| Acknowledgments | 5 |
| Prologue | 11 |
| 1. Quarks and Quasars | 15 |
| 2. Against the Odds | 21 |
| 3. Galileo's Eyes | 33 |
| 4. The Einstein Connection | 45 |
| 5. Black-Hole Encounter | 59 |
| 6. Exploding Black Holes | 69 |
| 7. The Final Question | 91 |
| 8. Bubble or Bang | 105 |
| 9.The Anthropic Principle | 121 |
| Appendix: Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics? : An Inaugural Lecture by Stephen Hawking | 131 |
| Index | 151 |