Origin and Evolution of the Universe and Mankind

Abstract

To get an idea of the scientific progress that has been made over the past few decades, it is enough to think that, nowadays, it is possible to produce (via particle accelerators) states similar to those that existed a billionth of a second (a nanosecond) after the very birth of the Universe. Although these results have been obtained with methods of measurement and theoretical frames far superior to the classical ones, they seem incredible. It is difficult to believe that we know which kind of matter existed in those early moments. Nonetheless, we know it (at least with a good probability). Before the Big Bang, the theory becomes speculative. After the Big Bang, some empirical corroboration is possible. For instance, as a consequence of the Big Bang there ought to exist a homogeneous radiation through the whole Universe, with a temperature of 3 K. The existence of this radiation was predicted in 1940 by Gamow, and it was verified in 1965 by Penzias and Wilson (quite independent of the prediction).