Cosmologists have long puzzled overwhetherthe universe is flat or round. An international team of scientists has finally produced pictures which show the precise structure of the universe as it was 300,000 years afterthe Big Bang. Analysis has revealed that the universe is in fact as flat as a pancake. Quentin Coopertalks to Professor
Peter Ade at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, about what this revelation means and how a hot-air balloon and a robotic telescope called Boomerang provided all the answers. Producer John Watkins. E-MAIL: material.world@bbc.co.uk