We're made of star matter?

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339273]

Hey /sci/entists. I'm a usual /x/-phile, but I've got a question that I think only you guys can answer.

So, I understand that matter can not be created or destroyed, only changed. Something I don't understand though; how is it that people claim humans are made from matter that was formed in stars?

I mean, cells divide and grow, but where does the matter needed for that division and growth come from? Is it just random tiny molecules floating around that the cells gather together?

Please, excuse my ignorance in the matter, I hope one of you can explain it simply for me.

In exchange, here's an awesome remix of Carl Sagan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

[Anonymous No.3339284]

the molecules come from your food?
and food ultimately comes largely from gases in the atmosphere which is turned by various biological processes into organic molecules.
when you poop it out / die it ultimately returns to the atmosphere. it's a massive cycle.

[Pifag !vy0gvdbJXk No.3339288]

>where does the matter needed for that division and growth come from
from what the cell/organism whose cell it is eats.

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339314]

>>3339288
>>3339284

So then it's just a cycle of consumption and waste?

As for it being star matter, I'm assuming that the star explodes and hurls the matter it was composed of out into space, that matter collected when our planet was being formed and now we are composed of it?

If I'm understand this...I believe my mind has sufficiently been blown. Because, that means that I, as a person, am twenty-fours years old. But me as a being of atoms is billions and billions of years old.

[Anonymous No.3339333]

>>3339314

You are correct.

Your mind being blown might have to do with being stoned.

Can I have a hit?

[Anonymous No.3339343]

>>3339314
Pretty much.
That oxygen in the water you just drank was synthesized and blown into space by a supernova, accreted in a nebulae billions of years ago and passed through a dinosaur dick.

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339356]

>>3339333
You may be right there... I would give you a hit if I could, but that technology isn't available yet.

I think I'm gonna go watch Cosmos or Through The Wormhole...

Anyone else have any mind blowing stuff?

>>3339343
Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffu-!

[Anonymous No.3339358]

>how is it that people claim humans are made from matter that was formed in stars
chemical reactions
earth ans sun formed from the same stuff
>where does the matter needed for that division and growth come from?
You eat and drink don't you?
>Please, excuse my ignorance in the matter
it's hard but I'll try
>in exchange, here's an awesome remix of Carl Sagan.
thanks

[Anonymous No.3339387]

It's been years since I took astronomy, but if I remember correctly, the gasses that eventually clumped together (from gravity) and condensed to form our sun and our solar system came from the remnants of supernovae from stars formed billions of years ago.
Now.. I don't remember if THOSE stars were formed from gasses from even OLDER supernovae, or if they were the first generation of stars formed in our universe.

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339450]

>>3339358
>Please, excuse my ignorance in the matter
>it's hard but I'll try

Look at it this way, from you guys I've learned and from now on I won't be ignorant as to how this process works.

Isn't that a great thing?!

[Anonymous No.3339464]

>>3339450
it certainly is
at least you've just politely asked and not came up with some asspull theory like the last guy who was asking how can sun burn in the vacuum.

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339486]

>>3339464

Not a problem, my good chum. I am more than ready to admit that my knowledge of a lot of science is vague and general. I like this discovery of the more intricate and detailed bits of the universe.

Also, doesn't the sun burn because it's on a level of heat so hot that it literally combusts the material inside it? Again, I'm probably not full understanding the concept.

[Anonymous No.3339556]

>>3339486
at first
I think nuclear reaction isn't your everyday's campfire. Sun doesn't "burn" in the way of fire consuming the oxigen. The main "fuel" is hydrogen.
Sun is quite literaly exploding with the force of millions hydrogen bombs every second.
This is caused by enormous pressure inside the star. The pressure is caused by it's own mass producing massive gravity. That's why there is a "mass requirement" for object to become an active star. Jupiter for example would need to be 75 times heavier to become a star.

[Anonymous No.3339665]

>>3339450
Of course, it's not ignorance that is bad (we'll all ignorant of one thing or another - Einstein, not same words though), the bad thing is when ignorance comes with authoritarianism.
Also, for another mind-blowing fact (it's closely tied to the one you mentioned, but whatever):
You're not the same person as you were years before. Every atom in your body is different from the ones back then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APOxsp1VFw&feature=related#t=10m18s

[Anonymous No.3339814]

just watch steven hawkins documentaries it explains how the universe begun and how it is now, its pretty hard stuff to digest though, hope it helps

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339827]

>>3339665
>You're not the same person as you were years before. Every atom in your body is different from the ones back then.
Wut? Do you mean that because cells are constantly 'dying' and being replaces that the original atoms have long since been replaced?

>>3339814
I tried reading his book once, but it honestly was far too over my head. I would like to be able to understand it one day, but I'd like to say the same of anything written by Carl Jung.

[Anonymous No.3339866]

>>3339827
I like you, but even though I get your Jung reference, you know it not to be the case.
They're completely different fields, and are in fact on different levels of difficulty to understand.
Jung may be read by a bored housewife, and understood largely (intuition, mass conscience, all that fluff that permeated through pop culture).

Whereas science (the higher levels of it) is only for a few (compared to the general population, or the number of people who can grasp psychological ideas)

TL:DR: psychology will never be harder or as hard to understand as physics. Neurobiology however...

[Stoned Anon !T4VTNxSe0k No.3339897]

>>3339866
I apologize, I wasn't in any way attempting to compare being able to understand higher psychology and higher astro physics.
I suppose I was trying to compare how one understands either. Both Hawking and Jung use phrases and terminology I'm not familiar with and trying to understand it is slow going that involves me looking thing up online and referencing other books.

FUCK! I love the internet and what's it's done to our society and our ability to learn things!

To quote Neil DeGrasse Tyson; 'That makes me want to grab people in the street and say, “Have you heard this!?”'