Our own bodies are alien. Maybe not the reflection caught in the mirror—that we can see, that much we know. But what happens inside is a different story, a myriad of secrets that scientists and researchers are only beginning to uncover. It’s our body, yet it’s unknown to us. How can we possibly see cells split and die like imploding stars?

Yet under our skin, a cosmo pulses, a tiny, lightspeed mirror to the universe stretching above us. Red blood cells—produced by the millions every second and far surpassing the rate at which new stars burst into life—hurtle through our veins like meteors.

Since the invention of the microscope over four centuries ago, scientists have accelerated toward a more complete understanding of our body. Now, thanks to the tireless scientific pursuit toward bodily repair and improvement, it’s possible to successfully reattach limbs, to explore bioengineered human organs, and for a living, breathing person to have begun as a lab embryo.

Pictured here, a recent scientific breakthrough wherein Dr. Andrea Jones and the University of Michigan were able to bring to life a rare, comprehensive map of a healthy human ovary by marking antral follicles and stroma with swirling fluorescent greens, yellows, and blues. A few years ago this image would’ve only been a researcher’s dream.

In today’s America, questions of the body become questions of politics, and the onward march of science, medicine and technology is compromised—including discoveries of the secrets beneath the surface. In the coming months, this will be perhaps more amplified than ever by the frenzy and intensity of the American presidential election. Important research stands to be cherry-picked, ignored or defunded, and scientific progression faces devolution into a divisional issue rather than a societal necessity.

Despite it all, the quest for knowledge, the urge to make our own foreignness familiar, prevails. A century ago people looked to the heavens and wondered if we’d ever make it there—and we did. We still dream of the stars above, but now we scramble to explore the universe inside ourselves as well—and while it may not come easy, we will.

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