Andrei Linde
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters1.jpg" align="left" vspace="1" alt=""/>  “Recent versions of inflationary theory assert that instead of being an expanding ball of fire, the universe is a huge, growing fractal.”

Position: Physics professor, Stanford University

Cosmological claim to fame: Developed theory of chaotic inflation

Sir Martin Rees
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters2.jpg" align="left" vspace="2" alt=""/> “It’s possible that we live in the aftermath of one big bang among many, just as our solar system is merely one of many planetary systems in our galaxy.”

Position: England’s Astronomer Royal; Royal Society Research Professor, Cambridge University

Cosmological claim to fame: Author of Our Cosmic Habitat, which examines our place in the possible multiverse

John Barrow
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters3.jpg" align="left" vspace="3" alt=""/>   “The 20th-century dogma that human observers occupy a position in the universe that must not be privileged in any way is strongly challenged by a universe that allows the evolution of carbon-based life forms.”

Position: Research professor of mathematical sciences, Cambridge University

Author of: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (with Frank Tipler)

Cosmological claim to fame: Recently held a five-year research fellowship from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom

John Leslie
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters4.jpg" align="left" vspace="4" alt=""/> “While the multiple worlds (or world ensemble) hypothesis is impressively strong, the God hypothesis is a viable alternative.”

Position: Professor emeritus of philosophy, University of Guelph, Ontario

Author of: Universes

Cosmological claim to fame: When it was published in 1989, physicist and Anglican priest Sir John Polkinghorne called Universes “far and away the best book about the anthropic principle.”

Alan Guth
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters5.jpg" align="left" vspace="5" alt=""/> “I was quite worried that [inflationary theory] could just blow up and fall apart. Now it’s just a matter of filling in the details.”

Position: V.F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Author of: The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins

Cosmological claim to fame: Invented inflation, a modification of the big-bang theory

Lawrence Krauss
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters6.jpg" align="left" vspace="6" alt=""/> “Life is a random occurrence and it randomly occurs in those universes that allow it.”

Position: Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, a professor of astronomy and chair of the physics department, Case Western Reserve University

Author of: Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth … and Beyond

Cosmological claim to fame: Gained a legion of general-audience fans by writing The Physics of Star Trek

Brian Greene
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters7.jpg" align="left" vspace="7" alt=""/> “Making progress at unraveling the cosmos is its own reward.”

Position: Professor of mathematics and physics, Columbia University

Author of: The Fabric of the Cosmos

Cosmological claim to fame: One of his other books, The Elegant Universe, was made into a NOVA special on PBS

Lee Smolin
> <img hspace="5" src="http:/www.stnews.org/images/jan05_masters8.jpg" align="left" vspace="8" alt=""/>  “Every use of the anthropic principle claimed in physics and cosmology … is so vague that one can get any conclusion one wants, and match any observation, by manipulating the assumptions made.”

Position: Founding member and research physicist, Perimeter Institute

Author of: Life of the Cosmos

Cosmological claim to fame: Went blow-for-blow with Leonard Susskind in an online discussion of the anthropic principle