... recent studies by Alejandro Jenkins and Gilad Perez, authors of our cover story, “Looking for Life in the Multiverse,” show that some other universes may not be so inhospitable after all. “We have found examples of alternative values of the fundamental constants, and thus of alternative sets of physical laws, that might still lead to very interesting words and perhaps to life,” they write. In other words, scientists get a “disaster” for life if their models vary just one “constant” of nature, but if they vary more than one they can find values that are compatible with the formation of complex structures and perhaps intelligent life. What would these universes be like?
Many of us are captivated by the search for other beings in the vast cosmos beyond Earth. So it is ironic that we sometimes place such a paltry value on life that already exists on our own planet. Seven horrific tropical diseases, mostly caused by parasitic worms, ruin the lives and health of a billion impoverished people around the world by making them chronically sick, yet these ailments get less attention and money than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. In his feature article, Peter Jay Hotez presents “A Plan to Defeat Neglected Tropical Diseases.” Surely there is a way to provide the necessary drugs—which can cost just 50 cents per person—so that all people can thrive.
via Life Quest: Could Parallel Universes Be Congenial to Life?: Scientific American.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Could Parallel Universes Be Congenial to Life?
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3 comments:
Why do we waste billions of dollars on space research looking for ET's when millions of Humans on this Planet need help with health and housing issues....If ET is watching us from a far they must think we are a primative distructive uncultured life form.......
Grumpy, A peaceful million year old intelligent ET race could save our entire species from extinction. If they don't ignore us or eat us, contact would likely result in a technology transfer that would solve one or more of humanity's biggest problems: Limited energy, limited food, overpopulation, political strife, ignorance, disease, no back up planet, etc.
You've got it right, Xeno. The resources out there, even without finding "other life," would go a long way to alleviate a lot of the issues we have. Grumpy has a point, too, about it being so incredibly expensive. I think we should privatize space exploration/exploitation, or at least some of it. If there's a way to make use of Space, the capitalists will figure it out. We'll pay for it, sure, but we're going to in either case.
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