About Wonders of the Universe

There is no more all-encompassing source of mystery than the universe. Since the dawn of humanity, its vastness has elicited endless wonder and questions that have consumed mankind's intellect and imagination. Science is proud to welcomes back Professor Brian Cox, the physicist whom the Los Angeles Times affectionately calls "the nerd who is cooler than you," for the four-part series WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE. Expanding on the promise of 2010's Peabody Award-winning WONDERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, Cox takes viewers even farther to explore how deep space can be explained- and even experienced-by re-examining the familiar here on Earth.

"It is our mission at SCIENCE to provoke our viewers to think about the world beyond their home — and in this case, the universe beyond their world," said Debbie Adler Myers, general manager and executive vice president of SCIENCE. "WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE offers our audience the closest possible experience to an actual tour of the cosmos — and there is no better guide to take them on this journey than Brian Cox. Viewers are bound to fall in love with his rock star charm and infectious enthusiasm — he's a force of nature."

Named one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" in December 2008, Cox is the definition of a renaissance man. A former keyboard player in the UK pop band D:Ream, Cox is a noted physicist who transforms cutting-edge science and astronomy into accessible information that is as digestible as it is fascinating. As a companion to the series, Harper Collins will release Cox's gorgeously illustrated #1 London Times-best-selling companion book, "Wonders of the Universe" (Harper Design; Hardcover; July 12, 2011; $29.99), in the United States.

Cox describes the cosmos as "unlikely" because he believes that it is only through remarkable balance and cosmic engineering that it is able to exist at all. In the all-new season of WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Cox illustrates how the same physical laws that describe the behavior of light, gravity, time, matter and energy here on Earth can explain the qualities of the greater universe. Traveling to the deserts of Namibia, Cox demonstrates how the universe continues to become increasingly disordered and how ultimately there will be no stars, planets or galaxies left in the cosmos. Later, he journeys to a deserted prison in Rio de Janeiro to explain how the chemical elements were made in the hearts of stars, and also shows viewers how the water of the Victoria Falls in Zambia behaves the way light does around a black hole.