The interplay of the major physical forces gravitation, electromagnetism and the nuclear forces manifest themselves dominantly in the evolution of the universe. Thanks to advanced instruments we now know very accurately the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background leading to immense theoretical challenges (dark matter and dark energy) as well as a desire for innovative new experiments. It also has led to a renewed intensity of collaboration between astronomers, astrophysicists and instrument-developers. The Casimir-researchers at Leiden focus on the theory of inflation in order to embed it in the microscopic theories supergravity and string theory). They are eagerly awaiting the new results from the Planck satellite, which is due to be launched in April 2009, together with the Herschel Space telescope, which is partly based on device-development executed within Casimir at Delft. The latter instrument will provide insight into the evolution of galaxies and will for the first time be able to detect the availability of water elsewhere in the universe. These results will be complemented with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) in which the researchers at Delft are strongly involved as well.