[jongaltsr]

What happened to all the helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon and nitrogen? Why are they missing?
You have to totally understand quantum theory - and I don't. That is something only a real egghead could understand. Even when they try to explain why, all you and I could ever do is just look at them with a blank look on our face and nod our head as if we knew what they were talking about.

[samtheman]

I don’t think my question regarding the “missing elements” is so much about quantum physics as it is about stellar/nuclear chemistry.

Stars burn hydrogen and get helium. They burn helium to get heavier substances, which in turn fuel the fires to get even heavier elements, all the way up to iron. (Heavier than iron requires a supernova.)

So what kind of stellar burn sequence produced all that oxygen without producing the intermediate elements between hydrogen and oxygen?