JUST SIX NUMBERS
What shook the scientific community can be summarized by focusing on a set of six very important numbers, some very large, some very small. Our universe is governed by these six numbers—constants that were established at the moment of the “Big Bang.” If any of them were just slightly different, then stars, planets, the elements themselves, and all life-forms could not exist. If these constants were any different, our universe simply could not exist in its current form. They do not appear as units of length, mass, time, or temperature, but as simple, dimensionless numbers that result from measuring such things. And, once more for emphasis, as a fact of science, the universe as we know it could not exist if these constants were to vary or change by more than the most miniscule amounts!
The situation is a bit like the old story of “Goldilocks.” Upon entering the home of the Three Bears and tasting one of three bowls of porridge, Goldilocks says, “This porridge is too hot!” So, she tastes the porridge from the second bowl. “This porridge is too cold.” She then tastes the last bowl of porridge. “This porridge is just right,” she says happily, and eats it all up. Our universe had to be a Goldilocks universe—“just right”—to be anything like the universe in which we exist.
This fact is explained quite well by Sir Martin Rees in his acclaimed book, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe. Rees was a Royal Society Research Professor, is Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at Cambridge University, and holds the title of Astronomer Royal. He is also a member of the Royal Society, the United States’ National Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is well-qualified to comment on the constants that govern the physics of the universe.