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talus
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Let's take a look at how evolution is fined tuned for life forms? When you consider carbon, element number six in the periodic table it must first become hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, and boron. After it come nitrogen and oxygen and the rest of the ninety-two or so natural elements. Life as we know it is based on carbon. It is the only element that can form the long and complex chains necessary for the process of life itself. Elsewhere in the universe any life form may be based on liquids other than water, but carbon is the necessary elemental jack-of-all-trades for life. It is also the essential Lego-like stepping stone for the production of eighty-six natural elements heavier than carbon.
But the formation of carbon sits on a knife edge of uncertainty. To form carbon, radioactive beryllium (element number 4) must absorb a nucleus of helium (element number 2) and build to element number 6 (carbon). Doesn’t that seem simple enough: 4 + 2 = 6. Who said physics is difficult. However beryllium does not have much of an existence. The mean life of this radioactive beryllium atom is 10 16 seconds.
I got the feeling of the brevity of 1016 seconds, I looked at that number in decimal numbers or 0.00000000000000001 seconds. In that sliver of time, one little ole helium nucleus must find, collide with, and be absorbed by the beryllium nucleus, thus metamorphosing into the atomic staff of life.
It seems that the only way the helium nucleus decays is if the energies of these nuclei are matched exactly to the required energies of excitation. And matched they are. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element that is solid at temperatures when water is liquid. If this reaction were foiled by mismatch, the universe would contain hydrogen and helium and not much of anything else. The elements of our life would not have formed.
It is probable that all of these events could have simply happened with enough time and by random events. These discoveries of science provide a quantifiable basis for that awe. I admit that this universe in which we live is a very special chance happening.
But the formation of carbon sits on a knife edge of uncertainty. To form carbon, radioactive beryllium (element number 4) must absorb a nucleus of helium (element number 2) and build to element number 6 (carbon). Doesn’t that seem simple enough: 4 + 2 = 6. Who said physics is difficult. However beryllium does not have much of an existence. The mean life of this radioactive beryllium atom is 10 16 seconds.
I got the feeling of the brevity of 1016 seconds, I looked at that number in decimal numbers or 0.00000000000000001 seconds. In that sliver of time, one little ole helium nucleus must find, collide with, and be absorbed by the beryllium nucleus, thus metamorphosing into the atomic staff of life.
It seems that the only way the helium nucleus decays is if the energies of these nuclei are matched exactly to the required energies of excitation. And matched they are. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element that is solid at temperatures when water is liquid. If this reaction were foiled by mismatch, the universe would contain hydrogen and helium and not much of anything else. The elements of our life would not have formed.
It is probable that all of these events could have simply happened with enough time and by random events. These discoveries of science provide a quantifiable basis for that awe. I admit that this universe in which we live is a very special chance happening.
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