Such a possibility is one reason why this competition to encourage young people to take up science writing is so important and why I am helping to launch it today. Another is that popular science writing can address wider issues. When I give talks about astronomy and cosmology, the questions that interest people most are the truly 'fundamental' ones that I can't answer: 'Is there life in space?', 'Is the universe infinite?' or 'Why didn't the Big Bang happen sooner?'

But before we get to that, let us have a look at how “material” – physical matter – first came about. If we are aiming to explain the origins of stable matter made of atoms or molecules, there was certainly none of that around at the Big Bang – nor for hundreds of thousands of years afterwards. We do in fact have a pretty detailed understanding of how the first atoms formed out of simpler particles once conditions cooled down enough for complex matter to be stable, and how these atoms were later fused into heavier elements inside stars. But that understanding doesn’t address whether something came from nothing.

This might be because, for non-specialists, it is tricky to distinguish well-based ideas from flaky speculation. But it's crucially important not to blur this distinction when writing articles for a general readership. Otherwise, credulous readers may take too much on trust, whereas hard-nosed sceptics may reject all scientific claims without appreciating that some have firm empirical support.