Before The Beginning

In this landmark book, one of the twentieth century's greatest astronomers presents scientific evidence that our vast universe may be only a grain of sand on the infinite cosmic shore.It is now widely accepted that our universe exploded around 15 billion years ago from an unimaginably energetic initial event: the big bang. As the primordial material expanded and cooled, it evolved into the exquisite patterns of stars and galaxies we now observe. The mix of energy and radiation that characterizes our universe was imprinted in that initial instant,as were the binding forces of nuclear physics and gravity that controlled our universe's evolution.The experimental triumphs and theoretical insights of recent years,from the detection of neutrinos from exploding stars to the search for extraterrestrial life,offer the most dramatic enlargement in our concept of the universe since astronomers first realized the sun's true place among the stars. In this illuminating work, Sir Martin Rees,