Just Finished Reading: Human Universe by Professor Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen (FP: 2014)

Science often shies away from the BIG Questions, not so Brian Cox in this interesting informative and often funny book. Reading it is more like having a conversation with an intelligent and endlessly curious person than turning dry pages relating an even dryer subject. The author (ably aided by the BBC producer of the TV series on which the book is based) is easily able to get across his boyish and infectious enthusiasm for Science in all its many guises. Starting with the apparently simple question: Where Are We? He explores the early attempts to place us, and the Earth, in the context of the Universe and the increasing realisation that each discovery moved us further from the centre of things. Moving on to one of my favourite questions: Are We Alone? The author surprised me by coming to the conclusion that, although he expects our galaxy to be teaming with life he has little expectation that any of it will be intelligent. His opinion, which I don’t share by the way, is that intelligence is so rare that it is highly unlikely that two intelligent species capable of sending messages into the void will occupy a similar volume of space at the same time – answering Fermi’s Paradox of where is everyone? I thought that was a bit of a leap personally especially when we only have a single example to work from (which he reminded us more than once). Yes, intelligence took a long time to appear on Earth and the journey there wasn’t exactly without incident but who knows how it could have gone on other worlds? Not that I have an answer for Fermi…..

Who Are We? Moves out of the author’s comfort zone – or at least his qualified comfort zone to look at human evolution and anthropology. It’s a well-trodden story from Ape-man, to Man, to Space-Man (almost shades of 2001 but not quite). Naturally the author couldn’t really do justice to our heritage and progress since our early knuckle dragging days in a single section and, of course, never really tried. He did however mention several times the fact that always leaves me open mouthed – that someone could have experienced Man’s first powered flight and the first landing on the Moon as these are only 66 years apart. That still sends a shiver through me every time I think about it!

Finally we move onto the biggest of the big questions: Why Are We Here? Not, as you might expect, an attempt to answer the meaning of life the universe and everything but something rather deeper – why is the universe seemingly made for us. After all if any of the ‘Laws’ of the Universe had been ‘off’ by only a few percent then life or much else would have been impossible. So was the universe made for us? Of course it turns out that it’s the exact opposite – we are made for the universe. There is also increasing actual evidence to suggest that ‘our’ universe is one of many (no longer just a left-field theory justified by some convoluted mathematics) and that each of these sister universes have different ‘Laws’ which makes our Goldilocks existence somewhat less inexplicable.

Lastly the author looks ahead with the question: What Is Our Future? Picking just two possibilities the author considers just how little we spend on a credible asteroid defence system (looking for giant rocks falling from the sky – never mind doing anything about them once they’re detected) which amounts to less than the salary of a reasonably well-paid footballer. The other possibility (or hope actually) is for humanity to finally make it into space in ever increasing numbers – and staying there. One can but hope….

This is a very good overview of some of the latest science out there presented in an easily digestible format. The author is a past master at explaining sometimes difficult concepts (he only really ‘lost me’ once) in ways that practically anyone can understand. You’ll appreciate this if you’ve ever seen any of his TV appearances. Of course the great thing is his enthusiasm which he manages to pass on to his readership and his viewers – the idea that not only can you understand this sort of thing but that it’s interesting and even fun. Recommended and with more of his works to follow.