1. Part 1: Mother Nature (13.7 billion – 7 million BC)
1.1. Crunch, Bang, Ouch! How an invisible speck of infinite energy exploded our universe into existence, with its galaxies of stars and constant laws of physics
1.2. First Twitches How collisions, bombardments and volcanoes pummelled the young earth's hot, lifeless crust, and how chemicals began to replicate into microscopic forms of life
1.3. Tectonic Teamwork How conditions for creating new, more complex creatures were improved by the joint forces of the earth's planetary systems and the processes of early life
1.4. Fossil Fuss How life exploded into a variety of new organisms, some of which developed hard shells, bones and teeth that fossilized into a timeless museum of life on earth
1.5. Davy Jones's Locker How prehistoric life evolved in the seas before living creatures colonized the land, and how some fish developed backbones – becoming humanity's oldest ancestors
1.6. Friends of the Earth How plants on land eventually evolved into tall trees, and how the ground was covered with a blanket of nutrient-rich soil nurtured by insects, worms and fungi
1.7. Great Egg Race How the earth's restless crusts collided into a single, giant super-continent, provoking new forms of life to evolve and triggering the first mass extinction of land creatures
1.8. Dino-Wars How a race of terrible lizards came to dominate life on land, radiating from pole to pole until a freak extra-terrestrial impact wiped them all out
1.9. Flowers, Birds & Bees How the earth's first flowers blossomed alongside feathered flight, and how new species of social insects constructed nature's first civilizations
1.10. Prime Time How a minor family of nocturnal forest dwellers became the next masters of life on land, spilling out on to the earth's drifting continents and morphing into a new cornucopia of species
2. Part 2: Homo Sapiens (7 million – 5000 BC)
2.1. Ice Box How climate changes caused by cyclical variations in the earth's rotation and random movements of the continental crusts created expansive grasslands and caps of polar ice
2.2. Food for Thought How some creatures, called apes, came down from the trees, learned to walk on two feet, began to fashion tools for hunting and evolved into species with larger than average brains
2.3. Humanity How several species of early humans adapted to Ice Age conditions, learned to tame fire and cooked freshly hunted meat as they spread across Africa, Europe and Asia
2.4. The Great Leap Forward How a single species of humans, Sapiens, became the last to survive on earth, colonizing previously uninhabited lands and learning to talk and hunt with new types of flighted weapons
2.5. Hunter-Gatherer How humans lived in a state of nature for 99 per cent of their history on earth without permanent homes, full-time jobs or private possessions
2.6. Deadly Game How a coincidence of modern humans and climate changes upset the ecological balance first in Australia and then in the Americas, leading to a mass extinction of many large animals
2.7. Food Crops Up How men and women experimented with survival techniques following the last Ice Age melt, leading to humanity's first attempts to manipulate evolution for its own self-interest
3. Part 3: Settling In (5000 BC – c.570 AD)
3.1. Written Evidence How the art of writing ushered in an era known as 'history' in which merchants, rulers, artisans, farmers and priests established the first human civilizations
3.2. Divine Humanity How nature's bounty helped some rulers become living gods in the eyes of their subjects, commanding supreme obedience, total devotion and absolute protection – even in the afterlife
3.3. Mother Goddess How veneration for nature's cycles of birth, life and death became a hallmark for some human civilizations that devoted themselves to fertility, femininity and equality
3.4. Triple Trouble How a trilogy of domestic horses, wheeled chariots and Bronze Age weapons fanned out across Asia, Europe and North Africa, creating waves of destruction, conquest, and inequality
3.5. Dragon's Lair How a powerful and enduring human civilization arose from the East thanks to an abundance of natural riches in the forms of rice, silk and iron
3.6. Peace of Mind How a particular civilization re-discovered that humans could live in harmony with nature and set about trying to spread its enlightened message
3.7. East–West Divide How clashes between wandering nomads and rival civilizations seeded some of the world's most ancient, pernicious and enduring human disputes
3.8. Olympic Champions How a range of new experimental lifestyles emerged in a cluster of highly competitive city states that learned to live off the fruits of trade
3.9. Conquerors of the World How humanity's understanding of nature's systems began to express itself in philosophies and laws that were carried by conquest throughout the East and West
3.10. Hurricane Force How an empire built by violent human copy-cats clung to power far beyond its natural limits despite the birth of Jesus Christ, a man who came to be called Messiah
3.11. Timbuk-taboo How people living outside the scope of civilizations and wandering herders maintained their veneration for nature, resourcefulness and spiritual well-being
3.12. Amaizing Americas How humans in the New World created their own civilizations, oblivious to those established in Europe, North Africa and Asia, but were fatally handicapped by a lack of large animals
4. Part 4: Going Global (c.570 AD – present day)
4.1. What a Revelation! How a series of visions appeared to Mohammed, a man from Mecca, giving birth to Islam, a new way of life that promised to perfect the errors of mankind
4.2. Paper, Printing & Powder How Chinese scientific discoveries gradually spread westwards via Islam to Europe, supercharged by a Mongol chief who created the world's largest empire
4.3. Medieval Misery How plague, invasions and famine impoverished Christian Europe, which found itself surrounded by Islamic civilizations, impenetrable desert and endless blue seas
4.4. Treasure Hunt How each of the world's settled human societies sought out their own various fortunes through a mixture of trade, toil and theft
4.5. Moules Marinière How a few maritime explorers accidentally discovered a New World. Their arrival proved fatal to ancient civilizations and provoked a fierce contest between the rival nations of Europe
4.6. Fancy a Beer? How European merchants pioneered a new way of life overseas that fuelled a taste for growing lucrative crops, making some very rich and many more poor
4.7. New Pangaea How crops and creatures were farmed, harnessed, transported and exploited for the fancies of a single, global and mostly civilized species: man
4.8. Mixed Response How different human civilizations reacted to the arrival of European businessmen-cum-soldiers eager to trade for profit
4.9. Free Reign How extreme inequality between people ignited rebellions in the name of freedom, and how armies were conscripted for the sake of a feeling, flag or song
4.10. Monkey Business How the human species freed itself from nature's limitations by mastering its own source of transportable power and how its populations increased beyond all reasonable measure
4.11. White Man's Race How people from the West became convinced they were superior to all living things, believing it was their duty to subjugate the globe to their way of life
4.12. Back to the Future How some people tried to resist the advance of Western civilization, wishing instead to return to a more natural order, but whose attempts often met with catastrophic consequences
4.13. Witch Way? How the whole world was bound into a single system of global finance, trade and commerce, sustained by relentless scientific endeavour
