Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vog Obam. Here, what's the key to unlocking the
Speaker 1: mysteries of the universe? If you're expecting an incantation in
Speaker 1: some ancient language originally divined by a holy quester sitting
Speaker 1: cross legged on a mountaintop, this answer may disappoint you.
Speaker 1: It might just be a number and not the number
Speaker 1: forty two. Douglas Adams really was just joking about that,
Speaker 1: but it could be the number A hundred and thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Those three digits, as it turns out, have long been
Speaker 1: the rare object of fascination that bridges the gulf between
Speaker 1: science and mysticism, igniting the imaginations of folks from fringe
Speaker 1: theorists and occultists to scientists and researchers to physicists. A
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty seven is the approximate denominator of the
Speaker 1: fine structure constant, which is the measure of the strength
Speaker 1: of the electromagnetic force the controls how charged elementary particles
Speaker 1: such as the electron and the muon interact with photons
Speaker 1: of light. And we say approximate because it actually goes
Speaker 1: on for a few decimal points. The exact value of
Speaker 1: the fine structure constant is one over a hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty seven point zero three five nine nine three. The
Speaker 1: fine structure constant is one of the key physical constants
Speaker 1: of the universe. Writing about it in a recent New
Speaker 1: Scientist article, author Michael Brooks explained this immutable number determines
Speaker 1: how stars burn, how chemistry happens, and even whether atoms
Speaker 1: exist at all. Let's unpack all of that a little bit.
Speaker 1: We spoke via email with Paul Davies, Regents Professor physics
Speaker 1: at Arizona State University. He explained that the fine structure
Speaker 1: constant quote characterizes the strength with which matter couples to light.
Speaker 1: That is, the probability that an excited atom will decay
Speaker 1: in a certain time. He said that if the constant
Speaker 1: was bigger quote, Adams would decay faster. It is significant too,
Speaker 1: because it is a pure number, he said, a ratio
Speaker 1: of quantities with equal units, unlike say, the speed of light,
Speaker 1: which is either a hundred and eighty six thousand miles
Speaker 1: per second or three thousand kilometers per second, depending on
Speaker 1: which units you prefer. British physicist Lawrence Eaves once explained
Speaker 1: it this way. If the fine structure constant was a
Speaker 1: different value quote, physics, chemistry and biochemistry would be totally
Speaker 1: different and we might not be around to talk about it.
Speaker 1: But practically, from the time of its discovery in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifteen by German physicist Arnold Summerfeld, the fine structure constant
Speaker 1: seemed to signify some larger metaphysical truth as well. We
Speaker 1: spoke with Arthur I. Miller, and emeritus Professor of History
Speaker 1: and Philosophy of Science at University College London. He said
Speaker 1: that the fine structure constant quote, determines the distance between
Speaker 1: an atom's spectral lines, which are the Adam's DNA, and
Speaker 1: so it's one of those numbers that is at the
Speaker 1: root of the universe. If it were any other value
Speaker 1: than the structure of matter would be very different, and
Speaker 1: so us too. People began referring to it as a
Speaker 1: mystical number. He continued the language of the spectra, the
Speaker 1: spectral lines, where Somemrfeld found it is a true music
Speaker 1: of the spheres within the atom. People asked why it
Speaker 1: has this particular value. Physicists could only conclude that it
Speaker 1: cannot have this value by accident. It is out there
Speaker 1: independent of the structure of our minds. But in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine, English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, who played a key
Speaker 1: role in establishing the validity of Albert Einstein's general theory
Speaker 1: of relativity and was an early advocate of the Big
Speaker 1: Bang theory, among other things, began expressing the fine structure
Speaker 1: constant as one over a hundred and thirty seven. He
Speaker 1: also saw it as having larger spiritual implications. Miller said,
Speaker 1: Arthur Eddington saw a new mysticism which would emerge from
Speaker 1: the natural sciences. Perhaps he thought the clue lay in numbers,
Speaker 1: particularly the number one thirty seven. Eddington's reputation as one
Speaker 1: of the great astrophysicists of his day put a great
Speaker 1: deal of weight on this approach. Physicist Richard Feynman predicted
Speaker 1: that the periodic table would end at one thirty seven
Speaker 1: based on the rules of relativity, and Austrian born quantum
Speaker 1: physics pioneer Wolfgang Paully became fascinated with the number as well,
Speaker 1: since it figured in the mysterious intersection of relativity and
Speaker 1: quantum theory that he explored with the help of his
Speaker 1: friend psychoanalyst Carl Young. The scientific fixation on the fine
Speaker 1: structured constant was such that in nineteen thirty six, Nature
Speaker 1: published an article titled the Mysterious Number one seven. But
Speaker 1: as Polly learned in the nineteen fifties from a religious scholar,
Speaker 1: A hundred and thirty seven has another significance. It was
Speaker 1: the number associated with the Kabbalah, an esoteric form of
Speaker 1: Jewish mysticism, what Miller calls quote an extraordinary link between
Speaker 1: mysticism and physics. The number A hundred thirty seven also
Speaker 1: appears frequently in the Torah. It's the lifespan in years
Speaker 1: of figures such as Ishmael and Levy, for example, as
Speaker 1: well as the age of Abraham when he bound his
Speaker 1: son Isaac to an altar in preparation to sacrifice him.
Speaker 1: Author Billy Phillips, writing for kabbala student dot com, explained
Speaker 1: that beyond that, the relationship of the fine structure constant
Speaker 1: to light in physics parallels the combolists concept of connecting
Speaker 1: with light or becoming enlightened by shedding the ego. Phillips
Speaker 1: put it this way, the missing puzzle piece for physics
Speaker 1: is consciousness. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler clang. To learn more about the
Speaker 1: number A hundred thirty seven, check out Miller's book seven
Speaker 1: Young Polly and the Pursuit of a Scientific Observation, and
Speaker 1: of course, for more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: articles that attempt to explain life, the universe, and everything,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.