Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of Our Universe

This is actually both historical and futurist since the author favors the cyclic model of Turok and Steinhardt, though based on strings, until a better theory is produced. A pair of bouncing branes in 4D M-space attract eachother and collide, producing this universe between them which then runs down and the process repeats. In the meantime, the history of astronomy is engagingly covered, explaining the various types of cosmic beginnings, sizes and ages conjectured by religions, philosophers and scientists. Limits of each model are discussed, along with the nature of the competition, e.g. for Nobel prizes in physics. Too late for Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek in 310-230 BC who wrote in a book that the earth revolves around the sun, later reported by Archimedes and rediscovered by Copernicus. The dozens of other figures who participated since are linked to their contributions in a popular science fashion, mostly textual since illustrations are limited to a couple of series of fractions, a simple geometrical figure and a graphic from the WMAP satellite. Notes list sources; there is no bibliography. Original publications can be pursued further. There are other unanswered questions, at least outside the confines of scifi, such as why inflation happened, and whether faster-than-light speeds or time-travel are possible.

A great introduction to the buffet of theories of the universe currently in play. Some of the explanations would be better if less hand-wavy, even if the book is in the popular science genre.

The prehistory of our universe Is our rector of this world over again