Alejandro Jenkins
Encyclopedia
Alejandro Jenkins is a post-doctorate researcher of high energy physics at Florida State University
. Dr. Jenkins is a native of Costa Rica
. He received degrees from Harvard University
and the California Institute of Technology
.
His work with Robert Jaffe and Itamar Kimchi on the anthropic principle
and the possibility of life in universes with different cosmological constants was featured on the cover of the January 2010 Scientific American. It has better described the relationship between quark
mass and development of complex organic compounds.
The anthropic principle is based on the implicit assumption that life must operate on similar chemistry to our own, which has been criticized for being overly restrictive (sometimes called carbon chauvinism). If the weakest precondition for generic life is simply a sufficiently complex environment to allow reproduction and evolution, then any universe which could provide such complexity (in one form or another) could bring forth life.
to form as well as other factors critical to the formation of organic life on earth. They found that within the various potential "universes" they examined, many had very different qualities from our own, but that none-the-less life could still form. In some cases, where forms of carbon we find in our universe were impossible, different forms of stable carbon were predicted. In such a situation, life would still be possible.
This undercuts a fundamental component of the anthropic principle: that life can only arise under very specific conditions and that the specific structure of our universe is the way it is for the purpose of developing life. Their research suggests that even in universes very different from our own, life would still be possible. Therefore this makes the form of our universe look less "special."
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. Dr. Jenkins is a native of Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
. He received degrees from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
.
His work with Robert Jaffe and Itamar Kimchi on the anthropic principle
Anthropic principle
In astrophysics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the philosophical argument that observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. Some proponents of the argument reason that it explains why the Universe has the age and the fundamental...
and the possibility of life in universes with different cosmological constants was featured on the cover of the January 2010 Scientific American. It has better described the relationship between quark
Quark
A quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly...
mass and development of complex organic compounds.
The Anthropic Principle
In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the collective name for several ways of asserting that the observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the life observed in it. The principle was formulated as a response to a series of observations that the laws of nature and its fundamental physical constants remarkably take on values that are consistent with conditions for life as we know it rather than a set of values that would not be consistent with life as observed on Earth. The anthropic principle states that this apparent coincidence is actually a necessity because living observers would not be able to exist, and hence, observe the universe, were these laws and constants not constituted in this way.The anthropic principle is based on the implicit assumption that life must operate on similar chemistry to our own, which has been criticized for being overly restrictive (sometimes called carbon chauvinism). If the weakest precondition for generic life is simply a sufficiently complex environment to allow reproduction and evolution, then any universe which could provide such complexity (in one form or another) could bring forth life.
Jenkins' Contributions
To test this hypothesis, Jaffe, Jenkins and Kimchi used models to "tweak" the values of the quark masses and examined how that would affect the ability of isotopes of carbonCarbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
to form as well as other factors critical to the formation of organic life on earth. They found that within the various potential "universes" they examined, many had very different qualities from our own, but that none-the-less life could still form. In some cases, where forms of carbon we find in our universe were impossible, different forms of stable carbon were predicted. In such a situation, life would still be possible.
This undercuts a fundamental component of the anthropic principle: that life can only arise under very specific conditions and that the specific structure of our universe is the way it is for the purpose of developing life. Their research suggests that even in universes very different from our own, life would still be possible. Therefore this makes the form of our universe look less "special."
See also
- Quantum physics
- Inflation (cosmology)
- QuarkQuarkA quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly...
- Anthropic principleAnthropic principleIn astrophysics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the philosophical argument that observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. Some proponents of the argument reason that it explains why the Universe has the age and the fundamental...
- MultiverseMultiverseThe multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
- Feynman sprinklerFeynman sprinklerA Feynman sprinkler, also referred to as a Feynman inverse sprinkler or as a reverse sprinkler, is a sprinkler-like device which is submerged in a tank and made to suck in the surrounding fluid...
- many-worlds interpretationMany-worlds interpretationThe many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...