From Real Clear Science:
To try to test how fine-tuned Hoyle’s resonance is, Meissner’s team ran a series of simulations with different average quark masses and with different fine structure constant values. As described in a paper published in December in the journal Science Bulletin, they found that if they gave either constant a value around two to three percent larger or smaller than its measured value, dying stars could still produce enough carbon to account for the amount we see on Earth. Previously, other groups found similar results for the fine structure constant, but Meissner’s group was the first to study what happens if the quarks’ mass varies.
Meissner acknowledges that the research does not answer why the values are what they are. To explain this, some physicists invoke a concept called the “multiverse,” in which “parallel” universes with many different possible values of the constants exist, and we, unsurprisingly, find ourselves in one in which complex life can evolve. Meissner says his team’s work “gives some credit” to this concept, but does not explain how the many universes would be generated.
“This paper strengthens the case for the fine-tuning of the universe,” agrees Luke Barnes, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney. Meissner’s team’s model of the carbon atom is more advanced than previous efforts, he said, especially because they can change the mass of the quarks.
Then we hear, “Others are less impressed.”
Why? Because there could be universes with different parameters from ours that could support types of life we can’t even imagine:
“Maybe if you change the quark masses not by three percent but by 50 percent you could end up with a situation where life as we know it couldn’t exist, but life as we don’t know it could exist,” he said.
In short, if we can just leave evidence out of it, we can dispense with fine-tuning.
See also: Copernicus, you are not going to believe who is using your name. Or how.
and How crazy it all gets when we ignore evidence in favour of speculation
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