What the Webb Telescope Really Showed Us About the Cosmos’ Beginning

n my 10th birthday, I convinced a flock of cousins to travel to the end of the universe with me. I had my reasons. Cosmology was a family affair. My father, Solomon Zeldovich, was working on detecting gravitational waves long before the proper detecting equipment even existed. His uncle, Russian-Jewish scientist Yakov Zeldovich, was one of the leading physicists and cosmologists who contributed to the Big Bang theory. Growing up, I learned to stay away from black holes before I learned to cross the street. Other kids’ bedtime stories featured gnomes and fairies, but mine revolved around collapsing neutron stars, supernovas, and fusion reactions inside our sun. “Once upon a time almost 14 billion years ago there was a big boom that created our universe,” my father had told me. “And ever since this Big Bang, to get to the end of the universe.