大象传媒

Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.

Given all that we now know about the formation of stars and planets and the evolution of life on Earth, it might seem as if the mystery is being taken out of the universe. However, every solution seems to throw up a deeper mystery. Within our understanding of physics, there are no known fundamental reasons for much of the astronomical phenomena that we observe. Of course, we can only observe a universe that supports life. This is known as the anthropic principle and has far-reaching implications. Some argue that it makes the universe very special, as if we were meant to be, while others suggest that we inhabit one of the few bio-friendly corners in an almost infinite multiverse of possibilities.

Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.