Origins of the Universe for Dummies

Stephen Pincock writes about science for The Financial Times. He was previously a science and medicine editor at Reuters. He has written regularly for the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, and The Scientist. Mark Frary is a freelance journalist whose work appears regularly in The Times and many other publications.

• Introduction 1Part I: In the Beginning: Early Ideas About Our Universe 7Chapter 1: Exploring the Early Universe 9Chapter 2: Looking Up at the Stars: Early Beliefs 17Chapter 3: The Apple Drops: Newton, Gravity, and the Rotation of the Planets 27Part II: Modern Cosmology: Going Off with a Bang 49Chapter 4: Bending the Universe: Magnets and Gravity 51Chapter 5: Measuring the Universe 73Chapter 6: Cooking Up a Big Bang 95Chapter 7: Letting It Rise: Expanding and Inflating the Universe 107Chapter 8: Thinking Differently About the Universe 119Part III: Building Your Own Universe 129Chapter 9: Building Things from Scratch 131Chapter 10: Forcing the Pace: The Roles of Natural Forces in the Universe 153Chapter 11: Shedding Light on Dark Matter and Pinging Strings 169Chapter 12: Playing with the Universe’s Chemistry Set 181Chapter 13: Making Stars, Solar Systems, Galaxies, and More 197Chapter 14: Giving Birth to Life 211Chapter 15: Travelling Through Time 225Part IV: Asking the Tough Questions 239Chapter 16: Explaining the Unexplainable 241Chapter 17: Finding Life Elsewhere 253Chapter 18: Coming to an End 265Part V: The Part of Tens 275Chapter 19: Ten Different Beliefs about the Origins of the Universe 277Chapter 20: Ten Greatest Cosmological Advances 285Appendix: Understanding Scientific Units and Equations 295Index 303

"…it makes you feel smarter with little eureka moments that are real page turners." (Bedfordshire on Sunday, Borough edition, Sunday 2nd March)