WHY IS THERE SO MUCH HYDROGEN IN OUR UNIVERSE?

     From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512         1151        189       712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

          25       2414    10578        1582        119      144

Mar     2        1989      9490       1726       110      194

          31       1115      12301        3950       458       58

April   6         906     11787         4211        631       37

May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 

         26         607     12348         2399     3842     101

June    1        287     10637         2346      3205      95

            2        514     10984         2394      2899    110

            9         401    10240         2693      2213    120 

Summary:

• The USA had 13,542 new cases yesterday, #5 in the world.  Next week our deaths/day figure should settle in the 200's.  A year ago on this day the U.S. had 1093 deaths.
• India seems to be declining in new cases and new deaths per day.
• Brazil and South Africa are on a minor new wave.
• Various countries in South and Central America are still showing relatively high numbers.
• Similarly, a few Middle Eastern countries are just not improving.
• Some countries in the Orient are experiencing increases, even Taiwan, which is today #153 in total cases, but yesterday had 218 cases and 22 deaths.
• Don't go to Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean with only half the population of Hawaii, but with more than 20 times the number of total cases and 23 deaths yesterday.  Hawaii had no deaths yesterday.
• 
  What about Japan and the Olympics?
• 1,121 new cases and 71 deaths yesterday.
• Hawaii continues to have new cases at around four times the Japan rate and several deaths per week, about the same rate as Japan.
• Hawaii has the lowest rates in the USA.
• Summer Olympics still on schedule for opening on July 23.
• While professional sports the past year showed that televised events appear to be doable and sufficient, which is what the Olympics are, too, if I had the swing vote, I would urge a postponement for another year.  Then the next Summer Olympics in 2025 will occur as scheduled two years later in Paris.  The Beijing Winter Olympics can still proceed in February of 2022.

Wednesday is science day, and today I will focus on my favorite element, hydrogen.  But first, about that unusual bipartisan agreement in the Senate to finance a major $250 billion legislation on research.  Why?  Nothing like a common perceived enemy, which in this case is China.  The vote was 68-32.  Still needs a House vote, but his will occur and Biden will sign it.

For the first time, the National Science Foundation will have a technology directorate.  This will probably be the final major Senate bipartisan effort this year.

In the 1960's 2% of the Gross National Product went to support R&D, leading to jet planes, satellites, semiconductors, the internet and a range of life-saving drugs.  In the process, American universities became recognized as the best in the world.  Today, the federal government spends less than 0.65% on research.  As a result, here is now the world picture:

We invest exactly half of what China does today.  So, wow, $250 billion, good, huh?  Nope.  This sum will be spread over 5 years and will increase our percentage up to 0.7%, or maybe 0.9% under certain circumstances.  What?  If Republicans agree to a shortened timeframe, with an expanded budget.  But they are fixated on a smaller government. 

To the question posed above, why do we have so much hydrogen in the Universe?  There is a simple answer.  

• 
  At the time of the Big Bang there were no elements, just quarks and electrons in something called plasma.
• However, just a few millionths of second later, quarks aggregated to produce protons and neutrons.
• Within minutes these two particles combined to form nuclei.

• 
  Perhaps 380,000 years later, electrons got trapped in orbits around the nuclei, and atoms began forming hydrogen, helium. lithium and isotopes of hydrogen.
• At that time, the current guess is that hydrogen was 75% of the Universe, helium 24% and "other" 1%.

• 
  However, the above is conjecture, and it is possible that hydrogen aggregated in sufficient density as early as 100,000 years after the Big Bang to form the first star.
• Although there seems to be some growing consensus that conditions were right for this cloud of hydrogen to form the first star 180,000 years after the BB.
• In any case nuclear fusion created other elements, with supernova nucleosynthesis within exploding stars responsible for oxygen and heavy elements.
• Oxygen, vital for life, was first created around 500,000 years after the BB.

• 
  To quote Carl Sagan:

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.

• 
  The last element nature created might have been plutonium.  Over the past 75 years scientists have added an additional 24 elements.
• The number of protons in the nucleus determines the element, starting with hydrogen at 1, and going up to Oganesson at 118.
• Scientists are trying to make Ununennium, #119, without success.

• 
  After all that, our Universe remains 74% hydrogen, 24% helium, 1% oxygen and 0.5% carbon.
• But the truth of the matter is that all visible mass (stars, atmosphere, us, etc.) represents only 4.6% of the Universe.  The rest consists of dark energy (68%) and dark matter (27%).  The problem is that no one has yet been able to detect them.

• The bottom line is that hydrogen is only 3.4% of the Universe, which is 161 times more than the mass in carbon, the building block of life.

Anyway, to answer the above question, there is so much hydrogen because the process of the Big Bang created this element at around 75% of the Universe, and this percentage still generally holds.  If you don't count that dark stuff.

So to close, hydrogen has been my favorite element for a very long time:

• First element.
• Most abundant element in our Universe.  Surely that must be a clue to its importance.
• Fused by all stars to create energy.
• When combusted with oxygen, the result is energy and water.
• When utilized in a fuel cell, produces energy and water.
• Does not contribute to global warming.
• Will be the fuel of the future.

• 
  When I worked on the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence for NASA, we searched the waterhole, an especially quiet band of the electromagnetic spectrum between 1420 and 1662 megahertz, the spectrum between the spectral lines of hydrogen and oxygen, where it was theorized aliens would use to communicate with us.

• 

  I worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion, where the fuels are isotopes of hydrogen.
• I wrote the hydrogen bill that became the Matsunaga Hydrogen Act.
• I led the production of the Green Hydrogen Report for the Department of Energy while chairman of the Secretary of Energy's Hydrogen Technical Advisory panel.

• 
  Is already the fuel of choice for space exploration.
• Will become the prominent fuel for next generation air travel, for it has the highest energy density and will not emit carbon dioxide.  To the right is the Airbus ZEROe.

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