Just in case you've come here looking for something about Cosmology, here's the scoop: I have had an interest in cosmology for a long time, but do not work on it professionally. The one thing I have done which might be original is to figure out how the curvature of the Universe can be calculated using only the tools of freshman physics. For me, that was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done--it can be used to extend the popular books on cosmology to a deeper level--readers such as I no longer have to rely on cop outs such as It can be shown from General Relativity that the curvature of space is thus and such, implying that the geometry is so-and-so. Ordinarily trained technical folks can just figure it out for themselves. It requires a little calculus, a little mechanics, and three basic results from special relativity. There's not much more to it except figuring out what needs to be figured out; and that I've done. A much harder job for me has been to get the information to the people who would care. But just in time, perhaps, the Web appears. Maybe those who want to see this will find it here.
In about 1982, I tried writing a book about Cosmology and my discovery. It took the form of letters back and forth between me and an English professor friend of mine, Dick Gardner, up at UW-Stout. It grew to about 700 pages, and when something changed in the computer's editor and all my equations suddenly turned to gibberish, I lost interest in it. Later, I rewrote it, much shortened, but tried to intertwine a story with it, calling it my novel. That was about 260 pages. I joked that I would do a screenplay next, and finally a poem. But the fact is that most of the friends to whomI gave copies of the "novel" were unable to finish reading it. One kept it on his nightstand for times when he had trouble sleeping. Part of the problem is that there are things to think about in the book, basically forcing the reader to put it down and ponder. One friend, whom I tend to suspect was right, suggested that I slice it up into a series of independent essays, each with its own story line, stories that did not have to fit together in a grand whole. (Among other feats, this friend is a successfully published author of a series of books, beginning with Graffiti in the Big 10.)
You'd think that if I were so all fired interested in seeing this development get out and start to appear in the popular books, that I would just write it down, cut and dried, for all to see. Don't think that I haven't tried. On several occasions I have given seminars, twice I've given series of lectures on the subject. I have even managed to get the mathematical development of the key bit onto one page for one of the lectures. But two things have failed me. One is that it takes a long time to introduce newcomers to the general features of the study of cosmology--so I spend all my time doing that and don't leave enough for my little gem. The other is that I really enjoy physics and stories, and analogies, and I just find it hard to try to be dry and straightforward on this one thing about which I care so much.
My older son, David, suggested that I might want to put some of my writing attempts on the Web, where people who were actually interested in the subject could find them, and could encourage me to continue to shape the thing up until it can actually be enjoyed. I'm not prepared to stick the whole thing up here just yet, particularly as I am trying to rework it again as I go and it is about 57th on the list of things I have to work on this year. But just maybe a taste would be worth a start, so I'll grab a couple of files and see if our webmaster can figure out how to make them accessible to you.