The universe in a nutshell

LEONARD SUSSKIND was a plumber before he reinvented himself as a physicist, a fact that may explain why he is inspired to write about the eye-crossing and mind-boggling complexities of modern science in language that a layperson can understand. In "The Cosmic Landscape," he offers nothing less than an insider's guided tour of theoretical physics over the last century or so, moving from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to Susskind's own cutting-edge scientific theories.

Susskind has not picked up a pipe wrench in a long time. The Stanford scientist is credited with revolutionary discoveries in virtually every aspect of theoretical physics, including the invention of string theory (although he graciously credits a couple of colleagues for their independent work in the same field) and advanced work on quarks and black holes. Who, then, is better equipped to answer such cosmic questions as how our world came into existence and why intelligent life exists here? "[O]ur own universe is an extraordinary place that appears to be fantastically well-designed for our own existence," he muses. "This specialness is not something that we can attribute to lucky accidents, which is far too unlikely. The apparent coincidences cry out for an explanation."

One answer is rooted in religious belief and finds its most recent expression in the dogma of intelligent design -- which states that the planet Earth and everything that lives here are the handiwork of a "superarchitect" whom we might as well call God. Even though Susskind's book is not devoted to debunking intelligent design -- indeed, the opportunistic subtitle of the book is slightly misleading -- he feels obliged to pause now and then to disabuse the reader of any such notion.

To summarize at the risk of oversimplifying Susskind's argument, we live in a tiny pocket of what he calls a megaverse, "a huge Landscape of possibilities -- an enormously rich space of possible designs." If the Earth contains 300,000 species of beetles, he observes, then the number of "pocket universes" in the cosmos must be vastly greater: "The numbers are so big that, statistically, some of them will be intelligent or conducive to intelligent life." God, however, has nothing to do with it. "There is no magic, no supernatural designer," he concludes, "just the laws of very large numbers."