─But how is it that these elements are part of our weak animal body?
On a planet with life, the animal we know as a human being has come with
its technology to confirm that it is the result of a violent act. For
astrophysicists Szabolcs Márka (^) [ 80 ] of Columbia University and Imre
Bartos (^) [ 81 ] of the University of Florida have identified a violent collision
of two neutron stars 4600 million years ago as the likely source of one of
Earth's most coveted materials. The study is entitled "Nearby neutron star
mergers explain the abundance of actinides in the early solar
system“ (^) [ 82 ]. This was a single cosmic event, close to our solar system, that
gave rise to 0. 3 per cent of Earth's heaviest elements, including gold,
platinum and uranium. This means that in each of us we would find a tab of
these elements, mainly in the form of iodine, which is essential for life," said
Bartos. To reach their conclusion, Bartos and Márka compared the
composition of the meteorites with numerical simulations of the Milky Way.
They found that a single neutron-star collision could have occurred about
100 million years before the Earth's formation, in our own neighborhood,
about 1 , 000 light-years from the gas cloud that eventually formed the Solar
System. Our results address a fundamental human quest: where did we come
from and where are we going? It is very difficult to describe the tremendous
emotions we felt when we realized what we had found and what it means for
the future as we search for an explanation of our place in the universe─ said
Márka.
But returning to the symbolism of gold, and the way in which Western
thought was implanted in schools by The Royal Society, we have to
remember "the five classical Greek ages of man" (^) [ 83 ]. Written in the 8 th
century BC by a shepherd named Hesiod, who along with Homer was one of
the first Greek epic poets. He probably based his work on an unidentified
older legend, possibly from Mesopotamia or Egypt, although this
"creationist idea" (^) [ 84 ] is also not unique to Christianity, many cultures