The Most Breathtaking Fact About Our Universe

One of the most profound facts that physicists have come to understand is that “to an astonishing degree, nature is the way it is because it couldn’t be any different.” This is a subtle reality about the universe in which we find ourselves.

In nature, there are various fundamental particles that form the building blocks of matter that makes up everything – us, the world around us and the universe at large. Some of the well-known particles are electrons (negatively charged particles), photons (particles of light), quarks (elementary particles that make up protons).

A very basic fact about these particles is that they have certain unique properties and behavior. And it is this nature of these particles that govern very specific kind of interactions that they can have with other particles or with themselves. The special conditions under which these particles interact are called “constraints” placed on them and the way they can act. Physicists have come to the realization in the past several decades that it is due to these particular and special features of these particles that we have the various kinds of forces in nature: from the strong and weak forces that shape the atom to the electromagnetic and gravitational forces that sculpt the entire universe.

In other words, the basic features of the fundamental particles have caused the laws of physics to be the way they are. This is called the “inevitability” of the laws of physics – the laws governing nature result inevitably or necessarily from the special attributes of the particles that make up everything.

It is indeed one of the most profound truths about our universe. The laws of nature are an essential part of our lives – they make us walk on earth, drive down a road without slipping away and most importantly, have given us the modern-day technology on which are lives are dependent. These laws that make the functioning of the world possible are not random or haphazard. Rather, these laws of nature actually result from the very makeup of the most basic particles that constitute everything.

One is reminded of an attribute of God Almighty stated in the Quran: “Our Lord is He who has given everything its form, then guided it.” (20:50) Studies in science inform us that if the fundamental particles did not have the kind of “form” that they do have, the universe would have not existed at all. We humans would have not been here. The world we live in has been endowed with such characteristics that it makes sustaining life possible. The Quran describes the Creator thus: “His are the most exalted attributes in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (30:27)

(reference: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-simple-rules-bootstrap-the-laws-of-physics-20191209/)

Note: This article was first published on https://www.mariakhan.in. We are grateful to the author Maria Khan for accepting that we reproduce it on our web portal.