We've always been told to be careful about what we eat and drink and to know what it is, where it came from etc. And of course, we don't want to eat or drink something that's been around too long either! Or do we? What if I told you that that glass of water you recently drank is over ten billion years old?

      Somewhere between ten and fifteen billion years ago, in a cataclysmic explosion know as the Big Bang, our universe began. This might seem like an event long ago and far removed from our world as we know it, farther from us than the distant stars that sprinkle our night sky. But the truth is, the Big Bang, and those stars are as close to us as a glass of water.

      No doubt you are wondering what connection there could possibly be between a glass of water, distant stars and an ancient explosion. Water, H2O, is composed of only two elements, hydrogen and oxygen (assuming no impurities!) The H2O means that every molecule of water has two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Each of these elements has a distinct beginning: The hydrogen came from the Big Bang, while the oxygen was manufactured inside massive stars that blew up billions of years ago.

      When the Big Bang occurred, there were three lightweight elements formed:  hydrogen, helium, and lithium. These were the only elements formed and they became the building blocks of all that exists in the cosmos today! These were the elements which made up the first stars to shine. Heavier elements, such as carbon and oxygen, came from the more massive of these early stars.

      Lightweight stars fused hydrogen into helium along with a few other light elements. These stars had a quiet ending, by simply cooling down and "turning off." More massive stars continued nuclear reactions, fusing heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, gold and other heavier elements. These massive stars eventually exploded as supernovae, and spread their heavy elements out into the galaxy. All of the carbon, gold, silver and other elements came from supernovae. One of the most abundant heavier elements  spread across space was oxygen.

      Out of these elements spread across the galaxy, other stars, and some with planets around them began to form. Some planets hung on to atmospheres and some combined hydrogen and oxygen to form oceans.  And on at least one world, life formed.

    Our bodies are composed mostly of water and we need to drink water to survive.

      So lift that glass of water high: Its hydrogen marks the birth  of the universe; its oxygen, the death of blazing stars.