By Andrew Grant
The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter
Katherine Freese
Princeton Univ., $29.95
If the components of the universe were poured into a “cosmic cocktail,” scientists could easily predict how the drink would look and taste, yet they would have no idea what’s in it. Such is the state of cosmology today: While scientists can confidently explain the universe’s history and structure, the identities of its primary components — dark matter and dark energy — remain a mystery. In her first book, Freese, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan, chronicles scientists’ attempts, including her own, to discover what the universe is made of.