Science, it is awesome

Predicting carbon-12's creation in stars. [Link]

"I exist," he was sure Hoyle said, "therefore the carbon-12 nucleus must possess an energy level at 7.65 megaelectronvolts (MeV)." Hoyle was convinced that the nuclei of the atoms in our bodies - the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the oxygen that fills our lungs each time we take a breath - were assembled from the simplest nucleus - hydrogen - in the furnaces of stars.

In the first step, four hydrogen nuclei would collide and stick together to make a nucleus of helium, the second-lightest atom. In the second step, two helium nuclei would stick to make a nucleus of beryllium-8. Only there was a problem: beryllium-8 was unstable, splitting apart one billion billionth of a second after forming. The route to building the heavier atomic nuclei essential for life was blocked.

The year before, in 1952, Ed Salpeter, a researcher in New York, had pointed out that the beryllium barrier might be leapfrogged if, in the heart of "red giant stars", three helium nuclei collided almost simultaneously, gluing together to make carbon-12. It was the nuclear physics equivalent of three shopping trolleys colliding simultaneously in a car park. Unfortunately, this process was fantastically unlikely.

Enter Hoyle. His argument, as as far as Fowler could make out, was that the process would be speeded up if, by a bizarre coincidence, carbon-12 had an energy state exactly equal to the energy of three colliding helium nuclei at the 100 million-degree temperature inside a red giant. That energy was 7.65 MeV. The state had to exist, reasoned Hoyle, because life existed and life was based on carbon.