This book is Bryson's guest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, behind us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. Some strong language.