In the beginning: The birth of the living universe

Ripples in space collected by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite in 1992 clearly confirmed current ideas about the Big Bang. But why do matter and nature's fundamental forces seem specially designed to produce our kind of universe? Some scientists see the hand of God, others call this a non-question, but Gribbin suggests a new answer. Going far beyond the Gaia hypothesis, that the Earth is a single living organism, he claims that galaxies may "operate as supernova nurseries", that one universe can "bud" from star-death and "black hole bounce" into another, and that such "offspring" are being steadily refined by evolution.