He’s dead right.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson blew viewers’ minds after revealing what happens to our bodies after death in a recent episode of his podcast “Startalk.”
“When you die, you don’t disappear, you transform,” reads the chyron at the bottom of the video, which currently boasts over over 1.2 million views.
However, as Tyson explained, one’s post-mortem metamorphosis depends entirely on how the manner in which their body is disposed of.
He observed that “in death, you’ve got two choices in modern” society — burial or cremation — and that he prefers the former because the “energy” content gets recycled.
“Your molecules were built up from your lifetime of eating and exercising and the building of your organs and your muscles and other tissue,” Tyson declared. “In death, those molecules still contain energy.”
The clip then flashes to a graveyard as the host adds, “If I’m buried and I decompose, all that energy gets absorbed by microbes, by flora and fauna dining upon my body the way I have dined upon flora and fauna my whole life. In that way, giving back to the Earth.”
He was specifically referring to the way bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms break down the body’s fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
While unrefined interment might seem more eco-friendly, cremation doesn’t mean the energy goes to waste.
When a body gets burned, per Tyson, the energy content of these molecules get “transferred to heat that then radiates infrared energy that was once the molecules of your body.”
“It radiates it out into space, moving at the speed of light,” added the physicist as the screen displayed a roaring blaze.
One consolation to this posthumous flight to the cosmos is that the deceased’s loved ones could keep a timeline of where their radiant energy had flown to in the Milky Way.
“If they were cremated four years ago, they would have reached the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri,” said Tyson. “So that in a way you’re still a part of the universe just in a different form.”
Tyson’s thoughts on this energy transfer are nothing new. He was referring to the first law of thermodynamics, which states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed — it can only change from one form to another.
Nonetheless, viewers were moved by the astrophysicist’s explanation with one fan dubbing it, “the most beautiful way of looking at death.”
“This is so deep.” said another, while a third wrote, “I will return to the stars.”
Another touched commenter declared, “My son we cremated almost 4 years ago. That was nice to hear.”
However, the discussion also spawned a debate on the merits of cremation versus burial.
“That traveling to Alpha Centauri at the speed of light sounds much more romantic and appealing than being eaten by bugs,” declared one viewer.
However, another encountered, “being eaten by bugs and microbes, the particles you’re composed of get recycled on Earth and stay a useful resource for long past your passing. One day you’ll be a tiny but functional part of billions of creatures and plants,’
Tyson’s not the first to discuss these post-mortem processes in vivid detail.
In his piece “What Happens to Your Atoms After You Die?” chemical/mechanical engineer Arvin Ash explained that following cremation, one’s ashes will embed themselves in the soil, get consumed by plants, which will in turn get eaten by animals, including humans, and end up back in our bodies — essentially the circle of life.
“Eventually, tiny bits of you will end up in your great-grandchildren’s morning cereal or hamburger,” Ash explained.
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