Scene the First: Some time around the early days of the universe, neutron stars collide. Superdense stars with the mass of our sun but contained in a diameter of only about a dozen miles. So dense that even a handful would be billions of tons. Unable to resist each other’s gravitational pull, these stars careen into each other, spiraling inward, colliding and producing explosions from which, among many other elements, gold is formed. It is these cosmic sex acts that are the origin of the gold that exists in our universe.

Scene the Second: In the latter days of our universe, our Earth forms, and there’s gold in them thar hills.

The animal kingdom loves shiny objects?