What existed before the Big Bang? Where do stars come from? How are we related to every living thing on this planet?

As part of their Spring Season, Documentary on Newstalk will broadcast ‘You Are Here’, a science documentary that traces the entire history of our universe on Saturday March 1st at 7am and again on Sunday March 2nd at 11pm.

Sometimes our best ideas come to us while we’re out on a stroll. Scientist and radio producer Shaun O’Boyle turned a 1.37 kilometre walk through Dublin into a scaled down stroll through our universe’s 13.7 billion year history.

Starting at the Big Bang, You Are Here plots out the origins of the first stars and galaxies, it follows the formation of our own planet, and traces the origin and evolution of life right up to the present day. The entire story is told on a walk through Dublin, where every metre represents 10 million years.

The story is told by some of Ireland’s best scientific voices:

Physicist Peter Gallagher talks about how an entire universe can pop into existence:

Geologist Jane Chadwick explains the violent and volatile history of planet Earth:

Geneticist Aoife Mc Lysaght explains where the weird and wonderful life all around us came from:

And Ian Brunswick from Science Gallery reflects on the origins of human culture.

All set to a sound-design and narration by artist and theatre-maker Maurice Kelliher, who turns a story about science into an immersive and theatrical experience. 

Quotes:

“With the Hubble space telescope you can see stars that are forming with disks of dust and gas around them… a similar process to what happens if you don’t vacuum under your couch for a while!”

“Any time I’ve been in an active volcano, it’s always struck me that I feel like I’m not on my planet any more - I feel like I’m on the surface of the moon or have travelled back in time.”

“Once evolution was possible, it did so many amazing things.”

“It was about 200,000 years ago that what we call ‘anatomically modern’ humans appeared in Africa… we’ve gone to different climates, different environments, we’ve got used to different types of food, we’ve got used to different types of diseases and pathogens around the place, but apart from that we haven’t changed.”

You Are Here is part of the Spring Season of Documentary on Newstalk and will broadcast on Saturday March 1st at 7am and will be repeated again on Sunday March 2 at 11pm.

You Are Here was written and produced by Shaun O’Boyle. Presented by and sound design by Maurice Kelliher.

Edited by Maurice Kelliher and Shaun O’Boyle.

The project was supported by a grant from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, as part of the Sound And Vision Scheme.

Read producer Shaun O'Boyle's article about the making of You Are Here in Newstalk Magazine for iPad out tomorrow (Friday February 28th) and available free to download Apple app store.

Listen to the full documentary here: