Stardust
You’ve probably heard that we’re all stardust. But let’s be a little more specific.
The iron atoms carrying the oxygen in our blood to our cells come from exploding white dwarf stars.
The oxygen came from exploding supernovas, the final act of massive stars.
The carbon in the CO2 we exhale comes from planetary nebulae, death clouds of stars about the size of our own sun.
These atoms are not common place in our universe, they’re rare (96% our universe is atom free, made up of the mysterious dark matter).
And to find them in this particular combination (you and us and the world around us) at this particular time (now) … let’s just say it’s good timing on our part.
It would be a shame to waste this magnificent coincidence, this culmination of billions of years of stars be born and dying, in mediocrity.
Now might be a good time to say Yes to more Great Work.
(All this from The View From the Center of the Universe, an engrossing book about how we, science (new and old) and the universe fit together. And don’t forget Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything for an equally wow read.)
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