I was travelling around the world when it is happened - unloaded (transparent) chunks, I tried to place/break blocks as usual, but this didn't help me.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Travel around the world until unloaded chunks appear.
2. You can try to interact with blocks, but notice that this do not change anything.
3. You can resolve this by re-entering the world or changing graphics from fancy to fast and back or changing smooth lighting from max to off/min and back. But these transparent chunks will appear again and again in different places.

This problem do not appears in version 1.7.10 and below (only affects 1.8 snapshots).

Sorry for my bad English, if I made some mistakes.