to explain this 60% defect rate?
 * Why do humans have a 1% schizophrenia rate across societies, when schizophrenia is confirmed to decrease adaptiveness? The analogy is apt, considering that both schizophrenia and homosexuality are complex graded traits, that decrease adaptiveness (but not to 0), with many genetic factors, with somewhat similar prevalence across human societies.
 * As for who thinks that homosexuality is a puzzle, consider "The Homosexuality Paradox" (Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2021), which nicely illustrates the points I sketched above: homosexuality occurs in all human societies, generally with significant frequencies, moderately heritable, decreases individual adaptiveness, and
 * > The heritable components of human homosexuality are not immediately explicable according to basic evolutionary principles because they entail reduced average individual reproductive success relative to alternative genotypes.
 * > Homosexuality appears to be a trait that, like sterility or reduced fertility, reduces the likelihood of reproduction. One can think of exclusive homosexuality as analogous to sterility and non-exclusive homosexuality as analogous to reduced fertility. This has led researchers to wonder how homosexuality continues to appear at a relatively consistent rate in the human population.
 * > Homosexuality in humans is heritable and currently responsible for reduced fecundity. In addition, human homosexuality is prevalent, and same-sex attractions and behaviors are ancient and likely to be deeply ancestral. These facts constitute an evolutionary puzzle, one that has generated fascinating evolutionary hypotheses and fruitful research avenues.
 * > Depending on the methods and statistical assumptions used, twin studies provide heritability estimates between roughly h2 = 0.3 and 0.6 for men and h2 = 0.2 and 0.7 for women. These are considered moderate to large estimates for psychological variables; personality variables cluster around h2 = 0.5 and intelligence is between h2 = 0.5 and 0.8.
 * > Rates of homosexual identification vary by region, but anthropological studies in every region of the world find homosexual expression of some description... The best estimates for the number of men who identify as homosexual are between 2 % and 5 %, although somewhere between 5 % and 15 % of men report some attraction or sexual behaviors toward the same sex. Between 1 % and 3 % of women identify as homosexual, although somewhere between 10 % and 15 % report some attraction or sexual behaviors toward the same sex... Regardless, rates of both male and female homosexuality are greater than would be expected to be the result of random mutation...
 * > Males who identify as homosexual are much more likely than heterosexual males to never have offspring, and when they do, they tend to have fewer across the life span. Data on females suggests that homosexuality is associated with about a 20–30 % chance of at least one offspring, compared to an 80–90 % chance of motherhood in the general population.
 * Of course, there's a dual problem of homosexuality: what explains homophobia? As far as I know, humans are the only social species that exhibit homophobia as a social convention. In fact, naively speaking, a heterosexual individual should encourage homosexuality in same-sex conspecifics --- it reduces competition for a mate! So why homophobia?
 * P.S.: I'm lesbian, so don't ad hominem me. pony in a strange land (talk) 18:24, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
 * P.S.: I'm lesbian, so don't ad hominem me. pony in a strange land (talk) 18:24, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

We should not include questions just because they are important in the opinion of users. This will end up with all sorts of relative irrelevant unsolved problems in Biology. This page should be a collection of problems that once solved, would result in a huge leap in understanding and progress in biology preferable with a source why this problem is seen as such by the scientific community. So it could have a place in this list but no we should not include homosexuality just because you believe it has reason to be on this list. 82.173.12.90 (talk) 12:41, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Ambiguous and inconsistent categorization
It seems like this list has been recently changed to include the two subcategories "Evolution" and "General". Not only are those two categories very ambiguous, but the arrangement of the unsolved problems have been done sloppily. Some unsolved problems found in the subsection "General" could arguably be put into the subsection "Evolution". In fact, you could put almost everything in the list under "Evolution" as it's the cornerstone of biology. Another objection I have is that now the list features a precise category versus an imprecise one ("General").

I would suggest reverting the list back to not feature any subcategories. The list is short enough as it is and it never needed categorization.

The Editor94 (talk) 11:18, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

Many Unsolved Problems in Evolutionary Biology
There are many open questions not currently on this list examples not particularly well stated

Major Problems not on the list


 * Relationship between Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarayotes, what evolved from what?
 * What were the metabolic characteristics of early life? I.e what did early life need to survive, we know they were chemotrophes but what type of chemotrophes
 * Origin of Eukaryotic Life - Why did Eukaryotic Cells develop
 * Related but different Origin of Mitochondria (how did they get in the cell and why?)
 * Related to Cambrian Explosion problem: What lead to life remaining relatively stable for its first 2 billion years but then gradually becoming more and more complex ~900 to 800 million years ago (development of multicelluarlity)

Furthermore Fairy Circles still are an unsolved problem and should be readded

But there are many many smaller problems like not knowing where certain families of animals came from or when they first appeared i.e Big Cats. The origin of many human pathogens are unknown such as when Measles, Syphillis, Smallpox etc crossed over from other species and started affecting humans.

Here are some useful links to start in general not just for evolutionary biology


 * https://collections.plos.org/challenges
 * https://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/cellbio2011/
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2982103/
 * https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/openquestionsinbiology
 * https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12025
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692702/pdf/10670015.pdf
 * https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ten-biggest-dinosaur-mysteries-we-have-yet-solve-180952297/
 * https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2015.00009/full
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-0691.1998.tb00326.x

Copied content
Copied the unsolved biochem sections from the chem article to the bio article. Jamgoodman (talk) 16:52, 10 June 2019 (UTC)