Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe

by Martin J. Rees

Book Overview

How did a single "genesis event" create billions of galaxies, black holes, stars and planets? How did atoms assemble -- here on earth, and perhaps on other worlds -- into living beings intricate enough to ponder their origins? What fundamental laws govern our universe?This book describes new discoveries and offers remarkable insights into these fundamental questions. There are deep connections between stars and atoms, between the cosmos and the microworld...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465036732
• ISBN13: 9780465036738
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Speculations About the Implications of Cosmology

Popular science books are often so simplified that little is gained by reading them. Add equations, and some people will ignore the book. Become detailed in mathematics, and more people will be lost. Professor Rees has done a remarkable service in this outstanding book by taking mathematical ratios and exploring their implications in nonmathematical ways. The result builds a totally new metaphor for considering the structure of the universe . . . that of a stable system. He then takes that metaphor and uses it to build an understanding of the important unanswered questions about cosmology and how answers may be derived through a combination of experimenation, observation, and systems analysis. As a result, the nonscientist is brought into the "thinking" part of these scientific areas without needing to have much scientific background.I was attracted to the book by the concept of how six numbers could explain a great deal about the universe. The development of that theme turned out to be a pleasant surprise.The six numbers are:nu (a ratio of the strength of electrical forces that hold atoms together compared to the force of gravity which is 10 to the 37th power)epsilon (how firmly the atomic nuclei bind together which is 0.004)omega (amount of material in the universe)lambda (force of cosmic "antigravity" discovered in 1998, which is a very small number)Q (ratio of two fundamental energies, which is 1/100,000)delta (number of spatial dimensions in our universe)Doesn't look overwhelming, does it? Well, that highlights the book's strength, which is to explain the importance of these numbers. Basically, Professor Rees describes the background behind how the numbers were developed, then explores the implications of the number (especially by looking at what happens if the number was much larger or smaller), and then ties the number to implications for other cosmological questions and puzzles. Building from one to the next, he describes the current state of cosmological thinking through an architecture of these six numbers. To this summary of the known science, he adds his own conjectures by way of potential hypotheses for future testing.We are at an interesting time for cosmological study. Because our ability to peer into space is improving rapidly due to advances in space and earth telescopes, more kinds of observations can be conducted to test basic theories about the nature of the forces in the universe. We should expect rapid progress in knowledge, as a result. Stephen Hawking has placed a twenty dollar bet that the elusive "unified field theory" that frustrated Einstein will appear within twenty years (but you should also know that he just paid off a loss on the same bet). A pathway that follows along understanding superstrings of 10 dimensional matter seems promising in this regard for now. I found the writing to be very appealing in this book. Professor Rees is gifted in using examples to make the incomprehensible more meaningful

Give me 6 numbers, and I'll give you the world...

Could the entire universe be described with just six numbers? To an extent, that is what this book proposes. Another addition to the marvellous Science Masters series, this book looks at six important numbers that describe various aspects of our universe, and how the present state of the universe is largely describable by just these numbers.Rees actually goes further, by showing us also that these six numbers MUST not vary by much if a universe where intelligent beings can emerge is desired. He describes, for each number, what the universe would look like if that value was more or less than the observed one, and the consequences for intelligent life. Given that these six numbers require values within such a small range, does this mean that there must be a creator to explain how such precise values can come about? Not really. Some people prefer the Anthropic Cosmological Theory, which simply states that if these values were any different, we wouldn't be around to ask the question, so the values simply have to be what they are. Rees puts forward a different spin on this idea, which is his preffered explanation: There are several ways in which the universe may in fact be a `multiverse', an infinite number of disjoint universes, each with different starting configurations, and thus different values for the six numbers. This means that we do not need to find a special explanation for the values we see in this universe, since all possible values will occur in some universe.This is an all-round excellent book, covering a great deal of information in a very accessible manner. It is also a great way to get up to date with the latest findings and ideas in astronomy. It is possibly a bit difficult for the newcomer, but for anyone who's read a pop science book or two, it should be smooth sailing the whole way.

