1. In the Anthropic Principle, the theory is that the sciences of chemistry and physics are tuned and just right for life. The constants have one strange thing in common, they are precisely the values needed to produce life. Here are the basic examples:
*Gravity is roughly 1039 times weaker than electromagnetism. If gravity had been 1033 times weaker than electromagnetism, "stars would be a billion times less massive and would burn a million times faster."
*The nuclear weak force is 1028 times the strength of gravity. Had the weak force been slightly weaker, all the hydrogen in the universe would have been turned to helium (making water impossible, for example).
*A stronger nuclear strong force (by as little as 2 percent) would have prevented the formation of protons--yielding a universe without atoms. Decreasing it by 5 percent would have given us a universe without stars.
*If the difference in mass between a proton and a neutron were not exactly as it is--roughly twice the mass of an electron--then all neutrons would have become protons or vice versa. Say good-bye to chemistry as we know it--and to life.
*The very nature of water--so vital to life--is something of a mystery (a point noticed by one of the forerunners of anthropic reasoning in the nineteenth century, Harvard biologist Lawrence Henderson). Unique amongst the molecules, water is lighter in its solid than liquid form: Ice floats. If it did not, the oceans would freeze from the bottom up and earth would now be covered with solid ice. This property in turn is traceable to the unique properties of the hydrogen atom.
In the Weak Anthropic Principle, by our very existence as creatures shows a selection effect on the universe.
In the Strong Anthropic Principle, the Universe brought man into being. In the Participatory, the universe had to develop humanity, a necessity for existence. And in the Final Anthropic Principle, the Universe has brought intelligence into being.
2. In 1973, the Anthropic Principle was proposed in Poland by Brandon Carter, an astrophysicist from Cambridge University, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founder of modern Astronomy , Copernicus .
3. As I read this article, I come to realize the blessing of being able to live. As the Anthropic Principle states, the conditions on Earth are hospitable. Human life is not naturally possible in other parts of the world because of conditions such as: oxygen, water, atmosphere, and things like. When you wonder, it makes me feel that this occurrance of life on Earth did not happen by chance or theory. There is spirit or something great that ensured life on our planet. I believe the Anthropic principle puts this into perspective by imagining our survival if just a smallest of number changed in our environmental structure.
