Number seven in a series of quotes that indicate how "fine-tuned" our universe is for life. Quoting from Alan Lightman's ANCIENT LIGHT.
"In recent years, leading cosmologists have used the strong anthropic principle to explain certain properties of the universe. According to this line of thinking, only a universe with the specific properties ours has--including the values of certain fundamental constants and initial conditions--could allow our existence. For example, the ratio of the mass of the proton to the electron, observed in the lab to be about 2,000, could not be 2 or 2,000,000 in OUR universe because such values would produce a physics and chemistry and biology incompatible with living substance. Values of 2 to 2 million might exist in other universes, perfectly satisfactory in every way except in their ability to allow our existence. Out of all these other possible universes, only a small fraction would have a proton-to- electron mass ratio suitable for life."
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