In a recent review article in Science, Jennifer Johnson, professor of astronomy, outlines how chemical elements arise from stars and how the life cycles of stars drive the ever-changing composition of the universe. "For 100 million years after the Big Bang, there was nothing but hydrogen, helium and lithium. And then we started to get carbon and oxygen and really important things. And now, we're kind of in the glory days of populating the periodic table," Johnson said.

You can read more on Prof. Johnson's review here.