Humanity has always looked up at the night sky and wondered what lies beyond our world. Now we
are on the precipice of stepping out among the stars not just as lone astronauts or
billionaire tech bros but as a civilization. Our story is one of curiosity and an innate
desire to explore and understand not only the world around us but the world within us and the
worlds above us from extremophiles to extraterrestrials technosignatures to terraforming DNA
to Dyson Spheres. In this sweeping treatise on exploration innovation and human ingenuity
theoretical physicist Dr Adriana Marais seeks to answer the questions that stand at the heart
of scientific endeavour: What are the building blocks of life and how does life emerge? Are we
alone in the universe and if so why? How did we get here - and where are we going next?
