https://phys.org/news/2018-11-exoplanets-continents-oceans-complex-life.html

The study – "Dependence of Biological Activity on the Surface Water Fraction of Planets", which is being reviewed for publication with The Astronomical Journal– was authored by Manasvi Lingam, a postdoctoral fellow with the CfA's Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC), and Abraham Loeb – the director of the ITC and the Frank B. Baird Jr. Chair of Science at Harvard University.

To begin, Lingam and Loeb address the issue of the anthropic principle, which has played a major role in astronomy and exoplanet research. In short, this principle states that if conditions on Earth are suitable to accommodate to life, then it must exist for the sake of creating life. Extended to the entire universe, this principle argues that the laws of physics exist as they do for the sake of giving rise to life.