What can really happen in a day? Rome couldn’t be built, as the famous saying goes. Policies can’t be changed. Diseases can’t be cured. As pessimistic as it may sound, the only major change that can be made in a day would be something catastrophic— ending the world as we know it. This isn’t the rant of a doomsday prophet, but rather the scientific conclusion of some of the worlds most renown biologists, geologists and astrophysicists. Our universe is an incredibly volatile place— it can end at any time and in a number of ways.

Have you ever worried about two atoms colliding at the speed of light, creating a Black Hole whose tidal forces would rip us all apart atom-by-atom? How about a landslide off Africa’s coast that triggers a mega-tsunami which wipes out the east coast of the United States? Of course not. These scenarios are usually dismissed as being the product of a wild imagination and too many science fiction novels. But the fact of the matter is that it’s not a question of if these events will happen, but when. Worried yet?

I’m not saying we should all live our lives crippled in fear over this scientific inevitability. Rather, we should take this opportunity to more actively observe and question our surroundings and escape the cone of ignorance that we are falling into. I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase “what goes up must come down” and accepted it as scientific fact. Based on our experiences, we are given no reason to believe otherwise— it’s the law of universal gravitation at work just as Newton described it.

The truth is, if an object is given an initial upward speed of 11.2km/s it would break Earth’s gravitational pull and never return. So much for that theory. Obviously no human is capable of projecting an object at such a high rate of speed, but that’s not my point. The point is, when did we, as a society, become so willing to accept things at face value? Has history not taught us that science is a constant cycle of improving past theories to reflect new discoveries? Then why do we theorize about gravity like it’s 1687?

The universe is billions of years our elder— not all of its intricacies will become apparent within the confines of our lifetimes or even our planet. We are looking for the easy answer, because we all fear what we can’t understand. But we shouldn’t be afraid. Being baffled is at the heart of all innovation— it’s what keeps us asking questions and further pursuing that which we can’t comprehend. I often feel like my generation has lost interest in asking ‘why?’— the foundation of all discovery. Answers, accurate or not, are offered to us so readily that it has become inconvenient to seek any first-hand knowledge. Now that’s something to worry about.

I recently finished a book on this topic called ‘Death by Black Hole’ by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a world renown astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. While some of the scientific jargon was a bit over my head, the book gave me a new appreciation for the world around me, and what a fragile balance our universe hangs in. It encourages you to forget everything you think you know and open your eyes to the world as it is revealed to us. I would strongly recommend anyone interested in this topic read this book. For those of you who are more interested in an abridged version of the universes chaotic schemes, the BBC just released an excellent short film detailing many of the same theories, but without the scientific explanations the book offers.

So take a little time to appreciate the world today. There might not be a tomorrow.