Anyone your thoughts on this?

Question

Elements heavier than iron are only formed in rare events such as supernova explosions. How importand are these massive explosions for the formation of life as we know it?

Answer 1

Most elements heaver that Fe in my opinion wouldn't be deemed those elements that are commonly important in biological processes.  The elements that people associate with biological processes, such as C, O, Ca, N, etc. are all lighter, so...in THAT way, you could argue that the heavier elements formed via supernovae didn't contribute overwhelmingly to the formation of life "as we know it".  

However, it would be silly to say that there is no contribution to the rise of life by things like supernovae and heavier elements...for instance, one of the major reasons the earth is still warm with a molten outer core is due to the heat produced by radioactive decay of certain elements.  Without this decay and release of heat, the earth would have cooled much faster, and who knows if and what kind of life could have originated or survived.  So everything is important to the rise of life, whether directly used biologically or not.

Answer 2

Well these extreme events are responsible for all the heavier elements. So things like carbon, a building block of life, needs these processes to be formed or poof, no life. many other required elements are made this way too.