The article was based upon a paper written for the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society by Prof. E. Harrison. If, said Harrison, some properties of the universe had been just a tad different, our universe would be barren of stars, light, and of course life itself. He mentions such properties as the strength of gravity, the charge on the electron, and the speed of light.
Further inquiry is unnecessary.
Before you crumple up this issue of SF and hurl it at very high energy into a wastebasket, consider these two paragraphs from the Times article. And we look down on the alchemists of yore. William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Free resource for people thinking about working at home.