Where do the nitrogen (N) in our DNA, the calcium (Ca) in our bones, the iron (Fe) in our blood, or the oxygen (O) we breathe come from? As the late planetary scientist Carl Sagan used to say, we are made of starstuff. This talk summarizes a breathtaking 13.8 billion-year cosmic journey, from the Big Bang to the role played by stellar explosions in shaping the chemical abundance pattern that we see today in the Universe.
Science