  We compute the Casimir interaction between a plane and a sphere, the
configuration employed in the most precise experiments. The scattering formula
is developed by taking a suitably chosen plane-wave and multipole basis and is
valid for arbitrary values of the sphere radius, inter-plate distance,
temperature and arbitrary dielectric functions for both sphere and plate. Our
analytical and numerical results for metallic surfaces show a non-trivial
interplay between the effects of curvature, temperature, finite conductivity
and dissipation.
