[en] In the standard Weinberg-Salam electroweak theory baryon and lepton number (B and L) are NOT exactly conserved. The nonconservation of B and L can be traced to the existence of parity violation in the electroweak theory, together with the chiral current anomaly. This subtle effect gives negligibly small amplitudes for B and L violation at energies and temperatures significantly smaller than M_w sin² θ_w/α ∼ 10 TeV. However, recent theoretical work shows that the rate for B and L nonconservation is unsuppressed at higher energies. The consequences of this for cosmology and the baryon asymmetry of the universe, as well as the prospects for direct verification at the SSC are discussed. 13 refs., 3 figs