R.I.P Geoffrey Burbidge

A notable English Physicist, Geoffrey Burbidge recently died on January 26, at the ripe old age of 84. He had previously worked at the University of California, San Diego, as a Physics professor. Dr. Burbidge was one of the last remaining of the postwar era in astronomy, who initially became a towering figurehead by helping to explain that everything is made of stardust. Ever seen the movie Stardust? I'm going to guess its not exactly like that -as far as I know, there aren't any magical walls that would turn us into dust upon crossing. However, Burbridge's theory may be somewhat more realistic. Especially among the most massive stars, they can in their lifetimes not only burn hydrogen into helium for light and heat, but then ignite the helium to produce other elements such as carbon and oxygen. Eventually the star will then explode, and the bits and pieces will mix together and form new stars. This ever present cycle makes the universe continuously richer in heavy elements.
An old friend of Dr. Burbridge, Allan Sandage of Carnegie Observatories, explained it:

Every one of our chemical elements was once inside a star. The same star. You and I are brothers. We came from the same supernova.

Farfetched? Perhaps. But don't quite rule out the possibility yet -you may indeed need to adjust your family history time lines, to include a number of planetary nebulae and super nova.