[Perdogg]

Bertrand Russell is foiled again.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Perdogg and Kevmo!

Why alpha takes on the precise value it does, so delicately fine-tuned for life, is a deep scientific mystery... In a paper just submitted to Physical Review Letters, a team led by John Webb and Julian King from the University of New South Wales in Australia presents evidence that the fine-structure constant may not actually be constant after all. Rather, it seems to vary from place to place within the universe... they suggest that the universe stretches far beyond what telescopes can observe, and that the laws of physics vary within it. Instead of the whole universe being fine-tuned for life, then, humanity finds itself in a corner of space where, Goldilocks-like, the values of the fundamental constants happen to be just right for it.

Heh... it will mean that the carbon-based life resulted from and conforms to (or was built according to) the local laws, not because the constants happen to be just right.

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