A Fortunate Universe

Geraint F. Lewis is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, University of Sydney. He undertook his undergraduate education at the University of London before gaining a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. Professor Lewis is an internationally recognised astrophysicist, and has published more than two hundred papers in a diverse range of fields, including gravitational lensing, galactic cannibalism, cosmology and large-scale structure. As well as being an accomplished lecturer, he regularly engages in public outreach through public speaking, articles in the popular press, and social media. Luke A. Barnes is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, University of Sydney. His university medal from the University of Sydney helped him earn a scholarship to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. He has published papers in the field of galaxy formation and on the fine-tuning of the Universe for life. He has been invited to speak at the 2011 and 2015 St Thomas Summer Seminars in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology, the University of California Summer School for the Philosophy of Cosmology, and numerous public lectures.

• Foreword Brian Schmidt; Preface; 1. A conversation on fine-tuning; 2. I'm only human!; 3. Can you feel the force?; 4. Energy and entropy; 5. The Universe is expanding; 6. All bets are off!; 7. A dozen (or so) reactions to fine-tuning; 8. A conversation continued; Further reading; References; Index.

'My colleagues, Geraint and Luke, in A Fortunate Universe, take you on a tour of the Cosmos in all of its glory, and all of its mystery. You will see that humanity appears to be part of a remarkable set of circumstances involving a special time around a special planet, which orbits a special star, all within a specially constructed Universe. It is these sets of conditions that have allowed humans to ponder our place in space and time. I have no idea why we are here, but I do know the Universe is beautiful. A Fortunate Universe captures the mysterious beauty of the Cosmos in a way that all can share.' Brian Schmidt, Australian National University, Canberra, and Nobel Laureate in Physics (2011), from the Foreword