The post discusses the anthropic principle, which suggests that the laws of physics and the universe are finely tuned for life. Introduced by Brandon Carter in 1973, it highlights how slight changes in fundamental forces would prevent life. The article contrasts strong and weak anthropic principles and touches upon concepts like the Omega Point and multiverse theory.
Tag: Stephen Hawking
A Christmas gift from Explaining Science 2017
Christmas is almost upon us. Once again I'm offering my e-books for free during the first five days of December! Just call me Father Christmas :-). "Is Anyone Out There?" is about the likelihood of there being extraterrestrial intelligent life. It is based on a number of posts from my blog. For readers based in the UK the… Continue reading A Christmas gift from Explaining Science 2017
An idea for Christmas from Explaining Science
Revised 12 December 2025 Now that Christmas is nearly upon us, if you've not done so already why not treat yourself to an e-book from Explaining Science. If you'd like to know more about popular astronomy , I've written three e-books which are available in the Amazon Kindle store at a nominal cost. By… Continue reading An idea for Christmas from Explaining Science
Short post of the month February 2016 – gravitational waves
The subject of February's short post of the month is gravitational waves. These were predicted by Albert Einstein back in 1916, and after decades of searching have finally been detected. In an announcement made on 11 February at a Washington DC press conference David Reitze, the executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have… Continue reading Short post of the month February 2016 – gravitational waves
Living on Venus
In this post I'll look into the distant future and talk about humans living and building settlements on the planet Venus. Because it is well beyond what we can achieve with our current technology, it is a topic that been more in the realm of science fiction rather than factual scientific writing. However, even though there are many difficult obstacles in… Continue reading Living on Venus
Explaining Science 