April 2012
Interviewer: What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: The most astounding fact, is the knowledge, that the atoms that comprise life on earth, the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucible that cooked like elements into heavy elements in their core, under extreme temperatures and pressure. These stars the high mass ones among them, when unstable in their later years, they collapse and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy. Guts made of carbon nitrogen oxygen and all the fundamental ingredient of life it self. These ingredients become part of gas clouds, that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems - stars with orbiting planets, and those planets have the ingredients for life. So, then when I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up—many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There's a level of connectivity. That's really what you want in life - you want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you're a participant in the going on of activities and advance around, that is precisely what we are, just by being alive.
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your...”
– Mahatma Gandhi (via 99lions)
