Summary

Shortly after the big bang 13.8 billion years ago, the universe was a witches' brew of random particles zooming about at the speed of light, in an orgy of interaction and annihilation, where energy became matter and the reverse, according to Einstein 's theory of relativity. The primal cauldron of the universe burned at a "trillion trillion" degrees, Randall says. As the universe slowly cooled, large particles combined with antiparticles to produce new energy. Gradually protons and neutrons combined into nuclei held together by powerful nuclear forces, and helium, lithium and deuterium were created. Scientific observations and measurements agree with, and confirm, both the big bang theory as well as nuclear physics.

These measurements confirm existing theories and limit new theories with the result that the amount of normal matter cannot be significantly greater than what has been observed, because...