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Our universe seems strangely ´´biophilic,´´ or hospitable to life. Is this happenstance, providence, or coincidence? According to cosmologist Martin Rees, the answer depends on the answer to another question, the one posed by Einstein´s famous remark: ´´What interests me most is whether God could have made the world differently.´´ This highly engaging book explores the fascinating consequences of the answer being ´´yes.´´ Rees explores the notion that our universe is just a part of a vast ´´multiverse,´´ or ensemble of universes, in which most of the other universes are lifeless. What we call the laws of nature would then be no more than local bylaws, imposed in the aftermath of our own Big Bang. In this scenario, our cosmic habitat would be a special, possibly unique universe where the prevailing laws of physics allowed life to emerge.

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"Rees provides a nice summary of how we got here, how the universe began and how it might end. . . . Lay readers will appreciate Rees´ clear, uncomplicated prose, even when dealing with tough stuff that leaves most physicists tongue-tied. Most welcome of all, he explains how scientists know what they claim to know."--K.C. Cole, Los Angeles Times

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Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a former director of the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy and author, most recently, of the bestselling Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe.

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