Cosmic coincidences part 1

New Scientist magazine this week has an article that discusses some of the unlikely happenings that occurred in the universe en route to the arrival of us.

In the first moments of the Big Bang matter and antimatter were present in equal amounts. The thing is that when these two come into contact with one another they wipe each other out in a spray of photons, so in theory that's all that should be left of the universe.

However the reality is another matter, so to speak. Matter won the day over antimatter and in doing so creating a universe that really does matter.

Something tipped the balance in favour of matter and in doing so allowed a universe to develop in which life could exist.

Something seems to have favoured the creation of matter at a crucial moment within the first instants after the big bang.