Abstract

The diverse isotopic and elemental signatures produced in different nucleosynthetic sites are passed on to successive generations of stars. By tracing these chemical signatures back through the stellar populations of the Galaxy, it is possible to unravel its nucleosynthetic history and even to study stars which are now extinct. This review considers recent applications of ‘stellar genetics’ to examine the earliest episodes of nucleosynthesis in the universe, in Population iii stars and the Big Bang.