Abhay's Bhay

Lately, I’ve been awed by how beautiful life is. I mean that in more literal way than metaphorical way. I mean sure, life has rainbows, waterfalls, butterflies, rain, frogs and so many things that I find beautiful. My version of metaphorical beauty would not be the same as what your version of it is. That is fine because this blog is about me. Our opinions can and should be different.

However, facts always remain the same. Reality how we understand it acts as it does because of things that exist in the micro scale dictate how the world at the macro scale behave. Fact: Animals are biological machines made of cells that interact with each-other to keep us alive. A single celled organism is considered the simplest form of life. However, a single cell comprises of layers of complex proteins interacting with each other to perform any function. These single cell organisms cluster and work with other single cell organisms to form more complex things like bones, muscles, organs, skins, you and me. An average human body has about 30 trillion cells. 

Look at your wrists. Those blue veins you have carry blood that has haemoglobin in it. Haemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen to all the organs in our body, and we need oxygen to stay alive. About 70% of iron in your body is found in haemoglobin. Now iron is the magic element that is only formed in one place in the universe, that is in the heart of a dying star. 

Stars, as we know, are not balls of fire in the sky. Instead, they are these huge clouds of gases made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. Due to their extreme density, they have ridiculous gravitational fields that hook the planets into an orbit around them. Inside a star, these gases literally fuse together under extreme pressures through nuclear fusion to give off light, energy and form heavier elements. Hydron atoms combine to form Helium, which further fuse with hydrogen to form Lithium and so on till Iron is formed. After the stars have burnt up all the fuel, they explode in a Super Nova – which is this violent explosion where gases escape through the poles of the dying star in these jets of gasses, hurling everything inside them out into the universe. 

With a universe full of trillions of stars and billions of them dying in super-novae every day, our solar system got blessed with enough dead star material for life to happen. Everything we see around us, the trees, the grass, this dirt, our selves, all of us exist today because of them. So, next time when you’re fighting your demons, if you think you’re not good enough, if you ever doubt yourself, remember you are literally made of Star Stuff.