Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Overview Course No. 8050

In “Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity,” you’ll explore the history of everything, from the moment the Universe expanded from the size of an atom to that of a galaxy. Professor David Christian weaves together various scientific disciplines, creating a single narrative that spans the origins of the universe to the present day and beyond.

Course Content

1. What Is Big History?

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Introduces the multidisciplinary perspective that captures the story of everything from the Big Bang to today.

2. Moving across Multiple Scales

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Explores vast time scales necessary for understanding the modern creation story.

3. Simplicity and Complexity

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Discusses the development of increasing complexity since the Universe’s creation.

4. Evidence and the Nature of Science

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Establishes ground rules for trusting scientific claims about distant history.

5. Threshold 1: Origins of Big Bang Cosmology

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Examines the scientific evidence surrounding the Big Bang’s creation of the Universe.

6. How Did Everything Begin?

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Surveys historical theories about the creation of the Universe, from the Ptolemaic model to modern cosmology.

7. Threshold 2: The First Stars and Galaxies

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Discusses how gravity enabled the formation of stars and galaxies from primordial materials.

8. Threshold 3: Making Chemical Elements

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Investigates how stars produce the chemical elements essential for life.

9. Threshold 4: The Earth and the Solar System

• Duration: 29 min

• Description: Examines how planets and solar systems are formed from cosmic dust and gas.

10. The Early Earth: A Short History

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Chronicles Earth’s tumultuous early history, including its geological layers and atmosphere.

11. Plate Tectonics and the Earth’s Geography

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Introduces plate tectonics and how they transformed Earth’s geography over time.

12. Threshold 5: Life

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Defines life and discusses adaptation and evolution over billions of years.

13. Darwin and Natural Selection

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Explains Darwin’s revolutionary theory of evolution and natural selection.

14. The Evidence for Natural Selection

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Discusses the evidence supporting natural selection from various scientific viewpoints.

15. The Origins of Life

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Explores theories on how life emerged from non-living material.

16. Life on Earth: Single-Celled Organisms

• Duration: 29 min

• Description: Studies major evolutionary transitions during the first 3 billion years of life.

17. Life on Earth: Multi-Celled Organisms

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Focuses on the evolution of multi-cellular organisms and their significance.

18. Hominines

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Chronicles the evolution of primates and the development of bipedalism.

19. Evidence on Hominine Evolution

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Reviews archaeological and genetic evidence of hominine evolution.

20. Threshold 6: What Makes Humans Different?

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Examines the unique traits of humans, including language and collective learning.

21. Homo sapiens: The First Humans

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Investigates archaeological evidence of the emergence of Homo sapiens.

22. Paleolithic Lifeways

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Explores the lifestyles of Paleolithic humans using archaeological remains.

23. Change in the Paleolithic Era

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Discusses significant changes during the Paleolithic era affecting human societies.

24. Threshold 7: Agriculture

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Looks at how agriculture changed human society and resource control.

25. The Origins of Agriculture

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Explores the simultaneous rise of agriculture in different parts of the world.

26. The First Agrarian Societies

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Examines lifeways of early agrarian societies and their social structures.

27. Power and Its Origins

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Discusses the emergence of tribute-taking states and social organization.

28. Early Power Structures

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Surveys the transition from kinship clans to centralized societies.

29. From Villages to Cities

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Prehistoric developments of agrarian civilizations and the role of writing.

30. Sumer: The First Agrarian Civilization

• Duration: 33 min

• Description: Investigates the rise of Sumer as one of the earliest complex societies.

31. Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Compares other early agrarian civilizations around the world to Sumer.

32. The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Investigates common features shared by agrarian civilizations despite regional differences.

33. Long Trends: Expansion and State Power

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Discusses the expansion of civilizations and increasing power of rulers over time.

34. Long Trends: Rates of Innovation

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Looks at how resource management encouraged innovation in agrarian societies.

35. Long Trends: Disease and Malthusian Cycles

• Duration: 29 min

• Description: Analyses cycles of growth and decline in agrarian civilizations due to various factors.

36. Comparing the World Zones

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Questions similarities and differences in civilization development across world zones.

37. The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Examines late agrarian civilization developments in the Americas.

38. Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Reviews the acceleration of societal change in the last millennium.

39. The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500–1350

• Duration: 29 min

• Description: Describes periods of societal decline during the medieval cycle.

40. The Early Modern Cycle, 1350–1700

• Duration: 29 min

• Description: Discusses the global exchange networks and their effects during the Early Modern period.

41. Breakthrough: The Industrial Revolution

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Discusses the pivotal changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

42. Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Describes the rapid global impact of industrialization before 1900.

43. The 20th Century

• Duration: 33 min

• Description: Looks into major global events and innovations of the 20th century.

44. The World That the Modern Revolution Made

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Offers a portrait of modern society shaped by technological innovation.

45. Human History and the Biosphere

• Duration: 32 min

• Description: Examines the consequences of human activity on the biosphere.

46. The Next 100 Years

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Speculates on future trends based on historical developments.

47. The Next Millennium and the Remote Future

• Duration: 30 min

• Description: Covers theories about life in the distant future and the fate of the Universe.

48. Big History: Humans in the Cosmos

• Duration: 31 min

• Description: Concludes by questioning humanity’s place in the Universe.