Human Universe is first and foremost a love letter to humanity - a celebration of our outrageous fortune in existing at all. I have chosen to write my letter in the language of science, because there is no better demonstration of our magnificent ascent from dust to paragon of animals than the exponentiation of knowledge generated by science. Two million years ago we were ape-men. Now we are spacemen. That has happened, as far as we know, nowhere else. That is worth celebrating.

This book asks questions about our origins, our destiny and our place in the universe. We have no right to expect answers - we have no right to even ask. But ask and wonder we do.