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 1

Part I: In the Beginning: Early Ideas About Our Universe 7

Chapter 1: Exploring the Early Universe 9

Chapter 2: Looking Up at the Stars: Early Beliefs 17

Chapter 3: The Apple Drops: Newton, Gravity, and the Rotation of the Planets 27

Part II: Modern Cosmology: Going Off with a Bang 49

Chapter 4: Bending the Universe: Magnets and Gravity 51

Chapter 5: Measuring the Universe 73

Chapter 6: Cooking Up a Big Bang 95

Chapter 7: Letting It Rise: Expanding and Inflating the Universe 107

Chapter 8: Thinking Differently About the Universe 119

Part III: Building Your Own Universe 129

Chapter 9: Building Things from Scratch 131

Chapter 10: Forcing the Pace: The Roles of Natural Forces in the Universe 153

Chapter 11: Shedding Light on Dark Matter and Pinging Strings 169

Chapter 12: Playing with the Universe's Chemistry Set 181

Chapter 13: Making Stars, Solar Systems, Galaxies, and More 197

Chapter 14: Giving Birth to Life 211

Chapter 15: Travelling Through Time 225

Part IV: Asking the Tough Questions 239

Chapter 16: Explaining the Unexplainable 241

Chapter 17: Finding Life Elsewhere 253

Chapter 18: Coming to an End 265

Part V: The Part of Tens 275

Chapter 19: Ten Different Beliefs about the Origins of the Universe 277

Chapter 20: Ten Greatest Cosmological Advances 285

Appendix: Understanding Scientific Units and Equations 295

Index 303