cover image The Stardust Revolution: The New Story of Our Origin in the Stars

The Stardust Revolution: The New Story of Our Origin in the Stars

Jacob Berkowitz. Prometheus, $27 (310p) ISBN 978-1-61614-549-1

Astronomer Carl Sagan was famous for saying, “We are all starstuff,” and award-winning Canadian science journalist Berkowitz shows how “the stars are our ancestors” in this intriguing look at what he calls “stardust science,” a surprising blend of astronomy and evolutionary biology. Observations of our sun and other stars in the early 20th century surprised scientists with the knowledge that all stars were made from the same 27 elements. Nobel Prize–winning physicist Hans Bethe explained how stars made those elements with “nuclear cookery,” fusing lighter elements into heavier ones. The heaviest, like iron, came from elderly red giant stars and from the exploding stars known as supernovae to create the cosmic dust that was to coalesce into new stars and planets. Berkowitz (Jurassic Poop: What Dinosaurs [and Others] Left Behind) explains how this recycled dust, which includes a surprising abundance of water molecules and sooty carbon grains, provides the perfect “cosmic test-tube” for interstellar chemistry, and the potential seeds for life itself. With an engaging tone and accessible science, Berkowitz shows how the current search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars could also reveal alien life born of the same dust that made us. Photos. Agent: Judy Heiblum, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Sept.)