This series, Finite Systems and Multiparticle Dynamics, is intended to provide timely reviews of current research topics, written in a style sufficiently pedagogic so as to allow a nonexpert to grasp the underlying ideas as well as understand technical details. The series is an outgrowth of our involvement with three interdis ciplinary activities, namely, those arising from the American Physical Society's Topical Group on Few Body Systems and Multiparticle Dynam ics, the series of Gordon Research Conferences first known by the title "Few Body Problems in Chemistry and Physics" and later...

Calibrating the Cosmos describes hard science, but is gently written. It explains in clear, non-mathematical language the measurements and the interpretation of the resulting data that have led to the current understanding of the origin, evolution and properties of our expanding Big Bang universe.

Many people have a sketchy idea of the work of cosmologists, but Professor Levin's experience in teaching both scientific and liberal arts students has enabled him to impart much of our current thinking without resorting to difficult mathematics. Theoretical concepts are emphasized, in...