Building a Habitable Planet: A Brief History of the Earth

We live on Earth, the only known habitable planet in our solar system, and we have yet to detect life elsewhere in the Universe. How the Earth developed its unique habitability has been at the frontier of Earth science research and now space exploration as we investigate our own solar system and planetary systems around other stars with the latest probes and telescopes.

This panoramic course synthesises the latest findings from physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology to narrate Earth's story, from the formation of chemical elements in stars, to the evolution of a habitable climate on Earth, to the origin of life and humankind, and to today’s environmental challenges on a societal and global scale.