Our Cosmic Habitat by Martin Rees, Princeton University Press, $22.50,
ISBN 0691089264
The theme that ties Our Cosmic Habitat together is the simple question: why
are we here? In what is probably the clearest and most easily understandable
account of our Universe available, Martin Rees, leading cosmologist and
Astronomer Royal, doubts if this could just be the result of mere chance or
preordained design. The Universe has just the right properties to allow
intelligent life to arise. If, for example, the ratio of the strengths of the
electrical and nuclear forces was not close to what we see, the elements…
