The most poetic thing in the universe

Lawrence Krauss discusses the most poetic thing he knows about the universe:

The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 3 Comments

    1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
      Erich Vieth

      Chip: Are you certain the word is Anthropopathic?

      I had to look it up, and here's what I found. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropopathy "Anthropopathy (Greek ανθρωπος, anthropos, "human", παθος, pathos, "suffering") is the attribution of human emotion to a non-human being, generally a god."

      I do agree with you that the video uses human beings as their own measuring stick, making it somehow seem circular and self-aggrandizing. But Krauss' statement also struck me as humbling. I'm actually having a hard time categorizing my reaction.

  1. Avatar of Jim Razinha
    Jim Razinha

    Science is the poetry of reality – Richard Dawkins

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