Often, when we think of a scientific discovery, of someone finding something that we have never seen before, we envision grown ups in white lab coats, surrounded by high tech equipment, feverishly researching some new awe-inspiring discovery they know will change the course of history. And while I am sure many scientists WISH this is what they were doing, most of the time new discoveries are found in a very unexciting setting.

This was the case when three high school seniors in Rochester, New York swabbed three surfaces we see every day: a smart phone screen, a door handle and a hand dryer. Very typical and, well, boring sounding, right? Well, while the surfaces themselves were nothing to get excited over, once their swabs were analyzed, the teenagers realized they had found a brand new bacterium on their swab!

Now so far this new bacteria does not have any known potential use, but it just might. That is the exciting part of discovery; you really have no idea how helpful they will be. When electrons were discovered over 100 years ago, no one thought they would really be useful at all. Well, come to 2019, and our entire world is operated on electricity and its communicative abilities. Maybe this bacterium will be what helps find the cure for cancer. Or maybe it it better at dissolving grease than hand soap. Or maybe when heated to the exact right temperature, it learns to talk! Well, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea. Science is not necessarily about looking for things that you know will do something, it is about looking for something you hope will do anything.

In many parts of the world, the need of fresh water for the local population is much higher than the amount available. This is due to many reasons, including pollution, acidification, salination, and naturally low precipitation rates, but the problem remains that places are running out of fresh water that is needed for drinking and crop growing. This in turn has led to numerous plans of different plausibility to surface around the world. Many of these are expensive, some are reasonable, and many are outlandish. But one coming out of South Africa is truly exceptional in its ingenuity.

Right now, Cape Town, South Africa is in the middle of a multi year drought. This has led to its population of 4 million people to be restricted to 18.5 gallons per day per person. Does that not sound like a lot? Well, in comparison, the average American uses 80-100 gallons of fresh water each and every day. Which means the residents of this city on the southern tip of Africa use around 20% of the water many of us use daily. So, to try to combat this deficiency, one idea that has been proposed is to drag an iceberg from Antarctica to be slowly siphoned off for a fresh water supply. This plan would cost over $200 million per iceberg, so it is unlikely to ever occur, but the thought of a bunch of boats dragging a bunch of ice bergs to be used for water is certainly an interesting one!

Throughout the years, deforestation has destroyed ecosystems and made various species go extinct. However, through human action, this has become much worse. As of now there are approximately one million species of animals and plants that are at risk of extinction in the near future. Most major land habitats have seen a drastic reduction of almost 20% in their levels of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the amount of different species of plants and animals that we have, and the higher the level the better. With the human population rapidly increasing, activities like farming, fishing, mining, etc are causing further strain on the environment.

Loss of biodiversity is still accelerating through the year 2050 if we continue at current rates. Unless countries start to make some changes, these conditions will only worsen. Some may think that the lack of healthy ecosystems does not affect humans, and that it’s only bad for the animals and plants, but they are sadly mistaken. Humans are dependent on biodiversity because it connects with clean water and food security in both rich and poor countries. Some examples of the natural services that high levels of biodiversity provide are rain forests absorbing immense quantities of carbon dioxide (helping to slow the pace of global warming), wetlands purifying drinking water, as well as many medical components coming from a wide array of plants in high risk areas.

Just because these things do not personally affect you or the region you live in now does not mean it will not in the near future. The only way to preserve the earth is to make changes in your daily life, whether it be cutting out plastic, not littering, eating less meat or taking a shorter shower. While not intending to scare, this information should cause you worry. Without drastic action soon, the world in 50 years will look very different from the world today. Little by little, you are helping the earth and all the inhabitants of it. The real change starts with you.

Today, scientists released one of the most stunning images ever taken: a picture of a black hole. Located 55 million light years from our solar system (light travels almost 6 trillion miles in one year, so don’t expect to visit any time soon,) this was the first image ever taken of a black hole. What is a black hole? It is an area that has such a high concentration of gravity, that light cannot escape it. Every beam of light that enters never leaves. Formed from the death of a super massive star, black holes are something everyone knows of, but not many people know much about. Even the scientists who have studied them all their lives say they know almost nothing about them. Black holes are often at the center of a galaxy as they create the only gravitational force strong enough to hold millions of stars, planets, asteroids, gas clouds and more together. There is even one at the center of our galaxy! But do not worry, it will never swallow us up and suck us in. The sun will expand and destroy us before that ever occurred (you still have over 7.5 billion years before that happens!) Check out the amazing image below and see history for yourself!

What you are seeing is not so much a picture of the black hole itself, but the lack of light as it crosses the event horizon – or the plane where gravity becomes too strong and no light, or anything else, can escape. Cool, right!?

Hydrogen fuel has had much research done on it recently, and for good reason: it is a potentially powerful and clean energy source. The process of gaining hydrogen generally comes from a process called electrolysis, or the process of using electricity to split molecules, in this case splitting H2O (water) into Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). The problem with this is that fresh water is a very precious resource, one that many areas of the world are running out of. This means that using what little they do have to make an energy source is not exactly the most attractive option. But recently researchers have found a way to perform this action using salt water…which is one of the most abundant substances on earth! Hopefully this provides humanity with an ample source of a clean and essentially renewable resource, because as many of us are well aware, this is something we certainly need.