“This book tells the story of the process of historical change of all elements in the cosmos from the Big Bang to the evolution of life and human history - how simple accumulations of hydrogen turn into complex human communities. Usually history allows us to live many lives instead of just one, and this particular history offers the experience of billions of years... As for the future, I'm talking about the next century, the next thousand years, the next million, billion and even trillion and quadrillion years, until the potential end of our Universe " (David Baker)