ABSTRACT
It is widely accepted that the field of cosmology is entering an era dubbed ‘precision cosmology’. Data directly relevant to the properties and evolution of the universe are flooding in by the terabyte (or soon will be). Such vast quantities of data were the purview only of high-energy physics just a few years ago; now expertise from this area is being coopted by some astronomers to help deal with our wealth of information. In the past decade, cosmology has gone from a datastarved science in which often highly speculative theories went unconstrained to a data-driven pursuit where many models have been ruled out and the remaining ‘standard cosmology’ will be tested with stringent precision.
