The lucky breaks that make our Earth home
4/21/202618 min
What makes Earth special, and why are we here at all? In his book “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible,” astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi tackles the conditions needed to put life on Earth, from the formation of stars, to self-organizing molecules, to quantum weirdness and the nature of time. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to celebrate our place in the cosmos.
Read an excerpt from "Why Do We Exist?"
Guest:
Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is an astrophysicist and author of “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe that Make You Possible.”
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Flora Lichtman· Host0:30
[upbeat music] Hey, it's Flora Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday. Think back to earlier in the month when the Artemis 2 astronauts sent back those spectacular pictures from their trip around the moon. You know, there were a couple of shots of Earth that really made us think of Carl Sagan's comments on the pale blue dot. That's home. That's us. And with this being Earth Week, happy Earth Week to all who celebrate, we thought it'd be a good chance to get the big picture, the really big picture. What makes Earth so special, and why are we here at all? Joining me now is astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi. He's author of Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible. Welcome back, Hakeem.
Hakeem Oluseyi· Guest1:21
Thank you so much for having me.
Flora Lichtman· Host1:23
We love having you. I have to say, what I loved about your book is that you broke