Learning path · Intermediate
From the Big Bang to You
The biggest story there is, in ten steps: how the universe began, how stars forged the elements, how Earth formed, and how chemistry became life.
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- 1
Space & the Universe
The Big Bang
The universe began 13.8 billion years ago as something hotter and denser than anything we can imagine. Here is how we know, and what happened in the first few minutes.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 2
Matter, Energy & Physics
Atoms
Everything you can touch is made of atoms, and atoms are almost entirely empty space. Here is what they are, how we know, and why the tiny nucleus holds so much power.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 3
Space & the Universe
The Life of a Star
Stars are born in cold clouds, burn for millions or billions of years, and die as white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes. Their ashes made the Earth.
3 min read 4-question quiz
- 4
Space & the Universe
Galaxies and the Milky Way
Our Sun is one of several hundred billion stars in a spiral galaxy, which is itself one of trillions. Here is the shape of our cosmic home and the neighbourhood around it.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 5
Planets & the Solar System
The Sun
A ball of hydrogen a million times the volume of Earth, fusing 600 million tonnes of fuel a second. Everything alive on Earth runs on its light.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 6
Planet Earth
Inside the Earth
Beneath your feet lie 6,370 kilometres of rock and metal, hotter than the surface of the Sun at the centre. No one has drilled even one percent of the way down.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 7
Planet Earth
The Oceans
Water covers 71 percent of the planet, mostly in darkness and under crushing pressure. We have mapped the surface of Mars in more detail than our own seafloor.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 8
Life & Biology
The Origin of Life
Around four billion years ago, on a hot young planet, chemistry became biology. Nobody knows exactly how, but the clues are piling up.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 9
Life & Biology
Evolution
Every species alive, including ours, descends from earlier ones, shaped over millions of years by a simple process Darwin called natural selection. Here is how it works and how we know.
4 min read 4-question quiz
- 10
Life & Biology
DNA and Genes
Inside every one of your cells is a two-metre-long molecule carrying the complete instructions to build and run you. Here is how the code works.
4 min read 4-question quiz
