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Can
Life Be Merely an Accident? Robert Piccioni Announces 'Everyone's Guide
to Atoms, Einstein,...
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- "Science shows that
the conditions necessary for life are extraordinarily improbable. Life
has four major prerequisites: a viable universe, the right atoms, a
habitable environment and an effective genetic code.
"Albert Einstein once said: 'What really interests me is whether God
had any choices in the creation of the universe' -- meaning does the
universe have to be the way it is due to the laws of physics and math,
or could it have been very different? Fifty years later, science has
found 20 choices -- 20 knobs akin to the temperature and cooking-time
knobs on an oven. Each knob could be set to almost any value, but it
seems life is possible only if every knob is set to specific values --
the values in our universe. For example, the universe's initial
expansion rate had to be right to 50 decimal digits. That is as likely
as drawing the ace of spades from a shuffled deck 29 times in a row.
Would you bet on that?
"What about atoms? Of the particles existing in the beginning, all but
one in a billion were annihilated by antimatter. Only one in 500 of the
survivors were converted into carbon or oxygen. Only one in ten million
of those ended up on terrestrial planets. Overall, that is as likely as
drawing the ace of spades 11 times in a row. We are truly made of the
rarest and most precious ingredients in the universe.
"Earth is a wonderful and extremely improbable habitat. It's in the
right place in a favorable galaxy. Our solar system formed at the right
time and with only one star of the right size. Jupiter protects us from
asteroids, and our Moon stabilizes our seasons. Earth has a nearly
circular orbit of the right size. It has the right mass and magnetic
field to maintain an atmosphere. No one knows the odds of all that, but
it could be as improbable as drawing the ace of spades 5 times in a row.
"Lastly, how likely are humans? We are defined
by our DNA, which is 99.9% the same from one person to another and
which contains three billion base-pairs. Randomly matching human DNA is
as likely as drawing the ace of spades one billion times in a row. If
you were satisfied with any species of life, not just humans, you could
subtract five draws.
"Aren't we special?"
So says California physicist, public speaker and science educator Dr.
Robert Piccioni, author of "Everyone's Guide to Atoms, Einstein, and
the Universe." Dr. Piccioni is developing a TV series on Einstein's
life, his discoveries and their impact on our society. See his website:
http://www.guidetothecosmos.com.
Review books and photographs are available upon request. Author
available for interviews. Special feature story inquiries are welcome.
Contact: Robert Piccioni 818.661.8377 email: rpiccioni@sbcglobal.net
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