Brian Cox discovers how the expansion of the brain played a key role in the ascent from ape-man to spaceman. Then in Petra, Jordan, he explores the birth of civilization, and in Kazakhstan he witnesses the return of astronauts.

Brian Cox reveals the latest understanding of how the universe came to be the way it is and offers a new answer as to why humans exist.

Brian Cox explores the ingredients needed for an intelligent civilization to evolve in the universe. He weighs the evidence and arrives at his own provocative answer to the puzzle of humanity's apparent solitude.

Brian Cox tells the story of how innate curiosity led humans from feeling they were the center of everything to the modern understanding of humanity's true place in space and time.

Brian Cox returns to the top of the world in Svalbard, Norway, where he gains access to civilization's greatest treasure locked away in a vault buried deep in the permafrost. He unlocks the secret of humanity's long-term survival.