We have to be careful, my friend, here. First of all, stars are far too hot to contain any thing but free floating nuclei and electrons, i.e., "plasma," which you can think of as ionized gas. And so, when we use words like "lead" or "iron" when talking about a star, we are certainly not talking about solid (nor liquid) forms of these substances, but ionized gasses (plasmas).

Secondly, there is something crucial. The nuclear fusion process taking place in normal stars CANNOT make anything heavier than iron, which is atomic number 26 on the perdiodic table. Lead has atomic number 82 and is WAY too heavy to be made in normal stellar fusion. Gold has atomic number 79 and is also WAY too heavy to make in ordinary stars. Copper is atomic number 29 and is too heavy to be made in ordinary stellar fusion. Silver is atomic number 47 and too heavy to be made in ordinary fusion processes.

The fusion process to make ANY element which is heavier than iron is ENDOTHERMIC, which means it absorbs energy, rather than emits energy!

Stars simply cannot function via any fusion process which *draws energy away*

Therefore no normal core fusion process can produce any chemical element with atomic number greater than 26.

So then, WHERE do these impossible to make elements come from?

Ah, I'm glad you asked!!!

When the supernova explodes, THEN these endothermic processes CAN occcur, because the explision offers excess energy up the wazoo and it CAN jam the nuclei together with enough force to do the job.....

All the copper and silver and lead and gold you've ever encountered was made in the explosive stage process of a supernova. Its true!

As I understand it, gravity emerged after, in laymen's terms, 'static electricity' joined the very simplest particles of matter; I'm guessing, perhaps wrongly, gravity may even emerge by simply clustering millions, billions, trillions of neutrinos... I choose trillions.

Here my friend, I would have to part company with you.

In general its true that your views are sophisticated and you clearly enjoy much more enlightenment than many people do.

But in this particular case, I would assert that you're missing something very subtle but very significant.

You're correct that gravity is larger for massive bodies with many atoms, like people and apples and rocks, and planets and stars. For example, a small mote of dust weighs less than a large chunk of lead, and this is because the latter contains many more particles within it.

And you're correct that the atomic scale sees electromagnetism in a far far stronger manner than it sees gravity.

However, the fact that gravity is weaker for small objects with few particles is NOT the same as saying it is *zero* for such objects.

Gravity is NOT zero for small numbers of particles.

It is merely far-weaker than electromagnetism on such scales as a single electron or a single nuclei.

However, "weaker" does not imply "zero."

As an example, we know that planets "hold" atmospheres to their surfaces via the action of gravitational fields *on individual atoms*

And so, if gravity really did nothing on the scale of a single atom, we would be in big trouble, because our atmosphere molecules would all escape to space!!

Life as we know it would be quite impossible without the action of gravity on individual molecules and atoms to hold atmospheres down to planetary surfaces.

But here is a more interesting example.

In analyzing the evolution of the cosmos, we can now go back, via microwave observatories in outer space, to observe the "cosmic microwave background" which is the "very first light" ever emited post big bang.

At this time, the universe consisted of *nothing but* neutral Hydrogen atoms.

And so you say to yourself "Okay, then. Because we're dealing with the scale of atoms, all we need worry about is electromagnetism." But not so fast!

The thing is that the atoms are *neutral* and the electromagnetic forces is essentially *powerless* to do anything at all!

Without the action of gravity on individual atoms, the existence of stars and planets would be impossible.

It was gravity which acted to *pull the stars together* from the uniform haze of neutral hydrogen atoms.

Gravity is responsible for the evolution of the universe from a cold haze of neutral atoms into our thrilling world of stars, planets, galaxies and so on.

Gravity is responsible for the whole shebang, and it BEGINS at the level of SINGLE Hydrogen atoms!!

Doug