COSMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE LOCAL ISM ABUNDANCE OF HE-3

Deuterium plays a crucial role in testing big bang nucleosynthesis. Ho wever, its chemical evolution is intertwined with that of He-3. Gloeck ler & Geiss's new measurement of the He-3 abundance and the Hubble Spa ce Telescope measurement of D, both in the local ISM today, can be com pared to the presolar nebula abundances of D and He-3. Within the unce rtainties, the sum of D + He-3 relative to hydrogen is unchanged. This indicates that over the past 4.5 Gyr there has been at most modest st ellar production of He-3, in contradiction with stellar modeling, or m odest stellar destruction of He-3, in contradiction with efficient ''s olar spoons.'' The constancy of D + He-3 alleviates some of the cosmic tension between the big bang He-4 abundance and those of D and He-3.