by Paul Davies
22. The Goldilocks Enigma
* This is the version of the multiverse in which the laws of physics emerge randomly in the intense heat of the big bang and get fossilized in place, i.e. they are frozen accidents.
26. Is ET in Our Backyard?
* In recent years, NASA has embraced SETI once again as part of its broader astrobiology programme.
28. The Fate of Our Universe
* For the curious: it would be some sort of slowly evolving, self-interacting field with a novel equation of state, including negative pressure.
Index
acceleration, 32–5, 90
Adams, Fred, 131–2
alien beings, 133–5
Allen, Paul, 136
alpha decay, 20
Anderson, Carl, 60, 62
Andromeda galaxy, 13, 17, 24n
anthropic principle, 125, 132, 144
antigravity, 48, 54, 56–7
antimatter, 61–7
anti-particles, 60–62, 95
Anti-World, 67, 117
artificial intelligence (AI) see designed intelligence
astrobiology, 133
astronomy, 5, 13, 15–17, 39, 50–51, 71
asymmetries, 65–7, 83, 86–7
atomic unit of time, 142–4
Atomism, 94
atoms, 94–5
Augustine of Hippo, 112–13
Ayer, A. J., 155–6
‘baby universes’, 153–4
Bell, Jocelyn, 73–4
Bell Laboratory, New Jersey, 22
Benford, Gregory, Timescape, 78, 81
Benford, James, 138–9
beta decay, 63–4
big bang afterglow, 1, 46, 104, 127–30
big bang theory, 19, 22–3, 25, 29–30, 112
black holes
evaporation, 90, 162
formation, 71
gravitational fields of, 41, 75–7, 82, 86
temperature, 89, 90, 150, 151
the ‘Hawking effect,’ 88–92, 150
and spacewarps, 39
supermassive, 86, 127, 150
Boltzmann, Ludwig, 84, 120
Boltzmann brains, 120, 153
Boyajian, Tabetha, 138
Bunch, Timothy, 106–7
carbon, 124, 143–4
Carroll, Sean, 159
causal loop paradox, 80–82
Chandrasekhar,
Subrahmanyan, 68–71, 76, 86
chemical elements,
cosmic abundance, 105
formation of, 49, 50, 105
Chronology Protection
Hypothesis, 82, 165
CMB (cosmic microwave
background), 18, 21, 22–3, 25–6, 45, 46, 48, 63, 104, 107, 127, 150
COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite, 1–2, 23, 85, 104, 106, 127
Cold Spot of Eridanus, 127, 129
Comte, Auguste, 49
constants of nature, 132
Contact (film, 1997), 82
Copernicus, 2–3
Copleston, Fr Frederick, 112
cosmic Dark Age, 160–61
cosmic fossils, 104–10
cosmic rays, 61–2, 79
cosmology
modern, 2, 16, 22
Ptolemaic, 5
Crab nebula, 70
creation myths, 2
Crick, Francis, 135
curved space, 40–45
Cygnus constellation, 71
dark energy, 54, 56–8, 128–9, 148–9, 151, 161
dark matter, 50–52, 160
Democritus, 94
Descartes, René, 122
designed intelligence, 139
deuterium, 105
Dicke, Robert, 143–4
differential calculus, 7
dimensions, 100–102
Dirac, Paul, 59–61, 141–2
Doomsday argument, 145
Drake, Frank, 136
Duve, Christian de, 135
Dyson, Freeman, 137
E = mc2, 55
Eddington, Arthur, 37–9, 69
Einstein, Albert
antigravity, 53–4
and black holes, 71
on the comprehensibility of the universe, 155
‘cosmic religious feeling’, 92
and dark energy, 148
and dark matter, 160
scepticism about big bang, 19
general theory of relativity, 32, 160, 164
gravitational theory, 38–42, 79
and Mach’s principle, 35
model of a static universe, 40–43
and time warps, 73, 81
unifying theory, 97
electromagnetism, 96, 109, 164
electrons, 59–60, 66, 98, 151
Enceladus (moon), 134
entropy, 84–5, 86
Eridanus constellation, 127
