An Ode to the Wonder of Life By Richard Feynman & Nasa

“I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the rushing waves… mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own business… trillions apart… yet forming white surf in unison.”

Photo 1 & 2: Earth observation taken during a day pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Ages on ages… before any eyes could see… year after year… thunderously pounding the shore as now. For whom, for what?… on a dead planet, with no life to entertain.

Photo 3: Earth and Moon as seen from Mars // Photo 4: Earth Observations taken by Expedition 34 crew member.

Never at rest… tortured by energy… wasted prodigiously by the sun… poured into space. A mite makes the sea roar.

Photo 5: M2-9 is - a striking example of a "butterfly" or a bipolar planetary nebula. By Hubble Space Telescope.

Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the patterns of one another till complex new ones are formed. They make others like themselves… and a new dance starts.

Photo 6,7,8 & 9: Earth Observations taken by Expedition 34, 36 and 40 crew members.

Growing in size and complexity… living things, masses of atoms, DNA, protein… dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Photos 10, 11 & 12: Earth Observation taken during day pass by the Expedition 40 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Out of the cradle onto the dry land… here it is standing… atoms with consciousness… matter with curiosity.

Photos 13: The Cartwheel Gallary // Photo 14: Earth from space.

Stands at the sea… wonders at wondering… I… a universe of atoms… an atom in the universe.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist known for his work on the path of integral formulation of quantum physics. Feynman was also a philosopher and naturalist.