PART I ONENESS Burst! Fear of Darkness Transition Belief Oneness: Beginnings *The Pythagorean Myth Living the Platonic Dream God, the Sun To Hold the Key to the Cosmos in Your Mind . Kepler's Mistake PART II THE ASYMMETRY OF TIME The Big Bang Confirmed The World in a Grain of Sand Light Acts in Mysterious Ways The Imperfection of Electromagnetism The Birth of Atoms From Creation Myths to the Quantum: A Brief History Leap of Faith *The Jitterbug Cosmos *The Universe That We See The Faltering Big Bang Model Back to the Beginning Exotic Primordial Matter A Small Patch of Weirdness Darkness Falls Darkness Rules PART III THE ASYMMETRY OF MATTER Symmetry and Beauty A More Intimate Look at Symmetry Energy Flows, Matter Dances Violation of a Beautiful Symmetry The Material World Science of the Gaps Symmetries and Asymmetries of Matter The Origin of Matter in the Universe A Universe in Transition Unification: A Critique PART IV THE ASYMMETRY OF LIFE Life! The Spark of Life Life from No Life: First Steps First Life: The "When" Question First Life: The "Where" Question First Life: The "How" Question First Life: The Building Blocks The Man Who Killed the Life Force L'Universe Est Dissymétrique! The Chirality of Life From So Asymmetric a Beginning . We Are All Mutants*PART V THE ASYMMETRY OF EXISTENCE Fear of Darkness II Is the Universe Conscious? Meaning and Awe Beyond Symmetry and Unification Marilyn Monroe's Mole and the Fallacy of a Cosmos "Just Right" for Life Rare Earth, Rare Life? Us and Them Cosmic Loneliness A New Directive for Humanity Epilogue: Garden of Delights Afterword to the New Edition Notes Bibliography *Acknowledgments Index.