Stardust by John Gribbin

"We are made of stardust." This poetic opening for a science book is literally true. Except for hydrogen, a product of the big bang, every element in our bodies was made in stars. Gribbin plunges gleefully into this universe-sized chemistry kit. There are diamonds in space from graphite squeezed by supernova. Gold is rare everywhere. Across the universe, there are only three atoms of gold for every 10 million of sulphur. Because of our stellar origins, Gribbin concludes, we cannot "be alone in the universe".