Hugh Neutron Quotes

so weakly with protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons,

We all make mistakes in the heat of passion, Jimbo.

By the time the universe was one millisecond old it had settled down into a sea of protons and neutrons. The only element in existence at that time was simple hydrogen, described by a single proton. For about twenty seconds, when the universe was a little less than four minutes old, it reached the right temperature for nuclear fusion to occur. During that time, protons and neutrons fused together to form elements heavier than simple hydrogen.

One characteristic that stands out dramatically is His interest in and care for living things, particularly the human race. We see this care in the vastness and quality of the resources devoted to life support. For example, the baryon density (density of neutrons and protons) of the universe, as huge as it is, focuses on the needs of humans. How? The baryon density determines how efficiently nuclear fusion operates in the cosmos. The baryon density we measure translates into about a hundred-billion-trillion stars for the presently observable universe. As table 14.1 indicates, if the baryon density is too great, too much deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron in the nucleus) is made in the first few minutes of the universe’s existence. This extra deuterium will cause the stars to burn much too quickly and erratically for any of them to support a planet with life. On the other hand, if the baryon density is too small, so little deuterium and helium are made in the first few minutes that the heavier elements necessary for life will never form in stars. What this means is that the approximately hundred-billion-trillion stars we observe in the universe—no more and no less—are needed for life to be possible in the universe. God invested heavily in living creatures. He constructed all these stars and carefully crafted them throughout the age of the universe so that at this brief moment in the history of the cosmos humans could exist and have a pleasant place to live.

The three dimensions of space must be expanding at a particular rate, as well. A universe that expands too slowly will produce only neutron stars and black holes. A universe that expands too rapidly will produce no stars at all and thus no planets and, of course, no stable orbits.

if the universe were to expand too slowly, too many of the nucleons (protons and neutrons) would fuse together to form heavier elements. This would result in too few of the lighter elements essential for life chemistry. On the other hand, if the expansion were more rapid, too many of the nucleons would fuse into lighter elements. This would result in too few of the heavier elements essential for life chemistry.