This groundbreaking book presents a new perspective on three of cosmology's essential questions: What came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? And what cosmic future awaits us?

This groundbreaking book presents a new perspective on three of cosmology's essential questions: What came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? And what cosmic future awaits us?

Penrose shows how the expected fate of our ever-accelerating and expanding universe--heat death or ultimate entropy--can actually be reinterpreted as the conditions that will begin a new "Big Bang." He details the basic principles beneath our universe, explaining various standard and non-standard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, the paramount significance of black holes, and other basic building blocks of contemporary physics. Intellectually thrilling and widely accessible, Cycles of Time is a welcome new contribution to our understanding of the universe from one of our greatest mathematicians and thinkers.