A thrilling exploration of competing cosmological origin stories comparing new scientific
ideas that upend our very notions of space time and reality. By most popular accounts the
universe started with a bang some 13.8 billion years ago. But what happened before the Big
Bang? And how do we know it happened at all? Here prominent cosmologist Niayesh Afshordi and
science communicator Phil Halper offer a tour of the peculiar possibilities: bouncing and
cyclic universes time loops creations from nothing multiverses black hole births string
theories and holograms. Along the way they offer both a call for new physics and a riveting
story of scientific debate. Incorporating insights from Afshordi's cutting-edge research and
Halper's original interviews with scientists like Stephen Hawking Roger Penrose and Alan Guth
Battle of the Big Bang compares these models for the origin of our origins showing each
theory's strengths and weaknesses and explaining new attempts to test these notions. Battle of
the Big Bang is a tale of rivalries and intrigue of clashes of ideas that have raged from
Greek antiquity to the present day over whether the universe is eternal or had a beginning
whether it is unique or one of many. But most of all Afshordi and Halper show that this search
is filled with wonder discovery and community--all essential for remembering a forgotten
cosmic past.
