20 notes

We detect the light from distant quasars only because the laws of electromagnetism are the same ten billion light-years away as here. The spectra of those quasars are recogonizable only because the same chemical elements are present there as here, and because the same laws of quantum mechanics apply. The motion of galaxies aroud one another follows familiar Newtonian gravity. Gravitational lenses and binary pulsar slow-downs reveal general relativity in the depths of space. We could have lived in a Universe with different laws in every province, but we do not. This fact cannot but elicit feelings of reverence and awe.