Amazon.com
Just six numbers govern the shape, size, and texture of our universe. If their values were only fractionally different, we would not exist: nor, in many cases, would matter have had a chance to form. If the numbers that govern our universe were elegant--1, say, or pi, or the Golden Mean--we would simply shrug and say that the universe was an elegant mathematical puzzle. But the numbers Martin Rees discusses are far from tidy. Was the universe "tweaked" or is it one of many universes, all run by slightly different, but equally messy, rules?
This is familiar ground, though rarely so comprehensively explored. What makes Rees's book exceptional is his conviction that cosmology is as materialistic and as conceptually simple as any of the earth sciences. Indeed, cosmology is simpler in one important respect: once the starting point is specified, the outcome is in broad terms predictable. All large patches of the universe that start off the same way end up statistically similar. In contrast, if the Earth's history were re-run, it could end up with a quite different biosphere.
Rees demonstrates how the cosmos is full of "fossils" from which we can deduce how our universe developed as surely as we infer the earth's past from the relics found in sedimentary rocks. Rees's theme is nothing less than the colossal richness of the universe. It is an ambitious book, but if anything, it deserves to be longer. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk
From Library Journal
Science writer and astronomer Rees summarizes the history of the universe, pointing out that six numbers related to basic physical constants (for example, the relative strengths of the gravitational and electromagnetic attraction) determine how the universe developed. In addition, he shows how, if these numbers were only slightly different, stars and galaxies would not form, complex chemistry would not be possible, and life could not evolve. This raises the interesting philosophical question, Why? One could dismiss the question by saying that, if it were otherwise, we wouldn't be here to ask or that there is some underlying theory as yet unknown that would show that these values must be what they are. However, Rees suggests that these numbers were set shortly after the big bang and could well have been different. Indeed, there may be a multitude of other universes, forever inaccessible to us, in which they are different. Thus, with a huge choice of possible universes, one must exist that could support intelligent beings who can observe and question. Whether one agrees or not with Rees's ideas, his book is recommended for its cogent synopsis of modern cosmologic thought. [BOMC alternate selection.]--Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUN.---Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Scientific American
Rees, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, advances the arresting proposition that the six numbers of his title play "a crucial and distinctive role in our universe, and together they determine how the universe evolves and what its internal potentialities are." Indeed, the numbers constitute a recipe for a universe, and "the outcome is sensitive to their values: if any one of them were to be 'untuned,' there would be no stars and no life." His cast of numbers is: N, measures the strength of the electrical forces that hold atoms together; E, defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together and how all the atoms on Earth were made; (, measures the amount of material in the universe; L, represents "an unsuspected new force--a cosmic 'antigravity,'" that controls the expansion of our universe; Q, represents the ratio of two fundamental energies; D, states the number of spatial dimensions in our world. Rees, smoothly traversing a scale of size from the cosmos to the atom, ponders a profound question about the fine-tuning of the six numbers as they affect our universe. "Is this tuning just a brute fact, a coincidence? Or is it the providence of a benign Creator? I take the view that it is neither. An infinity of other universes may well exist where the numbers are different. Most would be stillborn or sterile. We could only have emerged ... in a universe with the 'right' combination."
The New Yorker
"Rees...has written a brief, readable, and profoundly instructive account of where cosmological knowledge stands at this moment..."
The Economist Review
"a most unconventional page-turner: as with all the best thrillers, one is left dying to know what will happen next."
New York Times
"[Just Six Numbers] manages to be both a deep and an accessible book..."
From Book News, Inc.
Astronomer Rees (Cambridge U.) describes new theories in speculative cosmology in language accessible to the lay reader. The "six numbers" in the title refer to six constant values that describe and define everything from the way atoms are held together to the amount of matter in the universe. Coverage includes the relationship between the cosmos and the microworld, gravity, the periodic table, dark matter, planets, stars, and life in the universe.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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