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The 11 Greatest Unanswered Questions in Physics

About two years ago, the National Research Council's board on physics and astronomy held a seminar highlighting the converging worlds of particle physics and astronomy - a convergence that brings the scientific world tantalizingly close to a unification of all four forces of nature (electromagnetism, weak force, strong force, and gravity) - what scientists like to call the unified field theory.

The result of the seminar was a special report on the convergent fields, detailing 11 profound questions - including a few that scientists think may be answered within the decade... leading to a revolution in science with inevitable implications to our daily lives.

Here then, are the 11 greatest unanswered questions in physics...

1. What is dark matter?
2. What is dark energy?
3. How were the heavy elements from iron to uranium made?
4. Do neutrinos have mass?
5. Where do ultrahigh-energy particles come from?
6. Is a new theory of light and matter needed to explain what happens at very high energies and temperatures?
7. Are there new states of matter at ultrahigh temperatures and densities?
8. Are protons unstable?
9. What is gravity?
10. Are there additional dimensions?
11. How did the universe begin?

More on the questions, and their implications, in the feature article in Discover magazine.