We are all stars and some other things

Now you probably looked at the title of this and thought 'that's not true, I'm not famous.' That may be true but I am talking about the stars that you see when you look up at night. The big bang created everything in the universe in literally seconds including all of the known elements to man. The universe is still expanding but not because more 'stuff' is being made, it is just getting further apart. The only way in which new materials are made are within stars through nuclear fusion. Every atom of each of our bodies was made during the big bang, in those first few seconds of the universes existence. The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. In the 9 billion years leading up to the formation of the Earth, stars were hard at work producing all the elements that came together to create the Earth. All the minerals of the Earth mixed together to create humans and all other living things on the planet. Essentially, we are all star dust. Every piece of you is 13.8 billion years old. When we pass away, and our bodies decay - we will return to the Earth. You then might become part of a spaceship which might shoot you back to the stars. No matter how small you feel on a universal scale, you most likely used to be a star - and I think that's pretty amazing. Just something to think about.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/sights/variable_stars

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My family has always had pets. My nan has also had an assortment of birds in her life. When they all pass on, they are buried in my back garden so we sort of have a pet cemetery going on. Off the top of my head, I think there is a cat, a hamster, two gerbils, a number of budgies and now three rabbits. The last remaining animal is our cat Speedy who is 14 who has never really shown any interest in any of the other animals graves. Recently, our last rabbit died at the age of 13 (we think) which for a rabbit is quite impressive. He was called Thumper and lived in a hand built hutch next to my Dad's garage. For the last few years he was been blind from cataracts in his eyes which the vet said there was no point removing as he would probably not survive the surgery. He was happy enough until he passed away about a month ago. The cat and the rabbit shared the garden for all of their lives basically and now the rabbit is gone, it seems that the cat misses the rabbit. When he is out in the garden he sleeps where the rabbits hutch was or sits where the rabbit is buried. It might just be a coincidence but part of me likes to think that they were friends.

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BBC News has reported the second believed person to be cured of HIV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21651225

If this American child remains to be infection free, she would be the second person in the entire history of medicine to be cured of HIV. This time she was cured by a cocktail of drugs which are available quite readily. The first person cured of HIV involved a much more elaborate treatment based around leukaemia which first destroyed his immune system then received a stem cell transplant from a donor with a very rare mutation - immunity to HIV.

The implications of this are very good because we should be able to cure any children with the HIV infection. Doctors believed this occurred because the infection hadn't had enough time to 'hide' in her body. The only problem is that existing sufferers probably wouldn't find this treatment effective as the infection has manifested itself in their bodies. Fingers crossed that a cure can be found.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. Please share this in any way you can!