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The Copernicus Complex

Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities

Caleb A. Scharf

Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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ISBN10: 0374535574
ISBN13: 9780374535575

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288 Pages

$16.00

CA$18.50

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In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus dared to go against the establishment by proposing that Earth rotates around the Sun. Having demoted Earth from its unique position in the cosmos to one of mediocrity, Copernicus set in motion a revolution in scientific thought. This perspective has influenced our thinking for centuries. However, recent evidence challenges the Copernican Principle, hinting that we do in fact live in a special place, at a special time, as the product of a chain of unlikely events. But can we be significant if the Sun is still just one of a billion trillion stars in the observable universe? And what if our universe is just one of a multitude of others—a single slice of an infinity of parallel realities?

In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf takes us on a scientific adventure, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets, probability theory, and beyond, arguing that there is a solution to this contradiction, a third way of viewing our place in the cosmos, if we weigh the evidence properly. As Scharf explains, we do occupy an unusual time in a 14-billion-year-old universe, in a somewhat unusual type of solar system surrounded by an ocean of unimaginable planetary diversity: hot Jupiters with orbits of less than a day, planet-size rocks spinning around dead stars, and a wealth of alien super-Earths. Yet life here is built from the most common chemistry in the universe, and we are a snapshot taken from billions of years of biological evolution. Bringing us to the cutting edge of scientific discovery, Scharf shows how the answers to fundamental questions of existence will come from embracing the peculiarity of our circumstance without denying the Copernican vision.

With characteristic verve, Scharf uses the latest scientific findings to reconsider where we stand in the balance between cosmic significance and mediocrity, order and chaos. Presenting a compelling and bold view of our true status, The Copernicus Complex proposes a way forward in the ultimate quest: determining life's abundance, not just across this universe but across all realities.

Reviews

Praise for The Copernicus Complex

“How reasonable is it to think that we are alone in the vast expanses of space? And how significant is life on Earth on the Universal (or multiversal) scale? These are the questions that astrobiologist Caleb Scharf addresses intelligently and comprehensively in his beautifully written The Copernicus Complex. The book offers a grand tour of important findings from astronomy to biology that are relevant to the cosmic and microscopic search for life.”—Mario Livio, Nature

"In his engrossing and accessible new book, The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities, Caleb Scharf, director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center, challenges the Copernican Principle, which asserts that our place in the cosmos is neither special nor privileged . . . In chapters that explore the convergence of biogeochemistry, cosmology, astrobiology, evolution, probability, and philosophy, The Copernicus Complex presents a compelling argument for transcending the limitations inherent within each approach. The queries that must be satisfied to determine our cosmic significance proliferate (as the universe accelerates its expansion). Scharf excels not only in posing such questions lucidly, but also in expounding upon how they will likely be answered . . . The Copernicus Complex offers an invigorating, absorbing glimpse into the profundities of our very existence. With an engaging style and ample elucidatory prowess, Scharf beautifully conveys the latest cosmological insights whilst inspiring both wonder and awe. Although our place in the universe may well be 'unique but not exceptional,' our ability to parse meaning amidst its massivity is truly extraordinary."—Jeremy Garber, The Oregonian (Portland)

"Mr. Scharf provides the best explanation that I have ever seen for the non-specialist of the indispensable statistical technique known as Bayes’ theorem, makes it possible to calculate a meaningful estimate of our confidence in a prediction based on a theory, given what we’ve actually seen. It is almost worth reading the book for this alone, for Bayesian techniques underpin much of our everyday lives, including the spell-checker that is correcting my words as I write and the license-plate-recognition systems that identify cars caught in speed traps . . . Mr. Scharf discusses these ideas clearly, with a particularly informative account of the role played by bacterial organisms in the story of life on Earth."—John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal

Reviews from Goodreads

BOOK EXCERPTS

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1

THE COPERNICUS COMPLEX



At a rather pleasant spot in the Aegean Sea in the third century B.C., on the vine-rich island of Samos off the western coast of what is now Turkey, the Greek philosopher Aristarchus had just had a...

About the author

Caleb A. Scharf

Caleb Scharf is the director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center. He writes for The New Yorker, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and Nature, among other publications, and has served as a consultant for the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, and The New York Times. Scharf has been a keynote speaker for the American Museum of Natural History and the Rubin Museum of Art, and is the author of Gravity's Engines. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

Greg Barrett