Humans and the Cosmos by John

Humans and the Cosmos by John - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

The most interesting lesson I have learned in a classroom is the relationship that we human beings have with the cosmos. This relationship is not so self-evident. In fact, it is far more inconspicuous since our species is too young to possess a visual demonstration of its truth.
We know that the beginning of the universe spawned large amounts of the light elements, like hydrogen, helium and lithium. These light elements are ubiquitous in the universe and are certainly present on our own planet. But what about heavier elements? After all, our planet possesses a large amount of heavy elements, like zinc, nickel, copper and a plethora of other metals that did not originate with the big bang. Our bodies in particular contain carbon, an essential building block to life as we know it. In addition, our bodies require sustenance in the forms of oxygen, nitrogen, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and iron among others. We observe a universe that contains heavier elements than it had at the start. Where did so many of these heavy elements come from?
The process by which our star (the sun) and all stars create energy is what we call "nuclear fusion." This process is fundamental to the lifecycle of stars, which astrophysicists call "stellar evolution." Once a star is born, it possesses a massive core rich in hydrogen. But it must support itself against its own gravity lest it should collapse in on itself, so it begins to fuse hydrogen into the heavier element, helium. This process creates the outward energy needed for counterbalancing that gravity. Once the hydrogen has burned out, the star possesses a shell of hydrogen around its helium core and begins to fuse the helium into the heavier elements, carbon and nitrogen. When those elements have burned out, even heaver elements like oxygen and iron are made.
Eventually, after millions or billions of years, stars reach a stage where they cannot squeeze any more energy out of fusing the elements. If a star is extremely massive, then it has a big problem. Since it can no longer counterbalance that gravitational force, it “explodes” and expels all of those elements into space. These elements are really nutrients in the context of this discussion. They are the same nutrients that provide the building blocks to our computers, our economy, our bodies and our lives.
This means that some massive star occupied a space near our current solar system billions of years ago. It means that it eventually exploded and provided the seeds and nutrients for our sun and solar system to develop. But even more profoundly, it means that our bodies contain those very nutrients. We are made out of the ashes of stars. In other words, we are not simply in the universe, the universe is also in us. This realization provokes a spiritual feeling in me that is difficult to ignore.
When you reflect on this fact, you realize that our origins do not merely express the relationship we have with the universe, but also the relationship we have with each other. We are all made out of the same raw material and so we all have the same potential. This can be both an encouraging and a frightening realization. But in the end, all of us have a choice for how to live out that shared potential. I encourage you all to use that potential in a positive way. Make the world a better place than you found it. Do not just envision a better world, use that shared potential to construct a better one.