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14 - Could an intelligent alien predict earth's biochemistry?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

By
Stephen J. Freeland
Edited by
John D. Barrow ,
Simon Conway Morris ,
Stephen J. Freeland  and
Charles L. Harper, Jr
Stephen J. Freeland
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
John D. Barrow
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Simon Conway Morris
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Stephen J. Freeland
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Charles L. Harper, Jr
Affiliation:
John Templeton Foundation
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Summary

This is a book about whether our universe is “biocentric.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines this term as “treating life as a central fact” [1]; thus a biocentric universe is one predisposed towards producing life (life's centrality is implicit if “the fitness of the environment [for life] far precedes the existence of the living organisms” [2]). To date, this unusual idea has been most thoroughly explored (and most widely publicized) under the umbrella term “Anthropic Principle” in physics [3]. In essence, this principle refers to a suite of fundamental physical parameters, dimensionless constants that interact to imbue our universe with such interrelated phenomena as a diverse periodic table of elements, a preponderance of carbon and water, stars that emit energy, and planets that orbit them [4]. It asserts that, without clear explanation at present, the constants responsible for this state of affairs appear finely tuned in our universe to values peculiarly sympathetic with life's emergence.

Even if we accept this view of physics at face value, we remain a long logical leap from establishing truly biocentric credentials for our universe. Understanding “what is” versus “what might have been” for physics must be met by an equivalent understanding in biology. Thus the interface of biochemistry, where physics becomes biology, deserves especially close scrutiny. In this context, the first and perhaps most important point of this chapter is to emphasize that in considering physics and biology, two fundamentally different sets of expectations collide.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fitness of the Cosmos for Life
Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning
 , pp. 280 - 317
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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