Wonders of Life

How did life on this planet begin? Brian Cox explores the thin line that separates the living from the dead and poses that most enduring of questions: what is life? In this groundbreaking documentary, he journeys to the volcanic landscapes of South-East Asia, seeking to understand how life first emerged from the heat energy beneath the earth’s surface and how that spark has endured to this day.

Every animal on earth experiences the world in a different way, using a unique set of senses. Professor Brian Cox travels across the US and encounters some astonishing creatures that reveal how these senses evolved. A unique retelling of our evolutionary history takes Brain through life's journey, from simple organisms to complex beings. How did these senses evolve into human intelligence?

Why is Earth so fertile and life so diverse? Professor Brian Cox travels to the richly bio-diverse areas of Southern Africa and searches for clues by considering the chemistry of a lion. The answer, he reveals, is partly carbon. It's a universal building block forged by the stars that is captured by the living world. Could carbon suggest there’s similar life elsewhere in the universe?

How does size determine the nature of life? Professor Brian Cox travels to Australia, to investigate how electromagnetism impacts heavily on different types of life, from a single bacterium to an enormous tree, determining shape, movement and longevity. In this fascinating science documentary, he discovers that size has a profound effect on how you move, how you feed and even how long you live.

What it is about our world that makes it a home for life and what ingredients were necessary to transform this once barren planet into the earth we know today? In this remarkable science documentary, Professor Brian Cox reveals that it was a rare chain of events, combined with the power of life itself, that have made earth unique in the universe. But could there be life elsewhere in space?