A good time to begin our backward running of the clock might then be the period when atoms could form and persist as stable units.
Some atoms cannot form the maximum possible number of bonds a ligand could make.
Certain atoms, such as oxygen, due to their number of electrons, will almost always form bent angles.
A crystal is a solid where the atoms form a periodic arrangement.
Had this adjustment been set a little higher or lower than it was, atoms would not have formed and there would be no life.
Naturally, people find themselves in one where alpha allows atoms to form.
If the atoms do not form molecules, the reaction will definitely require energy overall.
These atoms also form tetrahedron centered by the Si2 sites.
"There's something special about the recombination time, when atoms form, but we don't know why."
But in the earliest stages of the big bang, atoms couldn't form.