Inflation on Trial

Astrophysicists interrogate one of their most successful theories

Ask any astronomer what inflation is, and you’ll hear about the moment when the universe’s primordial fireball expanded like a balloon on steroids, smoothing and flattening its initial wrinkles before it grew into the cosmos seen today.

Now, some physicists are trying to let a little air out of that scenario.

Generally regarded as one of the most successful theories about the early universe, inflationary cosmology is not exactly under attack.