Nature's balancing act : how small quirks of physics makes life possible /
"Are the physical laws of our universe finely tuned, such that life can exist? What does this imply about how our universe formed? These and other questions are tackled in this book, written for a scientifically literate audience. From the Big Bang to present-day research, ranging from gravitat...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2025]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "Are the physical laws of our universe finely tuned, such that life can exist? What does this imply about how our universe formed? These and other questions are tackled in this book, written for a scientifically literate audience. From the Big Bang to present-day research, ranging from gravitational waves to experiments on antimatter, our physical laws are shown to be slightly off balance, allowing life to exist. What would happen if the strong nuclear force, which binds protons and neutrons together, were slightly stronger or weaker? Would life still be possible? We know today that pushing the nuclear force off balance by just a few percent would create a different universe, unlike our own. Also, for life to exist, there must be a slight imbalance in the way matter and antimatter were created in the Big Bang. If matter and antimatter were exactly in balance, then our universe would not exist. These are just two examples of the fine tuning of physical laws that must happen for the cosmological conditions to be right for life to exist. If the universe wasn't "just so", you wouldn't be here! Even with a favourable universe, how did life on Earth begin? How did it survive all this time without being wiped out by a cosmic event? Can human life continue to exist for millions of years, or will we cause our own extinction? These topics are discussed in the latter chapters and provide a fascinating look at our existence on Earth and the possibility of life elsewhere"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (viii, 154 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color). |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0197771467 9780197771471 0197771475 9780197771457 0197771459 9780197771464 |