Week 43 - A view of the cosmos

I started off this last week full of the joys of living and keen to get a whole lot of tasks done. I thought my digestion was back to normal, but that was not so – Every second day I feel a bit more normal, and then do a little exercise, and then I have had diarrhea and cramps, so I have had to backtrack and look after myself much more carefully. Seems to be working, but my body is responding very slowly while on interferon.

So this week I kept a low profile – For two days mostly horizontal! – and caught up on some reading. Funny how when you’re not feeling good, you also don’t feel like reading the things you should. I found I had to goof off, reading Robert Parker stories, which are fun and don’t take too much concentration. I have a few books and magazines on my bedside table and keep intending to read them, but you know how it is … The road to hell is paved with good intentions, etc!

You remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears I’m sure? When Goldilocks tasted their porridge, the first was too hot, the second was too cold, but the third plate was just right! The topic of just why we live on a planet / in a galaxy which seems to be just right for life has been a hot topic for some years now. First the anthropic principle, as it was called, had some bad press. But times change, views change, and now everyone who is anyone has something to say on this. So I have been reading Paul Davies’ latest book, The Goldilocks Enigma. Davies sets out to give a quick summary of the state of knowledge, and all the new theories, about the cosmos, and then use all of this to explain exactly why our world is ‘just right’.

The problem with trying to write a book like this lies in identifying the target audience. If you set your sights too high, and assume that readers are already familiar with quarks, leptons and bosons, not to mention dark matter and dark energy, then the number of people who would buy the book will be very small indeed. At the other end of the scale, if you write it for a mass market (Sunday newspaper; television…) then you really have to leave out most of the important and interesting detail, and cut directly to the final conclusions. It is no easy task.

I think Davies does an admirable job, but this book is not for you if you don’t already have a scientific background. The problem is that, to get to where he is going in the discussion, he has to teach the reader an enormous of stuff. So, I found this an excellent book to bring me up to date with current knowledge and ideas in cosmology. But I keep wondering how many people will buy the book, read the first few pages, and then put it aside when it gets too difficult!

So what is the relevance of the picture on this page? Well, after all this discussion of cosmology and the wonders of the cosmos, dark matter, string theory, etc, I was reminded of the glorious Cosmos flowers which grow as weeds, and start flowering from now until late autumn all over the region where I live. Cosmos comes originally from Mexico, and has made itself at home on the eastern highlands of South Africa. The show depends to some extent on the early summer rains, so is different from year to year.