The Increasing Chemical Complexity of the Cosmos

The ancient origins of stars, planets and life may be viewed as a sequence of emergent events, each of which added to the chemical complexity of the cosmos. Stars, which formed from the primordial hydrogen of the Big Bang, underwent nucleosynthesis to produce all the elements of the Periodic Table. Those elements were dispersed during supernova events and provided the raw materials for planets and all their mineralogical diversity. Chemical evolution on Earth (and perhaps countless other planets and moons) led to life through a sequence of steps: the formation of biomolecules, the assembly of those molecules into organized molecular systems, and ultimately the appearance of self-replicating collections of molecules. Today, chemical complexification occurs at an ever accelerating rate through the efforts of chemists and chemical engineers.