So, in a way, this is a history course, the history of the Universe. But to appreciate all the participants and their myriad interrelationships during this historical process, we will have to learn some basic science. So we will mix in the basic concepts of physics and astronomy, a little chemistry, a little more biology, plus a bit of geology. Similarly for physics, chemistry, biology, all the sciences. We are interested in them not for the sake of pure knowledge nor for control, but to appreciate the vast power of the Universe and Earth to bring forth the elegance and beauty that so abounds around and as us.
History is about what has happened in the past.
What science has brought to the historical studies is the understanding that the past is causal, not just the human past, but the whole past, the whole story. What we experience in the present is due to what happened in the past. The great insight of the twentieth century is that this chain of causation extends back some 13 billion years. So to understand the present in all its manifestations and implications, we must know the past, the deep past, our whole story. That is what we shall attempt in this course.