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Science 11 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5711, pp. 884 - 890
DOI: 10.1126/science.1107483
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Review

Inflationary Cosmology: Exploring the Universe from the Smallest to the Largest Scales

Alan H. Guth* and David I. Kaiser*

Understanding the behavior of the universe at large depends critically on insights about the smallest units of matter and their fundamental interactions. Inflationary cosmology is a highly successful framework for exploring these interconnections between particle physics and gravitation. Inflation makes several predictions about the present state of the universe—such as its overall shape, large-scale smoothness, and smaller scale structure—which are being tested to unprecedented accuracy by a new generation of astronomical measurements. The agreement between these predictions and the latest observations is extremely promising. Meanwhile, physicists are busy trying to understand inflation's ultimate implications for the nature of matter, energy, and spacetime.

Center for Theoretical Physics, Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: guth{at}ctp.mit.edu (A.H.G.); dikaiser{at}mit.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Whose Mass is it Anyway? Particle Cosmology and the Objects of Theory.
D. Kaiser (2006)
Social Studies of Science 36, 533-564
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)