Endless Universe (Abandoned): Rewriting Cosmic History - Tapa dura

According to the Big Bang model, space and time sprang into being 15 billion years ago, in a hot expanding fireball of near-infinite density. As space expanded the fireball cooled and matter condensed to form the galaxies, stars and planets we see today. But this picture is incomplete. Why is the distribution of matter and radiation in the Universe so uniform? Why is space flat rather than curved, as Einstein's theory of general relativity suggests? Where did the seeds for forming galaxies arise from? And why is the expansion rate of the universe speeding up? To answer these questions, Steinhardt and Turok have proposed an alternative cosmology that turns cosmic history on its head and suggests that our universe is without beginning or end, eternally following a cycle of expansion and contraction mediated by the clashing of 'branes' or parallel universes. ENDLESS UNIVERSE chronicles the last thirty years of cosmology, the growing disatisfaction with the big bang model, the surprising discovery of dark energy and cosmic expansion, the development of M-Theory and the evolution of the new cyclical model. Finally, the authors ask how long we have until the next big crunch and explore if life can survive the collision of branes.

Together, Steinhardt and Turok have pioneered a radical new understanding of our universe, an approach that blends cosmology, particle physics and superstring theory. Paul Steinhardt the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University. Neil Turok is Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University.