Ask Ethan: Why is there something instead of nothing?
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe at all is simply that it, and everything in it, exists. But what’s the reason why?
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe, if you think about it on a truly fundamental level, is that it exists at all. And yet, not only does it exist, but there’s matter within it, which obeys the same rules everywhere and at all times, and assembles according to the physical laws governing reality to create, among other things:
- atomic nuclei,
- neutral atoms,
- molecules,
- stars and planets,
- galaxies,
- and a large-scale cosmic web.
Not only that, but in at least one relatively unremarkable corner of this Universe, a planet arose some 4.5 billion years ago where life survived and thrived, eventually giving rise to an intelligent, self-aware species that can ask deep questions about the Universe they inhabit.
In doing so, we’re also asking fundamental, deep questions about our own selves, as we’re just as much a part of this Universe as any inanimate objects that exist. That’s what led Steve Cordon to write in and ask one of…
