Sometimes I notice little things that remind me how wonderful life is. I was just idly scanning through the BBC website when I came across a story about marine snails, and how having left handed shells makes them more likely to survive attacks by crabs, which cannot open these shells. Scientists have only just discovered this, and there are still question marks around why snails with left handed shells are not more common, given this advantage that they have.
Quite apart from the fact that (for me at least) this is fascinating and a wonderful example of how nature is just so stunningly complex, I was uplifted by this story purely because there are people out there who are researching things like this and being given funding to do so. In a world full of negativity, consumerism and "I want it now", it's so refreshing to be reminded that there are people spending their lives researching snail shells just because they find it interesting and want to increase the pool of human knowledge in one tiny way. We may be selfish and violent, but this story gives me hope for humanity and our capacity to find joy and interest in the world around us.
Thus speaks the optimist who is convinced that the world is still a wonderful place and that life is a joy! You can find the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4831218.stm (apologies that I still don't know how to make proper links!). I'm not sure I've expressed this very well, but it made me happy.
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