A WEAK CASE FOR A WEAKLESS UNIVERSE

alschroeder on Jan. 26, 2014

You can check out the original article here at
“A
Universe Without Weak Interactions” and the later paper
pointing out the problems at
“Problems
with a Weakless Universe” .

Considering how I stressed how much varying the weak
force's strength would mess up complex life arising, I
didn't want you confused if you saw an article about the
“Weakless Universe”, like http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/looking-for
-life-in-the-multiverse/] this one in SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN .
The “Weakless Universe” wouldn't allow our type of
life–which is, after all the only type of life we know
(precluding oxygen, both what we breathe and a major part
of DNA, and water,which is hydrogen-plus-oxgen…) but
perhaps not more exotic proposed forms of life, like
methane life.
And yes, the “weakless universe” works if you cherry-pick
another value to try to compensate what you just did. And
that's kosher. Varying the strength of the weak force is
cherry-picking too, and there's no rule against TWO such
adjustments…
But it DOES point out how you have to have the constants of
nature in a very narrow range for even a marginal chance
for life. The Weakless Universe is not a “generic” universe
in that sense.
Is ours? Well…
Stay tuned.
Next week: Coincidence Four.