Ever since the announcement of the Big Bang theory in the 1970s, cosmologists have been struggling to find answers (and the data to support them) to the question of how the universe evolved from a primitive, albeit unimaginably concentrated burst of energy some 15 billion years ago into today's complicated cosmos of galaxies and stars. Simply put, there are phenomena in deep space that no contemporary model of the universe can account for. Cosmology's most fundamental concepts are being destroyed and re-formed, resulting in a revolution in the field, a state many have called a crisis.Now, prize-winning Time magazine writer Michael D. Lemonick unravels the complicated work surrounding the mysteries of the cosmos by introducing us to the top scientists on the cutting edge.From Harvard there are the talented astronomers John Huchra, Margaret Geller, and Robert Kirshner. Not to be outdone, MIT presents the equally esteemed Alan Guth, John Tonry, and Jacqueline Hewitt. The Institute for Advanced Study gives us the inimitable David Weinberg and John Bahcall, while its neighbor Princeton University offers a whole slew of brilliant scientists, including David Wilkinson, Edwin Turner, Jeremiah Ostriker, James Peebles, Robert Dicke, Neta Bahcall, J. Richard Gott, Suzanne Staggs, Bohdan Paczynski, David Spergel, Neil Turok, and Lyman Page. Nearby you can find the exceptional Tony Tyson at the AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The West Coast has its share of genius too, with Sandra Faber, Joel Primack, and George Blumenthal at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Bernard Sadoulet and George Smoot at Berkeley. The University of Chicago offers the gifted duo of Michael Turner and David Schramm, while the ground-breaking Vera Rubin holds forth at the Carnegie Institution.In The Light at the Edge of the Universe we watch them and many others as they work on theories and projects concerning such subjects as the Great Attractor, the COBE satellite, the microwave background, and hot and cold dark matter. Through it all, Michael Lemonick is our learned and likeable guide.Lemonick is not just an expert on complicated, technical theory. He also reveals why you should never bring ice cream to high altitudes, what the important difference between MIT and Princeton is, and why the universe is like a loaf of raisin bread. The Light at the Edge of the Universe is an entertaining and erudite exploration of the cosmos, a subject that has intrigued and mystified all people, from the wisest philosopher to the smallest child, since history began. Read Less