eschatology, 147–9, 153
Escher, M. C., 41
Euclid (satellite), 161
Europa (moon), 134
European Space Agency, 161
event horizon, 75, 91–2
Everest, Mount, 73
expanding universe, 17–19
extra-terrestrial life, 133–40
fluxions, theory of, 7
Fraunhoffer, Joseph, 49
Friedman, Alexander, 19, 113
Fulling, Stephen, 91
galaxies, 17, 24n
Galileo, 6–7, 12, 31
Galle, Johann Gottfried, 51
gamma rays, 61, 63
Gamow, George, 20, 22, 105
Geiger counter, 62
Gell-Mann, Murray, 157
general relativity, theory of
and black holes, 71
and gravity, 38–43, 54
significance of, 16 3
and time travel, 78–9, 164
and time warps, 81–2
Global Positioning System, 73
gluons, 96–7
Gödel, Kurt, 81–2
gravitational clumping, 86
gravitational collapse, 68–71
gravitational lensing, 39
gravitational theory, 113, 147
gravitational waves, 41, 161
gravitons, 97–8, 109, 151
gravity
and black holes, 75
and the expanding universe, 17–19
fundamental force, 96, 97–8
and general relativity, 34, 35
Newton’s discovery of, 7–9
and spacewarps, 37–8
and time, 86–7
and time warps, 73–7
group theory, 157
Guth, Alan, 48
Hartle, James, 114–15
Hawking, Stephen
and baby universes, 154
and big bang theory, 22
Chronology Protection Hypothesis, 82
Hawking, Stephen – cont’d.
on the COBE satellite big bang photo, 1
the ‘Hawking effect’, 88–92, 150–51
origins of the universe, 113–15
‘theory of everything’, 92, 93, 98
Westminster Abbey headstone, 89
helium, 49, 105, 124,
produced in the big bang, 105
Heraclitus of Ephesus, 94
Herschel, William, 50–51
Hewish, Antony, 73–4
Higgs, Peter, 96
Higgs boson, 96, 98, 157
horizons (in space), 26–7
event horizon, 75, 91–2
Hoyle, Fred, 21–2, 77, 83, 123–4
Hubble, Edwin, 16–19, 44
Hubble Space Telescope, 13, 18, 161
‘Hubble wars’, 18
hydrogen, 105
hypersphere, 42, 43
infinity, of the universe, 8–9, 117–22
inflation theory, 47–8, 87, 106–7, 117–18, 153
intrinsic spin, 66, 99
Io (Jupiter’s moon), 12–13
James Webb optical and infrared telescope, 161
Jeans, James, 7
Kelvin, William Thomson, 1st Baron (Lord Ke
lvin), 84–5
Kepler, Johannes, 133
Lagrange points, 139
Large Hadron Collider (LHC), 55, 62, 79, 96, 100
laws of nature, 6, 28–9
laws of physics, 107–10, 115, 121, 162
Leeuwenhoek, Antoine van, 111
Leibniz, Gottfried, 7, 131, 165
Lemaître, Georges, 19, 20
Leucippus, 94
levitation, 53–4
life
carbon basis, 124, 132, 144,
extraterrestrial, 15, 133–4, 143
origin, 134–5
intelligent (see also SETI), 136–40
life-sustaining universes (see also anthropic principle), 125–6, 131–2
light, speed of, 12–13, 32
light years, 13
Lowell, Percival, 15, 134
Lowell Observatory, 15–16
Loys de Cheseaux, Jean-Philippe, 11
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), 138
M theory see string theory
M87 galaxy, 76, 150
Mach, Ernst, 33–5, 164
Mars, life on, 15, 134, 143
mathematics, 6–8, 156–8, 163, 165
Matrix, The (films), 122
Maxwell, James Clerk, 97
megastructures, 137–8
Mersini-Houghton, Laura, 128
Michell, John, 75
Michelson, Albert, 93
Milky Way, 51, 76, 134
Milner, Yuri, 136
mirror symmetry, 63–4
Montefiore, Hugh, Bishop of Birmingham, 155
motion, and relativity, 31–2
multiverse, 118–22, 124–6
muons, 95, 98n, 102–3
NASA, 23, 136, 138, 161
nebulae, 15–17
negative energy, 91
Neptune, 51
