1. The Vacuum, the Universe, and things that go "pop" in the night. 1.1. The discovery of the vacuum. 1.2. The rise and fall of the vacuum. 1.3. The vacuum reborn. 1.4. The transmutation of the vacuum. 1.5. The tribulations of a simple oscillator. 1.6. The ¿ther, nouveau régime. 1.7. The unbearable heaviness of the vacuum -- 2. Eleven quadrillion six hundred thousand billion tonnes of coal per second. 2.1. The eternal triangle. 2.2. Cracks in the celestial sphere. 2.3. The rebirth of atoms -- 3. Fin de Siècle, Fin du Monde. 3.1. The atoms of chemistry. 3.2. The atoms of heat. 3.3. Chemical analysis without chemistry. 3.4. Temperature measurement without a thermometer. 3.5. A bagful of loose ends. 3.6. Thermodynamics: the 19th century astronomer's best friend. 3.7. The death of the Universe -- 4. A mystery wrapped in an enigma. 4.1. The mystery. 4.2. The enigma -- 5. The rise of the new physics. 5.1. Almost, but not quite, the alchemist's dream. 5.2. Light magic. 5.3. To catch a beam of light. 5.4. A locked room mystery ... solved. 5.5. Of what is the Universe made? -- 6. The chicken and the egg. 6.1. Balancing acts. 6.2. Neutrons to the rescue? 6.3. Cosmology to the rescue? -- 7. The best of times and the worst of times. 7.1. Theories to end all theories. 7.2. Thermonuclear leggo. 7.3. And yet they shine. 7.4. The inflationary economy of stars. 7.5. To see the World in a grain of sand -- 8. A tale of two theories and one dogma. 8.1. Fiat lux? 8.2. Continuous creation? 8.3. Cosmic cooking pots. 8.4. Death of a travelling dogma -- 9. Relics of a bygone age. 9.1. One man's noise is another man's Nobel prize. 9.2. Clues about the distant past. 9.3. Genesis, according to Gamow -- 10. Cosmic ash. 10.1. "The fault, dear Enrico, is not in our stars, but in your neutrinos". 10.2. Things that go bump in the night. 10.3. "I come not to bury Caesar, but to praise him". 10.4. Most of our Universe is missing -- Epilogue-the mysterious universe -- A personal chronology of 20th century astrosphysics -- Bibliography.