How all of us, (even you) are literally remnants of dead stars

Dead stars have been much in the media recently, but in this TEDx talk by Michelle Thaller, we’re not thinking of the comedy or artist variety. One of the mistakes people with a nihilistic mindset can make when they contemplate the scientific view of the origin of life on Earth, is to think of ourselves as mundane clumps of matter as common and unremarkable as the dirt beneath our feet. It might not matter much either way, but there’s another way of looking at where the matter that comprises everything from our world to our very bodies, can be traced back to: the stars themselves.

If you’re ever sad that you might not ever experience interstellar travel in your lifetime, there’s always the fact that the matter that makes up what and who you are has actually travelled through space several aeons ago. All we need to do is remind us of our heritage from time to time, as we look up at the stars, hoping to travel among them again one day.