Birth of the Universe as quantum scattering in string cosmology

In a Wheeler-DeWitt approach to quantum string cosmology, the present state of the Universe arises from the scattering and reflection of the wave function representing the initial string vacuum in superspace. This scenario is described and compared with the more conventional quantum cosmology picture, in which the birth of the Universe is represented as a process of tunnelling from nothing in superspace.This essay received the third award from the Gravity Research Foundation, 1996-Ed.