Constants of Nature: From Beginning to End

Author: (British) Barrow, translated by Lu Dong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-04-01
Features: This book is a high-level popular science reading material and another significant work by Barrow, a renowned British popular science writer and professor at the University of Cambridge. The book begins with the fundamental physical quantities in daily life—meter, second, and kilogram for measuring space, time, and the weight of matter—and discusses the basic constants of nature. These constants include the strength of gravity, the magnitude of magnetism, the speed of light, and the mass of tiny particles of matter. The author believes that the constants of nature are a set of numbers that determine the essence of the universe. They reflect the profound mysteries of the universe, revealing why the universe is so vast, why it has existed for so long, how strong the forces in the universe are, and what changes the universe will undergo. Are these constants truly unchanging? Why does life appear only on one planet in the solar system? The book also reviews the history of human exploration of the constants of nature, including the contributions of scientific giants such as Newton and Einstein.