For most of human history, we have led not just an earthly existence but a cosmic one. Celestial cycles drove every aspect of our daily lives. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are - our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And that disconnect comes at a cost. In The Human Cosmos Jo Marchant takes us on a tour through the history of humanity's relationship with the heavens. We travel to the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux and witness the winter solstice at a 5,000-year-old tomb at Newgrange. We visit Medieval monks grappling with the nature of time and Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars. We discover how light reveals the chemical composition of the sun, and we are with Einstein as he works out that space and time are one and the same. A four-billion-year-old meteor inspires a search for extraterrestrial life. And we discover why stargazing can be really, really good for us. It is time for us to rediscover the full potential of the universe we inhabit, its wonder, its effect on our health, and its potential for inspiration and revelation.

Initially composed by Poe as a public lecture towards the end his career and considered by him the culmination of all his life's work, Eureka is an extended treatise about the creation, existence and the ultimate end of the world. An idiosyncratic blend of creative writing and scientific discourse, with unexpected forays into comedy and wordplay, this self-styled "prose poem" is a genre-defying masterpiece. Although it baffled the reading public of its time, Eureka found many prominent admirers, from Charles Baudelaire to W.H. Auden, and has since assembled an audience receptive to its unique appeal as a compendium of European thought that anticipated many current theories and discoveries while also pioneering many elements of science-fiction aesthetics.

Paul Davies' The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? gets to the heart of what makes the universe tick - and what makes our place in it so special. It's not too hot, it's not too cold, and its forces act together in a way that's just right: why does the universe seem so perfectly tailor-made for life to exist? Paul Davies, one of the world's most acclaimed science writers, shows how everything from the humble carbon atom to the speed of light and the laws of physics themselves interact. He asks: is there a theory of everything within our grasp? If there was a big bang, what happened before it? Is there on universe or many? Could we exist within an endless time loop? 'This is popular science as home to the really big questions' Independent Books of the Year 'Beautifully judged' Guardian 'Britain's most eminent cosmologist ... Davies is effortlessly at home in the scale of the impossibly large, hundreds of billions of miles' Observer 'He leads the reader gently by the hand through the basics of what we are sure we understand about space, time and the universe' John Gribbin 'Paul Davies is undoubtedly one of the most important modern scientific authors ... his most significant contribution to date' Patrick Moore Paul Davies is Director of the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, and co-Director of the Cosmology Initiative, both at Arizona State University. An internationally-acclaimed physicist, writer and broadcaster, Davies is the author of some twenty award-winning books, including The Eerie Silence: Searching for Ourselves in the Universe, The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? and The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning.

David Christian, creator of Big History ('My favourite course of all time' Bill Gates), brings us the epic story of the universe and our place in it, from 13.8 billion years ago to the remote future 'Nails home the point: Life is a miracle ... A compelling history of everything' Washington Post 'Spectacular' Carlo Rovelli How did we get from the Big Bang to today's staggering complexity, in which seven billion humans are connected into networks powerful enough to transform the planet? And why, in comparison, are our closest primate relatives reduced to near-extinction? Big History creator David Christian gives the answers in a mind-expanding cosmological detective story told on the grandest possible scale. He traces how, during eight key thresholds, the right conditions have allowed new forms of complexity to arise, from stars to galaxies, Earth to homo sapiens, agriculture to fossil fuels. This last mega-innovation gave us an energy bonanza that brought huge benefits to mankind, yet also threatens to shake apart everything we have created. 'Rather like the Big Bang, the book is awe-inspiring ... Superb' The Times 'With fascinating ideas on every page and the page-turning energy of a good thriller, this is a landmark work' Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element