ABSTRACT
Man's progress and the development and spread of civilization have in the past been in direct relation to the quantitative and qualitative control of new and more sophisticated sources of energy. Investigation into the origin of the elements that provide the practically unlimited terrestrial energy resources leads people to discuss the evolution of the universe and the origin of the solar system, exciting topics that are still open to scientific debate. The rapid cooling and density reduction caused by the continuing expansion of the universe brought the binary deuteron-consuming reactions to a practical stop approximately 20 min after the Big Bang. Elements heavier than helium, with the possible exception of some lithium and beryllium, were synthesized not in the Big Bang but much later inside certain stars. This refers in particular to uranium and thorium, which were created in completely different circumstances to those of deuterium.
