Humans have marvelled at the night sky for thousands of years. Early astrological beliefs state that our destiny is controlled by the stars in some magical way. Humankind seems to need to establish a link with the stars, which appear to be eternal – as we humans would like to be. However, as I will show in this lecture, the fascinating discoveries of modern astrophysics establish that our links with the stars are much closer and even more magical than we could ever think. Like people, stars have their own lives and in the lives of stars we find not only our destiny, but the origins of everything around us, including ourselves.

Lecture given on 2 November 2006