RT Article
T1 Evolution of Human Cognition Required Einstein's Gravitational Waves
JF Zygon
VO 60
IS 4
SP 1074
OP 1100
A1 Schutz, Bernard F. 1946-
A1 Piran, Tsvi 1949-
A1 Sutton, Patrick J.
A2 Piran, Tsvi 1949-
A2 Sutton, Patrick J.
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1963118545
AB This article describes an unexpected anthropic fine-tuning of gravity: human cognition arose on Earth only because the laws of gravity included gravitational waves. Their link is the heat from decays of the radioactive isotopes 238U and 232Th, which were synthesized mainly in rare explosive mergers of binary neutron stars, brought about by the loss of orbital energy to gravitational radiation. This heat, released in Earth's interior, has (1) maintained plate tectonics and (2) likely helped keep Earth's iron core molten. The core's magnetic field has protected all life from annihilation by the solar wind. More surprisingly, relative brain size, a proxy for cognition, has seen two sharp increases, first for mammals and then for humans, both attributed by evolutionary biologists to adaptations to major climatic changes caused by specific tectonic events. After the second event, the joining of North and South America, human brain size grew from chimpanzee levels to modern human ones. If the laws of gravity had not included gravitational waves, humans would not be capable of studying the laws of gravity.
K1 Evolution
K1 gravitational waves
K1 Human Cognition
K1 kilonovae
K1 plate tectonics
K1 radiogenic heat
DO 10.16995/zygon.23439