Stargazing Guy

― Carl Sagan. Spoken during the first episode of the 1980 landmark science series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” titled “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean”

An earlier version of the “we are made of star-stuff” quote, was made in the 1973 Carl Sagan publication “The Cosmic Connection: An Extra-terrestrial Perspective”:

“All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.”

Using this terminology wasn’t Sagan being metaphoric. He was simply noting — in his uniquely precise and poetic way — that the raw materials that constitute our physical bodies were forged in the bellies of distant, long-extinguished stars.

There will be several more quotes from Carl Sagan as we continue. Sagan’s eloquence and intelligence and his knowledge made him one of the greatest science communicators ever, probably. He certainly led the way and his mantle has been picked up by the likes of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Cox and Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.