entire universe was smaller than an atom. Packed into it was all the energy and matter present in today’s universe. All of it. That is a daunting idea, and at first it might appear plain crazy. But all the evidence we have at present tells us that this strange, tiny, and fantastically hot object really existed about 13.82 billion years ago. We don’t yet understand how and why this thing appeared. But quantum physics tells us, and particle accelerators—which speed up subatomic particles to high velocities by means of electric or electromagnetic fields—show us, that something really can appear
...more
