[.ca] Our Cosmic Habitat (ISBN 0297829017)

From Amazon.co.uk:
It's some two years between Our Cosmic Habitat and Sir Martin Rees' explanation why the universe is the way it is, thanks to Just Six Numbers. Six physical constants express our universe--a universe big enough and long-lived enough to engender consciousness. If the numbers were other than they are, we wouldn't be around to know about it. Our Cosmic Habitat is a smoother read, as Rees works his explanations inwards, from the physical world towards the numbers at its heart. But Rees offers more than a revamped description. The clue to the book's real value lies in the title. Our universe is a habitat. If you want to understand how a habitat works, you have to sweep away the trivia and the accidents, the merely local conditions, and uncover the underlying rules. And it isn't easy. Could it be that those six numbers could be very slightly different, and still give rise to a conscious universe? If, as Rees speculates, there may be many universes, spawning other universes, all the time, then maybe those six numbers of his merely reflect the rough conditions necessary for the existence of a world such as ours. If he is right, this has massive implications for the kinds of answers physics can at present offer. Sweating over the precise relations between these difficult numbers in the hope of uncovering a "unified theory" will turn out to be as futile as trying to predict the precise arrangement of a snowflake, a column of tap water, the whirl of a thumbprint. But this, it seems, is the perennial peril of science. One moment you're attaining an objective vision of underlying processes. The next, you're asking the equivalent of why, of all the bars in all the world, she had to walk into yours... --Simon Ings

A fine starter but nothing more:
Martin Rees masterpiece remains for sure "Just Six Numbers". In a few pages, he has been able to track the most intriguing mysteries of physics, by explaining how small changes in "just six numbers" could have prevented us from being... The idea behing this book is to cover quite broadly all the aspects of modern cosmology. The question which permeates the entire book is "is our existence just an accident, or do we exist because we had to (i.e. the laws of physics imply our existence)"? This is currently THE question in cosmology. After having tracked and measured the most significant quantities that set the laws of our universe, we have started to question "why" those numbers have the values that allows for our existence. Of course there is no answer in the book, but what is disappointing is that the book just looks like a collection of short stories and information already seen in other books. Whoever has already read books on cosmology, quantum mechanics and relativity will find just a repetition of short summaries, with a little characterisation by the author. The good point is that this book can surely be a good starter for neophytes.

cosmology for the layman:
Reading this book, my first in cosmology, I felt a bit like Jodie Foster in "Contact". It is doubtful you will find a better introduction to cosmology, particularly because through much of it, with a little imagination, Rees makes you feel you are riding a spacecraft. I have read two other books on theoretic physics since reading this one: Hawking's "Brief History of Time" and Kaku's "Hyperspace"; all three books focus on some of the main points since the modern concepts of physics are commonly held views. All three, which incidentally are all reader-friendly on this difficult subject, cover the chemistry of stars, quantum mechanics, the formation of galaxies, the history and future of the universe. In my opinion, 3 is better than 1. Rees' unique focus is on cosmic numbers; Kaku's focus is on higher dimensions and superstring theory; Hawking's is on black holes and the Big Bang.

Local bylaws and the multiverse:
The first nine chapters of this rather small book give us an excellent summary of our actual scientific and speculative cosmological knowledge. In the last two chapters the author explains why he believes that the history of our universe is just an episode (a particular Big Bang) in an infinite multiverse (see also Lee Smolin's 'The Life of the Cosmos'). This clearly written (a bonus) book tackles also other important items, like the risk for an encounter with a devastating asteroid, the impact of a unified theory on science, or the still more demote cosmic status of humanity - we are even not made of the dominant stuff in our universe. A very interesting read. Not to be missed.

Exellent Place to Begin:
I've only just started this book and am only thirty or so pages in, but I've already decided that it's one of the best books of its kind that I've ever read. I don't know what it is, exactly, about Rees, but his writings are always the most understandable expositions of scientific concepts and evidence out there, at least to me. Sure, there are many other fine writers, but none of them can do quite what Rees does. I do have an initial observation I would like to offer, however: If God created the universe and there is no other intelligent life out there, or any life at all, then he's a wasteful idiot. Just imagine the vastness of space - are you telling me he needed that much room just to make us? If the universe came about due to natural forces and there is no other intelligent life out there, or any life at all, then the universe is a stupid, idiotic place. Just imagine that vastness again - are you telling me that either the universe needed that much space just to produce us, or that in all that vastness it could not come up with anything else? I'm prepared for either event and I don't really care if there is intelligent life "out there" or not, but I know at least one thing - the absence of life/intelligence outside of earth would be solid proof of either God's or the unvierse's inadequacy.

Deep Mysteries of the Cosmos Simply Told:
Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, wonderfully tells everything about cosmology in this concise book. The reader is lead to a quick tour from Big Bang to biospheres, from the beginning to the end of the universe, and from the micro-world to the cosmos. Yet the description is not superficial but very deep. Among many of mysteries we learn from this book, let me mention only a few big ones. (1) Dark matter: This prevails over visible matter in constituting the total energy of the universe. It is the No. 1 problem in astronomy today, and ranks high as a physics problem, too. (2) Vacuum energy: This is the origin of the accelerating expansion of the universe. Its nature is a challenge to theorists; it holds important clues to the early universe and the nature of space. (3) Other universes: Our universe may be just one of them. While seeming to be in the province of metaphysics rather than physics, these already lie within the proper purview of science. The author says that the phrases often used in popular books, "final theory" and "theory of everything," are very misleading and that some of nature's complexity may never be explained and understood. These words just made the scales fall from my eyes. I strongly recommend this book to laypersons interested in astronomy, cosmology, problems at the boundary between science and philosophy, and the deep mysteries of nature.