“We are stardust,” declared Matthew Fox, scholar and
innovative educator, to an audience in Buffalo a few years ago. The elements
that comprise the human body are the elements contained in the stars making us
one with the universe.
Scientists from Europe and the USA have just confirmed that their research
provides evidence that life's raw materials came from sources beyond the earth.
The report, published June 15, 2008, shows for the first time that an important
component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments
is extraterrestrial in origin. “The finding suggests that parts of the raw
materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the
stars.”
Lead author Dr. Zita Martens, Department of Earth Science and Engineering at
Imperial College, London said that “early life may have adopted nucleobases from
meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their
successful features to subsequent generations.”
About 4 billion years ago, a large number of meteorites rained down on the Earth
at a time when primitive life was forming. Co-author of the report Mark Sephton
added that “the key components of life could be widespread in the cosmos.
As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered
in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the
right chemistry is present becomes more likely.”
The team discovered the molecules in rock fragments of the Murchison meteorite,
which crashed in Australia in 1969.
The new scientific findings support ancient teachings that regard the universe
as a cosmic being with its laws applying to component parts, galaxies, solar
systems, planetary systems, human systems, etc.
As the old idiom goes “as above, so below.” And as new
discoveries are made in the various fields of knowledge, the mysteries of the
human being and the universe will continue to unravel.
