Our sun formed 4.6 thousand million years ago and inherited chemical elements from stars which had been born, aged, and died during the previous six thousand million years in the history of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Our bodies consist primarily of oxygen and carbon with traces of still heavier chemical elements. Thus, in the words of William A. Fowler, ". . . we are literally and truly a little bit of stardust." Professor Emeritus Fowler will discuss the success and problems of astrophysicists in their quest for the origin of the chemical elements.

In conjunction with: College of Engineering, School of Chemical Sciences, Department of Physics, Department of Astronomy, Axel Lecture Fund, George A. Miller Committee