Stardust, Supernovae and the Molecules of Life

Where were the amino acids, the molecules of life, created: perhaps in a lightning storm in the early Earth, or perhaps elsewhere in the cosmos? This book argues that at least some of them must have been produced in the cosmos, and that the fact that the Earthly amino acids have a specific handedness provides an important clue for that explanation. The book discusses several models that purport to explain the handedness, ultimately proposing a new explanation that involves cosmic processing of the amino acids produced in space. The book provides a tour for laypersons that includes a definition of life, the Big Bang, stellar nucleosynthesis, the electromagnetic spectrum, molecules, and supernovae and the particles they produce.

Dr. Richard Boyd was the Science Director of the National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Lab from 2007-2010 and now serves as a staff physicist at LLNL. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1967, and has been a physics professor at the University of Rochester from 1972 to 1978 and a professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio State University from 1984 to 2002. Dr. Boyd also served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation from 2002 to 2006, managing the NSF portfolios in nuclear and particle astrophysics as well as nuclear physics. Following that, he was a visiting professor at the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan. Dr. Boyd has enjoyed a research career that resulted in more than 200 publications, both experimental and theoretical, and one graduate-level textbook on nuclear astrophysics. He was awarded an Outstanding Scholar award from Ohio State University in 1982, and was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named an honorary Native American of the Santa Clara Pueblo in 1997, and an Eminent Scientist of the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research in Japan in 1998-1999.