How to build a universe

Our universe should be a formless fog of energy. Why isn't it? According to the known laws of physics, the universe we see today should be dark, empty and quiet. There should be no stars, no planets, no galaxies and no life--just energy and simple particles diffusing further and further into an expanding universe. And yet, here we are. Cosmologists calculate that roughly 13.8 billion years ago, our universe was a hunk of thick, hot energy with no boundaries and its own rules. But then, in less t...