The Origins of the Universe For Dummies® -- About the Authors -- Dedication -- Authors' Acknowledgements -- Contents at a Glance -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Conventions Used in This Book -- What You're Not to Read -- Foolish Assumptions -- How This Book Is Organised -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Part I: In the Beginning: Early Ideas About Our Universe -- Chapter 1: Exploring the Early Universe -- Shifting Views - Scientifically Speaking -- Contrasting Science and Religion -- Defining Cosmology -- Realising Why Now Is So Exciting -- Chapter 2: Looking Up at the Stars: Early Beliefs -- Making a Home for the Gods: Early Notions -- Taking a Scientific Approach: Early Views -- Moving the Sun to the Centre: The Copernican Revolution -- Chapter 3: The Apple Drops: Newton, Gravity, and the Rotation of the Planets -- Tycho Brahe, a Rising Star -- Assisting - and Surpassing - Brahe: Johannes Kepler -- The Universe Reveals Itself: Galileo -- Watching Apples Fall: Isaac Newton -- Part II: Modern Cosmology: Going Off with a Bang -- Chapter 4: Bending the Universe: Magnets and Gravity -- Confirming Newton's Laws -- Tripping the Light Electromagnetic: James Clerk Maxwell -- Getting Rid of the Ether: Michelson and Morley -- Getting Relative with Albert Einstein -- Chapter 5: Measuring the Universe -- Examining All Those Twinkling Little Stars -- Classifying the Stars -- Measuring Stellar Distances -- Contemplating an Ever-Expanding Universe -- Chapter 6: Cooking Up a Big Bang -- Gathering the Ingredients for an Expanding Universe -- Turning Up the Heat on Expansion -- Checking the Oven: Looking for Fossil Radiation -- Chapter 7: Letting It Rise: Expanding and Inflating the Universe -- Going Back to the Beginning -- Pondering the Horizon -- Shaping the Universe -- Imagining Inflation.

Chapter 8: Thinking Differently About the Universe -- Existing Forever: An Alternative to the Big Bang -- Explaining the Universe in Other Ways -- Part III: Building Your Own Universe -- Chapter 9: Building Things from Scratch -- What's the Matter? Searching for the Most Basic Building Block -- Venturing Beyond Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons: Quantum Mechanics -- Probing the Concept of Probability -- Antimatter -- Getting to Know the Standard Model -- Chapter 10: Forcing the Pace: The Roles of Natural Forces in the Universe -- Forcing the Issue -- Uniting the Forces of Nature -- Giving Things Mass: The Higgs Field and Boson -- Searching for GUTs and TOEs: Grand Unified Theories and Theories of Everything -- Chapter 11: Shedding Light on Dark Matter and Pinging Strings -- Addressing the Dark Elephant in the Room: Dark Matter -- Getting Even Darker: Dark Energy -- Stringing the Universe Along -- Chapter 12: Playing with the Universe's Chemistry Set -- Strolling Through the Periodic Table -- Making Helium and Hydrogen in the Big Bang -- A Star Is Born -- Classifying Stars by Their Chemistry -- Creating Heavy Metals with Supernovae -- Chapter 13: Making Stars, Solar Systems, Galaxies, and More -- Making Stars -- Forming Solar Systems -- Creating Galaxies -- Accounting for Everything in the Universe -- Getting the Really Big Picture: Beyond the Milky Way -- Chapter 14: Giving Birth to Life -- Defining Life -- Tracking the Very Beginnings of Life -- Enjoying a Warm Bowl of Primordial Soup -- Living in a Universe That's 'Just Right' -- Chapter 15: Travelling Through Time -- Exploring Past, Present, and Future -- Turning Back Time -- Venturing Back to before the Big Bang -- Part IV: Asking the Tough Questions -- Chapter 16: Explaining the Unexplainable -- Watching Stars Die -- Being Aware of Black Holes -- Knowing Neutron Stars.

Meeting Quasars, the Fascinating Hearts of Galaxies -- Creating Parallel Universes -- Chapter 17: Finding Life Elsewhere -- Searching for Life in Our Solar System -- Finding Planets with Life Outside Our Solar System -- Finding Intelligent Life Elsewhere -- Chapter 18: Coming to an End -- Watching the Sun Burn Out -- Contemplating the Fate of the Universe -- Considering an Alternative Ending: The Big Rip -- Part V: The Part of Tens -- Chapter 19: Ten Different Beliefs about the Origins of the Universe -- Judeo-Christian Creation: In the Beginning -- Islamic Creation: Opening the Heavens and Earth -- Hindu Creation: Cycles upon Cycles -- Buddhist Creation: Cause and Effect without a Creator -- Shinto Creation: The Earth, Young and Oily -- African Folklore: Egg-centric Origins -- Iroquois Creation: The Turtle Time Story -- Adams: Life, the Universe, and Everything -- Pratchett: Absurdity and Another Giant Turtle -- In the World Before Monkey -- Chapter 20: Ten Greatest Cosmological Advances -- Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) -- European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) -- Hubble Space Telescope -- Super-Kamiokande -- Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) -- Chandra X-ray Observatory -- Fermilab -- Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) -- Mount Wilson Observatory -- Keck Telescopes -- Appendix: Understanding Scientific Units and Equations -- Powers -- Other Mathematical Conventions -- Scientific Units -- Non-SI Units -- Key Equations -- Index.