Celestial bodies: Lucy in the sky

Abstract

Ever since humans ventured beyond their cradle in East Africa, they have advanced their exploration of the rest of Earth step by step, achieving quite most spectacular success in the course of the last centuries. Now that most of the habitat of the globe has been charted and conquered, humans are turning their attention to the “remotest corners” of both living organisms and outer space. Focusing on the languages of voyaging and mapping, this article will discuss the similarities and differences of research on what biologists sometimes refer to as the “universe” within the human body (in particular the fetus and the genome), on the one hand, and the exploration of outer space, on the other hand. I will argue by zooming in and out that the endeavours of the big sciences of molecular biology and astrophysics are related in many ways — and not just by similar languages and metaphors.