Last week, astronomers ‘struck gold’ with a new discovery about……well…..gold comes from.

Apparently it comes from neutron star collisions.

Scientists from around the world announced that they have detected a neutron star collision from 130 million years ago. From this collision, heavier elements such as platinum, gold, and silver are formed. It was once thought that the only way these heavy elements can be formed is by a large star finally collapsing on itself and ejecting the dense elements into the atmosphere. But this didn’t account for all the gold, silver, etc in the universe. So now we know these neutron star collisions also account for these heavier elements.

This is not the only discovery that was to be had from this neutron star collision. All sorts of theories about gravitational waves, particle expulsion, black hole formations, and possible origins of the universe are confirmed through this discovery. I’ll spare the details of the impact of these other discoveries, but please read it here if you care. It is very informative and interesting.

So why should you care? Well, first off this shows how smart Einstein was. All the physical theories Einstein came up with in 1916 are being proven to be true with empirical evidence 100 years later. Yeah, apparently he was pretty sharp.

Secondly, if you are short on money, this is a great way of getting some gold. Forget all of that drilling and mining. Just find a collapse of some stars, wait for their impending collision, and reap the riches. (Warning: this plan assumes you have access to a vehicle that can fold space-time, a way of withstanding the mega-gravitational force, and about 100 million years to spare)

But most importantly, this show that science works! It actually does. Now you would think we would not need these type of grand discoveries to convince the masses of this (see also: technology we use everyday, weather pattern prediction, medical advances, etc), but maybe we do. And sadly, we probably need 100x more of these types of discoveries to get more Americans on board the science train. You know there will be a healthy number of people who will deny that any of this is real. Why? Because it goes against their innate and simple belief system that involves one God and one flat planet that has been around 6,000 years. And I bet you a gold bar the weight of a thimble-sized neutron star (or 100 million tons) all of those ‘skeptics’ are Trump supports.

We need to get this type of scientific information integrated into the mainstream more than we do. Have you ever read the NY Times? These types of stories are buried in their ‘Science’ section. Ever read BBC online? Front page news. Granted, maybe science doesn’t sell as much as Trump stuff does, and we all know that papers need as many readers as possible. But when we dumb down the rhetoric and focus ONLY on soap opera drama in politics, I just feel that we are appealing to a lower level of thought and has a ripple effect in what we deem as important. Much like the neutron star collides with another neutron star and later turns into a black hole, when the media and Trump collide, it creates a gravitational force that sucks out all of our intelligence.