The Big Bang, Modern Cosmology and the Fate of the Universe: Impacts upon Culture

Abstract

Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the nature of fundamental science. Perhaps no other domain of science has an equal capacity to completely change our perspective of the world in which we live.Comment: Invited Lecture, UNESCO/IAU Meeting: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture Jan 2009, to appear, IAU Proceedings, D. Valls-Gaubaud and A. Boksenberg, eds.. (Several typos removed in this version