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The Astonishing Power of Disequilibrium
A Tiny Bit Less Cold
Andy Fletcher, scientist and lecturer, said this:
“The universe arrived courtesy of big bang in the highest state of order, i.e. of thermodynamic equilibrium, that it would ever be in. The background temperature and density was perfect to one part in 100,000.”
But!
“That tiny imperfection, that tiny nudge of disorder, was the bit that expanded eventually into to the universe and ultimately to you and me being here. In the places where the temperature was a bit colder (by one part in 100,000), matter collected, matter that eventually clumped into gas clouds, which clumped into stars, which clumped into galaxies.”
Think about that. All you need is one part in100,000, one nanoscopic scoop of disequilibrium in the form of imperceptible cold, and voilà! Life. Without that bit, matter and antimatter would have swallowed each other up; and the “world” would have returned to nothing, waiting it out, again, for another big bang to “come along.”