If you have ever walked into a pitch-dark room, you know that your eyes take a few minutes to adjust. You are barely able to make out shapes and have to feel your way around.

Now imagine fishes that live in the deepest, darkest parts of our oceans where hardly any light filters through. Not only do they have to search for food, but also avoid becoming prey.

You may have eaten at a restaurant and had the leftover food packed for the next day in a white styrofoam container.

On April 30, the U.S. state of Maine became the first state to officially ban single-use styrofoam plastics.

The ban, which will take effect on January 1, 2021, will prevent grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, food trucks, and other such businesses from using foam containers. Some businesses like hospitals and seafood shippers will not be affected by the ban.

What is Styrofoam?

Have you had a burger without meat? 

You might think that a vegetable burger will take away the essence of a burger as it will not have the juicy taste of meat. Despite these concerns, the company, Beyond Meat, has managed to successfully make plant-based meat.

Beyond Meat's products are sold at Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Del Taco, Carl’s Jr., and T.G.I. Friday. Currently, there are more than 30,000 distribution spots where Beyond Meat products can be bought.

Did you know that more than one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction from human activity?

This is according to a report released yesterday by the IPBES -- an intergovernmental platform on biodiversity.

The report states that since 1970, there has been a growing demand for food, energy, and raw materials. With our Earth's population at 7 billion and rising, the impact could become hard to reverse as we are not giving nature time to regenerate itself.

On the Tara Oceans expedition, a massive four-year effort that began in 2009, scientists sailed around the world—gathering seawater samples from five of the world’s oceans.

In their groundbreaking study, they discovered almost 200,000 populations of marine viruses, a number that far exceeds the 15,000 found previously.

More than 40% of the viruses were found in the Arctic Ocean! This has surprised scientists and challenges their previous assumption that most organisms live by the Earth’s equator.

What Are Marine Viruses?

On April 13, a pet cassowary attacked and killed its owner, Marvin Hajos, a 75-year-old man who lived in Alachua County, Florida.

It appears that Hajos tripped and fell, and was then attacked by the bird. According to Jeff Taylor, the county’s Deputy Chief, the man sustained injuries probably a result of the bird’s lethal claws.

The bird at the center of the attack, along with 100 other exotic pets that Hajos owned, is being put up for auction as per the owner's last wishes. What exactly is a cassowary and why is it so dangerous?

Do you know about the world’s largest plane? It is called Stratolaunch and on Saturday, April 13th, the plane took off for the very first time and landed safely at the Mojave Desert in California.

The Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo is a paradise for tree-climbers. It is home to some of the world’s tallest tropical trees.

It has also proved to be a treasure trove for scientists as they have repeatedly discovered groves of towering yellow meranti trees, finding a tree with a record height each year.

The Eastgate Center in Harare, Zimbabwe is the largest commercial building in the country. Yet, it consumes 90% less energy than the similarly sized building next to it.

How is this possible? Well, the Eastgate Center was built to mimic the structure of termite mounds. 

The chilling sight of a beached whale has come to light in the town of Mabini, Philippines.

The Cuvier’s beaked whale, which weighed 1,100 pounds and measured 15 feet, was filled with 88 pounds of bags, nylon ropes, and other disposable plastic products.

In some parts of the young male’s stomach, plastic had calcified, meaning that it became rock solid. This is the largest amount of plastic to be ever found in a marine mammal’s stomach.

The death of this Cuvier’s beaked whale reminds the world of the fatalities of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.