Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam. Here, what's the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe? If you're expecting an incantation in some ancient language originally divined by a holy quester sitting cross legged on a mountaintop, this answer may disappoint you. It might just be a number and not the number forty two. Douglas Adams really was just joking about that, but it could be the number A hundred and thirty seven.
Those three digits, as it turns out, have long been the rare object of fascination that bridges the gulf between science and mysticism, igniting the imaginations of folks from fringe
theorists and occultists to scientists and researchers to physicists. A hundred and thirty seven is the approximate denominator of the fine structure constant, which is the measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force the controls how charged elementary particles such as the electron and the muon interact with photons of light. And we say approximate because it actually goes on for a few decimal points. The exact value of the fine structure constant is one over a hundred and
thirty seven point zero three five nine nine three. The fine structure constant is one of the key physical constants of the universe. Writing about it in a recent New Scientist article, author Michael Brooks explained this immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens, and even whether atoms exist at all. Let's unpack all of that a little bit. We spoke via email with Paul Davies, Regents Professor physics
at Arizona State University. He explained that the fine structure constant quote characterizes the strength with which matter couples to light. That is, the probability that an excited atom will decay in a certain time. He said that if the constant
was bigger quote, Adams would decay faster. It is significant too, because it is a pure number, he said, a ratio of quantities with equal units, unlike say, the speed of light, which is either a hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second or three thousand kilometers per second, depending on which units you prefer. British physicist Lawrence Eaves once explained
it this way. If the fine structure constant was a different value quote, physics, chemistry and biochemistry would be totally different and we might not be around to talk about it. But practically, from the time of its discovery in nineteen fifteen by German physicist Arnold Summerfeld, the fine structure constant seemed to signify some larger metaphysical truth as well. We spoke with Arthur I. Miller, and emeritus Professor of History
and Philosophy of Science at University College London. He said that the fine structure constant quote, determines the distance between an atom's spectral lines, which are the Adam's DNA, and so it's one of those numbers that is at the root of the universe. If it were any other value than the structure of matter would be very different, and so us too. People began referring to it as a
mystical number. He continued the language of the spectra, the spectral lines, where Somemrfeld found it is a true music of the spheres within the atom. People asked why it has this particular value. Physicists could only conclude that it cannot have this value by accident. It is out there
independent of the structure of our minds. But in nineteen twenty nine, English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, who played a key role in establishing the validity of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and was an early advocate of the Big Bang theory, among other things, began expressing the fine structure constant as one over a hundred and thirty seven. He also saw it as having larger spiritual implications. Miller said, Arthur Eddington saw a new mysticism which would emerge from
the natural sciences. Perhaps he thought the clue lay in numbers, particularly the number one thirty seven. Eddington's reputation as one of the great astrophysicists of his day put a great
deal of weight on this approach. Physicist Richard Feynman predicted that the periodic table would end at one thirty seven based on the rules of relativity, and Austrian born quantum physics pioneer Wolfgang Paully became fascinated with the number as well, since it figured in the mysterious intersection of relativity and quantum theory that he explored with the help of his
friend psychoanalyst Carl Young. The scientific fixation on the fine structured constant was such that in nineteen thirty six, Nature published an article titled the Mysterious Number one seven. But as Polly learned in the nineteen fifties from a religious scholar, A hundred and thirty seven has another significance. It was the number associated with the Kabbalah, an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, what Miller calls quote an extraordinary link between
mysticism and physics. The number A hundred thirty seven also appears frequently in the Torah. It's the lifespan in years of figures such as Ishmael and Levy, for example, as well as the age of Abraham when he bound his son Isaac to an altar in preparation to sacrifice him. Author Billy Phillips, writing for kabbala student dot com, explained that beyond that, the relationship of the fine structure constant to light in physics parallels the combolists concept of connecting
with light or becoming enlightened by shedding the ego. Phillips put it this way, the missing puzzle piece for physics is consciousness. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger
and produced by Tyler clang. To learn more about the number A hundred thirty seven, check out Miller's book seven Young Polly and the Pursuit of a Scientific Observation, and of course, for more on this and lots of other articles that attempt to explain life, the universe, and everything, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.