  For two decades the hot big-bang model as been referred to as the standard
cosmology -- and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known that
there are fundamental questions that are not answered by the standard cosmology
and point to a grander theory. The best candidate for that grander theory is
inflation + cold dark matter. It holds that the Universe is flat, that slowly
moving elementary particles left over from the earliest moments provide the
cosmic infrastructure, and that the primeval density inhomogeneities that seed
all the structure arose from quantum fluctuations. There is now prima facie
evidence that supports two basic tenets of this paradigm. An avalanche of
high-quality cosmological observations will soon make this case stronger or
will break it. Key questions remain to be answered; foremost among them are:
identification and detection of the cold dark matter particles and elucidation
of the dark-energy component. These are exciting times in cosmology!
