Alpha and Omega

Table Of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Chapter 1: The First Cosmology[The Golden Age of the Gods] 1

Chapter 2: The First Cosmological Revolution[The Copernican Theory] 10

Chapter 3: The Second Cosmological Revolution[Hubble and the Big Bang] 25

Chapter 4: The Third Revolution Begins[The Universe Amok] 49

Chapter 5: The Music of the Spheres[The Cosmic Microwave Background] 63

Chapter 6: The Dark Universe[What’s the Matter with Matter?] 90

Chapter 7: Darker Still[The Enigma of Exotic Dark Matter] 103

Chapter 8: The Big Bang in Our Backyard[The Birth of Baryons] 116

Chapter 9: The Good Nus[The Exotic Neutrino] 132

Chapter 10: Supersymmetry[Fearlessly Framing the Laws of Matter] 150

Chapter 11: Seeing the Invisible[MACHOs, WIMPs, and Illuminating the Darkest Regions of the Universe] 163

Chapter 12: The Deepest Mystery in Physics[&Lambda, the Vacuum, and Inflation] 182

Chapter 13: Wrinkles in Spacetime[Gravitational Waves and the Early Universe] 199

Chapter 14: Beyond the Third Revolution[Voyage to the Ends of Time] 215

Appendix A: Tired Light Retired 225

Appendix B: Where Does Matter Come From? 229

Appendix C: Nobel Prizes in Physics–Past and Future 235

Appendix D: Some Experiments to Watch 241

Glossary 249

Select Bibliography 269

Acknowledgements 277

Index 279