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Books

The Universal History of Us by Tim Coulson

Grant Bartley replies philosophically to a scientific history of everything.

This book tells the story of humanity in the most epic terms. It’s the saga of how we got here, from the start of the universe until now. Specifically, The Universal History of Us (2024), which in the States is called The Science of Why We Exist, relates current scientific ideas of how everything came to be, including human beings. It starts with the Big Bang; goes through the creation of matter, stars and planets, the emergence of life; then the development of life up to great apes with abstract thinking, such as you and me. As Tim Coulson, Professor of Zoology at Oxford University, writes, he’s charting “the key things that had to happen for you and me to exist” (p.

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