Much better than his last book

"Just Six Numbers" is a fascinating and quick read on how six crucial numbers describe the characteristics of the universe we live in. If any of them were changed ever so slightly, the character of our universe would change drastically and it would no longer be a friendly place for life to evolve. There are a dozen books a year written on cosmology at this level. I judge a book like this by how many times my brain lights up with an insight that I'd never realized before. This happened a lot more reading this book than Rees's previous book, "Before the Beginning" to which I gave three stars. Even if you read lots of books like this every year, you probably will not waste your time reading this one, especially since it is such a quick read.

Brilliant but Unnerving

The more one reads about science, the more one either does not believe in God or strongly believes in God. This book is rather unsettling in that it really points out some extraordinary facts about not just our existence but the existence of the universe.This book is very well-written by someone who is well known in the field. I liked the style here, it was constantly interesting to read, except at the end, where it seemed to me that dwelling on parallel or additional universes was rather pointless from a scientific perspective if one could never prove their existence. Outside of that, it was fascinating reading, even though I knew a lot about the area.One complaint, the book's size is obnoxiously narrow -- it was very difficult to read this way. I felt the publisher didn't have enough text to justify the price and came up with this idea to get more pages in.Anyway, enjoy. The one thing that science keeps showing over and over again is the incredible "strangeness" of existence. I can deal with the 3-dimensions and the omega of one, but the values of "E," the 23% helium created at the Big Bang, and mostly, the way the various energies of atoms result in the right prevalence of carbon created in the destruction of stars to create life on this planet, that's what keeps me up at night.

Challenging, informative reading for science buffs.

The author of this book, Sir Martin Rees, is the Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge University and holds the title of Astronomer Royal. One must assume, then, that the arguments that he puts forward in this book represent the very best thinking of what is to me a very esoteric science. He apologies for the slow gestation of this book, written especially for the Science Masters series. But in my mind he need not apologise as has completed a formidable assignment - that of explaining in everyday terms some of the leading-edge theories in the realm of cosmology. In this book Sir Martin shows how just six numbers, imprinted in the 'big bang', determine the essential features of the physical cosmos. He also shows that cosmic evolution is highly sensitive to the values of these numbers and that if any one of them were 'untuned' there could be no stars and no life. Or at least not in the way that we know them today. So what are these six fundamental numbers? The first is a ratio of the strength of the electrical forces that hold atoms together divided by the force of gravity between them. It is very large, about 1036, and were it a few zeros shorter, only a short-lived miniature universe could exist and there would be no time for biological evolution. The second number is also a ratio and is the proportion of energy that is released when hydrogen fuses into helium. This number is 0.007, and if it were 0.006 or 0.008 we could not exist. The third number, also a ratio, relates the actual density of matter in the universe to a 'critical' density. At first sight this number appears to be about 0.4. If this ratio were too high the universe would have collapsed long ago: if too low, galaxies or stars would not have formed. The fourth number, only recently discovered, is a cosmic 'antigravity' and appears to control the expansion of the universe even though it has no discernible effect on scales less than a billion light years. The fifth number is the ratio of the energy required to break apart a galaxy compared to its 'rest mass energy' and is about 10-5. If this ratio were smaller the universe would be inert and structureless: if much larger the universe would be so violent that no stars or sun systems could survive. The sixth number, surprisingly, is the number of spatial dimensions in our world (3). Life could not exist if this was 2 or 4. In this book Sir Martin discusses each of the above and develops reasons for the limits that he gives. He postulates that perhaps there are some connections between these numbers but states that at the moment we cannot predict any one of them from the values of the others. Perhaps a 'theory of everything' will eventually yield a formula that interrelates them. More thought provoking is Sir Martin's discussion of what or who 'tuned' these numbers. He identifies three scenarios. One is the hard-headed approach of 'we co