THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE! 
By CLAupE WILLIAM HEAPS 
Professor of Physics, The Rice Institute 
It may seem, at first sight, presumptuous to attempt the discussion, 
in one hour or less, of such a comprehensive topic as the structure of 
the universe. Actually the subject is not as big as it sounds. There 
are, in one sense, as many universes as there are individuals; but the 
universe in this personal sense will be ruled out of the present discus- 
sion. A tremendous simplification is at once achieved when we limit 
our topic to the physical universe. We now inquire, what is the phys- 
ical universe? 
Eddington has defined it as the “theme of a specified body of know]l- 
edge, just as Mr. Pickwick might be defined as the hero of a specified 
novel.” Such a definition emphasizes the epistemological point of 
view and therefore it suffers from lack of definiteness and simplicity. 
There is beautiful directness and decisiveness in the attitude of the 
mathematician who wrote an equation on one line in one of his pub- 
lished papers and said, “This equation contains everything we know 
about the physical universe.” ‘The conciseness of the language of 
mathematics is probably nowhere better exemplified than in this equa- 
tion. On the other hand, the universe, if it can be described in terms 
of mathematical symbols and with one equation, may not seem like 
such a big subject after all. 
To the physicist, matter, space, and time exist outside the human 
mind. The physical universe is an objective, dynamic arrangement 
of all matter, space, and time. In discussing the structure of the 
universe we merely attempt to describe some of the features of this 
arrangement. 
Before beginning such a description it seems necessary to indicate 
just how it is related to human welfare—since the general title of 
this series of lectures is “Science and Human Welfare.” I am ventur- 
ing to interpret the phrase “human welfare” in the broadest possible 
sense. There are many types of scientific investigation which do not 
appear to have any direct bearing on the pleasures or pains of the 
1Public lecture delivered at The Rice Institute in the spring of 1948. Reprinted by 
permission from The Rice Institute Pamphlet, vol. 30, No. 4, October 1943. 
165 
