Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

Focus is on experimental research and the scientific method
Includes numerous figures throughout to illustrate and animate the discussion
Novel analogies to broader cultural issues help to illuminate scientific concepts

Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

Description

How does the scientific enterprise really work to illuminate the origins of life and the universe itself?

The quest to understand our universe, how it may have originated and evolved, and especially the conditions that allow it to support the existence of life forms, has been a central theme in religion for millennia and in science for centuries. In the past half-century, in particular, enormous progress in particle and nuclear physics and cosmology has clarified the essential role of imperfections - deviations from perfect symmetry or homogeneity or predictability - in establishing conditions that allow for structure in the universe that can support the development of life. Many of these deviations are tiny and seem mysteriously fine-tuned to allow for life.

The goal of this book is to review the recent and ongoing scientific research exploring these imperfections, in a broad-ranging, non-mathematical approach with an emphasis on the intricate tapestry of elegant experiments that bear on the conditions for habitability in our universe. This book makes clear what we know and how we know it, as distinct from what we speculate and how we might test it. At the same time, it attempts to convey a sense of wonderment at the tuning of these imperfections and of the rapid rate at which the boundary between knowledge and speculation is currently shifting.

Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

Author Information

Steven E. Vigdor, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington

Steven Vigdor is a well-known experimental physicist with more than 45 years of experience in cutting-edge research in nuclear and particle physics. Currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Indiana University, he was formerly the Chair of that department and the Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). In the latter role, he oversaw in 2007-2012 operations of the largest U.S. facility for nuclear physics research — the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider — as well as all of BNL's research in nuclear and high-energy physics, and most of its efforts in accelerator science research. Since returning to Indiana in 2013, he has started a small business to develop state-of-the-art instrumentation for next-generation proton radiotherapy treatments of cancer, in parallel with the writing of this book.

Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

Reviews and Awards

"An interesting and unique contribution to the crowded field of popular scientific literature. The topics are well selected and [the author] omits no fundamental physics mysteries of consequence." - Don Lincoln, American Journal of Physics

"A romp from quantum mixing to the apparent metastability of the vacuum (given current measurements of the Higgs and top masses), with excursions into cosmology, biology and metaphysics." - Mark Rayner, CERN Courier

"Detailed chapters. He covers the most recent research... Highly recommended." - C.G. Wood, CHOICE

"Vigdor takes us on a breathtaking excursion around the perimeters of our physics knowledge, opening vistas for the connections between what lies beyond and our type of life. He wittily describes the landscape and, in more depth than most other authors, how we know what we know. And he wonders, is there an artist behind such an imperfect masterpiece?" - Ubirajara van Kolck, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

"This is a very carefully structured and well written book about the physical constraints that allow life to exist in the universe. It gives a much more detailed discussion of the relevant physics than comparable books, because the author is an experimentalist. However it does not lose sight of the big picture, and is entertainingly written and well illustrated. It is a good read." - George Ellis, University of Cape Town

Signatures of the Artist

The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

Steven E. Vigdor

From Our Blog

Bridging partisan divides over scientific issues

The current era in the Western hemisphere is marked by growing public distrust of 'intellectual elites.' The present U.S. administration openly disregards, or even suppresses, relevant scientific input to policy formulation.

Posted on June 27, 2018

Read the blog post

In defense of beating dead horses: probing a subtle universe

A February 2017 Workshop on Robustness, Reliability, and Reproducibility in Scientific Research was sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The workshop was part of NSF's response to growing concerns in Congress triggered by increasing media coverage of an apparent lack of reproducibility among findings, especially in clinical sciences. The participants, spanning diverse scientific subfields, were charged to assess the extent of any problems of reliability and reproducibility, and to formulate next steps toward solutions.

Posted on April 10, 2018

Read the blog post