Music Friday: Olivia Newton-John Reminds Us That We're All 'Pearls on a Chain'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you wonderful songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, the much-beloved Olivia Newton-John reminds us in her inspirational 2006 song, “Pearls on a Chain,” that all of us have been touched in some way by cancer.

She sings, “Every little thing that I am, so you are / And if you look in my eyes / You will see we are souls alike / We are pearls / We are pearls / We are pearls on a chain.”

After surviving breast cancer in 1992, Newton-John became a staunch advocate for cancer patients and their families. In 2008, she raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

The world shed a collective tear when the singer-actress-activist lost her decades-long battle to the dreaded disease last week at the age of 73.

In describing her motivation for writing “Pearls on a Chain,” Newton-John reminded Aussie concert-goers in 2008 how cancer has likely touched all of them in some way.

“Perhaps it’s someone in our family or someone that we know, or a friend of a friend,” she said. “I know that over the years I'd get calls once a month and now twice a week from someone who has a friend that’s going through it, and in that way we’re all connected — like pearls on a chain.”

“Pearls on a Chain” is the second track on Newton-John’s Grace and Gratitude album, which she released in 2006 and distributed exclusively through Walgreens pharmacies to benefit various cancer charities.

It was re-released with normal distribution in 2010 as Grace and Gratitude Renewed. That version charted in Australia and the US, with the album earning the #2 spot on the US Billboard New Age Albums chart and #36 on the US Billboard Christian Albums chart.

Born in Britain and raised in Australia, Newton-John was a 1970s singing sensation with a flood of #1 hits that included “I Honestly Love You” and “Have You Never Been Mellow.” In 1978, she played Sandy Olsson opposite John Travolta’s Danny Zuko in the wildly popular musical, Grease. She was 29 when she convincingly portrayed a high school exchange student from Australia.

The four-time Grammy Award winner has sold more than 100 million records and is considered one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

In September 2018, she revealed that she was being treated for cancer at the base of her spine. Previously, she had battled breast cancer during the early '90s and again in 2017.

She passed away on August 8, and as a sign of respect and admiration, many landmarks in Melbourne and Sidney, Australia, were specially lit in her honor.

We invite you to check out the video of Newton-John performing “Pearls on a Chain” at Sydney's State Theatre in September of 2008. All the proceeds from the event went to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre Appeal. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along...

“Pearls on a Chain”
Written and performed by Olivia Newton-John.

Every living thing on this earth has a heart
Every little thing that I am, so you are
And if you look in my eyes
You will see we are souls alike
We are pearls
We are pearls
We are pearls on a chain

Every day my sunrise will dawn where you are
Every night we sleep underneath the same stars
And if we stand face to face
We will see love’s amazing grace
We are pearls
We are pearls
We are pearls on a chain

And if you look in my eyes
You will see we are souls alike
We are pearls
We are pearls
We are pearls on a chain
We are pearls
We are pearls
We are pearls on a chain
… on a chain … on a chain

Credit: Photo by Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

NASA's Highly Anticipated Mission to the 'Golden Asteroid' Is on Hold — For Now

NASA's highly anticipated summer 2022 mission to "16 Psyche" — a 140-mile-wide asteroid made of gold, platinum, iron and nickel — has been postponed due to the late delivery of the spacecraft's flight software and testing equipment.

A 15-member independent review board is currently re-evaluating the costs and benefits of the Psyche mission before NASA can reschedule the launch. The results, to be released in late September, will have heavy implications for space-mining entrepreneurs who are looking to capitalize on what could become a quintillion-dollar industry.

When we first wrote about 16 Psyche in the summer of 2019, NASA had no immediate plans to do any mining on the asteroid and it was deemed way too large to tow back to Earth.

But, during the past three years, in the run-up to the actual launch, scientists described how a SpaceX Starship, for example, could theoretically orbit the asteroid while mining robots worked the surface. The Starship would be capable of carrying upwards of 100 metric tons of ore to facilities in low-Earth orbit for processing.

The value of 16 Psyche's natural resources is hotly debated. The estimate of $700 quintillion (700 followed by 18 zeroes) lies on the high end of the spectrum while $11.65 trillion occupies the low end. The wide discrepancy is rooted in one estimate that assumes the precious metals run throughout the asteroid as opposed to only the surface.

A team of researchers from Purdue University and Brown University suggested that the "golden asteroid" — which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter — was less dense than previously believed. They argued that 16 Psyche is actually a rocky object covered with a layer of metal that erupted from the core.

The US government has already made legal preparations for the eventuality of space mining. The SPACE Act, which became law in 2015, includes provisions for private companies to extract resources from asteroids with limited government interference. Although the law does not allow for companies to claim, say, an asteroid, for their own, miners may keep anything they obtain from their exploration and mining.

Beyond the precious metal implications, NASA and its university partners were excited to explore 16 Psyche because it appears to be the exposed core of an early planet, perhaps the size of Mars, that lost its rocky outer layers due to violent collisions that occurred while the solar system was forming.

Measuring about 140 miles (226 km) in diameter, Psyche 16 is named after the nymph Psyche, who, according to Roman mythology, married Cupid but was put to death by Venus. At Cupid’s request, Jupiter — the king of the Gods — made Psyche immortal. The unique metal asteroid was discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.

NASA's original plan was to launch the Psyche spacecraft in the summer of 2022 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. After a 1.5-billion-mile, 3 1/2-year journey, the NASA spacecraft would have arrived at the asteroid in 2026.

If the review board gives the project a thumbs-up in September, the launch date is expected to be rescheduled for 2023 or 2024.

Credits: Orbiter illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin. 16 Psyche illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU.

169 Gold Rings Discovered in 6,500-Year-Old Tomb Near Biharia, Romania

A team of archaeologists has uncovered a hoard of 169 gold rings dating back 6,500 years during the excavation of a burial site near the Romanian-Hungarian border. The tomb was discovered during the construction of a new road linking the Romanian city of Oradea with the A3 freeway.

The rings, which weigh a combined 200 grams (0.44 pounds), were extracted from a tomb of a "high status" woman near Biharia, Romania, according to a statement from the Tarii Crisurilor Museum.

During a recent press conference, Dr. Calin Ghemis described how the 169 gold rings were not intended to be worn on the woman's fingers but, instead, adorned her hair. Also found in her tomb was a multi-spiral copper bracelet, two golden beads and about 800 mother-of-pearl beads. Based on an examination of her teeth and stature, the Tiszapolgár woman is believed to have been a person of high social status.

Ghemis said the find is "sensational" because the total number of gold pieces ever recovered from the Carpathian Basin — a vast area centered on modern-day Hungary, but also including parts of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria — is only 150.

"Here, there are over 160 in just one inventory,” he said.

Gold items representing the Tiszapolgár culture (4500–4000 BC) are very rare because gold was very hard to come by in that prehistoric time period. The rings were made from alluvial gold extracted from sand using a washing process that removes the lighter sand and leaves the dense gold particles. This time period pre-dates the technique of extracting gold from rock.

Labs in Romania and the Netherlands will be using carbon-14, DNA analysis and anthropological research to determine a precise dating of the tomb's contents. After the analysis is completed, the hoard will go on display at the Tarii Crisurilor Museum in Oradea, Romania.

Credits: Images courtesy of Tarii Crisurilor Museum. Map by Google Maps.