Astronomers have struggled for years, and in vain, to answer a nagging, fundamental question: Why is the universe lumpy? Some regions of the cosmos are crowded with giant clusters of galaxies, millions of light-years across. Other, even vaster spaces seem to be largely empty of matter. Scientists have assumed that this unevenness resulted from irregularities in the big bang that began the universe between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago. But that greatest of all explosions was almost perfectly uniform, as evidenced by its leftover radiation, which radio telescopes can detect in every part of the sky. Then how did...
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