The Infrared and Submillimetre Sky after COBE

I. Introductory Lecture.- An Overview of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and its Observations: New Sky Maps of the Early Universe.- II. The Early Universe.- Strings, Gravity, and the Constants of Nature.- First-Order Inflation.- Inflation, Great Attractor and Anisotropies of the Relic Radiation.- String Theory in Cosmology.- Cosmic Strings: An Introduction to their Formation, Evolution, and their Microwave Background Signature.- The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.- The Spectral Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, LEP and Heavy Neutrinos.- Dark Matter Candidates and Methods for Detecting Them.- Fluctuations and Anisotropies in Integrated Backgrounds.- The Thermal History of the Cosmological Gas.- III. Infrared to Submillimetre Backgrounds.- Sources of Cosmic Infrared-Submillimetre Background Radiation.- Preliminary Results from the FIRAS and DIRBE Experiments on COBE.- Submm Emission from Galaxies and Quasars.- Infrared Emission from the Galaxy.- IV. Anisotropies of the CMB.- Linear and Non-linear Gravitational Effects on the CMB Anisotropy.- Statistics of the CMB Maps.- CMB and Galactic Maps in the Millimetric Region.- COBE DMR Results and Implications.- Cosmic Background Anisotropies in the Millimetric Region.- Upper Limits on the CMB Variation from 1300 µm Observations.- V. Instrumentation.- Mapping the Sky with the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometers.- Fundamental and Practical Limits to the Sensitivity of Submillimeter Astronomical Observations.- Observations at (Sub)millimetre Wavelengths: Effect of Atmosphere and Telescope Sidelobes.- VI. Conclusion.- Early Measurements of the CMB.- Summary of Meeting.- Author Index.