The physicist returned to screens last night with the final episode of his BBC series, 'Universe: Where everything begins and ends'. Professor Cox asks how the universe came to be, exploring how cutting-edge space missions have revealed the origin of the universe, how discoveries have helped scientists understand how we came to be here, and the technology they have used along the way. He will say: “Our universe is an enigma, an endless inexhaustible paradox.
"There are trillions of planets and one of them nurtured beings capable of contemplating this cosmic drama, miraculously improbable, brief candles flickering against the eternal night."
This element of the Universe — whether there is life elsewhere — is something that has confounded both Prof Cox and his predecessors for years.
Even before physics became a discipline, ancient philosophers questioned if there was anything beyond the Earth.
Something called the Fermi Paradox, theorised by the 20th century scientist Enrico Fermi, looked to answer this question — or at least why humans had not yet encountered any other being in a Universe that otherwise contains an enormous potential for life.
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