Science in the Real World

As a child in school, I always wondered why the things we were learning about really mattered. I often found myself thinking 'why do I need to know this? When will I ever need this in my life?'. I don't know if this is a common thought among schoolchildren, but it's something I'd like to try and tackle. 'Science in the Real World' will be a series of blogposts discussing science happening in (you guessed it), the real world, and the reason for its importance. I'll be answering questions such as: What goes on behind the scenes at universities? Why do scientists spend years working on the same thing? How far has science come? Why is it important?