Wonders of Life

Professor Brian Cox embarks upon an exploration of how a few fundamental laws gave birth to the most complex, diverse and unique feature of our universe; life. Professor Cox journeys to the volcanic landscapes of South-East Asia, seeking to understand how life first began and how that spark has endured to this day.

Professor Cox travels across the US and encounters some astonishing creatures that reveal how the senses evolved. A unique retelling of our evolutionary history takes Brain through life's journey, from single-celled organisms to sentient beings.

Professor Brian Cox travels to the richly bio-diverse areas of Southern Africa and Madagascar and asks why is it that the Earth is so fertile and life is so diverse. He searches for clues by considering the chemistry of a lion. The answer, he reveals, lies, in part in carbon. It’s a universal building block forged by the stars that is captured by the living world. By following the stellar origins of carbon and the universality of the laws of nature, Brian contemplates whether there could be similar life elsewhere in the universe.

Professor Brian Cox travels to Australia, the big country down under, to explain how size determines the nature of life. Gravity and electromagnetism impact heavily on different types of life – from a single bacterium to a 110 metre tree – determining shape, movement and longevity.

Professor Brian Cox concludes his exploration of how the fundamental laws of science gave birth to the most complex and unique feature of the universe - life. Professor Cox considers what it is about our world that makes it a home for life and asks what ingredients were necessary to transform this once barren planet into the Earth we know today? He reveals that it was a rare chain of events combined with the power of life itself that have made Earth unique amongst the cosmos.