What do we mean with the 'Big Bang'? Why are the properties of our universe so special? What is cosmological inflation? How can we test cosmological inflation and what do the latest observations tell us? Can we probe string theory using cosmology?

How did our universe come into existence? This basic and ancient question still remains one of the biggest mysteries in science. Ever since Einstein discovered that gravity can be understood as the stretching and bending of space and time, cosmology, which studies the properties, evolution and origin of the universe as a hole, became a proper and honest scientific subject, in which theoretical constructs can be confronted with (cosmological) observations.

What we have learned since then, in less than a century, about the origin and properties of our universe, is spectacular and at the same time mysterious. Our universe appears to be very special. In an attempt to explain these remarkable features a small group of theoretical cosmologists developed the paradigm of cosmological inflation in the eighties. What is cosmological inflation? An what do the latest observations tell us about this fascinating proposal in which all structures in our universe find their origin in small primordial quantum fluctuations? And what are the implications of cosmological inflation for conjectured theories of quantum gravity, such as string theory?

String theorist Jan Pieter van der Schaar argues that cosmology in general, and the cosmological paradigm of inflation in particular, is our best (and perhaps only) bet to probe and test the microscopic quantum description of space and time.

This event is an initiative by the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP) with the support of the University of Amsterdam. Science & Cocktails Amsterdam is presented in cooperation with Paradiso Amsterdam.