Since A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME scientists have been in the midst of a revolution in cosmology. Gradually, astronomers and physicists are answering questions that have plagued mankind since prehistory: how was the universe born, how will it end? As we are now able to peer ever more closely into the cradle of the universe, so we are increasingly able to envisage its grave. By the middle of this decade, scientists will be able to provide some of the answers. These will be among the greatest triumphs of science. This book tells that story and will reveal results of the most advanced experiments in cosmology ever conducted. It's also an intensely human story - a tale of men solving the insoluble, of the controversy and intense competition abd rivalry between individuals and laboratories pursuing the same goal. Even more thrillingly - it is a lucid explanation of new scientific ideas that stretch our powers of understanding to their highest levels, and beyond.