Professor Brian Cox is a particle physicist.
He has a tendency to emphasise the way in which everything adheres to the basic laws of physics.
In a new BBC documentary series that he has been hosting on BBC1, he has been leading viewers through an extraordinary perspective on the way in which life may have originated on this particular planet.
He is fascinated by chemistry, and the way it which chemicals work. And he has a facility to be able to explain complex chemical facts in a way that can be understood by the lay man.
You should try to see this series if you can, as it will be available on the BBC’s play again system for at least a couple of weeks. It is worth it.
Step by step, he explores the wondrous variety of life on Earth, and in the process he explains the circumstances required to enable chemical reactions to have taken place so that it happened almost spontaneously.
But this does not remove from the equation a sense of wonder at the circumstances in which so many things have conspired together to make life possible.
Constantly, he reaches the conclusion that this planet is quite possibly the only one that we will ever have knowledge of as having all of the factors necessary in which life became possible.
It is as if the crucible of the Earth were constructed uniquely to be a vehicle for life, in all of its variety and wonder.
He spends much time looking at the question of water, and exploring the nature of water as a compound. It seems to have been perhaps the single most important requirement for life to develop.
And in the context of this particular planet in this particular solar system, he talks about his theories as to how the circumstances in which life might have developed may have come about.
There is always a sense of awe involved, and quite a few shocks along the way.
Such as the idea that a most of the Earth’s water may have in fact arrived through a collision with a comet or an asteroid that was composed primarily of water.
So that at a time when the earth was sufficiently cool, water arrived in a sudden and extraordinary cosmic event.
It seems that planetary bodies have been observed that do emit the kind of tails that indicate the presence of water commonly enough for this theory to be a reality.
And he goes on to explain the detailed chemical properties of water that make it an ideal medium within which for certain long chain molecules to have been created.
It seems that all of the carbon required for such chemicals to be created must have come from stars, where carbon would have originated, in the fusion furnace of stars.
And so we have a vision of a chemistry set at a planetary scale, in which so many factors have to be present.
But once the complex double helix of DNA is created, it seems that there is no stopping life evolving into all of its diverse forms.
It is quite simply a self replicating chemical that can be affected by ultraviolet light so that it is vulnerable to change, or development, and of course because it is passed from generation to generation of whatever life it results in, then natural selection takes place, so that it is the successful alterations that survive.
What is extraordinary about the programme is that it encourages a sense of wonder at life in all of its diversity, whilst at the same time referring always back to the basic laws of physics to provide a reference from which everything must adhere.
It does not remove a sense of awe from the majesty of life, even though it makes it clear that in the right circumstances, which may indeed be unique on this one plant, it can come about almost spontaneously.
Given water and it few billion years of stability to process everything.
It makes it quite clear that sun has been a vital component in this mix, but also that it is a double edged sword.
Whilst it provides the essential energy for most of the chemical reactions needed, it is also capable of destruction through the dangerous ultraviolet emissions, particularly when it was young.
Strange concept that, that our Sun was once young, young and dangerous.
But then most of the concepts in this programme are complex and if not controversial, then certainly surprising.
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