Sources: Geprge Greenstein's THE SYMBIOTIC UNIVERSE and Barrow and Tipler's THE COSMIC ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE (Chapter 6.6). Here's a good on-line reference on why neutrons decay in fifteen minutes on their own but stay stable in nuclei at Neutron Stability in Atomic Nuclei. I based the last two panels on Barrow and Tipler's work, but it's worth nothing there is at least one dispute on that. In The Evidence for Fine-Tuning, Robin Collins argues that even if the neutron were less massive, there might be a path for two neutrons to covert into a deuteron (a proton and a neutron) and an electron. “Since these sorts of conversions appear to be allowed, the only effects we can immediately deduce that a moderate decrease of the neutron mass would have are that stars would burn very differently and that stable nuclei, including hydrogen, would shift towards having a higher proportion of neutrons than we presently find. I know of no current well-developed argument, however, that these effects would inhibit the existence of intelligent life. This is an area that needs further exploration.” A good theoretical model of what the universe would be like in such an instance is lacking. And it would require that such a mass differential to be a very moderate one–i.e., within prescribed limits. NEXT: ANTIMATTER ANGST AND ANOMALIES
With all that in mind, it makes our wasted lives seem even more... wasteful. But to use that theory... if the universe requires so much wasted space for life, maybe we need as many wasteful people to make something, or someone useful.
Genejoke at 10:23AM, Aug. 17, 2014
With all that in mind, it makes our wasted lives seem even more... wasteful. But to use that theory... if the universe requires so much wasted space for life, maybe we need as many wasteful people to make something, or someone useful.