molecules don't care about life nobody has ever seen molecules assembled toward life
never it doesn't happen without a biological entity working on them now approaching lunar
sunrise and for all the people back on earth the crew of apollo 8 has a message that we would like
to send to you in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth in the beginning there was
nothing and god said let there be light and there was still nothing but now you can see it
how did we get here think about the inexplicable series of events that brought you to this moment
right now there are an incomprehensible number of variables that need to happen just right in order
to bring everything in our world into being and if even one of those variables was a little different
life as we know it might not exist but what is it that makes everything in our universe work armed
with more knowledge than we've ever had before can science finally explain the fundamental question
of why we are here and how it all came to be you're watching matter and today we're looking
into why our universe is so perfect have you ever realized how perfect the universe seems to be
everything exists and interacts in just the right way that conditions were made perfectly for humans
to evolve and reach the point that we can ask these questions we can see this perfection at
nearly all levels of our existence the earth was made up of just the right materials and orbits
at the right distance from the sun in order to receive enough energy and warmth for life
to grow and evolve it is seen on larger scales the strength of gravity is just strong enough that all
the galaxies remain intact the planets are held in orbit and we stay put firmly on the ground
and even down to the scale of atoms and particles the forces that control subatomic particles are
balanced to allow all kinds of particles to exist and combine to form more complex one of
the goals of physics is to take all of these observations that have been made about our
universe and be able to describe and predict them using mathematical laws and models what are the
constants of the universe physicists have learned that what happens in the universe is governed by a
number of physical laws that can be expressed mathematically a large percentage of these
equations use particular numbers that science has dubbed fundamental constants that keep showing up
again and again universal constants are specific values that are found throughout the universe
these values are not random most are quantities that have been measured experimentally such as the
speed of light c or the number pi which relates the diameter of a circle to its circumference
these values remain constant no matter where they are found and remain constant in all the equations
of physics chemistry and other sciences constants are the key to how the universe is held together
and how it functions but we are still unsure why they have the values that they do they exist at
all levels of reality down to the smallest scale using planck's constant all the way up to the
macroscopic scale of the gravitational constant holding galaxies and solar systems together
it's actually believed by some scientists that if they are able to have a complete model of
the universe all of the many universal constants that have been found will be able to be combined
into one universal constant what do the constants mean there are constants that govern the laws
of the universe and each scientific discipline has constants that are essential to their study
in physics there are many constants used to describe the physical laws that govern reality
there's the gravitational constant g that shows up in newton's equation for gravity
that explains the gravitational interactions between two masses there's planck's constant h
that shows up all over quantum physics physics today is built on top of these constants all
of the equations that describe reality today rely on these constants having the values that they do
if they were omitted from these equations physics would cease to function and our understanding of
the universe would be lost these constants are so fundamental to science's understanding of the
universe that there have been many discussions and attempts to understand why they have the
values that they do scientists have not found that answer yet but many of them have begun to wonder
what would happen if the constants that run our universe were different scientists can now
simulate what would happen if those constants came out different when our universe was born
running simulations with the help of the massive computing power available today
physicists have been able to code extremely complex and massive simulations of the universe
when all physical laws are transcribed into computer code scientists get to watch a virtual
big bang begin in their virtual universes after a simulated universe has begun scientists are
able to watch these universes evolve over billions of years and see how matter behaves
luckily when they run the simulations with the laws of physics for our universe the motto ends
up looking a whole lot like our own universe after 14 billion years this is a great sign it
means that science is on the right track with its understanding of the universe and the laws that we
know to control the universe are at least mostly correct what would happen if they were different
but what if the universe was born different and had different fundamental constants these
simulations can also show scientists what would happen if the universe had been born according
to slightly different rules maybe in one universe gravity is a bit weaker and after its virtual big
bang goes off nothing happens with less gravity stars would never form and with no stars there
would be no stellar engines to undergo nuclear fusion in the universe with no nuclear fusion
there is no hope of hydrogen turning into helium nor any of the other elements that we find in our
expansive universe in the reverse if gravity was stronger all of the matter in the universe would
condense much faster than it happened here and if it was strong enough the matter may condense into
black holes quicker than any complex structures could form okay well what if gravity was the same
but dark energy the mysterious force driving the expansion of the universe was stronger
in this case the more powerful dark energy could cause the universe to expand faster than gravity
could ever pull together hydrogen atoms leading to a vast universe devoid of any complexity
if dark energy was a bit weaker than it is it may never have been strong enough to overtake gravity
as the driving force in the universe and gravity would end up drawing everything in the universe
together in a single mass no matter which constant or feature of the universe physicist changed
in the simulation the virtual universes ended up with no possibility of the complex universe we see
today which means that all of these universes would also never have a chance to develop life
if even one of these constants was different when our universe was born during the big bang
we would never have the opportunity to ask the questions that led our species to this point
are we just lucky scientists and philosophers have been asking questions regarding the meaning
of life and how everything came to be the way it is for all of recorded history there have been
many attempts to answer the questions of why our universe seems to be so perfectly tuned to have
eventually led to us asking these questions these answers have included theories of a grand designer
having a hand in creating the universe with all its laws perfectly adjusted to allow life to grow
some scientists are now focusing on the theory that we are all living in a simulation
that everything in our universe is nothing more than a simulation being run in another
universe above ours considering that we can build a simulated universe it is possible
that as our technology gets better and computer processing power gets larger these simulations
could eventually be complex enough to allow simulated life to evolve we may never be able
to find out if our universe was made according to a specific guideline by a higher being or if our
universe was just lucky enough to win the lottery being born with everything so perfectly balanced
but we do know that we exist here and we get to explore this wondrous universe and discover all
of the hidden secrets and mysteries it has to offer what do you think started it all and how
did it become so perfectly balanced be sure to join us next time and if you watched all
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