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I'm especially into the part about the cabala, though my copy of 777 isnt at hand -- what's the gematria on 137?
N Y Times, Aug 19:
quote:
MINDS OVER MATTER
Suddenly, the Cosmos Becomes More Fickle
By GEORGE JOHNSON
(1) WHEN cosmologists try to picture how the universe came to be, they invoke
the image of a Great Creator hunched over a keyboard, engaging in a high- stakes
game that might be called Cosmic Sim City. Depending on how the player tweaks
about two dozen different variables - adjusting the speed of light, the strength
of gravity and so forth - a very different kind of universe will unfold.
(2) The most important control is marked ``Do Not Touch.'' For it governs a
number so primary it is called just ``alpha.'' Had this adjustment been set a
little higher or lower than it was, atoms would not have formed and there would
be no life.
(3) Alpha is among the most basic of the cosmological parameters revered by
physicists as the constants of nature, the mathematical bedrock that ensures the
existence of an orderly universe. Hence the uneasiness last week when an
international team of astronomers, led by John K. Webb, of the University of New
South Wales in Australia, reported that the number might not be so constant.
(4) Something, it seems, may be fiddling with the dials on the universal control
board.
(5) Peering back through time with their telescope, analyzing the ancient light
of quasars, the scientists found that alpha (which is also called the fine-
structure constant) may have been slightly smaller billions of years ago. The
tiny difference, in the fifth decimal place, isn't enough to have seriously
scrambled the cosmic rule book. But the finding carries the odd implication that
the universe may be a place where the laws of physics can change.
(6) For decades, scientists, theologians and mystics have been seduced by alpha
because it seems to capture something ineffable about life, the universe and
everything. It's telling that the new study, to be published this week in the
journal Physical Review Letters, was supported, in part, by the John Templeton
Foundation, whose mission is to reconcile science with God.
(7) There is good reason to look for ultimate answers in alpha, which is
actually an amalgam of three constants so basic they pervade physics and
cosmology: the charge of the electron; the speed of light in empty space; and
Planck's constant, the most important number in quantum mechanics, the theory
that governs subatomic behavior. If these values were substantially different,
the universe would be unrecognizable and probably barren.
(8) Combine the three numbers in just the right manner and the various units of
measurement (feet- per-second and so forth) cancel each other out, leaving what
is called a ``pure number'': one that doesn't come in degrees or pounds or
decibels or pesos. Like pi, alpha is simply alpha. Whether it is measured using
the English system, the metric system or some system invented in Andromeda, it
will be the same: about 1/137, or .007297352533.
(9) (To simplify matters, physicists often flip the fraction upside down,
expressing alpha as its inverse, 137 - or, to be precise, 137.03599976.)
(10) Why such an apparently arbitrary and rather ugly number should be inscribed
in the cosmological DNA is one of life's great mysteries. In the 1930's, when
the physicist Victor Weisskopf told the religious scholar Gershom Scholem about
alpha, his eyes popped out - 137, he said in amazement, is none other than the
number of the kabala, the occult system of Jewish numerology. Mystics of other
persuasions have tried to derive the value from the dimensions of the Great
Pyramid of Giza or of Stonehenge. Alpha, they insist, is a scrap of ancient
esoteric knowledge, a page torn from a guidebook bequeathed by alien astronauts.
THE number is also the obsession of some fundamentalist Christians. In his novel
``Roger's Version,'' John Updike tells the story of Dale Kohler, a born- again
computer programmer convinced that cosmological data reveal a universe
fine-tuned to spawn intelligent life. Plugging the numbers into his simulation
software, he seeks to prove the existence of God. He probably would have liked
the idea of a changing alpha. The wording of the Scriptures may be fundamental
but not the constants of nature. Tweak them a bit and you can coax geological
and astronomical evidence into proving that the universe really is just 8,000
years old, as the Good Book says.
When it comes to nature's mysterious numbers, scientists can also go over the
top. Sir Arthur Eddington, a physicist with a numerological bent, labored over a
grand theory (posthumously published in 1946) that painstakingly explained why
alpha had to be precisely 1/136, which was once the accepted value. When he
learned that experiments showed that alpha was more like 1/137, Eddington
tweaked his theory, causing the British humor magazine Punch to immortalize him
as Sir Arthur Adding-One.
He was in good company. Scientists as illustrious as John von Neumann, Edward
Teller, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli fell on their pens trying to derive
alpha from first principles. Legend has it that Pauli died in hospital room 137.
And physicists still tell a story about his entering the Pearly Gates. His first
question: ``Why 137?''
``Here, I'll show you,'' the Creator replies and starts scribbling equations on
a blackboard. Pauli, known in life for his intellectual combativeness, slaps his
head in exasperation: ``No, no, no.'' He grabs the chalk and corrects the
Almighty's error.
Whether alpha is fixed or varies across a tiny span, the overriding question is
whether its value was inevitable - determined somehow by an inviolable law - or
just a matter of happenstance. As Albert Einstein famously put it, Did God have
a choice in creating the universe?
Devotees of the Anthropic Principle consider this all moot: if alpha wasn't
hospitable to life then no one would be around to call it alpha. As a variation
on this theme, some cosmologists propose that the Big Bang gave rise to a
multitude of universes, each obeying different laws. Naturally, people find
themselves in one where alpha allows atoms to form.
If the idea of a changing alpha holds up, scientists will find some way to
accommodate it. Who knows? Perhaps there is a constant that governs alpha's
inconstancy - a number describing the rate at which the Great Tweaker
mischievously advances the dial. But maybe that number changes, too.
These mysteries would be all the more compelling if alpha were exactly 1/137
instead of a smidgen less. If alpha still is growing, perhaps it will eventually
catch up to the desired value, bringing on some kind of new millennium.
But there may not be time for a great convergence. Just as there is an alpha, so
is there an omega - a number that, depending on how it was set in the beginning,
determines whether the universe will expand forever or collapse in on itself.
Between the alpha and the omega, astronomers have a lot to figure out.
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3) Alpha is among the most basic of the cosmological parameters revered by