Zeeya Merali

Good coverage of cosmological inflation theory (Guth, Linde, Vilenkin), leading into good coverage of theories about the spawning of "baby universes" (Hawking, Polchinski et al). (Could bombardment of a magnetic monopole in a particle accelerator really create a baby universe that boundlessly grows its own space on the inside but just looks like an ultra-tiny black hole on the outside?) Most unfortunately, the author is not free of (nonsensical, explanatorily useless) supernaturalism, and gratuitously refers to religion at almost every turn. Reality-and-reason-minded readers may want to skip over the myth-and-mysticism-laden passages.… (mehr)