This TED Talk features astrophysicist Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, recorded live at TED-At-NAS 2019.

We are all atomically connected, fundamentally, universally. But what does that mean?

I'm an astrophysicist, and as such, it is my responsibility

to trace the cosmic history of every single one of your atoms. In fact, I would say that one of the

greatest achievements of modern astronomy is the understanding of how our atoms were actually put together.

While hydrogen and helium was made during the first two minutes of the Big Bang,

the origin of heavy elements, such as the iron in your blood,

the oxygen, we're breathing the iron in your blonde, the oxygen, or breathing the silicon in your computers, lies in the life cycle of stars. Nuclear reactions take lighter elements and

transform them into heavier ones, and that causes stars to shine and ultimately explode,

and therefore enriching the universe with these heavy elements. So without stellar death,

there will be no oxygen or other elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and therefore

there will be no life. There are more atoms in our bodies than stars in the universe. And these

atoms are extremely durable. The origins of our atoms can be traceable to stars that

manufacture them in their interiors and exploded them all across the Milky Way billions of years ago.

And I should know this because I am indeed a certified stellar mortician.

And today, I want to take you on a journey that starts in a supernova explosion and ends with the air

that we are breathing right now. So what is our body made of?

96% consist of only four elements.

Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Now, the main character of this cosmic tale is oxygen.

Not only is the vast majority of our bodies made of oxygen,

but oxygen is the one element fighting to protect life on Earth.

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