  The primordial abundance of deuterium produced during Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis (BBN) depends sensitively on the universal ratio of baryons to
photons, an important cosmological parameter probed independently by the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. Observations of deuterium in
high-redshift, low-metallicity QSO Absorption Line Systems (QSOALS) provide a
key baryometer, determining the baryon abundance at the time of BBN to a
precision of 5%. Alternatively, if the CMB-determined baryon to photon ratio is
used in the BBN calculation of the primordial abundances, the BBN-predicted
deuterium abundance may be compared with the primordial value inferred from the
QSOALS, testing the standard cosmological model. In the post-BBN universe, as
gas is cycled through stars, deuterium is only destroyed so that its abundance
measured anytime, anywhere in the Universe, bounds the primordial abundance
from below. Constraints on models of post-BBN Galactic chemical evolution
follow from a comparison of the relic deuterium abundance with the
FUSE-inferred deuterium abundances in the chemically enriched, stellar
processed material of the local ISM.
