Alejandro Jenkins

Alejandro Jenkins
Born 1979
San Jose, Costa Rica
Fields Physicist
Institutions Florida State University
Alma mater California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Costa Rica.

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.

Research

Quark mass and congeniality to life

The anthropic principle

Main article: 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.

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 carbon 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.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert L. Jaffe, Alejandro Jenkins, Itamar Kimchi, Quark Masses: an environmental impact statement, Physical Review D 79, 065014 (2009)
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