This chapter explores what is known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), what it is, how it was discovered and our recent efforts to measure and map it. In general, the analysis finds remarkably good overall agreement with predictions of the now-standard “lambda CDM” model of a universe, in which there is both cold dark matter (CDM) to spur structure formation, as well as dark-energy acceleration that is well-represented by a cosmological constant, lambda. From this we can infer 13.8 Gyr for the age of the universe.

The timescale analyses in Chapter 8 show that nuclear fusion provides a long-lasting energy source that we can associate with main-sequence stars in the H–R diagram. This chapter addresses the following questions: What are the requirements for H to He fusion to occur in the stellar core? And how is this to be related to the luminosity versus surface temperature scaling for main-sequence stars? In particular, how might this determine the relation between mass and radius? What does it imply about the lower mass limit for stars to undergo hydrogen fusion?

We walk through the different epochs and eras of the universe, going forward in time from the Hot Big Bang. In the earliest universe, radiation (photons) dominated over matter. As the universe cools, electrons are able to recombine with protons, then helium and other light elements were formed in the first few minutes. Cosmic inflation is posited to overcome several problems, but investigations to probe and perhaps confirm inflation are ongoing.

This chapter gives a brief overview of observational astronomy, using optical instruments and other wavelengths. We present a general formula for the increase in the limiting magnitude resulting from an increased telescope aperture. For light of particular wavelength, the diffraction from a telescope with a specific diameter sets a fundamental limit to the smallest possible angular separation that can be resolved.

Observations of binary systems indicate that main sequence stars follow an empirical mass–luminosity relation L ~ M 3. The physical basis for this can be understood by considering the two basic relations of stellar structure, namely hydrostatic equilibrium and radiative diffusion. In practice, the transport of energy from the stellar interior toward the surface sometimes occurs through convection instead of radiative diffusion; this has important consequence for stellar structure and thus for the scaling of luminosity.

Imagine a person who readily admits he’s not much interested in politics, often doesn’t vote, and isn’t well informed about candidates and their policy stands. To make this discussion more concrete and personal, let’s call this individual Brian. It is obvious that Brian does not meet the expectation of a self-interested citizen actively pursuing his interests through political participation. If Brian is typical of many citizens, the foundations of Madison’s theory of representative government would seem to be jeopardy.

The dawn of the third millennium saw prophets of doom foretelling the end of civilization. Central to this climate of fear was the willful destruction of the environment and, more precisely, the harm caused by climate change. In the Caribbean, such fears were confirmed by rising temperatures, the increased intensity of extreme weather events, the devastation of coral reefs, species extinctions, the virulence of viral diseases, and rising sea levels. Globally, nineteen of the hottest years ever recorded occurred in the first twenty years of the twenty-first century. The oceans were at their warmest in 2019, and global greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high. These alarming indicators of environmental deterioration had far-reaching ramifications in politics, economy, and society. Indeed, the challenges faced by the Caribbean in the first twenty years of the twenty-first century occurred in the context of a changing global geopolitical climate that affected most aspects of life, from health and material welfare to identity, sovereignty, and culture. For the Caribbean, the home of the hurricane, a perfect storm was brewing.

Enslaved people never accepted their lot. They found themselves trapped, often for generations, unable to see a way out, but given half a chance, they grasped the opportunity to escape and live in freedom. For numerous reasons, the decades after 1770 offered many more opportunities than had come before. Wherever they could, enslaved people seized these opportunities – to rebel and revolt – and to a striking degree they proved successful. These were the decades labelled by modern historians the ‘age of democratic revolution’, associated at first with the period 1760–1800 but later broadened to encompass the hundred years 1750–1850 and simplified to an ‘age of revolution’. The key events of the period initially were identified as the American Revolution and the French Revolution, but the revolution in St Domingue demands an equal place in this narrative. Similarly, the struggle for political liberty in Spanish America and the struggle for the abolition of slavery constitute vital elements of the age of revolution.

The Caribbean is named for its sea, but the islands define the region and make its history. As a marine environment, the Caribbean Sea is a creation of the land that encloses it, with a continental coastline to the south and west, and a permeable but continuous arc of islands facing the Atlantic Ocean. Without the islands there would be no sea. The water would be nothing more than another stretch in the fluid maritime history of the ocean. Equally significant, the islands of the Caribbean surround and demarcate the sea rather than sitting in it. This geographical formation determined fundamental features in the development of the Caribbean and distinguished the experience of the region from that of other island histories around the world.

Unlike the original peopling of the Caribbean islands, which came late in the human settlement of the Americas, it was in these islands that the secondary – Columbian – colonization of the continents had its beginning. This was not the only significant difference between the two colonizations. The secondary phase, which reached the islands in 1492 with Columbus, did not have roots in the tropical rimland, as did the first colonization, but rather had its origins far away across the Atlantic, in Europe. It brought in its wake peoples, plants, animals, and technologies not only from Europe but from across the globe – particularly Africa, but also from the world beyond the Atlantic, from Asia and the Pacific. Further, whereas the first colonization peopled the islands, the initial impact of the secondary wave was characterized not by an augmentation of island populations but their destruction.