“We are made out of stardust. The iron in the hemoglobin molecules in the blood in your right hand came from a star that blew up 8 billion years ago. The iron in your left hand came from another star. We are the laws of chemistry and physics as they have played out here on Earth and we are now learning that planets are as common as stars. Most stars, as it turns out now, will have planets.” YearsMadeHandsEarthLawTurnsLeftStarsCommonBloodPlanetsYears AgoPhysicsBillionsIronChemistryMoleculesStardustLeft Hand Author:Jill Tarter
“I'd say that, in addition to actually taking my brother and sister and I camping and hiking and river rafting all our lives and introducing us to the power of natural landscapes, his [my father's] biggest impact on my thinking has been to always argue that the "spiritual case for Nature" was not going to outweigh the needs of 7 billion people and to insist that law, science and economics were the critical frameworks through which we had to defend the value of nature.” PeopleThinkingNeedsHas BeensSpiritualLawValuesFatherNaturalCasesOur LivesBrotherEconomicsRiversImpactCriticalArguingBillionsLandscapeMy BrotherHikingIntroducingBrothers And SistersFrameworkCampingRafting Author:Edward Norton
“Every heat engineer knows he can design his heat engine reliably and accurately on the foundation of the second law [of thermodynamics]. Run alongside one of the molecules, however, and ask it what it thinks of the second law. It will laugh at us. It never heard of the second law. It does what it wants. All the same, a collection of billions upon billions of such molecules obeys the second law with all the accuracy one could want” ThinkingKnowsWantDoeRunningLawAsksLaughingHeardDesignFoundationBillionsHeatCollectionsEnginesEngineersAccuracyMoleculesThermodynamics Author:John Archibald Wheeler