FIELD OF VIEW

When you consider the infinitesimal chance of humans evolving, life becomes one of the Universe's rarest, most precious things

- Mark Westmoquette

There's a meme that's been floating around on social media recently, offering encouragement to turn our everyday perspective upside down: "In the entire Universe, wood is rarer and more valuable than diamonds." While diamonds are surprisingly common in the Universe - being made from (very abundant) carbon crystallised in the high pressures of asteroid collisions and gas giant atmospheres - wood is stupendously rare. It requires life and a whole succession of evolutionary inventions, like DNA and photosynthesis - not to mention the presence of liquid water and a stable atmosphere. As far as we know, these conditions exist only on Earth.

And if wood is rare, what about an intelligent, self-aware, communicative and inquisitive being, such as... you?