I have the cover story on BBC Sky at Night’s July issue:

“Imagine a time when there was nothing: no stars, no planets, no galaxies.  Nothing to shine light into the Universe, just darkness and vast clouds of gas that will one day coalesce into the familiar celestial objects around us.  Welcome to the cosmic dark ages, the most mysterious of all the cosmic realms.

Astronomers estimate that the cosmic dark ages lasted from around 300,000 years after the Big Bang to just over a billion years.  Although it may initially sound like a cosmic wilderness of zero interest, astronomers are now determined to see into this era because during this time, the first celestial objects formed.  When they did, they began shining their radiation across the Universe. …”

You can read the full story in the July issue of BBC Sky at Night magazine.