How did the invention of photography lead us to a world where we live entirely virtually? Alie Ward points us towards a future where we might upload ourselves to the web.

Alie Ward goes from an ancient herbal remedy, through naturalistic theater, and the horrifying results of atomic weapons, to arrive at embryonic stem cells and the tantalising prospect of a future where the body is tricked into being forever young.

Alie Ward weaves a chain of extraordinary connections, from the earliest dreams of standing on the moon, to the pill-popping present, and a future of happiness on-demand.

Alie Ward falls through the wormholes of history into the Louisiana swamps, then journeys on to discover how poker-faced mischief and a mathematical code for winning games bring machines that invent faces so real that nobody can tell they are fake.

A heroic bid for freedom by an enslaved couple in 19th century America precipitates great innovation that culminates in people making the heavens open.

A discovery in a gold mine in the Ural Mountains leads to a vivid paint that revolutionizes art and stuns the world; from dissecting stolen corpses and peering into microscopes, the secret structure of the brain and nervous system is exposed.