https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/recommended-books-december-2019/

At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds

Princeton University Press, 2019 ($24.95)

The first instants of the universe may seem like a blip on the cosmic time line, but this was probably the most important, formative era in history—and the most inscrutable. Scientists know precious little about what happened when the universe got its start: many cosmologists think space and time underwent an extremely rapid expansion called inflation, yet this theory raises as many questions as it answers. Learning more about this early epoch is the key to many of the most pressing conundrums in physics: What is dark matter? What drives dark energy? And why is the cosmos made of matter and not antimatter? Astrophysicist Hooper takes readers on a mind-bending expedition through these questions and shows how they all connect to the beginning. “Our universe's greatest mysteries,” he writes, “are firmly tied to its first moments.” —Clara Moskowitz