Nature is parsimonious. Most of an organism's ingredients were once part of a variety of long-dead organisms and they will eventually get recycled, perhaps into species that don't yet exist. Think of your atoms as hand-me downs.
We merely borrow our atoms from the biosphere for a short span and at the end -bury or burn-we will return them. The backbone of life is carbon, and ours was forged in the white heat of the centers of stars and burped into space long ago and far away. The universe is 13.7 billion years old, and some of our carbon might date back to the first generations of massive stars over 13 billions years ago, but the great majority of
our carbon atoms are 2 to 8 billion years old.
I mused on the unity of life. Measured by accumulated deviations of the amino acid sequence for the protein cytochrome c, humans overlap 99 percent with rhesus monkeys, 84 percent with chickens, 68 percent with moths, and 60 percent with simple yeast.
Chimps and Humans shared genes as recently as 5 or 6 million years ago. In other words, we bred with chimps for over a million years before the second and final split. Victorians would not have approved and evolution is definitely not for the squeamish.
We merely borrow our atoms from the biosphere for a short span and at the end -bury or burn-we will return them. The backbone of life is carbon, and ours was forged in the white heat of the centers of stars and burped into space long ago and far away. The universe is 13.7 billion years old, and some of our carbon might date back to the first generations of massive stars over 13 billions years ago, but the great majority of
our carbon atoms are 2 to 8 billion years old.
I mused on the unity of life. Measured by accumulated deviations of the amino acid sequence for the protein cytochrome c, humans overlap 99 percent with rhesus monkeys, 84 percent with chickens, 68 percent with moths, and 60 percent with simple yeast.
Chimps and Humans shared genes as recently as 5 or 6 million years ago. In other words, we bred with chimps for over a million years before the second and final split. Victorians would not have approved and evolution is definitely not for the squeamish.
The Sun will brighten as it ages...In 500 millions years warming will accelerate the weathering rate, moving carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the oceans. Water from the very warm oceans will rise into the stratosphere and start leaking into space. The oceans will steadily evaporate.
We'll end up in the Sun, vaporizing and blending our material with that of the Sun, part of the Sun then blows away into space, so one might say Earth is cremated and the ashes are scattered into interstellar space.
In the far future universe, most objects are slowly cooling embers: white dwarfs.
..The assembly and disassembly of stars and galaxies is interesting but it's like rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Entropy, calling card of the second law of thermodynamics, is the implacable winner.
From Astronomer Chris Impey - How it Ends: From you to the universe
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