Perhaps you have heard the story of the star-thrower, first published by Loren Eiseley in his 1969 book The Unexpected Universe. He tells of walking along a beach "littered with the debris of life.... Along the strip of wet sand that marks the ebbing and flowing of the tide, death walks hugely and in many forms. In the end the sea rejects its offspring. They cannot fight their way home through the surf which casts them repeatedly back upon the shore. The tiny breathing spores of starfish are stuffed with sand. The rising sun shrinks the mucilaginous bodies of the unprotected. The sea beach and its endless war are soundless. Nothing screams but the gulls."

Eiseley approached and spoke to a figure stooping over a starfish, "It's still alive.”

“Yes” said the stranger... with a quick, gentle…