Cosmology 1996

The current state of cosmology is easy to summarize: a very successful standard model – the hot big-bang cosmology – that accounts for the evolution of the Universe from 10^{-2} sec until the present; bold ideas based upon early-Universe physics – foremost among them inflation and cold dark matter – that can extend the standard cosmology to times as early as 10^{-32} sec and address the most pressing questions; and a flood of observations – from determinations of the Hubble constant to measurements of CBR anisotropy – that are testing inflation and cold dark matter.