My daughter has finally found a sport that she likes. She had tried soccer, track, and softball and none of them held Beth's interest. Schools around here start volleyball in the fifth grade with the fifth and sixth graders combined in one team that competes against other schools. Last year, when Beth was in the fifth grade her school had to cancel volleyball because they couldn't get enough girls interested. Keep in mind that it only takes six girls to make a team!

This year the school had ten girls so they were able to form a team. The only problem is that on most of the teams that Beth's team has been competing against at least half of the players are sixth graders who competed last year. This has put Beth's team at a distinct disadvantage but they have still played hard in every match.

Last night was their seventh match. When we got to the school where the match was being held we found out that only six girls on Beth's team were showing up so Beth and her five teammates would have to play the entire match without a substitution. The other team had twenty girls. I figured that the other school must take their volleyball very seriously and didn't think Beth's team had a chance.

The first game was hard fought and finished at 29-27 to the other team. Beth's team never looked back. They won the next two games to take the match. This was the first match they had won. The girls were exhausted and excited. I overheard the other coach talking about Beth and her teammates. "What a plucky group of girls," she said. That's my daughter... plucky!

The Anthropic Principle is actually quite an interesting theory. The reason the Universe exists the way it does is because if it existed any other way then we couldn't be here to ask why the Universe is the way it is. For example, if the gravitational constant was a bit stronger then stars would collapse into black holes before they could ignite. If the electromagnetic force was a little weaker then electrons would stream off from protons and atoms could never form. If the strong force was a little stronger then nuclear reactions would be impossible and stars would never light up.

There are, in fact, many possibilites associated with the Anthropic Principle. The first is that there are an infinite number of universes and we evolved in this one because this one happened to have the right combination of constants. Another, far more daring theory, is that the Universe needs a quantum observer in order to actually exist.

All this is in way of introduction to my review of the book, The Constants of Nature. This could have been a very good book as it discusses a lot of the ideas around the Anthropic Principle and associates it with the constants of nature, including the fine structure constant. Unfortunately, the author doesn't do a convincing job nor does he go deep enough to make the book a very interesting read.

Some of the errors in the book are comical. For example, he states (although I am sure he doesn't mean to) that solar eclipses are caused by the Earth's shadow falling on the Sun. But others are more subtle. For example, he discards the quantum observer theory by claiming that any observer, even a photographic plate, would serve the role of an observer. However, a quantum physicist might tell you that until someone actually develops and views the plate that what is on the plate is still only a quantum probability.

The book isn't all bad and parts are actually quite fascinating especially if the topic is unfamiliar but overall there must be better books out there that cover similar topics.

You can see the full review here.