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Science is understandably very interested in the idea that constants might change in the universe. The dials are set for life right now, but what if they change over time and space? I probably get a paper validating the speed of light about every other week in my inbox, and the fine-structure constant remains a subject of fervent speculation and experimentation. That one constant (otherwise known as the coupling constant) contains three other more fundamental constants—charge on the electron, velocity of light, and Planck's constant—and showing some variability in it would give some pretty big bang for the buck. Papers in 2010 and 2011 made strong cases for the fine-structure constant being variable over space and time.Read the rest over on Motherboard.Same with all of the other universal constants: too much variation means a dead universe