neutrinos, 51–2, 65, 95, 98, 106, 151
neutron stars, 70, 73–4
neutrons, 95
New Horizons spacecraft, 14
Newton, Isaac, 35, 75
bucket experiment, 33
infinite universe model, 8–9, 11–13, 40
law of gravity, 7–8, 34, 50, 56
laws of motion, 7, 97
nuclear forces, 96
Olbers, Heinrich, 11
‘Olbers’ paradox’, 11–14
Ophiucus constellation, 76
palaeo-cosmology, 107
particle accelerators, 157
particle physics, 95–103, 114, 157
Penrose, Roger, 22, 113
photons, 51–2, 63, 96, 98, 151
Pierre Auger Observatory, 79
Planck (satellite), 107
Planck, Max, 109
Planck length/time, 109–10, 114
population, world, 144–5
positrons, 60–61, 62
Principle of Sufficient Reason, 165
protons, 95, 151
Przybylski, Antoni, 138
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), 5
quantum fluctuations, 107
quantum gravity, 107, 109–10, 114, 154
quantum mechanics, 54, 56–8, 59, 82, 88–92, 98, 109–10, 114, 163
quantum physics, 162
quantum gravity, 162
quantum vacuum, 90, 91, 106–7, 120, 128–9
quarks, 95, 98, 157
quasars, 22
quintessence, 148–9
radiation, 56–7
red shift, 25–6
reductionism, 94, 155, 164
relativity see general relativity, theory of
Rømer, Ole, 12–13
Royal Astronomical Society, 69
Russell, Bertrand, 112
Sakharov, Andrei, 65, 67
Schiaparelli, Giovanni, 15
Schwarzschild, Karl, 71, 88–9, 113
Sciama, Dennis, The Unity of the Universe, 28
SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), 136–40
Simpson, George, 136
singularities (in spacetime), 69, 75, 113, 164
Sirius, 10, 13
Slipher, Vesto, 16–17, 24n
Smoot, George, 1
solar eclipse, 37, 38
space
curvature, 38, 41, 44–5
flatness of, 44–5
warped, 37–9
spin, of electrons, 66
Square Kilometre Array (SKA), 161
Standard Model of particle physics, 97, 98n, 99, 132, 162
starlight, 10–14
stars
composition and life cycle of, 49–50
death of, 89–90, 150
gravitational collapse, 68–71
steady state theory, 21–2, 111, 153
Stonehenge, 53–4
stretching of space, 25–6
string theory, 100–102, 107, 109, 129, 162
supernova, 70
supersymmetry, 100, 162
symmetry (in physical laws), 61–7
Tabby’s star, 138
tau particles, 95, 102–3
technosignatures, 137–8
Tegmark, Max, 119
telescope, Galileo’s use of, 7
‘theory of everything’, 93–103
thermodynamics, second law of, 84
Thompson, Francis, 35–6
time
speed of light, 12–13
and the universe, 112–13
time reversal, 63–5
time travel, 78–82
time warps, 72–7, 79–80, 82
time’s arrow, 83–7
topology, 101–2
torus, 102
universe
age of, 18
end of, 147–54
expanding, 17–19, 24–5, 43, 54
flawed, 131–2
and infinity, 8–9, 117–22
and laws of nature, 28–9
and mathematics, 6–7
mechanistic view of, 4–6
origins of, 111–16
self-devouring, 128–30
shape of, 39–45
simulated, 122
unified theory of, 93–103
uniformity (homogeneity) of, 46–7, 87
Unruh, William, 90, 91
Uranus, 50–51
vacuum, quantum see quantum vacuum
Viking spacecraft, 143
Voltaire, Candide, 131
W particle, 97, 98
Weinberg, Steven, 158
Wells, H. G.
The Time Machine, 80
The War of the Worlds, 15
Westminster Abbey, 59, 60, 89, 90, 151
Whewell, William, 133
white dwarfs, 68, 150
Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, 161
WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), 52
Witten, Edward, 129
wormholes, 67, 82
Z particle, 97, 98
Zeno of Elea, 94