Horizons of Cosmology: Exploring Worlds Seen and Unseen Author: Joseph Silk Publisher: Templeton Press ISBN: 978-1-59947-341-3 Price: £12.99 (Pb), 208pp
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This is not a book for beginners, but those with some grounding in stellar physics and also those who dislike equations can expect a delicious feast of mysteries and ways to solve them in store. I found it difficult, but incredibly rewarding, with some of the best ‘Eureka!’ moments I've yet experienced, especially in understanding dark matter.

The birth of the Universe, inflation, and galaxy formation are examined through the context of dark matter and dark energy. Exquisite structures, more than stars, galaxies and clusters, emerged through thought and technology. Unsolved problems, such as the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe, are treated as necessary for an ever-interesting future.

We visit scientists too, and the mistakes of some of the greatest. It is not explicitly spelled out, but the attempts at a ‘grand unification’, and trying to think of theory first and facts later, come out as the worst paths to failure. The only annoyance I found with this book is in the final chapter, when this principle itself is contradicted by the author's assumption that time travel and wormholes will be found in or near black holes. He explains that physics does not forbid time travel, but not where black holes come into it, which felt like sudden science fiction after a very rigorous emphasis on fact.

Although the book is almost all physics, apart from some forecasting and a chapter on the anthropic principle and its variants at the end, it's listed as Science and Religion. It was written for the Templeton Series, which attempts to either contrast, or unite, science with religion. Horizons of Cosmology does something cleverer than either, offering courteous support to both religious and non-religious approaches; I think the author has a preference, but this was only hinted at the end. The three imaginary characters used – a master chef, a physicist on a cloudy world and a time traveller – are pointedly all made female. ‘Don't be prejudiced’ is a very clear message, in both scientific method and socially – you won't be in any doubt that science does not obey our way of thinking!

Alice Sheppard