This Unbelievable Coincidence Is Responsible For Life
NewsFix :: Science :: General Science
Page 1 of 1
This Unbelievable Coincidence Is Responsible For Life
Life is dependent upon a lot of coincidences, but there’s only one that was so improbable that physicists laughed at the very idea of it. Here’s why something known as the “beryllium bottleneck” should have choked out all life before it even got started. When a star ignites, it does so due to the fusion of hydrogen atoms in its core. Hydrogen atoms fuse together to make helium atoms. When they do, those atoms fuse together into a specific kind of helium atom, one which has two protons and two neutrons. The inside of a star that has burned through a lot of its hydrogen is swimming with helium-4 atoms. It is at this point that the universe should have stopped. At least that was the prevailing understanding of nuclear physics going into the 1950s. Further progress should have been impossible, due to a phenomenon known as the “beryllium bottleneck.” There are two possible ways for atoms to progress from helium-4 and hydrogen-1, the two isotopes inside of stars. Hydrogen and helium could combine to make to make lithium-5, with three protons and two neutrons. This isotope is unstable, and is unlikely to be made in a core mostly made of helium. The only other possibility was two helium-4 atoms fusing to make beryllium-8.
Beryllium-8, with four neutrons and four protons, has a half-life of around 10−17 seconds. The universe should have ended with stars pouring their energy into making an endlessly disintegrating series of beryllium atoms. Enter Fred Hoyle, who made a reasonable assumption. If he was able to sit at a desk and wonder why beryllium didn’t stamp out all life in the universe, beryllium couldn’t possibly have stamped out all life in the universe. The question was, how did anything build from that fragile molecule? His answer came when he realized that three helium-4 atoms coming together would make carbon-12, the most abundant isotope of carbon in the universe. But Hoyle’s answer came with another problem. Even if two helium atoms came together to form beryllium, and another helium atom came along before the beryllium disintegrated, the impact should simply blow the whole structure apart. Energy has to be gained and shed in distinct quantities, and there was no energy level of carbon-12 that would work. Hoyle worked out what the energy level would be, and proposed that someone find it. Many thought it was ludicrous, but Hoyle was persistent and bold, and finally got the attention of experimental physicists William Fowler and Ward Whaling. Six months later, and what do you know? It was confirmed that an isotope that lasted for only a fraction of a second could get hit by a helium nucleus, and result in a previously-undiscovered energy state of carbon-12, which could be dissipated by a gamma ray, which is why I’m sitting here typing this and you’re sitting there reading it.
http://io9.com/this-unbelievable-coincidence-is-responsible-for-life-i-1709731652
Beryllium-8, with four neutrons and four protons, has a half-life of around 10−17 seconds. The universe should have ended with stars pouring their energy into making an endlessly disintegrating series of beryllium atoms. Enter Fred Hoyle, who made a reasonable assumption. If he was able to sit at a desk and wonder why beryllium didn’t stamp out all life in the universe, beryllium couldn’t possibly have stamped out all life in the universe. The question was, how did anything build from that fragile molecule? His answer came when he realized that three helium-4 atoms coming together would make carbon-12, the most abundant isotope of carbon in the universe. But Hoyle’s answer came with another problem. Even if two helium atoms came together to form beryllium, and another helium atom came along before the beryllium disintegrated, the impact should simply blow the whole structure apart. Energy has to be gained and shed in distinct quantities, and there was no energy level of carbon-12 that would work. Hoyle worked out what the energy level would be, and proposed that someone find it. Many thought it was ludicrous, but Hoyle was persistent and bold, and finally got the attention of experimental physicists William Fowler and Ward Whaling. Six months later, and what do you know? It was confirmed that an isotope that lasted for only a fraction of a second could get hit by a helium nucleus, and result in a previously-undiscovered energy state of carbon-12, which could be dissipated by a gamma ray, which is why I’m sitting here typing this and you’re sitting there reading it.
http://io9.com/this-unbelievable-coincidence-is-responsible-for-life-i-1709731652
Guest- Guest
Raggamuffin- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 33746
Join date : 2014-02-10
Similar topics
» Unbelievable Home Locations
» 4 Years for Murder = unbelievable
» Trump's Interview is "A display of unbelievable ignorance"
» Unbelievable antisemitism in the British Labour Party, illustrated
» 90 Seconds Into Singing 'The Prayer' His Voice Drastically Changes. This Is Unbelievable!
» 4 Years for Murder = unbelievable
» Trump's Interview is "A display of unbelievable ignorance"
» Unbelievable antisemitism in the British Labour Party, illustrated
» 90 Seconds Into Singing 'The Prayer' His Voice Drastically Changes. This Is Unbelievable!
NewsFix :: Science :: General Science
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Sat Mar 18, 2023 12:28 pm by Ben Reilly
» TOTAL MADNESS Great British Railway Journeys among shows flagged by counter terror scheme ‘for encouraging far-right sympathies
Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:14 pm by Tommy Monk
» Interesting COVID figures
Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:00 am by Tommy Monk
» HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:33 pm by Tommy Monk
» The Fight Over Climate Change is Over (The Greenies Won!)
Thu Dec 15, 2022 3:59 pm by Tommy Monk
» Trump supporter murders wife, kills family dog, shoots daughter
Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:21 am by 'Wolfie
» Quill
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:28 pm by Tommy Monk
» Algerian Woman under investigation for torture and murder of French girl, 12, whose body was found in plastic case in Paris
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:04 pm by Tommy Monk
» Wind turbines cool down the Earth (edited with better video link)
Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:19 am by Ben Reilly
» Saying goodbye to our Queen.
Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:02 pm by Maddog
» PHEW.
Sat Sep 17, 2022 6:33 pm by Syl
» And here's some more enrichment...
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:46 pm by Ben Reilly
» John F Kennedy Assassination
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:40 pm by Ben Reilly
» Where is everyone lately...?
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:33 pm by Ben Reilly
» London violence over the weekend...
Mon Sep 05, 2022 2:19 pm by Tommy Monk
» Why should anyone believe anything that Mo Farah says...!?
Wed Jul 13, 2022 1:44 am by Tommy Monk
» Liverpool Labour defends mayor role poll after turnout was only 3% and they say they will push ahead with the option that was least preferred!!!
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm by Tommy Monk
» Labour leader Keir Stammer can't answer the simple question of whether a woman has a penis or not...
Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:58 am by Tommy Monk
» More evidence of remoaners still trying to overturn Brexit... and this is a conservative MP who should be drummed out of the party and out of parliament!
Sun Jul 10, 2022 10:50 pm by Tommy Monk
» R Kelly 30 years, Ghislaine Maxwell 20 years... but here in UK...
Fri Jul 08, 2022 5:31 pm by Original Quill