Our place in the Universe and what we share with all life

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Our Milky Way neighborhood is one of ~200 billion galaxies.
It has 100s of billions of stars, at least that many planets,…
Light takes 27000 years from Earth to reach its center.

For a moment of the universe’s 13.7 billion years
we are blessed with life, awareness of self, and
love (if we are fortunate).

The Universe is made of only 100 or so elements.
Earth life is made of atoms, molecules, and genes
We are ~95% water, proteins, and DNA (by weight —
65% oxygen,18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen)

Life metabolites were found in 4.5 Billion year old Earth rocks.
Microbes, 3.8 Billion years ago—Mitochondria,1.5 Billion ago.
About then, cells found in both plants and animals showed up.

Each of us is a community ~12 trillion human cells, AND
~18 trillion bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, and protozoans.
Our ~20,000 genes are a minority of their 2-20 Million.

When our father’s sperm reached our mother’s egg
we were lucky— (~40 million potential siblings weren’t).
We each inherit our mitochondria from our mothers.

each of us
is a grain
of star dust
on a beach
extending
beyond
imagination

the horizon

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