“[The fine structure constant] ... defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together and how all the atoms on Earth were made. Its value controls the power from the Sun and, more sensitively, how stars transmute hydrogen into all the atoms of the periodic table.”
Martin J. Rees“God invented space so that not everything had to happen in Princeton.”
Martin J. Rees, Our Cosmic Habitat“[The fine structure constant] ... defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together and how all the atoms on Earth were made. Its value controls the power from the Sun and, more sensitively, how stars transmute hydrogen into all the atoms of the periodic table.”
Martin J. Rees, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe