We Come From the Universe
The universe began in an early period of rapid expansion, then cooled enough for matter to form. Over immense stretches of time, stars ignited, lived, and died. In their deaths, especially in supernova explosions, they forged many of the heavier elements that later became planets, oceans, and human bodies. Carbon, oxygen, calcium, and iron were all made in cosmic processes long before life appeared on Earth.
That shared origin matters because it places every human being inside the same physical story. Skin color, nationality, and ancestry are socially important in our world, but they do not change the fact that everyone is built from the same ancient material. Looking at the night sky is not an encounter with something foreign. It is a glimpse of the larger history that made us possible.
That sense of connection also shaped Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s life. As a child, she was drawn to the stars and to the mystery of why mathematics could describe nature so well. She decided young that she wanted to become a theoretical physicist. Later, as she moved through elite academic spaces, she found that wonder alone was not enough to protect her from racism, sexism, and exclusion.
Science appears universal because nature’s laws apply everywhere, but scientific institutions are still human institutions. They carry the same biases and hierarchies found in the rest of society. The search to understand the cosmos therefore becomes two stories at once: one about matter, stars, and time, and another about who is allowed to ask questions, who gets support, and who is pushed aside.
This is why curiosity must be treated as more than a hobby for the lucky. People have always looked up and wondered, even under slavery, colonization, poverty, and war. A decent society makes room for that wonder. The stars belong to everyone, and any serious vision of science has to begin there.
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