The world's unsolved problems
993 open questions across 14 fields, gathered from Wikipedia. Pick one and start thinking.
Showing all 993 problems · surprise me
-
Does nitrogen admit metastable allotropes under standard conditions?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Can new solvents or other techniques make direct carbon capture economical?
Read on Wikipedia → -
What is a reliable synthesis and stabilization method for catenary allotropes of sulfur and carbon?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Can the synthesis and stabilization of noble gas compounds (beyond xenon) under ambient conditions become routine?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Is it possible to design transition metal catalysts that completely bypass the use of critical rare-earth metals?
Read on Wikipedia → -
What is the most efficient and scalable method for the industrial synthesis and purification of high-entropy alloys?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Can metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) achieve long-term hydrolytic stability sufficient for real-world industrial applications?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Is there a scalable alternative to current industrial ammonia synthesis that operates at room temperature and atmospheric pressure?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Can single-molecule detection be routinely achieved for non-fluorescent analytes in complex biological matrices without amplification?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Is it possible to develop universal calibration-free sensors that maintain accuracy across varying environmental conditions and sample…
Is it possible to develop universal calibration-free sensors that maintain accuracy across varying environmental conditions and sample matrices?
Read on Wikipedia → -
How can in operando analytical techniques bridge the “pressure gap” and “material gap” between idealized surface science models and…
How can in operando analytical techniques bridge the “pressure gap” and “material gap” between idealized surface science models and real-world catalytic interfaces?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Can artificial intelligence fully automate the interpretation of multi-dimensional hyphenated data (e.g., LC-MS-NMR) to identify unknown…
Can artificial intelligence fully automate the interpretation of multi-dimensional hyphenated data (e.g., LC-MS-NMR) to identify unknown trace contaminants with human-expert reliability?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Enzyme kinetics
Why do some enzymes exhibit faster-than-diffusion kinetics?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Protein folding problem
Is it possible to predict the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure of a polypeptide sequence based solely on the sequence and environmental information? Inverse protein-folding problem: Is it possible to design a polypeptide sequence which will...
Read on Wikipedia → -
RNA folding problem
Is it possible to accurately predict the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure of a polyribonucleic acid sequence based on its sequence and environment?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Protein design
Is it possible to design highly active enzymes de novo for any desired reaction?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Biosynthesis
Can desired molecules, natural products or otherwise, be produced in high yield through biosynthetic pathway manipulation?
Read on Wikipedia → -
P versus NP problem
The P vs NP problem is a major unsolved question in computer science that asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified by a computer (NP) can also be quickly solved by a computer (P). This question has profound implications for fields...
Read on Wikipedia → -
What is the relationship between BQP and NP?
Read on Wikipedia → -
NC = P problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
NP = co-NP problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
P = BPP problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
P = PSPACE problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
L = NL problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
PH = PSPACE problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
L = P problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
L = RL problem
Read on Wikipedia → -
Unique games conjecture
Read on Wikipedia → -
Is the exponential time hypothesis true?
Read on Wikipedia → -
Do one-way functions exist?
Read on Wikipedia →
Data last refreshed 2026-10-20 03:01 UTC.