See the video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/bRCLzMS8Rck

Luke Barnes co-authored with Geraint Lewis, of A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos published by Cambridge University Press. The book explores the last forty years of scientific evidence that if the Universe had been forged with even slightly different properties, life as we know it - and life as we can imagine it - would be impossible. This has profound implications about how we understand the Universe, from its most basic particles and forces, to planets, stars and galaxies, and back through cosmic history to the birth of the cosmos. Conflicting notions about our place in the Universe are defined, defended and critiqued from scientific, philosophical and religious viewpoints. The authors' engaging and witty style addresses what fine-tuning might mean for the future of physics and the search for the ultimate laws of nature. 

Luke A. Barnes is a Lecturer in astronomy and cosmology at Western Sydney University. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge, he has published papers in the field of galaxy formation and on the fine-tuning of the Universe for life. He is the author, with Geraint Lewis, of "A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos" and "The Cosmic Revolutionary's Handbook: (Or: How to Beat the Big Bang)".

He is a John Templeton Fellow. He has published papers in the fields of galaxy formation and the fine-tuning of the Universe for life. He has also published papers on the philosophy of science, and regularly engages in public outreach through public speaking, articles in the popular press, and social media. He has modeled galaxy formation in a cosmological context with supercomputer simulations, and connected those simulations to observations with modeling of radiative transfer (particularly Lyman alpha emission and absorption) and realistic models of IFU observations.

twitter.com/lukebarnesastro

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