Chemist Josep M. Fernàndez to Reveal Origin of Chemical Elements in La Llacuna Talk

Josep M. Fernàndez, a 71-year-old chemist and Doctor of Biochemistry who leads the Associació de Químics de Catalunya, remains captivated by the universe's enduring mysteries. On Thursday at 7 p.m., he will deliver a talk in La Llacuna on the origin of chemical elements.

Fernàndez poses a striking question to frame the discussion: "What are 20 minutes compared to 14 billion years?" He explains that the Big Bang began as an immense burst of energy, with molecules, elements, and atoms not forming until the first 20 minutes—a mere instant in cosmic terms. This period, known as nucleosynthesis, produced all the hydrogen and helium present today.

At the outset, temperatures reached around 10 million degrees Kelvin, preventing electrons from binding to atomic nuclei. As the universe cooled slightly to about 7 million degrees—still vastly hotter than the Sun's surface at 5,000 degrees Kelvin—nuclei stabilized. Fernàndez likens the scale to removing two drops from Earth's oceans: over 14 billion years, consumption has been negligible against the total quantity.

He traces further element formation to stellar processes. Our Sun generates energy through hydrogen fusion into helium. In larger stars, the "triple alpha" process fuses helium to create carbon, and so on in giant red stars.

The modern periodic table lists 118 elements, from hydrogen to oganesson—the latter not found naturally in the universe. Fernàndez draws parallels to alchemy: scientists now add protons to nuclei, transforming one element into another. All elements trace back to the Big Bang or star formation, he notes, making natural occurrences of superheavy ones elsewhere unlikely.

Life on Earth, in his view, arose from these chemical reactions in a primordial soup, but the elements themselves originated in those early cosmic events. "It's fascinating," he says, underscoring an endless chain of questions linking the universe's birth to our existence.