Alpha and Omega

The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe

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

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