Outer Space and Martin Rees – reading suggestions

Steph P. Bianchini August 16, 2018 5 Comments

Every space lover has heard of Martin Rees, I bet.

He’s (among other things) a UK Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He also often attends SF Conventions, as he did a few years ago (at Eastercon in 2014, where I had the pleasure to listen to him).

What I like the most is his enlightening articles and interviews about outer space, the difficult marriage between quantum and gravitational theories, aliens and whatnot. I just created a quick list of suggestions for reading.

• What is nothing? Martin Rees Q&A

(Here he explains that when physicists talk about nothing, they mean empty space (vacuum). But there’s nothing as such. And there’s more. “The fact that empty space exerts a large-scale force was discovered 20 years ago. Astronomers found that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. This was a surprise. The expansion had been known for more than 50 years, but everyone expected that it would be slowing down because of the gravitational pull that galaxies and other structures exert on each other. It was therefore a big surprise to find that this deceleration due to gravity was overwhelmed by something “pushing” the expansion. There is, as it were, energy latent in empty space itself, which causes a sort of repulsion which outweighs the attraction of gravity on these large scales. This phenomenon – dubbed dark energy – is the most dramatic manifestation of the fact that empty space is not featureless and irrelevant. Indeed it determines our universe’s long term fate.”)

• Aliens & very strange universes

(He mentions something about alien life I’ve been convinced for long time. “But just because there’s life elsewhere doesn’t mean that there is intelligent life. My guess is that if we do detect an alien intelligence, it will be nothing like us. It will be some sort of electronic entity. If we look at our history on Earth, it has taken about 4 billion years to get from the first protozoa to our current, technological civilisation. But if we look into the future, then it’s quite likely that within a few centuries, machines will have taken over – and they will then have billions of years ahead of them.”)

• Black holes are simpler than forests and science has its limits

(Here’s the scientist’s take on one of the most mysterious and compelling phenomena of the universe. However, he claims, life is even more difficult to understand. “Atoms and astronomical phenomena – the very small and the very large – can be quite basic. It’s everything in between that gets tricky. Most complex of all are living things. An animal has internal structure on every scale, from the proteins in single cells right up to limbs and major organs. It doesn’t exist if it is chopped up, the way a salt crystal continues to exist when it is sliced and diced. It dies.”)

• Cosmic Thinker Worries about Ends of Science and Humanity

(Rees contributes to the discussion about a forthcoming Martian colony. Guess what? He’s not in favour. “I disagree strongly with Elon Musk, and with my Cambridge colleague Stephen Hawking, who advocate rapid build-up of  large-scale Martian communities.  It’s a dangerous delusion to think that space offers an escape from Earth’s problems. We’ve got to solve these here. Coping with climate change may seem daunting, but it’s a doddle compared to terraforming Mars. There’s no ‘Planet B’ for ordinary risk-averse people. However, I think (and hope) that there will be bases on Mars by 2100. But the practical case for sending people gets weaker as robots improve. So the only manned ventures will be high-risk, cut price, and privately sponsored –undertaken by thrill-seekers  prepared to accept one-way tickets. They’re the people who will venture to Mars.“)

There’s far more available out there on the web, of course, but these four recent articles are good starting points.

For a profile of Martin Rees, see this entry on the Royal Society‘s website.