How can you trace minerals from supernovas to our teeth and bones? Isn’t the calcium that make up our bones produced during our gestation? How is that connected to a supernova from potentially millions of years ago?
In: Biology
So, early on, the universe is essentially just light elements, mostly hydrogen but maybe some helium and stuff. They form stars, which are powered by *fusion.* This produces mostly helium, but potentially some lighter elements. Supernovas, however, are the dying extreme of stars that have enough force and energy to create a *ton* of heavier elements, then scatter them across space.
Our solar system is made up of the dust of many of these early events of the universe.
The calcium in your bones and the trace heavier elements are *not* produced by any biological process. The biological process simply scavenges these resources that already exist in your surroundings from your diet so that you can reuse them to create structures and proteins and such. No *chemical* or *biological* reaction changes the atoms themselves–that requires nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, which our bodies don’t do.
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