"The atoms and molecules in your body are traceable to the crucibles in the centers of stars that manufacture these elements over its lifespan, went unstable on death, exploding its enriched guts across the galaxy, scattering it into gas clouds that would ultimately collapse and make a star and have the right ingredients to make planets and people—which means we are part of this universe. As I’ve said many times…not only are we in the universe, the universe is in us. That is a profound concept. I think it is the greatest gift astrophysics gave culture in the 20th century. There’s a research paper, 1957…Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle, one of the most famous research papers that no one ever heard of. You know why, I think? Because it had four authors, not just one, and it took decades to figure out, and it wasn’t just somebody burning the midnight oil so it doesn’t lend itself to poetry or screenplays, ‘cause it’s a collaboration, so nobody wrote about it. But we knew that we are starstuff, we knew that we are stardust at the middle of the 20th century. That connects us to the universe like no other fact. That’s beautiful."