An Atomic Life
AN ATOMIC LIFE: FROM THE BIG BANG UNTIL NOON TODAY reveals the universe—its origin, its atoms, its first stars and galaxies—as it follows Flighty Hydrogen, one of the countless hydrogen atoms from which the universe was created.
Friendly and adventurous like all hydrogen atoms, Flighty wants nothing more than to meet other atoms. But Flighty can only drift through space, alone and bored, excited whenever it bumps into another hydrogen atom and can chat, however briefly. After millions of years, Flighty encounters new atoms, the atoms of life: carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, produced in the heat of new stars. After exploding stars spew atoms of all the heavier elements, like iron and aluminum, Flighty happily lands on a crowded dust particle heading toward the Milky Way Galaxy.
