the anthropic principle,
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sustainable futures briefing documents | Tectonics: tectonic plates - floating on the surface of a cauldron |
Index |
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what we are made of | ||
the search for other earth-like planets | ||
planet formation | ||
the constants of nature | ||
bibliography | ||
It is fascinating to me how many things have to go right for us to be here to notice them! Here are a few of them: what are we made of
the search for other earth-like planets
The extrasolar planets page at NASA gives links to several current and planned missions to look for planets. |
planet formation[The following is abstracted from the National Geographic, December
2004, pp.79 – 80.] But then a larger outer planet pulls the smaller planets into eccentric orbits, this then encourages the planetoids to crash into one another, forming serious planets like Earth. A young star is too hot, and these planets end up without water. Water would be locked up in smaller clumps further out, but the Jupiter-like planet then causes some of these smaller clumps, later, to crash into an Earth-type planet. Still the giant planet is not finished, it then starts gathering up the remaining debris which might be liable to crash into your home planet! So, next time you look at Jupiter, one of the brightest objects in the sky, see not a lifeless planet but a good part of why you have a useful place to live! The Nat Geo article is also interesting in telling of how planet seeking outside our little solar system is going, and the techniques being used:
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the constants of natureThere is a fascinating book by John D. Barrow, perhaps my favourite science writer. In The Constants of Nature, he explores recent ideas that life, the universe and all that sort of stuff could not have formed if several very basic constants, such as the speed of light and Planck’s constant, were not very close to their known values. I would need to learn a lot more physics to believe I could really follow Barrow into some of the details, but my interest in reading his book was more general. However, The Constants of Nature may be a useful introduction for those focussed on some very basic concerns of recent physics. It was certainly worth the effort for me to plough through the book, when seeking to gain an idea of where physics thinking is going. Barrow is a good teacher, but I imagine the grasp on this strange idea is not yet fully worked out, hence some muddiness and obscurity spiced with speculation! I was particularly impressed with the discussion and conditions for ‘resonance’ (pp.154 – 156, NY edition) suggesting that, with remarkably small differences in the strong nuclear force and the fine structure constant, there would be no carbon! But this is far too difficult for me to explain, I’d have to re-read parts of the book several times, and a lot of background as well, to feel I had a fair grasp on the details of the argument. However, the book is an interesting and fun read if you want to get some idea of investigations in this area. I spent good money on it, read it right through and feel I got my money’s worth. So, not only does the chemistry of our bodies look very convenient, and the formation of planetary system looks convenient, but so do even some very basic constants of the universe. This is one exceedingly strange and wonderful place into which we’ve been pitchforked! |
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bibliography |
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The Constants of
Nature: From Alpha to Omega—The Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets
of the Universe Jan 2003, Pantheon Books, NY, hbk,0375422218 $18.20 [amazon.com] {advert} 2002, Jonathan Cape, hbk, 0224061356, £12.59 |
email email_abelard [at] abelard.org © abelard, 2004, 14 december the address for this document is https://www.abelard.org/briefings/anthropic_principle.php 1210 words |
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