Nuclosynthesis refers to the primordial generation of the light elements when the universe was formed. The most abundant element in our present universe is hydrogen, followed by helium. The big bang theory owes much of its success to its ability to predict the relative amounts of these elements.

The big bang also holds that the first elements created in the universe were the light elements, namely helium, deuterium and lithium, which were produced in the first few instants. At that point, the temperature was so high, all matter was fully ionized and dissociated. About three minutes later, the temperature of the universe rapidly cooled from 1,032K to approximately 109K. At this temperature, nucleosynthesis began to occur: protons and neutrons collided to produce deuterium, which consists of one proton and one neutron. This newly generated deuterium then collided with other protons and neutrons to produce helium as well as...