Cosmology And SF II: Mirkheim Revisitied

 The scientific fact that stars synthesize heavier elements from hydrogen and helium is central to Poul Anderson's sf masterpiece, Mirkheim. 

In the 1960s, when the rival cosmological theories were Big Bang and steady state, it was thought that even stellar interiors were not hot enough to synthesize elements which could therefore have been generated only in the Big Bang. In order to defend their theory, steady state theorists sought and found confirmation that currently existing stars can and do synthesize heavier elements. Thus, a subsequently discredited theory was nevertheless useful.

In Anderson's World Without Stars, planets of extra-galactic stars have the lighter elements, therefore life and intelligence, but no iron, copper or uranium, therefore maybe millions of years of civilization before industrialization. Hugh Valland comments:

"'What'd they learn along the way?' Valland wondered. 'Yeah, I see why we've got to go there.'"

-Poul Anderson, World Without Stars (New York, 1966), III, p. 19.

 

This, again, is because elements are generated in stars which, between galaxies, are so far apart that "'...the supernova enrichment stopped early.'" (ibid.)

 

Finally, a steady state universe needed new hydrogen atoms coalescing and condensing into galaxies so the theorists thought that most matter in the universe is invisible which turns out to be the case although not in the way that they thought.