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August 5, 2016

The Fine-Tuning of Nature’s Laws

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There is nothing mathematically wrong with these hypothetical universes. But there is one thing that they almost always lack — life.
Or, indeed, anything remotely resembling life. Or even the complexity upon which life relies to store information, gather nutrients, and reproduce. A universe that has just small tweaks in the fundamental constants might not have any of the chemical bonds that give us molecules, so say farewell to DNA, and also to rocks, water, and planets. Other tweaks could make the formation of stars or even atoms impossible. And with some values for the physical constants, the universe would have flickered out of existence in a fraction of a second. That the constants are all arranged in what is, mathematically speaking, the very improbable combination that makes our grand, complex, life-bearing universe possible is what physicists mean when they talk about the “fine-tuning” of the universe for life. - The New Atlantis

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 5, 2016 9:56 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

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