How the Chemical Elements were Created
Video 1: 118 elements in 13.8 billion years in 13 minutes
Earth's chemical elements have seven principal sources:
- Big bang nucleosynthesis
- Nuclear fusion
- Neutron capture - the s-process and r-process
- Cosmic ray spallation
- The p-process
- Radioactivity of uranium and thorium
- Laboratory synthesis
Video 2: The Triple Alpha Proces - Carbon - The Improbable Element
It's well-known, but worth reminding ourselves that almost the entire mass of our planet and all its lifeforms are made of atoms created billions of years ago in stars.