Something about Life
We always say life is precious. But how precious? The weather was hot today. I would love it if we could make Lassi.
Back to the topic, do you know how hot our universe is?
Let’s start from California. 56.8 degrees Celsius is the temperature of Death Valley. Maybe drink more water, and you’ll be fine.
Based on its chemical structure, water should be a gas at room temperature and boil at around -90 degrees. Thanks to the hydrogen bonds, its boiling point rises to 100 degrees Celsius, allowing liquid water to fill the oceans and veins.
But 100 degrees is only “7*10^-31” of all the temperatures possible in the universe. A small change and we wouldn’t exist.
The “Strong Nuclear Force” holds atoms together. If this force were just 1% stronger, all carbon atoms would have been destroyed in stars, and life could never exist. If it were 1% weaker, atoms couldn’t form at all, and we wouldn’t exist.
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The universe had to get several things right. Not just the forces holding atoms together, but the conditions allowing stars to form, burn, and create the elements that eventually became us.
Carbon in stars? Almost every living thing you know contains it. Your skin, your brain, your blood. But carbon wasn’t simply floating around when the universe began. It had to be manufactured inside stars.
And when massive stars died, they scattered those elements across space. Eventually, some of that material became our Sun, our planet, and you. The calcium in your bones, the iron in your blood, and the carbon in your cells have cosmic origins. Wait, but the universe is literally designed for disorder. Your cells fight every day against that disorder, Entropy. We will talk about that someday.
You are made of matter that has travelled through stars, explosions, and billions of years of cosmic history. And somehow, that matter became capable of asking questions about its own existence, loving their family, and experiencing life.
If one thing went differently, you wouldn’t exist.
We started with a glass of lassi on a hot afternoon.
The strangest thing about life isn’t how unlikely it seems. It’s that the universe became capable of experiencing itself through us.
Mama, the shake is amazing! Thank you!
