ABSTRACT
A great split has opened between conventional cosmology and the new cosmology of particle physics. The major action in cosmology has shifted from observatory domes to the innards of giant computers, where a - new generation of cosmologists run simulations of hypothetical universes. Often it becomes the observers’ job to reconcile observations with the numbers spewed out by theory, not the other way round. Conversely, as theories outstrip the energies attainable in particle accelerators, particle physicists must turn to astronomical observations. The universe, a relic of historical events that happened at energies far beyond the wildest dreams of accelerator builders, is the poor man’s particle accelerator. Observational astronomers have spent centuries dancing in the dark, oblivious to dark matter comprising some 90% of the universe. The standard big bang model requires yet another assumption to explain the nonuniformity observed on smaller scales.
