What is real?

To say something is real implies 3 things: 1)There is a thing. 2)This thing interacts with other real things. 3)There exists a conscious observer to observe/interact with said thing.
i.e. Reality is a composition of 3 physical phenomena: matter or energy, the ability for matter/energy to be exchanged, and an observer to perceive reality.

Consider a ball floating in space. A ball alone isn't a real ball at all. We can't see a ball if there's no light. Therefor there must be a light source whose light can reflect off the ball so we (the observer) can see it. Thing(mass)+matter/energy interaction+observer = real. A lack of one of those three means not real.

If a tree falls in the woods and no one's around to hear it, I assert there is no tree!

It follows suit the next question is 'where does the thing(mass) come from?' Let me jump aloooottta steps and say many signs point to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

The next question might be: what does it mean to observe? Does the moon observe the sun as we do? I think not. Think. The key word. To think is to observe nothingness. To perceive and thereby cause thought is observation. Therefor observation = energy interaction with consciousness.

What then is consciousness? Well, we consider a person conscious if there still exists a recognizable pattern (seen with the use of fMRI and EEG technology) of electro-magnetic energy interaction in the region of space known as their brain.

How did this pattern that we recognize as consciousness form? From completely random electro-magnetic interactions in the initial life-forms that coalesced on a young planet Earth. The reason this pattern survived and grew to what we know it as today is rather obvious: natural selection. The life-form with the most effective electro-magnetic pattern that helps them survive gets passed on, mutates, and evolves into what we see today.

In a sense, a life-form can be thought of as a support system that sustains, protects and attempts to pass on this pattern we know as consciousness, which evolved from naught but chaos.