This is a book more about the history of theories about what constitutes a universe rather than a book about what we currently believe the current state of our universe is although that is covered to some extent. Barrow describes theories that have fallen by the wayside, such as universes expanding in different ways in different places, or not having begun with a "bang" at all. Through this it becomes apparent that any theories propounded today are just as likely to be "boshed" in years to come as we are at the very boundaries of science and the experimental method. John Barrow is a very readable author, bringing life to potentially baffling and complex ideas and although some old ground is gone over (quantum theory etc) it doesn't do any harm to reinforce all these ideas as I for one still don't quite always "get" it. Whilst Brian Cox's latest tome is "lighter", has better pictures and diagrams and is an excellent book in its own right, I would encourage anyone who has read that to look at this one and put some meat on many of the bones that Prof Cox describes
