Chapter 1: Cosmic Evolution: State of the Science

Evolution, broadly considered, has become a powerful unifying concept in all of science, providing a comprehensive worldview for the new millennium. Among all of nature?s diverse systems, energy -- acquired, stored, and expressed --is a principal driver of the rising complexity of galaxies, stars, planets and life-forms in the expanding universe. Our cultural curiosity is both a result of, and a key to understanding, myriad cosmic-evolutionary events that have shaped our material origins.