To grasp the deeper origin of the universe’s fitness for life, we must look back in time to the beginning. Presumably, the laws of physics were imprinted on the universe at its birth. Change any of these properties ever so slightly and life would hang in the balance. For example, there is enough matter to form stars and galaxies the particle forces are delicately balanced so that we can have complex atoms like carbon the universe doesn’t expand too fast we have three dimensions of space, and so forth. These laws have striking, life-engendering properties. Today we point to the laws of physics, to the rules that underpin the evolution of the universe. In the old days, it was thought that design meant there had to be a designer, or a final cause, saying that the universe was somehow destined to become our home. That sounds crazy, and it is! Why did the Big Bang get the conditions for life right? It’s almost as if it was designed for life. Down at the level of physics, it has just the right properties for life to be possible. You might say, The Big Bang happened a long time ago, it’s over and done with, why should I bother? Well, Hawking and I came to a different view because of our baffling observation that the universe is very special. Listen to the audio version-read by Thomas himself-in the Next Big Idea App. He received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge and is currently a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Leuven, where he studies the quantum nature of the big bang.īelow, Thomas shares five key insights from his new book, On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory. Thomas Hertog is an internationally renowned cosmologist who was for many years a close collaborator of the late Stephen Hawking.

The bang bang club book