HOW THE UNIVERSE GOT ITS SPOTS(ISBN=9781400032723)

　　Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, the gifted young cosmologist Janna Levin not only announces the central theme of her intriguing and controversial new book but establishes herself as one of the most direct and unorthodox voices in contemporary science. For even as she sets out to determine how big “really big” may be, Levin gives us an intimate look at the day-to-day life of a globe-trotting physicist, complete with jet lag and romantic disturbances.
　　Nimbly synthesizing geometry, topology, chaos and string theories, Levin shows how the pattern of hot and cold spots left over from the big bang may one day reveal the size and shape of the cosmos. She does so with such originality, lucidity—and even poetry—that How the Universe Got Its Spots becomes a thrilling and deeply personal communication between a scientist and the lay reader.

　　Born in Texas and raised in Chicago, Janna Levin is now an Advanced Fellow in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked previously at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Acknowledgments
Preface
1 Is the Universe Infinite or Is It Just Really Big?
2 Infinity
3 Newton, 300 Years, and Einstein
4 Special Relativity
5 General Relativity
6 Quantum Chance and Choice
7 Death and Black Holes
8 Life and the Big Bang
9 Beyond Einstein
10 Adventures in Flatland and Hyperspace
11 Topology: Links, Locks, Loops
12 Through the Looking Glass
13 Wonderland in 3D
14 Mirrors in the Sky
15 How the Universe Got Its Spots
16 The Ultimate Prediction
17 Scars of Creation
18 The Shape of Things to Come
Epilogue
Index