“On its own, it is a wonder, but viewed in isolation its complexity and very existence is inexplicable. Darwin’s genius was to see that the existence of something as magnificent as a blade of grass can be understood, but only in the context of its interaction with other living things and, crucially, its evolutionary history. A physicist might say it is a four-dimensional structure, with both spatial and temporal extent, and it is simply impossible to comprehend the existence of such a structure in a universe governed by the simple laws of physics if its history is ignored. And whilst you are contemplating the humble majesty of a blade of grass, with a spatial extent of a few centimeters but stretching back in the temporal direction for almost a third of the age of the Universe, pause for a moment to consider the viewer, because what is true of the blade of grass is also true fro you. You share the same basic biochemistry, all the way down to the detail of proton waterfalls, and ATP, and much of the same genetic history, carefully documented in your DNA. This is because you share the same common ancestor. You are all related. You were once the same.”

Brian Cox channels Richard Feynman in this reminder that viewing science through any single lens is an incomplete view of its magnificence. In other words, physics is beautiful, but it’s a periscope view of life’s majesty.

From his new book to accompany the BBC series, Wonders of Life.

via Brain Pickings

“Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, And revolving at 900 miles an hour, That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour Of the Galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our Galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars It's 100,000 light years side to side It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick But out by us it's just 3,000 light years wide We're 30,000 light years from galactic central point, We go round every 200 million years And our Galaxy is only one of millions and billions In this amazing and expanding Universe As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know, 12 million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely it is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, Because there's bugger all down here on Earth.”