Within this context human life is undoubtedly the most precious commodity in the universe. Far more important than any of us previously conceived.

What is more, it turns out that the universe is not as alien as it first seems. Many experiments have now been done to prove that at the atomic level everything in the universe if connected. Known as quantum entanglement or non-locality it was fiercely opposed by Einstein as 'spooky action at a distance'. In 1964 John Bell published a theorem proving the inevitability of non-locality, still considered by some to be the greatest achievement in the history of science. Some years later in Paris, Alain Aspect performed the defining experiment. By sending photons with opposite spin in different directions, he then changed the spin of one of the particles, and found that the other automatically changed its spin also. Even though they were too far apart for anything travelling at the speed of light to reach the second particle in time. In fact the change took place instantly; within zero time - an event which is described as 'atemporal'.

Bernard D'Espagnat, a French philosopher of physics was forced to ask, "is this instantaneous non-local effect a physical phenomenon or not"? (6)
In a beautiful piece of scientific understatement John Bell admitted in an interview, "I think it is a deep dilemma, and the resolution of it will not be trivial". (7)

The implications of this discovery are truly amazing. We are confident that everything in the universe is constructed from atomic particles, but if they are all connected timelessly then it is difficult not to conclude that all our individual minds at a physical level are connected, not just to each other but to the entire cosmos. It is hardly possible to be more intimate with the universe than this! D'Espagnat concludes, "there is no place, not even interstellar space, where a macroscopic system can be considered to be isolated". (8)

Our intimacy with the universe is obvious in many other ways as well. If you think that the stars in the night sky must be pretty old, then it is as well to remember that each time you touch the end of your nose you are literally rubbing against carbon atoms that are certainly over five thousand million years old. Each of them created in the death of a first generation star that compressed under gravity at the end of its life, and exploded in a supernova dispersing its contents into space to begin forming another star with debris full of heavier elements like carbon floating around it which then formed planets and later still people. You could hardly get closer to the universe than the end of your nose!

For that matter, next time you look at your finger tips consider that you are actually seeing skin cells that are made out of molecules, that are constructed from atoms, which in turn are made out of protons and neutrons that contain quarks which were created shortly after the Big Bang. Small as humanity is, each of us carry the entire history of this gigantic entity in our fingertips! What could be more truly wonderful than this? And it's real! Surely, such an astonishing unity must render utterly trivial the greatest of human dramas ever written?