The size of the universe and the number of galaxies and stars within it seem without limit. The scale of our world tests the capacity of the human brain, which struggles to conceive of its vastness….

Human beings believe themselves to be unique, and probably alone in the universe. But we are beginning to realise that there are hundreds of billions of planets suitable for life, and that the probability of life existing nowhere else but on Earth is slim.

In the history of the Earth, the age of man is no more than a brief moment in time. Millions of fascinating species were there before mankind and most of them for much longer.

The age of man is short. Mankind is just one of many among the millions of species that populate the Earth's history, just a small leaf on the gigantic tree of life.

Human beings are perhaps not the dominant species they think they are. Many other species are more numerous, larger, live longer, are more powerful or resilient.

At the interspecies Olympic Games, human beings would lose out in almost every category to other species.