How did everything start? And how did we come to exist? In this one book Oxford Professor Tim Coulson seeks to simply explain what science tells us about the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the existence of humanity, and whether our existence was always inevitable or if we are just incredibly lucky. Telling the scientific story of our origins in language that won't put off non-scientists, Coulson provides the most accessible and clear guide yet to what thousands of years of study have told us about who we are, where we came from and what comes next.