Abstract:

All the chemical elements on earth except hydrogen-- including the ones in our bodies--have been processed inside stars, scattered across the universe in great stellar explosions, and recycled to become new stars, planets, and parts of us. Cataclysmic events in the cosmos combined with nuclear physics laws leave their signatures behind in what we observe of the elemental abundances. One of the eleven greatest unanswered questions in physics identified by a recent national academies study was "How Were the Elements from Iron to Uranium made?"

I will discuss some of the challenges in studying the structure of neutron-rich nuclei involved in the synthesis of some of the heavy elements.