Human Universe

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The beauty of science at work, evidence for the Big Bang Theory. “It is sufficient to say that the discovery that the universe is still glowing at a temperature of 2.7 degrees above absolute zero was the final evidence that convinced even the most sceptical scientists that the Big Bang theory was the most compelling model for the evolution of the universe.” Cox talks about finding our place among the stars, when the ISS is hardly more than several solar-powered baked bean cans in low-earth orbit. Fewer than 20 people (all men) have set foot on any other body in the solar system – the moon – and none more recently than 1972. Plans to return people to the moon or go anywhere else are, to be charitable, at the pipe-dream stage. To talk of our place among the stars is at best premature, at worst hubristic. Still, this is not the bulk of the book. 95% and certainly the sections on the first four questions contain some of the best science writing currently available. It is highly recommended for that reason. In a world in which the vast bulk of the population have no inkling of what the universe is really like or our place in it and in which a democracy of the ignorant is lauded as the right and proper means of conducting ourselves, what this book contains is dynamite. The science method applied. “It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible.”

We are insignificant because we are highly vulnerable to the workings of a universe of unpredictable moving parts that does not appreciate our planet-bound biology very much and whose scale is far beyond our imagining except in awesome mathematical and theoretical terms. This was an amazing read. Brian Cox has a way of mingling mind-bending physics with his own brand of down-to-earth humor which results in a really entertaining read. I'm not a scientists by any stretch of the imagination, but the topics discussed in this book, from the moments before the Big Bang to 'Why are we here?' are explained and discussed in such a way, that anyone can follow the theories and enjoy discovering new science. Brian ( qua Clegg), who has allowed me to quote him, has a good point, but it misses the point I was making, which is essentially this: the attributes of any given species are not transferrable, because they cannot be fully appreciated by members of another species. We humans might very well write books and make TV programmes, but these seem so much more superior to, say, the tools of crows, because they are made and consumed by us, not crows. From the point of view of a crow, a human-made TV programme makes no sense at all and therefore has no value.Human evolution. “It is believed that around 7 or 8 million years ago we split from the chimpanzees and the process of evolution into bipedal Homo sapiens began as these monkeys started to spend more time on the ground than in the trees.” In the final episode of the series, Professor Brian Cox explores the future of our home planet, its unfolding relationship with the rest of the universe, and its effect on our destiny as a species. A brief history of life on Earth. “We are mammals, which first appeared 225 million years ago in the Triassic era.” Bertrand Russell: ‘Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.’

One of the central themes of this book has been to argue that the human race is worth saving because we are a rare and infinitely beautiful natural phenomenon. One of the other themes is that we are commonly and paradoxically ingenious and stupid in equal measure. I do not personally think that there is anyone out there to save us, and so it follows that we will have to save ourselves; at least, that would seem to me to be a good working assumption. This is why I don’t feel naïve, idealistic or like a particularly radical member of the Student Union in a Che Guevara T-Shirt when I ask the question ‘Is it reasonable to spend less on asteroid defence than on a footballer’s annual salary?’ When I look in the mirror and think about that, my face assumes an interesting shape – you should try it.

We also have stroppy teens saving the world

An excellent topic, answering big philosophical questions based on the best of our current knowledge. “This book asks questions about our origins, our destiny, and our place in the universe.” Accelerating then, through our ancestors, with bigger and bigger brains – increases that coincided with periods when the Earth’s orbit was at its most elliptical and the climate most volatile. Ah, you see it’s impossible to separate us from the cosmos, we’re all tied up together and it all comes down to physics in the end. He does manage to find a very big number, too, in his own head, and yours: 80bn neurons in our brains.