The Origin and Evolution of Earth: From the Big Bang to the Future of Human Existence

Begins the study of Earth's history by voyaging backwards in time, seeing how each crucial stage in the evolution of the planet depends on what comes before and previewing the role played by minerals, which coevolve with life.

Earth exists for only a third of the history of the universe; what happens before the planet forms; journeying back to the Big Bang; how fundamental forces and particles freeze out of a homogeneous state in the initial moments of cosmic evolution.

How simple atoms of hydrogen and helium make stars; how stars manufacture all other naturally occurring elements through processes including titanic supernova explosions; nucleosynthesis is responsible for the chemical richness behind Earth.

Tracing the origin of minerals; discovering a candidate for the first crystal forged in the cauldron of dying stars; following the processes that create other early minerals, which survive in their original form in microscopic presolar dust grains.

Unraveling the story told in "presolar" grains of dust; these are the earliest building blocks of the solar system; how scientists identify these microscopic particles; seeing how the field of cosmochemistry is revolutionising the study of minerals.

Plunging into deep time; Professor Hazen teaches an analogy that orients one along this sea of ceaseless change; exploring the techniques that allow scientists to date rocks and other materials with precision.