The “Inner Space” had changed over the years. In Schramm’s original vision, inner space referred to particle physics, and he and his colleagues had succeeded in beating down the processes of element formation to what they called the “era of nucleosynthesis”—the period when the universe was between 1 second and 100 seconds old and the cosmic fog had cooled enough to allow the formation of elements. They knew what should have been happening in the previous fraction of a second, when protons and neutrons and electrons were ricocheting. But Hawking and Guth had changed the game; they came at the
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