A new species of pygmy seahorse（豆丁海马）has been discovered off the coast of South Africa in Sodwana Bay, attracting scientists with its tiny size—only 2.7 centimeters.

An international research team studied the tiny pygmy seahorse in 2019, after it was spotted by chance by diving instructor Savannah Nalu Olivier who was exploring algae（海藻）on the seafloor of the bay, But it wasn't easy to see it at all, according to a press release from the University of Leeds in Australia. That's because these sea creatures are camouflaged by their stony golden-brown look.

This is the first time that a pygmy seahorse has ever been discovered in the Indian Ocean In fact, the closest known pygmy seahorse species live 8, 000 kilometers away in a region of the Pacific Ocean called Coral Triangle. Until now, all but one of the seven pygmy seahorse species have been found in the triangle, making this discovery particularly puzzling.

The study was led by Graham Short from the California Academy of Sciences. It discovers a number of detailed features that differentiate this species from other seahorses. While larger seahorses have gills（鳃）on each side of their head, the Sodwana Bay pygmy seahorse has only one gills slit on its back. "That would be like having a nose on the back of your neck, "Short said in an interview. The tiny seahorse also has a set of sharp spines（刺毛）on its back while other pygmy seahorses have flat-tipped spines. The researchers haven't figured out what they are used for yet.

The tiny pygmy seahorse reminds us that when we open our eyes, the natural world be-comes an endless mystery. Unknown species and even entire ecosystems are awaiting to be discovered in places we never thought possible.

My name is Alice. Early last year, I was troubled by an anxiety that crippled my ability to do anything. I felt like a storm cloud hung over me. For almost a year I struggled on, constantly staring at this wall that faced me. My perfectionist tendencies were the main root of this: I wanted to be perfect at whatever I did, which obviously in life is not possible, but it consumed me.

One day, I attended a presentation by wildlife conservationist Grant Brown at my high school. His presentation not only awed and inspired me, but also helped emerge an inner desire to make a difference in the world. I joined a pre-presentation dinner with him and that smaller setting allowed me to slowly build up my courage to speak one-on-one with him—an idea that had seemed completely impossible. This first contact was where my story began.

A month later, Brown invited me to attend the World Youth Wildlife Conference. Looking back, I now see that this would be the first in a series of timely opportunities that my old self would have let pass, but that this new and more confident Alice enthusiastically seized. Shortly after I received his invitation, applications to join the Youth for Nature and the Youth for Planet groups were sent around through my high school. I decided to commit to completing the applications, and soon I was a part of a growing global team of young people working to protect nature. Each of these new steps continued to grow my confidence.

I am writing this just six months since my journey began and I've realised that my biggest obstacle this whole time was myself. It was that voice in the back of my head telling me that one phrase that has stopped so many people from reaching their potential: I can't. They say good things come to those who wait; I say: grab every opportunity with everything you have and be impatient. After all, nature does not require our patience, but our action.

A common claim states that a sheet of paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times. But is this true?

In 2002, Britney Gallivan, then a junior in high school in Pomona, California, folded a single piece of paper in half 12 times. She currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most times to fold a sheet of paper in half.

The prompt that led Gallivan to accomplish these feats was an extra-credit challenge in math class to fold anything in half 12 times. Her teacher asked the students to fold something thicker: a piece of paper.

Gallivan said "it was very frustrating, as I had many unsuccessful attempts at trying to fold different papers in half. I began to question if folding paper in half more than eight times could be impossible." However, Gallivan recalled. "I knew I needed to understand what was limiting the folding progression."

The equations that Gallivan came up with calculated how many times a sheet of paper could be folded. She found that in order to fold many times, a long thin sheet is needed — the more a sheet is folded, the thicker the resulting stack becomes, and once the stack becomes thicker than it is long, there is nothing left to fold. She ultimately set her record with a sheet of tissue paper she found online that was 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) — more than three-quarters of a mile, or over a kilometer — long, Guinness World Records noted.

"Working on the problem took a tremendous amount of time and effort," Gallivan said. "As frustrating as it was at times, I learned an immense amount from the experience, which has been valuable to me throughout my life in more capacities than one would expect."

Since Gallivan set her record, others have made claims of folding a sheet of paper more than 12 times. Still, "I anticipate that my current record will be surpassed," Gallivan said.