3rd june 2009

the universe is especially tuned for life

or

life has fine-tuned itself to the universe

why isn't it a completely reasonable thing to say that with so many stars or suns in the universe why should ours be the only one that has a planet with life on it

well, the reasoning is...

the number of stars in the universe is 1 ^{^20}

half of those stars are binary systems

(have two suns)

which makes a stable planetary orbit unlikely

so now that's halved the chances

then there's the carbon consideration

there's a little over 100 elements in the universe

if you add up all the ways those elements can be put together to make compounds

(two or more types of elements)

the number of ways carbon can be made into compounds is more than all the rest put together

which gives us, as carbon based life forms, incredible versatility and scope

now how did life know beforehand that carbon would have those qualities

and then there's the chemical combinative value

to arrive at the right chemical combination for the molecules in the life processes to begin there were 1 ^{^63} different ways that wouldn't work or were less than ideal

(1 ^{^63} is 40  000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 times bigger than 1 ^{^20})

to get to the right combination it would mean having to try a million combinations every second of every day for 1000's of millions of years

how on earth did life know what the right combination was

then there is the physical condition of the universe itself

the universe has to be expanding at just the right rate for the atoms to take on the characteristics they have so that carbon can form

the electron has to have an electric charge of 1 ^{^51}

1 ^{^50} or 1 ^{^52} means that carbon wouldn't have formed and we wouldn't be here

the same is true of all the particles in the universe

they all have to have that exactness of characteristics or carbon and ourselves wouldn't be here

then we have to ask why did life happen on our planet at the earliest possible moment life could have occurred on a planet after the universe began when the law of averages says that it shouldn't happen until about half way through the cycle time of a galaxy which makes it most likely that life should occur 50 000 000 000 years after the universe began and not at the earliest possible time as was the case with ourselves

the more those circumstances life needs to exist are taken into account the greater the anthropic principle becomes