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George Greenstein, professor of astronomy
at Amherst College, believes we are faced with a mystery,
and one of immense significance. In his fascinating new
book, The Symbiotic Universe, he argues that our existence,
and indeed that of every other form of life, is an utterly
astonishing thing. The deeper one looks, the more surprising
it becomes that life ever arose in the cosmos. For in fact
our existence depends on a network of unlikely circumstances,
a remarkable series of coincidences. That they occurred
at all is testimony that ours is fundamentally a universe
of life. In looking for an explanation, Professor Greenstein
begins with an insight suggested by the theory of quantum
mechanics. He proposes that in the fitness of the cosmos
for life, we are witnessing the effects of a gigantic symbiosis
-- a symbiosis between the physical universe on the one
hand and life on the other. Between these two there is a
union, a great metaphysical dance by which each supports
the other. How did it come to pass that against all odds
the cosmos succeeded in bringing forth life? It had to --
in order to exist.
George Greenstein received his B.S. from
Stanford University in 1962 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1968,
both in physics. Toward the end of his career as a graduate
student, he became attracted to astronomy and astrophysics.
His Ph.D. thesis was in cosmology, the study of the universe
as a whole, and it dealt with the first ten minutes of the
cosmos. In his postdoctoral work at Yeshiva and Princeton
universities, he began to study the physics of neutron stars
and pulsars, the field that has engaged him ever since.
He went to Amherst College in 1971, where he is currently
professor of astronomy.
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