Is there a number at the root of the universe? A primal number that everything in the world hinges on? This question exercised many great minds of the twentieth century, among them the groundbreaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Their obsession with the power of certain numbers—including 137, which describes the atom’s fine-structure constant and has great Kabbalistic significance—led them to develop an unlikely friendship and to embark on a joint mystical quest reaching deep into medieval alchemy, dream interpretation, and the Chinese Book of Changes. 137 explores the profound intersection of modern science with the occult, but above all it is the tale of an extraordinary, fruitful friendship between two of the greatest thinkers of our times.
Originally published in hardcover as Deciphering the Cosmic Number.
- ISBN10 0393338649
- ISBN13 9780393338645
- Publish Date 29 June 2010 (first published 17 May 2010)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 18 July 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint WW Norton & Co
- Format Paperback
- Pages 370
- Language English