8 - Life in a violent universe

Summary

During 2005, scientists working with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory reported detecting the biggest cosmic explosion ever. A galaxy situated 2.6 billion light years away has been ravaged by a monstrous black hole that has swallowed the equivalent of 300 million suns in an orgy of destruction that has been going on for 100 million years. This ingested material isn't going quietly. As the scattered debris plunges to oblivion within the black hole, it releases vast amounts of energy, creating a pair of high-speed jets that have blasted twin bubbles 650,000 light years across in the host galaxy. You wouldn't want to be living anywhere nearby that monster!

Violence is the leitmotif of the universe. It was born in a big bang. Its fundamental structure was forged in the first split second, in a searing maelstrom of unimaginable ferocity, at temperatures exceeding a trillion degrees. Its history is one of cataclysmic explosions, implosions and collisions of literally astronomical proportions, of titanic forces and enormous energies. Yet amid this cosmic mayhem, life has not only emerged, but flourished – at least it has on one planet. How has something so delicate and precious as biology made a home amid the chaos of a violent universe?

The take-home message of my essay is that violence has a creative as well as a destructive aspect, and that without exceedingly energetic and powerful processes that seem so awesome to human beings, life would be impossible.