In addition to having published more than 500 journal articles, Barrow co-wrote (withFrank J. Tipler)TheAnthropic Cosmological Principle, a work on the history of the ideas, specificallyintelligent design andteleology, as well as a treatise onastrophysics. He also published 22 books for general readers, beginning with his 1983The Left Hand of Creation. His books summarise the state of the affairs of physical questions, often in the form of compendia of a large number of facts assembled from the works of great physicists, such asPaul Dirac andArthur Eddington.
Barrow's approach tophilosophical issues posed byphysical cosmology made his books accessible to general readers. For example, Barrow introduced a memorableparadox, which he called "the Groucho Marx Effect" (seeRussell-like paradoxes). Here, he quotesGroucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member". Applying this to problems in cosmology, Barrow stated: "A universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it".[7]
Barrow lectured at10 Downing Street,Windsor Castle, and theVatican, as well as to the general public. In 2002, his playInfinities premiered inMilan, played inValencia, and won the Premi Ubu 2002 Italian Theatre Prize.[8]
At the 2006 'Origins of the Universe' conference inCambridge, organized byStephen Hawking, Barrow debated the anthropic principle withMartin Rees. The proceedings were later published in Nature.[9]
Barrow was awarded the 2006Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion".[10] He was a member of aUnited Reformed Church, which he described as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".[11]
In 2008, the Royal Society awarded him theFaraday Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2003 and elected Fellow of theAcademia Europaea in 2009. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Hertfordshire, Sussex, Durham, South Wales, and Szczecin, and was an Honorary Professor at the University of Nanjing.[citation needed] He was an Honorary Fellow of Van Mildert College (Durham University) and of Gresham College (London). He was a CentenaryGifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 1989.
TheBarrow scale proposed by him is a measurement of the technological level and mastery of civilizations based upon the smallest structures that they can manipulate. It is a complement to theKardashev scale, which is based upon the largest structures that can be manipulated.[13][14]
Type
Description
I
Manipulation of macroscopic structures, as available to an unaided member of the civilisation.
II
Manipulation of genes and macromolecules
III
Manipulation of molecules and molecular bonds.
IV
Access to nanotechnology and atomically precise manufacturing; manipulation of individual atoms.
V
Access to picotechnology and femtotechnology; manipulation of individual nuclei.
VI
Access to attotechnology and finer; manipulation of elementary particles.
Ω
Omega-minus engineering; manipulation of the basic structure of space and time.
Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning. (eds., with S. Conway Morris, S.J. Freeland, and C.L. Harper),Cambridge UP, 2007.ISBN978-1-10740655-1[38]
Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity, 90th Birthday Volume for John Archibald Wheeler, (ed., with P.C.W. Davies, & C. Harper),Cambridge UP, 2004.ISBN0-521-83113-X[39]
