we are all made of stars

I have no idea what Moby was getting at when he wrote the song that shares it's name with this blog entry but it occurred to me... he's right.

Once upon a time, alchemists worked hard to transform lead into gold. Given the understanding of metallurgy that came from their attempts, it's probably better that no one told them it takes a supernova to form gold. Given that our sun (which will only go nova) doesn't even have enough energy to transform lead into gold, they probably shouldn't be too dissapointed. Diamonds, however, are made of carbon - which our sun is actively producing as we speak. (Well, at least as I type and later as you read...)

Think about that the next time you see a diamond in a gold ring. Everybody gets so excited about the diamond (partially due to DeBeers doing a great job marketing them) that they miss the fact that the gold it's encased in is much, much harder to create.

We, like diamonds, are largely made of (common) carbon and under the right conditions, can also become sharp, hard and pretty. Let's hope it doesn't take a supernova to make our hearts as malleable as gold.